Michigan Monday: Ranks the Big Ten and Other News

We all know that Minnesota travels to the Big House this weekend to play for the Little Brown Jug.   It looks like the Golden Gophers head coach Jerry Kill might not be with the team due to his treatment of seizures.  You might remember that Jerry suffered one on the sideline in week two and it seems his condition has not gotten better and that he continues to have them.   "The seizures continue to be a concern for me and my family," Kill said in a statement released by the school. "Rebecca (Kill's wife) and I have made the decision to do what it takes to find a solution. I hope to be back to work soon, but we believe that taking some time away to get a handle on this is the right thing to do."

Obviously, this is more important then a football game and I wish nothing but good health to Jerry and his family.  I hope the Mayo Clinic can figure out his situation and he is on the sideline soon.

•  Michigan is #19 in both polls

• Former Illinois assistant Mike Locksley was fired as the head coach of New Mexico.  His two year run included punching an assistant coach, sexual harassment allegations, giving his son's car to a potential recruit and 2 wins.   Even Rich Rod thinks that is a bad run.

• Michigan is favored by 20.5 against Minnesota

• 4 star Ohio DE and MSU recruit Se'Von Pittman visited OSU this weekend. 

• Not sure what happened here but the latest buzz on Danny O'Brien is that he will not be picking Michigan next week.  It seems he is down to Tennessee and MSU.  Does Michigan need that spot for another position?  Or has Danny warmed to another program?  Not sure.

Ranking the Big Ten Teams

This week starts the Big Ten season and there are a number of "great" games that will go along way to finding out who is going to make it to Indy for the championship game.    #8 Nebraska at #7 Wisconsin and MSU at Ohio State.

1. Wisconsin #7
2. Nebraska #8
3. Michigan #19
4. Ohio State
5. Michigan State
6. Penn State
7. Iowa
8. Illinois #24
9. Northwestern
10. Purdue
11. Minnesota
12. Indiana

It's pretty clear right now that it's Wisconsin, Nebraska and everyone else.  You could switch any team from 3-6.   I'm not sold on Illinois at all as they struggled to beat Western Michigan this weekend.  Iowa and Northwestern have semi-bad losses to Iowa State and Army.  Minnesota lost to North Dakota State on Saturday and Indiana traveled to North Texas and lost 24-21.

Side Note:  Can someone do a little research and find out, when the last time Michigan was ranked higher in the polls over all their rivals?  Ohio State, ND and Michigan State?  I was thinking 2006 but OSU was #1 most of the year that year.