Thursday, November 9, 2017

Big Ten Weekend Preview Week 11 & A Couple Recruiting Tidbits

The Big Ten has done a great job of putting itself outside of the playoff race.   Wisconsin still has a chance but their wins to date have not been impressive.  Another alarming trend is that Big Ten teams are struggling away from home in conference play.


Penn State's two losses were on the road.  James Franklin is 0-10 against ranked opponents on the road. Ohio State got rolled at Iowa and MSU got beat by Northwestern on the road.   Iowa has lost at MSU and at Northwestern. The follow up to that is MSU did beat Michigan in the Big House during a Monsoon. 


Big Ten Game of the Week:

MSU at OSU:  Vegas is not buying into the Spartans and they might also believe in the Big Ten's road issues.  OSU is over a two TD favorite in this one at 15.5.  This line shocks me as MSU is coming off another big improbable win over Penn State and OSU just got rolled in the Kinnick Voodoo that Iowa has.   I don't get either one of these teams but I'm not looking for a blowout as Vegas suggests.  OSU 24 MSU 17


Iowa at Wisconsin:  If there was a second "Game of the Week" this would be the one.  The issue here is that Iowa has not played well away from it's Kinnick Voodoo.  Case in point, they scored 10 points in a loss to Northwestern outside of Chicago.  This is another big line as Wisconsin is -12.  Wisconsin 31 Iowa 21


Rutgers at PSU:   Penn State gets back to its winning ways as they are -31.   PSU 45 Rutgers 3


Purdue at Northwestern: Somehow Northwestern is ranked in the top 25.  They are on a 4 game win streak and rolling.  Purdue who we thought would be decent this year, isn't.  Northwestern is -4.5.   Northwestern 28 Purdue 10


Nebraska at Minnesota:  These are the same teams.  Both are 4-5 in the year, one team has a brand new coach and the other wants one.  Nebraska is the better team but I like the Golden Gophers at home.  Minnesota is -2.5 in this one.    Minnesota 17 Nebraska 13


Indiana at Illinois:  IU is -9.  This will not be a good game to watch.  IU 21 Illinois 20
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  • Sam Webb is saying that 4 star OT from Tampa  Nicholas Petit-Frere will visit for the OSU game.


  • Sam also has given us the heads up that 4 Star WR Florida commit JaMarr Chase will also visit for the OSU game.  Is Chase a great name for a WR or what? (he de-committed from UF last night)


  • There continues to be a lot of rumors around Otis Reese who is a Michigan commit, de-committing and heading to Georgia.  On a personal note, I sat next to a Georgia booster on an airplane a couple of weeks ago, he was saying that Otis is for sure heading to Georgia, though he was also shocked that Aubrey Solomon went to Ann Arbor last year.   Aubrey and Otis were teammates last year.   I also believe the Michigan coaches are feeling pretty confident about Otis staying in the class.  We will know in about a month during the early signing period. 

2 comments:

EzmoB said...

Bob I'm a long time reader, first time posting. Greatly appreciate what you do.

I think realistically our O-line has improved as it should against weaker opponents. They will be tested and evaluated once they play wis and osu. Than we can determine where we stack up.

JH and Tim D need to test Peters this Saturday by allowing him to air it out and see how he does before the last 2 games.

Bob said...

EZMoB thanks for reading and I appreciate your first comments!

I agree with you, the Rutgers - Maryland portion of the schedule will make us feel really good about the offensive line, running game, etc.

I hope the team is getting better, so they can close the season with wins against Wisconsin and OSU. Like you said, the true test will be those two games!

I think after the game Jimmy realized he didn't get Peters enough throws and needs to give him more in this game.