Matt McMaster has released his latest set of Big Ten Football Power Rankings.
Purdue made it interesting against Michigan State but at the end, to the surprise of no one, they suffered their 10th loss of the year.
If you thought this week was bad for Maryland I can only imagine what it’s going to look like when this team takes on Penn State.
It’s time to start looking toward next season for the Wildcats. It honestly was time to start thinking about next year two weeks ago.
Got the win but only beat what is one of the worst power 4 teams in the country by 7 points. Despite the win the low margin of victory keeps them from moving up these rankings.
UCLA’s magical run to end the year stalls for two weeks. It was a tough late game defeat against their bitter rival USC for the Bruins. Despite the very rough moments this team endured this year I believe DeShaun Foster proved he’s the long term answer at head coach for this program.
Bye Week
Wisconsin had their chances to get back into the game but this offense, despite firing offensive coordinator Phil Longo, still has a lot to be desired. And to add insult to injury, their defense looks even worse. The Badgers are praying that all Big Ten Safety Hunter Wohler returns for the teams finale against Minnesota or it’s very likely that Wisconsin will not see the postseason.
The Huskers are going bowling! For the first time since 2016, Nebraska will play in the postseason. It was the best game of the season by the Big Red offense. Dana Holgorsen has unlocked something within this offense and if they play at the same level this week against an elite Iowa defense there is no reason he should not be offered the job as full time play caller for Nebraska next season.
It was a gritty close win against a surging UCLA squad for the Trojans on Saturday. USC outscored UCLA 10-0 in the fourth quarter to secure a postseason berth. With how many close games the Trojans have lost in the fourth, this victory was a massive mountain to climb and potentially saved Lincoln Riley’s job.
Rutgers was so close to beating Illinois and continuing what was one of the best mid-season turnarounds in recent memory, but they could not avoid an Illini miracle. I’m still impressed by their play and how Greg Schiano rallied this team to a bowl game. This team should be able to take down Michigan State this week and secure their first back-to-back seven-plus-win seasons since 2012.
Michigan handled business against a bad team at home. It’s nothing to write home about but it’s encouraging that they aren’t having problems blowing out teams like Northwestern.
Minnesota blew an opportunity to add a signature win to what’s been a whirlwind season but they competed with one of the best teams in the country for four quarters. We’ve seen that not everyone can do that in this conference.
Yes, Iowa won. Yes, the team above them lost. But the Hawkeyes beat a terrible Maryland team while being entirely one-dimensional on offense. I’m not going to act as if Iowa hasn’t been doing this for years, but I’ll be interested to see if they can take down a much better Nebraska team this week with their third-string quarterback.
What a win from the Illini! It took a Pat Bryant miracle to get to 8-3, but Illinois did it. I’ve said in the past that this Illinois squad is simply a good team. They don’t have any superstars or bona fide first-round draft picks. They just have good football players and even better coaching. They aren’t an elite college football playoff-caliber team, but they’d win at least 8 games in any conference in the country.
If you’re going to beat a team like Ohio State, you have to be damn near perfect in every phase of the game. Indiana’s special teams execution let them down tremendously, committing errors and costing the Hoosiers 14 points. I don’t believe the game’s score was truly indicative of how Indiana played, but it was undoubtedly a disappointing performance and a wake up call for IU.
Things got scary for a second against a good Minnesota team but they found a way to pull victory from the jaws of defeat and keep their national championship hopes alive.
Bye Week
They flexed their muscles on Saturday. They proved that they still are the Big Ten’s big dog, and the road to the Big Ten title game and the National Championship game runs through them.
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