Big Ten Football: Week 2 Recap.

Michigan State 52 - Akron 0

Akron is among the few teams that should be so bad that there is nothing you can really learn from a game against them unless you don’t completely steam-roll them. Good news for MSU, is that they completely steam-rolled them. This doesn’t say much about State’s chances going forward but it is heartening after a somewhat shaky opener against Western Michigan.

The Spartans go into next week preparing to face a possibly rejuvenated Washington team with positive vibes.

Come on be more specific

The one thing you can take even with the “Akron sucks” caveat is that Payton Thorne still doesn’t look like he took some big step forward, a continuing trend from week 1. 7.6 yards per attempt isn’t terrible but it’s pretty pedestrian when playing a bad MAC team, toss in a pair of interceptions with it and it isn’t a great sign. It is entirely possible that he finds a groove and all is well, but I remain pretty convinced that MSU’s best chance to keep close to last season’s pace is Thorne taking a big step forward and he hasn’t shown that so far.

Other than that, MSU leaves the warmup games without us learning much. They were mostly convincing in beating two MAC teams but not so convincing to dispel all concerns. The only other thing worth noting is that Wisconsin transfer Jalen Berger seems to have settled in pretty well. We will see how he looks against actual competition but he looks like he’s at least a worthwhile player.

There will be far more in-depth talk for MSU this coming week as they face Washington.

Michigan 56 - Hawaii 10

I was at this game. The final score flatters Hawaii. The first half was the most lopsided football game I’ve seen since the Michigan vs Rutgers game in 2016 where Michigan scored more points than Rutgers had yards. Michigan went deep to the depth chart to open the second half, it was 42-0 at the break.

Hawaii sucks so there’s really nothing to take here. Any team worth anything should obliterate them and that’s what Michigan did, the only reason they didn’t cover the spread is that backups played the whole second half.

The story here of course is that JJ McCarthy convincingly won the starting job completely and convincingly. Even opponent caveats aside he was absurdly good. It sucks for Cade McNamara but that’s how football works.

Are you concerned about team chemistry stuff or perception of benching the guy who won the Big Ten?

Nope. If Alabama and Clemson can go away from the veteran QB who’s won a bunch of games for the better and more talented young guy then so can Michigan. Cade has two years of eligibility left to go somewhere else if he wants.

This is especially true for Cade McNamara. A major part of his story is winning the starting job as a freshman in high-school. From this piece by Daniel Dash from last year.

After the two quarterbacks split time during Damonte Ranch’s first three games in the fall, Dupris named McNamara the full-time starter. Just 14 years old, McNamara was tasked with winning over a split locker room, but the returning starter had the support of the team’s upperclassmen. At first, the decision to start McNamara wasn’t particularly well-received.

“It was really hard for Cade with a locker room split as he tried to earn the trust of the older guys,” Dupris said. “He had to battle. It was harder than most people know, including his family. I think the message I tried to give him was, ‘Going through this, it’s going to help you in the future.’ And I think that’s what’s really helped him at Michigan.

“He’s not afraid of the competition. He’s been there, he’s done that. He knows what he has to do in order to earn the respect and confidence of his teammates.”

So a guy who, somewhat controversially won the starting QB job as a freshman in high-school, and then unexpectedly came out of the QB room to win the starting job over higher-touted players like Joe Milton and Dylan McCaffery should fully understand the competition.

Lastly, the coaching staff was clear it would be a competition all Spring and all Summer. If Cade was worried about that competition he could’ve simply transferred this past spring to somewhere where he’d be uncontested as the starter.

HOWEVA

One thing worth mentioning. While JJ has won the job and fully deservedly, anyone who suggests that Cade was somehow undeserving last season is a fool. Even with the caveats of having a dominant running game and excellent offensive line play to help him out, 8 yards per attempt while throwing 15 touchdowns against just 6 interceptions and almost never getting sacked is rock-solid QB play that plenty of programs (gestures broadly to the entire Big Ten West save Purdue) would kill to get. Regardless of what heights McCarthy could reach, Cade fully deserved his moment in the sun and the fans who booed him should be ashamed of themselves.

Any other non-QB stuff?

No. Hawaii sucks. Michigan has been convincing enough that I feel good about the season but Hawaii got beaten this badly against Vanderbilt and Colorado State just got thumped by Middle Tennessee State so Michigan could open Big Ten play by losing to Maryland and I’d mostly shrug.

Onto the rest.

Games not worth talking about:

Just to get them out of the way.

