I don't have a Top25 yet. As most of my longtime readers know, I only consider wins against FBS teams (except in a team's overall record). With so many teams playing FCS teams this week, the rankings would not be an accurate representation of the team's strengths this season.
I do have enough to discuss my other sections. This year I will have two conference discussion sections, one for the Big Ten (for the last time) and one for the MAC. I will also still discuss upsets and surprises, which I'll discuss first:
Shockers
Thursday night gave us four shocking results. Three of them came from FCS teams, and they weren't even the strongest ones. St Francis, Bryant, and Eastern Illinois all nearly upset their FCS opponents. It definitely diminishes the expectations of Florida International and Northern Illinois.
The other surprise came out the Mid-American Conference. Despite trailing by a significant margin at halftime, Central Michigan made halftime adjustments and outplayed the Oklahoma State Cowboys defense in the second half. While the Cowboys won, this game shows that the Cowboys need to shore up their defense or they will not contend in the Big XII.
Friday had the next surprise, including the first FCS victory. William and Mary defeated the Charlotte 49ers and notched the first win for the FCS.
The other Friday surprise inspired one of the worst instances of sore losing seen in the NCAA. Old Dominion defeated the Virginia Tech Hokies in a close and highly competitive game. However, on Saturday, students and coaches from Virginia Tech stated that Old Dominion players had stolen personal items from their lockers, even though stadium security officials swear that they didn't see any Old Dominion players around the Hokies locker room. Now Virginia Tech is demanding compensation, which likely means they want the money paid to Old Dominion to be returned. I doubt they'll get their wish, but this stunt might cause the NCAA to not schedule FCS teams to play the Hokies for a few years. That means they will have to play a tougher FBS team, and given the Hokies aren't as good as they think, that likely means an additional loss each season. Hoperfully they will miss bowl eligibility at least once as a result of this.
Saturday didn't let up on the surprises, including two more FCS victories. Delaware beat Navy, and Liberty beat Southern Mississippi in four overtime periods.Surprises weren't limited to FCS games, though. Struggling East Carolina, whose normal strength is their defense, nearly beat nationally-ranked NC State in a flurry of fourth quarter offense. I would suggest that this near-loss should drop them from the national ranks, but I doubt that will happen. Further evidence that the national rankings are not to be trusted fully.
Gang of Five teams engineered a couple of other upsets. The Ohio Bobcats beat the Florida Atlantic Owls in a ferocious offensive battle. Given the performance of the Owls last week, this was a major surprise. Coastal Carolina thoroughly dominated the cadets of Army, demonstrating a porous defense in the Black Knights.
Big Ten Report
Let's take a careful look at each team. I already commented on Nebraska and Northwestern last week, and neither team did anything this week to change those perspectives. For the other twelve teams, let's examine them, in order of appearance:
Penn State Nittany Lions : Their offense has developed as much as it can. Their biggest problem is sixth-year QB Sean Clifford. He did not improve between 2020 and 2021, and he hasn't improved this year. Worse, he thinks he's better than he is, so he makes too many dangerous throws. He left the Purdue game injured, but he'll be back. The Nittany Lions might do better if he doesn't.
Purdue Boilermakers : They should have beaten Penn State. The Boilermakers had stopped the Lions twice and third down during the Nitanny Lions' final drive, but personal foul penalties gave them first downs. If the Purdue defense can learn to control their tempers, they might have a very successful season.
Minnesota Golden Gophers : Hard to make a really accurate determination, as they played a weak team. The offense looks good, though.
Michigan State Spartans L This team seems solid. The defense is stout. The offense needs some work, but they seem aware of that, so they can work on it.
Illinois Fighting Illini : They have a strong defense, although they need to play a full game. They got lazy for the last Indiana drive, giving the Hoosiers the change to win. Their offense needs a new approach. I think the playcaller was trying to appease his head coach. Bret Bielema had burly running backs at Wiscomsom, players who could run into a wall of defenders and push them back. Illinois running back Chase Brown is not built that way. He needs to use his speed to AVOID defenders. This was clearly at play in their second-to-last drive int he fourth quarter. Third down and goal at the two yard line, the ball was handed to Brown. Brown had pointed his body to the right, and the Hoosiers COMPLETELY covered that side of the line. There were NO defenders to the left. If Brown had paid attention to the location of the defenders, he would have noticed that. After the handoff, he would have spun and run left and scored a touchdown. That would have given the Illini seven more points (they failed to score on fourth down in that drive) and that last Hoosier drive would not have made a difference, and Illinois would have won. Both Brown the QB Devito need to develop a better sense of where the defenders are on the field. They should also devote a significant amount of practice having Devito work with Isaiah Williams, They would not in synch for much of the game.
Indiana Hoosiers : QB Connor Baselak tales too many chances, and their defense isn't good enough to make up for turnovers. Yes, they won their first game, but it wasn't pretty. They need to work on their defense, and rieign in Baselak.
Michigan Wolverines : They definitely look good. We'll have to see if Coach Harbaugh is serious about his intention to switch quarterbacks in alternative games. That might be a little too confusing for these young players.
Iowa Hawkeyes : Great defense, but their offense stinks!
Maryland Terrapins : Their offense is as impressive as I expected, but their defense is WAAYY more potent than I thought. This team will be a force.
Rutgers Scarlet Knights : The offense is streaky. If plays are going well, they have the momentum and play well. It takes them a drive or two to overcome adversity, which could put them too far behind against opponents with strong offenses.
Wisconsin Badgers : Like Minnesota, it's hard to tell, as they played such a weak team. Still, they look solid.
Ohio State Buckeyes : They definitely look like the conference champion. Yes, they started the game slow, but that's typical for the Buckeyes under Ryan Day. Look at what they did in the second half. This team makes the best halftime adjustments in the conference, and they have the talent to implement those adjustments.
MAC Attacks
It wasn't a great week for the MAC, but wait until they play Big Ten opponents! They love to make life difficult for their more prominent Midwest conference. There were major victories, like Toledo, and major losses, like Ball State. I've already discussed the surprise performances earlier in this column, so let's see how looks primed to make an impact in the conference.I'd say the four strongest teams appear to be Toledo, Buffalo, Central Michigan, and Ohio. Western Michigan and Eastern Michigan has some strengths and could threaten. The other teams need work.
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