Entries from September 2007 ↓

By Adam Kiefaber

Every week this season a fellow Big Ten blogging site will host the Big Ten Bloggers roundtable of questions.

This week There Is No Name On My Jersey, which is a Penn State site, is hosting the second regular season Big Ten roundtable of the season. Buckeye Lane will play host the week of the Wisconsin at Ohio State game (September 29th through the November 3rd).

So far we have had a roundtable for the first week of the season and a preseason roundtable. You can see my responses at Buckeye Lane.

Here are There Is No Name On My Jersey’s questions and my responses.

1. Clearly, Week 1 was a huge week for upsets with Appalachin St. beating Michigan and Clemson beating FSU (though if that really shocked anyone I’d be surprised). What are your upset games for Week 2 and why?

I wouldn’t bet on the favorites of any of these games:

Nebraska (-8) at Wake Forest, Miami (OH) at Minnesota (-9), Bowling Green at Michigan State (-18), Oregon at Michigan (-8), Notre Dame at Penn State (17.5), Kent State at Kentucky (+13), TCU at Texas (-9.5) and Virginia Tech at LSU (-12.5).

Let me pick a big one- #9 Virginia Tech to beat #2 LSU-

I’m not sold on VT’s quarterback Sean Glennon, but I think the Hokies will look like a better team this week. There was a lot of pressure on them to do well because of the tragic events that took place on that campus.

2. What do you think about the BTN? How’d it look? How were the announcers? Did the first weekend change your opinion of the BTN?

I lucked out. The BTN was giving a free preview on Insight Cable. I was able to watch the Youngstown State/Ohio State game and the App. State/Michigan at the same time. Overall, it was good. I have no problem paying the $1.10 to get it.

The BTN is still a baby, but it will grow. Once college basketball starts it won’t have to repeat so much of its programming.

Also, right as I was posting this, I noticed that the BTN is replaying the App. State/Michigan game - you have to love that - unless you are a Michigan fan.

3. Now that we’re a game into the Season evaluate the Big Ten’s strength.

My evalution of the Big Ten’s strength after the first week of the season can be summed up in one word: POOP.

POOP- Minnesota, who I thought would be one of more improved teams, blew it. The Gophers lost 32-31 to Bowling Green.
POOP- Michigan, who was the Big Ten’s top-ranked team this preseason, lost to App. State in the greatest upset of all time.
POOP- Also, you don’t know how good Ohio State or Penn State really are because they didn’t play anyone.

The only positives:

Illinois played a tough Missouri team and almost came back.
-and-
Wisconsin beat up on the Pac-10’s Washington State, 42-21.

Sorry I shouldn’t have used the word- poop- the professional way would’ve been to rank the conferences.

BCS CONFERENCES: (Many had the Big Ten at #2 to begin the season - you have to put them at least fourth)

1) SEC
2) PAC-10
3) ACC
4) BIG 12
5) BIG EAST
6) BIG TEN

Just in case you missed it here are the highlights from the game on Saturday

This other video doesn’t make sense, but it is quick and to the point

By Adam Kiefaber

Ohio State easily beat up the Penguins this Saturday.

30th-year junior quarterback Todd Boeckman (actually fifth year) played great. I have to admit I had the lowest of low expectations for Boeckman going into this game. However, he completed 17 of 23 passes for 225 yards and threw two touchdowns. The only mistake was a fumble that led to a YSU field goal.

That was the most positive thing about this game for the Buckeyes.

The most negative thing had to be the injury to starting defensive end Lawrence Wilson (right- broken leg).

Another negative was the running attack for the Buckeyes. Sophomore running back Chris ‘Beanie’ Wells rushed for 48 yards on 16 carries. Junior RB Mo Wells added 46 yards on eight and true freshman RB Brandon Saine added 42 yards on 10 carries.

Overall, that is a solid running game, however against Youngstown State I would expect bigger numbers from Beanie. The running game was disappointing, but I was happy with Saine’s performance.

Junior wide receiver Brain Robiskie looked really good on Saturday. Robiskie finished with career highs in catches (9) and in yards (153). It was great to see Robiskie become the #1 target with OSU dealing with the loses of WRs Ted Ginn Jr., Anthony Gonzalez and Roy Hall to the NFL.

Also, two true freshmen WRs (Dane Sanzenbacher and Taurian Washington) caught TD passes. Sanzenbacher made a nice catch on an impressive throw from Boeckman for the Buckeyes first touchdown. Washington (above-left) scored the last touchdown on a pass from QB Antonio Henton. On the play, Washington showed off his speed en route to a 37-yard score.

A quick breakdown of all the Big Ten games from week one. Not included is the Ohio State game, which will be have its own wrap- coming later today

Appalachian State (34) at #5 Michigan (32)

Michigan had the Sports Illustrated curse going into the game as running back Mike Hart was one the five regional covers for the publication’s college football preview.

Every Michigan fan/ESPN commentator will tell you that Michigan lost because they played a terrible game.

That might be true, but I watched the end of the first half and much of the second half, and my thought was that App. State played a great game and not the other way around.