• ohio blew out Arkasas State 45 - 12. It wasn’t quite as dominant as they probably would’ve liked to see given that the close game against Notre Dame now looks less like an impressive gritty win and more like a concerning game. It was still pretty dominant though. Main thing to watch here is Jaxson Smith-Njigba’s health as he sat this one out. They are saying it isn’t that serious but hamstring injuries can linger.

• Minnesota shredded FCS Western Illinois 62-10 and is now the last unbeaten team in the west. They’ve played no one but have looked very much the part so far.

• Penn State beat Ohio 46-10 Sean Clifford still looks a bit questionable but they dominated play.

• Maryland looks the part. The offense dominated, defense might suck as they beat a very bad Charlotte team 56 - 21.

• Purdue demolished Indiana State.

• Rutgers beat FCS Wagner 66-7. If Rutgers hadn’t opened last season up 3-0 this would be more meaningful but they already proved they are a competent enough P5 team to at least pummel FCS teams.

• Indiana was down 10-0 at halftime against FCS Idaho but dominated the second half to win 35 - 22. Idaho also gave Washington State a competitive game in week 1 so this may not be hugely concerning.

Wisconsin 14 - Washington State 17

A game that got a great deal of attention as Washington State shocked Wisconsin at Camp Randall.

Obvoiusly a bad loss for Wisconsin but in the long run it actually doesn’t do much to change my perception of them and unless you thought they were a dark horse to make the playoff this season it should really change the outlook for the Badgers.

Wisconsin was pretty clearly the better team, outgaining Washington 401 yards to 253, but Wisconsin lost two critical fumbles, allowed a big kick-return to set up a Cougar score, missed two field goals, and committed an uncharacteristic number of penalties on their way to this defeat.

One of the fumbles was after the Badger defense forced an interception on 3rd and ten, only for the defender to fumble the ball back to WSU giving Wazzu a fresh set of downs and like 10 yards. The Cougars would follow that by scoring a what would end up being the game-winning touchdown. Their other fumble came in the 4th quarter inside the end-zone just after they had converted for a first down. Washington State did manage a few more big plays than you would expect against a stout Wisconsin defense but they didn’t move the ball that well overall.

The main reason why I really come away from this feeling okay about Wisconsin going forward is that Graham Mertz actually looked…. okay? 7.3 yards per attempt with 2 touchdowns and 1 interception due to getting hit as he threw isn’t exactly stellar but when looking through the annals of Wisconsin QBs it isn’t bad considering that Washington State are not complete pushovers defensively. Mertz will almost certainly never live up to his initial hype as the savior of the QB position in Madison but he may end up being a viable Big Ten QB and history tells us that when Wisconsin gets even decent QB play they compete for the Big Ten.

So maybe Wisconsin is infected with the ghost of Scott Frost and will be the better team only to lose on ill-timed turnovers, inability to finish off drives, and haphazard special-teams play but Wisconsin is a program that has earned some benefit of the doubt here.

Wisconsin didn’t exactly look great on the ground.

That is true. But once again, I’m going to assume that Wisconsin finds an effective running game until emphatically proven otherwise. They have certainly earned that right.

In the long run Wisconsin still looks to comfortably be the best team in the West until we see Minnesota against an actual P5 team, which they play Colorado next week who barely counts. Wisconsin gets one freebie against New Mexico State to iron out the wrinkles before they go to Columbus.

Illinois 24 - Virginia 3

Yeah so this happened. There’s a few different things that need to be said.

First and foremost, even before some of the other qualifiers, Illinois is a program that is trying to build something from basically nothing with Bret Bielema. For Illinois to trounce any power-5 program with a pulse is pretty remarkable, its extra remarkable when they went to Charlottesville last season and got stomped 14-42.

It gets even more remarkable when you consider that Virginia is a program that isn’t exactly stellar but has put up some big offensive numbers the past few seasons and they got utterly dominated by the Illini defense. Brennen Armstrong, who threw for over 4,400 yards last season along with 31 touchdowns was under so much pressure that he was totally broken by the end of the game. A good QB went 13-32 for 180 yards (5.6 per attempt!!) with no touchdowns and 2 interceptions. Once again, a guy who threw for more than 4,000 yards and 31 touchdowns last season was basically turned into an Iowa QB. Illinois defense might be really good.

Offensively, the only reason this wasn’t a totally lopsided scoreline was due to Illinois. The Illini lost three fumbles (one of which happened as the player literally was falling into the end-zone, as in if he had held on for a split second longer it is a touchdown), threw a bad interception, and missed 2 field-goals.

