The Hoosiers are 10-0, but did the Wolverines expose some of their flaws?
Every week after the Big Ten games, I will bring you some B1G thoughts on everything that happened! This will include analysis, stats, key players, moments, and more. With the Big Ten expanding from 14 teams to 18 teams in 2024, we will have a bunch of storylines to follow.
Ryan Day and Ohio State are all in for the 2024 season. Is Oregon a national championship contender or will they stumble in their first Big Ten season? How do the former members of the Big Ten West fair in the new divisionless format?
We track all these storylines and more as the Big Ten hopes to win back-to-back national championships. Check out the I-80 Football Show for more in-depth analysis and to preview the next week of B1G games.
Should Indiana be concerned after playing Michigan?
Indiana is 10-0 for the first time in school history. I think it’s important to remind everyone of this, because they could lose their next two games and the bowl game and this would still be a successful season.
There is no raining on the Hoosier parade, but after playing Michigan there may be cracks in the foundation. Much has been made about Indiana’s schedule and how easy it has been, but when you’re winning every game but 30-plus points, there isn’t much to critique.
On Saturday, Indiana played their toughest opponent yet, a talented but struggling Michigan team. Michigan held IU’s offense to 246 total yards and only 18 yards in the second half. The Wolverines lost this game because their offense is inept and their coach is bad situationally, otherwise this easily could’ve been a major upset for Michigan despite a down season.
What is more concerning is how much pressure Michigan got on Kurtis Rourke. The Wolverines had four sacks, three QB hits, and seven pressures on 32 dropbacks. Rourke was under pressure the whole night, and a team like Ohio State and most likely anyone they play in the playoffs is going to get pressure on Rourke. Throughout the game, but especially in the second half, Indiana failed the protect the passer, couldn’t run the ball and their wide receivers weren’t able to get any separation.
The positive spin is they found a way to win, which is a good sign for their culture. Regardless of how this season ends, this is a banner year for the Hoosiers. Still, their ability to compete against Ohio State and the top of the sport just became a question again.
UCLA is on a three-game winning streak?
For the first eight weeks of the season, UCLA looked like one of the worst teams in power conference football. Their season started with a three-point win over Hawaii, a game they should’ve lost honestly, followed by five-straight losses where they never scored more than 17 total points.
They’ve turned it around the last three weeks with wins over Rutgers, Nebraska and Iowa. The win at Rutgers felt like a fluke, but after beating the Hawkeyes, DeShaun Foster seems to be hitting the right buttons and his team is improving each week. With Washington, USC, and Fresno State left on the schedule, UCLA has an outside chance of making a bowl game, and that would be massive after Foster took over mid-spring when Chip Kelly left to become Ohio State’s offensive coordinator.
Many of us laughed at the Foster hiring, but he may be on to something. UCLA has a lot to fight for in the last three weeks of the season. I, for one, will be rooting for them.
So… who is getting fired in the next few weeks?
We’re 10 games into the college football season, and with the new playoff structure, the transfer portal, and national signing day being moved up, coaching changes are going to happen earlier and earlier. In the Big Ten, I think most coaches are safe, as we’ve seen an unprecedented amount of movement in the last three seasons.
11 of the 18 programs in the conference have coaches in their third year or less. Of the seven remaining, it’s unlikely that Ohio State, Penn State, USC or Iowa fire their coach, whether due to a lack of winning or large buyouts. That leaves Minnesota, Rutgers, and Maryland as the only teams who would even consider making a change at the top.
Minnesota most likely isn’t making a change unless they decide to go the Wisconsin route and fire a coach with a clear ceiling in hopes of better, but that isn’t going well for Wisconsin. Schiano is the best coach in Rutgers history, so he’s probably safe. The only coach potentially on the chopping block is Mike Locksley.
Maryland is having a disappointing year at 4-5, with a 1-5 mark in conference. With Rutgers, Iowa, and Penn State on the schedule, it’s unlikely that Maryland will make a bowl game and a 4-8 record isn’t out of the picture. Firing Locksley depends on where Maryland believes it should be in the new Big Ten, but it has to be hard to see Indiana’s success and not want more.
Outside of head coaches, expect a lot of movement from coordinators, which is going to be a national trend. Purdue has already fired their offensive coordinator, and it’s a good bet that Wisconsin will fire theirs. Lincoln Riley may once again be making changes, and Sherrone Moore really should reconsider his staff as well. There may not be much shakeup at the top, but with the coordinators I expect a lot of movement.
Does the SEC logjam help or hurt the Big Ten?
The SEC conference standings are officially in a log jam, and may go three or four steps deep into their tiebreaker scenarios just to figure out who will make the SEC championship game. After Week 11 and a massive Ole Miss victory making Georgia 7-2 overall and 5-2 in conference play, the SEC has three one-loss teams and five two-loss teams.
Tennesse, Texas and Texas A&M all have one conference loss, while Georgia, Ole Miss, Alabama, Missouri and LSU all have two. For both the SEC and the Big Ten, it would’ve been better if Georgia had beat Ole Miss, as it would take another team out of conference title and playoff contention.
There is one way for this to shake out that benefits both conferences. If Tennessee beats Georgia this Saturday, it would make the Bulldogs a three-loss team. In this scenario, Tennessee is almost guaranteed to make the conference championship and play the winner of Texas-Texas A&M. If Georgia beats Tennesee, with Texas and TAMU still needing to play, there is a chance that the SEC ends up with a singular one-loss team and seven two-loss teams.
This is a nightmare scenario for everyone involved, particularly the Big Ten. The B1G is one of the two best conferences in college football, but the SEC still garners the most respect. If there are seven two-loss teams in the SEC and they have mainly played and beat each other, there may be a question of whose resume is better — a 10-2 Ole Miss with a win over Georgia or an 11-1 Indiana or Penn State without a signature win. The same could be said for Georgia with the win over Texas and Tennessee, or Alabama with their wins over Georgia and LSU.
In reality, any 11-1 team from the Big Ten should get into the playoffs, and that may be how it shakes out in the end. But the Big Ten should at least be a little uncomfortable if there are a bunch of two-loss SEC teams with all of their losses coming to each other in top 25 matchups.
Lastly, this exact scenario is why the SEC needs to move to nine conference games. An extra conference game would have made a lot of this figure itself out. Instead, we will all be glued to the TV for the next few weeks until all the games are played and the final College Football Playoff rankings are released.
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