App. State lined up sophomore quarterback Armanti Edwards in the shotgun and threw quick screens to a surplus of WRs in the spread offense. Also, I thought the team speed of App. State was just as fast if not faster than Michigan’s. Edwards had a great game, completing 17 of 23 passes for 227 yards and threw for three touchdowns. Edwards also rushed for 62 yards on 17 carries and for a touchdown.

On the other side, senior quarterback Chad Henne looked terrible.

Senior RB Mike Hart, who missed almost two full quarters because of a thigh injury, tried to carry his team late in the game. With under five minutes left in the game, Hart had a 54-yard run for a touchdown, making the score 32-31. Hart finished with 188 yards on 23 carries and scored three rushing touchdowns.

After the touchdown, Edwards was intercepted by Brandent Englemon at the App. State 43 yard line. The game looked over, but then App. State blocked a Jason Gingell 43-yard field goal attempt.

App. State got the ball back with 1:37 left, Edwards drove his team down the field and set up a 24-yard field goal by Julian Rauch, making the score 34-32.

With less than 15 seconds left, Henne finally made a play and threw a bomb to Mario Manningham (46 yards down to the App. State 20). Gingell lined up for a 37-yard field goal, but the kicked was blocked again. Corey Lynch blocked the kick, picked it up and raced down the field.

The game was one of the biggest upsets in college football history. Check out what our fellow Big Ten Bloggers have to say about it:

Maize N Brew

MGOBLOG

Michigan Sports Center

Northeastern (0) at Northwestern (27)

Junior quarterback C.J. Bacher played well. Bacher completed 23 of 29 passes for 243 yards and threw for a touchdown and rushed for another. Junior running back Tyrell Sutton rushed for 108 yards on 24 carries and scored a touchdown. Sutton also caught four passes for 24 yards. The last two seasons, Sutton has rushed for 1,000+ yards and has caught 40+ passes.

We have one Northwestern blogger in our group of Big Ten Bloggers- see what he has to say:

Lake The Posts

Florida International (0) at #17 Penn State (59)

Senior quarterback Anthony Morelli (right) threw for three touchdowns, last year he had only 11. He completed 23 of 38 passes for 295 yards.

We have three Penn State bloggers in our group of Big Ten Bloggers- see what they are saying:

Black Shoe Diaries

The Nittany Lion

There Is No Name On My Jersey

Bowling Green (32) at Minnesota (31)

Minnesota lost a heartbreaker to Bowling Green. BGSU sophomore quarterback Tyler Sheehan completed 34 of 51 passes for 388 yards and had two touchdown passes.

Senior Minnesota running back Amir Pinnix preformed well, rushing for 168 yards on 28 carries and scored two touchdowns.

We have two depressed Gopher blogs in our group- see what they are saying:

Gopher Nation

Paging Jim Shikenjanski

Indiana State (7) at Indiana (55)

IU sophomore quarterback Kellen Lewis threw for 285 yards and three touchdowns. Lewis also rushed for 59 yards on nine carries for 59 yards and another score.

We have one Hooiser blog:

Hoosier Report

Washington State (21) at #7 Wisconsin (42)

Wisconsin’s biggest question mark coming into the season was at quarterback. Senior QB Tyler Donovan played extremely well completing 19 of 29 passes for 284 yards and threw three touchdowns. Donovan also rushed for another scores.

Sophomore P.J. Hill, who rushed for 1,569 yards and 15 touchdowns in 2006, rushed for 84 yards and scored two touchdowns.

Wisconsin senior wide receiver Luke Swan caught eight passes for 170 yards and scored two touchdowns.

We only have one Wisconsin blog in our group, but it is a good one:

Badger Tracker

We still need blogs for Illinois, Purdue and Michigan State

UAB (18) at Michigan State (55)

MSU senior running back Jehuu Caulcrick had four rushing touchdowns. Caulcrick had only 10 carries and had 93 yards.

MSU junior quarterback Brian Hoyer completed 14 of 17 passes for 201 yards and threw a touchdown pass.

Purdue (52) at Toledo (24)

Purdue junior quarterback Curtis Painter, who threw for 3,985 yards and 22 touchdowns in 2006, threw for 244 yards and four touchdowns.

Missouri (40) vs. Illinois (34) at St. Louis

Illinois almost came back, quarterback Juice Williams left the game with a head injury and redshirt freshman QB Eddie McGee came in and looked solid.

McGee was 17-for-31 for 257 yards and a touchdown, but he was intercepted twice. McGee also fumbled twice.

Missouri junior quarterback Chase Daniel was great as always- going 37-fo-54 for 359 yards and threw three touchdowns.

By Adam Kiefaber

Normally, I only blog during the week, but I had to just say that Michigan lost to D-AA Appalachian State (right) 34-32.

We have three Michigan blogs in our group (Big Ten Bloggers)

Very interested in their responses-

Maize N Brew

MGOBLOG

Michigan Sports Center

I will be back on Monday to breakdown this game, the Ohio State game (don’t worry OSU won 38-6) and the rest of the Big Ten- back to the TVs.