All in all. Illinois won a lopsided game that was far more lopsided than the final score would suggest and they did so despite making several significant attempts to allow Virginia back into the game. As stated above, I feel like Wisconsin is still the class of the west and maybe Minnesota is there as well, but after this game, it’s hard not to say that Illinois isn’t going to be right in the mix behind them if they can clean up the turnovers.

The bad news is that the turnovers cannot simply be waived off as a one-time thing given that their 4 turnovers against Indiana very likely cost them the game. Illinois will lose more Big Ten games they should’ve won if they turn the ball over, and they are not good enough to give away games they should win.

All that said, the Illini defense looks stellar, Chase Brown looks like the Big Ten’s best running back, and Tommy Devito isn’t very good at QB, and their offense doesn’t usually ask much of him, but he’s not a total bum. Isaiah Williams is a danger at wide-receiver. The pieces are here for this to be a really nice season for Illinois and they may officially be one of the more interesting teams in the conference.

Given that Illinois is a cross-over game for both Michigan and Michigan State this is a development that is worth monitoring. Illinois is probably not talented enough to be of particular bother for either team but Michigan plays them the week before ohio and MSU has them as the follow-up to the Michigan game which puts a quietly tough opponent in a place that’d be easy to overlook. We will be watching with great interest what is going on in Champaign.

Iowa 7 - Iowa State 10

Not a ton to say about the actual game which was exceptionally ugly in all the ways you would hope for El Assico to be. Iowa scored a single touchdown in a game where they blocked two punts.

The thing worth mentioning here is Iowa. The Hawkeyes inability to have good or even interesting offenses has been a meme for years now, but this is a completely different animal. This isn’t the meme where the offense is bad but they somehow end up winning 10 games. Iowa’s offense has been the worst in all of FBS by a wide margin through two games and it is a continuation from last season. Also worth remembering that they won ten games last year with a hugely positive turnover margin and without beating a single team that finished the season ranked.

Kirk Ferentz has had a single losing season in his time at Iowa, a remarkable feat. This season may be year number two if they do not find something and it isn’t clear where that change can come from. They cannot run the ball, they cannot pass protect, they have two scholarship wide receivers, and their QB play is comical and the backup has had chances to play and looked just as miserable as Spencer Petras.

The good news is that the defense does remain genuinely stellar to the point that if they can manage to simply be a normal level of awful they will win some games. But they probably won’t.

On that note, this also makes a game that previously stood out as one of the scariest non-ohio games on Michigan’s schedule, a trip to Iowa City in a few weeks, look pretty tame. Iowa City is never going to be an easy trip, but this version of Iowa isn’t anything to lose sleep over.

Northwestern 23 - Duke 31

Northwestern fell behind big early in the game, 21-0 at the start of the second quarter. They fought back into the game behind 60 passing attempts from Ryan Hilinski with running back Evan Hull getting 14 catches, for 213 yards.

Unfortunately this game combines with Nebraska’s disaster two weeks since Dublin to put a damper on Northwestern. They certainly seem improved on last season, the offense isn’t completely anemic and the defense has a bit more cohesion, but that improvement is probably not enough to change their status as one of the bottom teams of the Big Ten. They may possibly still pull the most Northwestern thing possible by like, losing to Miami Ohio in a couple of weeks then somehow win the Big Ten West with a 7-5 record, but they probably won’t. Northwestern seems poised to have a bit of a stabilizing season after a disaster last year, but they will be hard-pressed to make a bowl game.

Nebraska 42 - Georgia Southern 42

I’m going to write a full thing on Scott Frost and the state of Nebraska football later. This game was an unmitigated disaster.

Even though it’s another 1 score loss, it is clear that this edition of Cornhuskers is not snake-bit, they just suck. Northwestern is bad and Georgia Southern is probably bad. The North Dakota team they struggled with isn’t even all that strong as an FCS team. Nebraska could’ve eeked out their two losses as wins and alarm bells would still be ringing in Lincoln. The transfer-laden bid for Scott Frost to save his job was an utter failure. Nebraska will probably get someone this season because they do genuinely seem capable offensively but its hard to imagine them going bowling with how incompetent the defense is.

The firing of Scott Frost may possibly galvanize the team into better play, it’s happened before, but it’s hard to believe a team so full of transfers is likely to rally in that way and seems more likely that it only gets worse.

Nebraska also joins Iowa as another game that previously was a game that Michigan had some concern about that now looks like a borderline walkover game.

Other games of note:

We will talk more about Washington in the preview of their game against MSU this coming weekend but worth monitoring them here.

