Return of Big Ten Football Just Around the Corner
Hail Mary! Only another week-and-a-half until the Big Ten tees it up. Only one more week of biscuits and grits before college football gives Midwesterners their bacon and eggs.
The focus once again will be on Big Ten East. That’s the way it should be. So many heavyweights in their lineup.
At Ohio State, heaven help Ryan Day if the Buckeyes don’t make the College Football Playoff. And even then, playoff defeat will be greeted with more questions about what went wrong against Clemson, Alabama or Georgia than celebrating a Final Four. Never mind that this is a season that had been given last rites before it made a miraculous recovery. With Justin Fields leading the way, it’s national championship or bust in Columbus.
If Penn State can’t stop the unstoppable Buckeyes, the Nittany Lions faithful will be restless but pragmatic—with a touch of fatalistic. At least that’s the vibe I get from the Nittany diehards I know.
Not so in Ann Arbor, where Jim Harbaugh needs to win early and often. Even 7-1 won’t do it if it’s the wrong -1. And with Penn State and Wisconsin coming to the Big House, 7-1 would, all things considered, be pretty good stuff. And by the way, Michigan’s early trips to Minnesota and Indiana are not gimmes.
And while I think Michigan State is too far down to be a threat this fall, rivalry games have a history of shock value—especially with a new coach like energetic Sparty leader Mel Tucker. So buckle up that winged helmet real tight.
All of that said, the questions about the Big Ten West are awfully intriguing. That’s because there is the very real possibility of seriously dramatic uncertainty.
In the East, the chances of the Ohio State/Penn State/Michigan apple cart being upset are slim and none.
In the West, the chances of mayhem are. . . hanging on the gifted but untested arm of Graham Mertz (shown above), the most ballyhooed quarterback recruit in Wisconsin history. Students of Badger football lore will know that’s a more vanilla exclamation than it sounds. Wisconsin tends to be about running backs and O-linemen, not QBs.
But in case you missed it, Jack Coan, who turned into a very efficient quarterback last fall, is out indefinitely after surgery for a foot injury. Which means that Wisconsin coach Paul Chryst will likely be saying, “In Mertz we trust.’’
That’s especially problematic because Jonathan Taylor, the latest in a long line of Badger rushers, is now plunging right through that line of the Indianapolis Colts. And because Mertz will be protected by a retooling offensive line and throwing to a largely inexperienced set of receivers.
The heavily recruited Mertz was the nation’s consensus No. 3 pro-style quarterback in his class coming out of Overland Park, Kan. But it’s still a lot to ask—for a young guy to wing it—especially in this abbreviated conference-games-only season.
And here’s the thing: If the Badgers, who have won the Big Ten West four times in the last six seasons, loosen their stranglehold, the West could become very wild.
If Wisconsin takes a step back, just about anybody in the West except Illinois could surge forward without shocking the world.
The contenders start with Minnesota, which had a dramatic revival last season under P.J. “Row the Boat’’ Fleck last fall, posting an 11-2 record capped by a bowl win over Auburn.
Also taking aim at West glory will be perennial contender Iowa, although the Hawkeyes will need to show that the complaints about racial insensitivity that led to the dismissal of longtime strength coach Chris Doyle are not an issue.
But Purdue and Northwestern, which had rough rides last fall, are two programs that could have quick bounce backs, based on the success they enjoyed in 2018, when NU won the West with an 8-1 conference record and Purdue put Ohio State through a 49-20 nutcracker.
For the Wildcats, much will depend on accomplished transfer QB Peyton Ramsey, who threw for 42 touchdowns and 6,581 yards in three years at Indiana, and new Northwestern offensive coordinator/QB guru Mike Bajakian.
Purdue, which dipped to 4-8 last year, will be under the radar going into this season. But coach Jeff Brohm is a proven offensive chess master and he has a lot more pieces in places than he did last fall, when injuries decimated the Boilermakers roster.
And then there’s enigmatic Nebraska, which became a key leader in the fight to play football this fall after commissioner Kevin Warren and the conference presidents and chancellors pulled the pandemic plug.
The Cornhuskers have under-achieved in Scott Frost’s first two years, going 4-8 and 5-7. That was not the way it was supposed to go when Frost, who won a national championship as a Husker QB, returned after turning UCF into a massive power. No one expected the 6-7 to 13-0 that Frost pulled off at Central Florida. But the heat is building.
Given that Nebraska drew the brutal crossover duo of Ohio State and Penn State, all signs point toward another tough year in Lincoln.
But oh, the melodrama.
At Michigan, the nation’s winningest college football program (962 wins!), Harbaugh famously joined a rally demanding that this Big Ten season be restored. At Nebraska, which is eighth with 902 wins, players went to court to state their case for football.
At least Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields, who led the social-media charge to bring back Big Ten football, has the skills and the teammates to back up his feverish desire for a 2020 shot at glory.
Now they have all gotten their wish. Beginning on Oct. 24, we’ll find out what they do with the season that looked like it would never happen.