Big Ten Daily (Nov. 3): Justin Fields' Odds to Win Heisman Trophy on the Rise

All you need to know about how great Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields has been playing is to look at this amazing stat line;

Touchdowns: 7
Incompletions: 7

That's not interceptions, mind you, that's incompletions. He's 48-for-55 passing this far for an amazing 87.3 percent, with six touchdown passes and one TD run. He leads the nation for anyone with two or more games — Wisconsin's Graham Mertz is at 95.2 after one game — and Fields certainly looks like one of the top players in the nation.

Because the Big Ten chose to wait seven weeks to start the college football season, it looked doubtful that Fields would be able to catch Clemson's Trevor Lawrence in the Heisman Trophy race. But now that Lawrence has contracted COVID-19 and will miss at least two games, Jones is gaining ground.

According to the website BetOnline.ag, Fields is now second in the latest odds, behind Alabama quarterback Mac Jones (5-to-4 odds). Fields is at 3-to-2 odds and Lawrence is third at 5-to-2. Fields is the only Big Ten player on their board after Michigan quarterback Joe Milton fell off this week.

"Justin is showing he's going to perform, and I think this does give him more of an opportunity to get back in the race,'' former Heisman winner Tim Tebow said. "Before, the conversation was all about Trevor playing so many more games, but maybe that's not the case anymore.

"I certainly hope Trevor gets back out there soon and he comes back healthy, but him being out has definitely helped Justin get back in the conversation, and Mac Jones at Alabama, too.''

Now, without question, it looks like we'll have a Heisman race after all.

Decision on Wisconsin game on Tuesday

The Big Ten was forced to cancel Wisconsin's game with Nebraska last weekend after a COVID-19 outbreak in Madison affected 22 people in the Badgers' program. There were 12 players involved, including their top two quarterbacks.

Daily testing was supposed to stop something like this from happening, but it didn't. COVID won again.

“I think certainly the margin for error is really small and I think it's nothing that a lot of other people haven't experienced already,” Michael Moll, an assistant athletic director for sports medicine at UW and the school’s Chief Infection Officer for the Big Ten told the Wisconsin State Journal . “You look at our state, look at our entire nation and across the world, as hard as people have tried, we haven't completely solved this, we haven't figured it out. We're just trying to do the best we can.”

And what we've learned from the Wisconsin debacle is that even daily testing isn't enough if all the other protocols like wearing masks, social distancing and staying away from crowds isn't followed.

“I think it's important to remember that no testing methods can be perfect for us,” Moll said. “We're dependent on the analyzers being good analyzers, the sample collectors being good sample collectors, the patients that are providing the sample making sure they are providing a good sample. There are a variety of areas that we're looking at quality controls and making sure we’re doing all the right things.”

Wisconsin had to pause its program and can't practice until Wednesday. Any player who has tested must wait 21 days to return to competition. A decision is supposed to be made on Tuesday as to whether the Badgers' game with Purdue will go on this week. Purdue really wants it to happen, since the Boilermakers are off to a 2-0 start.

Trouble in Iowa after slow start?

It's been 20 years since Iowa has started a season 0-2, and that's making things difficult for veteran Hawkeyes coach Kirk Ferentz, who's already had a bad year because of the program's off-the-field issues.

What makes matters worse is that the Hawkeyes were actually favored in their first two games, but lost to Purdue and Northwestern anyway when their offense completely shut down in the second half once again.

That's become something of a trend. It's absolutely stunning that in the Hawkeyes' last five Big Ten games dating back to last Nov. 16, they haven't scored a single touchdown. NOT ONE. In five games, they have settled for five fields, scoring only 15 points total in the second half of five games.

The problem so far this year is that new quarterback Spencer Petras is turning the ball over too much. He has three interceptions and just one touchdown pass, and he's completing only 53.9 percent of his passes. The Hawkeyes also have lost two fumbles.

“This was not a fun experience certainly, and it wasn't a great experience for him in that second half,” Ferentz said of Petras. “But he'll grow from this because he's so conscientious and he works well. He'll be better for it, but boy, it's hard in the process. We all know that.

“I'm confident he'll be a better player moving forward. But yeah, that's certainly something we always worry about.”

It seems like having a winning season might be difficult for the Hawkeyes, and it could get really ugly if there are more roster defections, which could be looming. Ferentz has had only four losing seasons in his 22 years at Iowa, and none since 2012. Two of those were in his first two years (1999, 2000).

These next few months are going to be very interesting in Iowa City.

Big smiles in East Lansing

Michigan State was so bad in that season-opening loss to Rutgers, that no one saw their huge upset of Michigan coming. Little brother rises again, this time as a 22-point underdog.

Spartans quarterback Rocky Lombardi threw for 323 yards, his second consecutive 300-yard game, which is somewhat surprising since he'd only done it once in nine previous appearances for Michigan State and the Spartans haven't been very good offensively the past few years. His favorite target was Ricky White, who scorched Michigan for 196 yards and three touchdowns.

It was Mel Tucker's first win at Michigan State. He became the second Michigan State head coach to win his debut against the Wolverines, joining Nick Saban in 1995. He is the first-ever Michigan State coach to have his first career win come against the Wolverines.

The biggest surprise of the game was seeing Lombardi break so many plays against that usual tough Michigan defense led by Don Brown. He had completions of 30, 31, 40, 50 and 53 yards.

White's 196 yards set a school record for freshmen. He's from Marietta, Ga., and looks like he's going to be a star. Michigan State travels to Iowa this weekend.

"Today was Ricky's day, but who knows? Tomorrow could be somebody else," Lombardi said. "We've got a bunch of playmakers, and you're going to have to cover all of them."

Decision on Wisconsin game on Tuesday

Trouble in Iowa after slow start?

Big smiles in East Lansing

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