The Huskies, led by new coach Kalen DeBoer (previously of Fresno State) obliterated FCS Portland State this past weekend

Portland State is not really enough to take anything from other than that opening 2-0 shows that they certainly have their act together more than last year. They did open the season against a good MAC team in Kent State (who played in the MAC championship last year and figures to be in that mix again this year) who is at least good enough to take some judgement from.

Even though Kent State is competent this is obviously not enough to make significant judgments about for the long-term. But one thing seems clear. The Huskies’ offense, led by Indiana transfer Micheal Penix Jr., has looked sharp enough that we should get a fairly conclusive answer as to whether or not MSU’s secondary has made any progress from last season. Even against weak competition, Penix looks less like the broken man who took the field for the Hoosiers last year and more like the man who had Indiana fans photoshopping him into the Sistine chapel ceiling.

Penix has completed 70% of his passes for 10.3 yards per attempt with 6 touchdowns against 1 interception and also run a couple of times. Even against weak competition that is impressive enough that if Michigan State hasn’t tightened up the secondary they will likely get torched. Win or lose, if the Huskies can’t play pitch and catch almost at will it will be a good sign for the rest of the season.

Oregon State 35 - Fresno State 32

This has no bearing on any Big Ten team but Oregon State is out here opening the season with wins over two of the countries best G5 programs by beating Boise State and going on the road to beat Fresno. Oregon State plays a highly entertaining offense where they run like 5 plays but they do tons of goofy motion and changes of personnel to keep defenses on their toes which is fun. Oregon State is has been the prime PAC12 After dark team for me so far this season. They face Montana State next which isn’t really worth watching but they open PAC12 play against USC after that which will be very worth trying to find an illegal stream of since it’s on PAC12 network for some ungodly reason.

Notre Dame 21 - Marshall 26

You didn’t think I was going to miss an opportunity to make fun of Notre Dame did you?

I still lean towards the long-term prognosis being alright with Marcus Freeman. That said this is incredibly funny. Notre Dame never deserved to be ranked where they were last season or coming into this season and it is excellent to see people suddenly remember that this team played one of the most charmin-soft schedules in the nation last season and almost lost to Toledo. The offense was anemic and the defense isn’t elite.

The best news is that now with two losses, we get to pleasantly avoid any possibility of any nitwits trying to sneak Notre Dame into playoff consideration so that teams that play actual schedules abd don’t simply stop playing the rivals that beat them because they are too cowardly to compete, can get their chance.

Why do you hate Notre Dame so much?

They consistently lost to Michigan and MSU so they just decided “Yeah lets not do that anymore” and consistently get put in conversations they have no right to be in. They pat themselves on the back for winning 10 games while losing to every good team they play. My disdain for Notre Dame has little to do with Notre Dame and everything to do with the college football world continually making concessions to them that they do not deserve. This program has not won a New Years 6 bowl since 1994 and yet every season people insist on trying to get them into the playoff. Imagine if Michigan just said “fuck this” and stopped playing MSU and OSU every season and then went 11-1 and the entire college football world just collectively decided to pretend this didn’t make the program entirely fraudulent and was like “oh wow they won 11 games and defeated hated rival navy wow”

Jokes aside, this suddenly looks like a brutal season for Notre Dame. They play BYU in a couple of weeks who look awesome, USC looks revived, Clemson is still Clemson, and games against Stanford, UNC, and Syracuse that looked like walkovers before the year suddenly look threatening. The most baffling thing is how on earth is it possible for Notre Dame to have such awful QB play, because Tyler Buchner (who is now out for the season) looked awful. Maybe Drew Pyne getting the starting job will end up being a blessing in disguise but if he deserved to be the backup it is hard to see this team winning more than 6 or 7 games.

Also funny that almost no one has turned around and recalibrated the ohio game away from a gritty and impressive win to a concerningly close game against a mediocre team.

BYU 26 - Baylor 20

Not a ton to say about the actual game because I don’t follow either of these teams close enough to have much say but still worth watching the highlights because it was highly entertaining. BYU plays Oregon next week in a game worth monitoring because if they win they suddenly are on a real track to bust into the playoff picture.

Kansas 55 - West Virginia 42

Lance Leipold is a magician.

See you in a couple of days with next weeks preview.

Why are you doing so much football stuff we want hoops

1. I can tell my wife I need to watch football so I can write about it.

2. If on the off chance this becomes something bigger I want to have something other than just hoops.

3. I suck at building habits and it’s a big dead period before the NBA starts. I needed something that could keep me writing and working on stuff so I didn’t fall off the wagon until then and college football was the best option. There is a non-zero chance this more or less becomes a short blurb just covering Michigan and Michigan State once hoops start. For now, though, I’m mostly just trying to stay in practice. There will be some hoops this week though.