Buckeye Blogger Network
PAC Dominance?
Somewhere, Pac-12 fans are scoffing at the Big Ten.
Through two weeks of the season, the Big Ten is just 2-6 in games against teams from other BCS conferences. Both victories for the Big Ten come from Northwestern.
And week two wasn’t particularly good for Big Ten teams against teams from the Pac-12. Illinois was blown out by Arizona State, Wisconsin was beaten by Oregon State and Nebraska lost a thriller to UCLA.
There’s a chance for the Big Ten to get some of its pride back this week, though, as the conference will put its trust in Ohio State. The Buckeyes will host the Cal Golden Bears on Saturday in The Shoe.
A win for the Buckeyes won’t necessarily save face for the conference, but it will make people feel a little better about the state of the Big Ten.
The Buckeyes (2-0) are coming off a somewhat disappointing 31-16 victory against Central Florida. Cal (1-1) bounced back from a week one loss and defeated Southern Utah 50-31.
The game also marks a brutal two game road trip for the Golden Bears. After they take on the Buckeyes, all they’ve got next week is USC in the Coliseum.
Ohio State, on paper, seems to be better than Cal at most positions and should win this game handily.
However, Cal wide receiver Keenan Allen is a playmaker. On the season, Allen has 11 catches for 136 yards and one touchdown. He could present some serious problems for an Ohio State secondary that has given up several big plays early in the season.
The Buckeyes did get some good news this week, though. Running back Jordan Hall should return to the field, but it is unclear as to how much he will play. And with Carlos Hyde officially out, depth at running back is a huge question mark for the offense.
One player who can’t carry the ball as much as he did last week is Braxton Miller. 27 carries, even for a player like Miller, is too much. Urban Meyer said Wednesday he would like to see no more than 15 carries for Miller.
We will see how that plays out, especially if the game is close. If it is in fact close, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Miller have more than 20 carries. This isn’t a good thing in the long run.
Ohio State should win this game. But you may wonder a bit if the Pac-12 has a slight mental edge over the Big Ten early in the season.I don’t think they do, but you can’t argue with the results.
Your turn, Buckeyes. The Big Ten is counting on you. Again.
September 13th, 2012 at 9:47 am
Ohio State has carried the water for the conference for most of the past decade and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.
I think the biggest thing is coaching and how much money each school is willing to spend on their staffs to get the best. Ohio State clearly made that investment when they hired Urban Meyer.
If the SEC is the standard then the Big Ten is way behind (ignoring the argument over whether institutions of higher learning should be spending so much resources on their football programs, of course).
Michigan- Mattison was a great hire and the results were apparent instantly, but Brady Hoke will be lucky if he can manage to be Lloyd Carr 2.0 which means plenty of 9-3 seasons complete with embarrassing defeats in bowl games (or against Alabama) and very few truly elite teams.
Michigan State- Dantonio has the Spartans heading in the right direction and they are arguably the class of the conference right now (pending the results of this weeks game against ND). However, Dantonio is 56 and not getting any younger and Michigan State will almost certainly “Sparty” their next coaching hire and immediately erase all of the progress that has been made with their program.
Nebraska- Pelini hasn’t really shown that he can be anything more than above average. It would be nice if they can get back to their mid-90 glory days of consistently being a national contender but it is hard to see them getting there at this point- the loss to UCLA certainly didn’t do them or the conference any favors on that front.
Wisconsin- The wheels look like they are about to fall off for Bielema now that Paul Chryst is at Pitt (that move really hasn’t worked out well for either party so far). Eventually Bielema will run out of assistant coaches to throw under the bus and ACC transfer QB’s to start and then he will be in real trouble. It’s not like he hasn’t embarrassed the conference already even before the potential nose dive he and his team are about to take.
Penn State- What once was a consistently mediocre program in the Big Ten that could win a bowl game every once and awhile is now arguably worse than Indiana and will be lucky if they don’t stay worse than Indiana for the next decade.
Iowa- Kirk Ferentz has shown that he can put a good team on the field that can win a decent bowl game about once every 3-5 years (he, of course, will win the B1G COY award every time he does) but the days when Ferentz was mentioned as one of the top coaches in college football are long gone and the Hawkeyes would be extremely lucky to do any better with their next coach.
Illinois- Illinois has the potential to move up and be a consistent player near the top of the conference, but they have had that potential for a long time and have never been able to capitalize on it. Beckman is a good coach but expecting anything more than what Zook brought (1 above average season and a Rose Bowl embarrassment) is wishful thinking at this point. Best case scenario is that Beckman is able to do what Dantonio did for the Spartans, but we will have to wait and see.
Northwestern- The Wildcats have their perfect coach right now in Fitzgerald. They will be consistently okay under him and can pull some lower to middle tier bowl wins occasionally but expecting anything else is unrealistic. Fitzgerald will hopefully be there for a long time but after him it is hard to see them not taking a big step back on the coaching front.
Minnesota- The Gophers shot themselves and the conference in the foot when they idiotically fired Glen Mason thanks to their collective delusions of ever being better than 9-3 with a middle tier bowl win. It will be a miracle if they can get back to that level anytime soon (if ever).
Purdue- See Minnesota except with Joe Tiller’s retirement in place of stupidly firing Glenn Mason.
Indiana- Like taxes and death, Indiana not being good at football is an unavoidable fact of life.
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September 13th, 2012 at 11:51 am
I had some hopes for home, but after seeing him try to turn one of the best running qbs in the country into a pocket passer shows he’s not the great change the legacy was expecting. So instead of the big two and little ten it is the buckwheat pulling the conference forward.
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September 13th, 2012 at 7:53 pm
The Big Ten’s reputation is NOT riding on a OSU team that has a bowl ban! With a weak two wins over over-matched opponents so far, and another weak Colorado team coming to town, how in the heck you come up with this summation. OSU is favored big time over Colorado and a win really does nothing for the Big Ten!
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Eric
September 13th, 2012 at 9:46 pm
Right conference, wrong team starting with “C”.
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MaliBuckeye
September 13th, 2012 at 11:46 pm
Although both schools are really 420 friendly… it’s a simple mistake.
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Jim
September 14th, 2012 at 5:08 am
You don’t think the mere fact that Ohio State is expected to win doesn’t carry weight for the conference?
The Big Ten’s reputation wasn’t riding on any of the games last week either until Wisconsin (7.5 point favorites), Nebraska, Iowa, Penn State, Purdue and Illinois all decided to lose.
I agree that this isn’t a premiere “make-or-break” matchup for the conference and that Michigan State vs. Notre Dame will likely have more implications, but it is up to Ohio State not to embarrass the conference like so many other teams did last week (and tend to do more often than not- looking at you, Bielema).
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