Big Ten Roundtable of Bloggers: Week Three

By Adam Kiefaber

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

This week Michigan Sports Center is hosting the third 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 two weeks of the season and a preseason roundtable. You can see my responses at Buckeye Lane.

Here are Michigan Sports Center’s questions and my responses.

1. Now that two weeks of play are behind us, what is one encouraging surprise and one downing disappointment from your team? (Easy answer to the latter part of the question for Michigan bloggers)

Honestly, the Buckeyes haven’t really surprised me this year. As expected, they easily beat Youngstown State and their defense shut down the Akron offense. As far as I see it, the Buckeyes start their season this weekend after two preseason games.

So, I’m going to think outside the box and answer the Big Ten Roundtable of Blogger (Week Three) as if I were a Michigan blogger.

One Encouraging Surprise: Even though Michigan keeps losing, the team continues to break records. Last weekend, it was Michigan’s worst loss since 1968. The week before Michigan was involved in the greatest upset in the history of college football, with the loss against Appalachian State. This weekend Michigan plays Notre Dame in a game that has been dubbed as ‘The Sceptic Tank Bowl’ while I have heard it referred as ‘The Shit Bowl’. What’s certain is that these teams shouldn’t play in any bowl. The biggest encouraging thing has to be Mike Hart guaranteed a win - finally!

One Downing Disappointment Surprise: Chad Henne went into the season as a preseason candidate for the Heisman Trophy and now he will be standing on sidelines with a clipboard. Henne has amazing receivers to throw to, but still seems to throw it to the wrong team. What happened? How do you begin to suck so fast? It reminds of Troy Smith in the National Championship game or the comedic career of Chevy Chase (Sorry, Chevy - I’m still a fan). Now that he has led Michigan to their worst start since 1959, he will conveniently be sidelined with a knee injury for 2-3 weeks.

2. A look at the current Big Ten standings shows things dead-locked record-wise for the most part. Once conference play actually begins, which two or three teams pull away from the rest of the pack?

True freshman Ryan Mallett is going to turn this thing around. Just you wait and see - when Michigan plays their fourth-straight home game against No. 12 Penn State; The Wolverines will run the table!

In all truth Michigan is twirling down a gigantic shit spiral - I don’t see anyone running away with the Big Ten, but I do think Penn State has shown that they are the best team so far. Don’t count out Purdue, Wisconsin, Iowa or Ohio State - I think all five teams will battle for the Big Ten title.

3. Has your team ever played in a game that was just downright boring and impossible to watch? I ask this because going into the Michigan-Notre Dame game, looking at it on paper, it is shaping up to be one of the ugliest we may see all year.

Are you kidding? The Michigan/Notre Dame game could be the most exciting game of the week. I know, currently, I’m trying my best to write this as a Michigan blogger, but my Ohio State side is telling me the same thing. I bet a lot of people watch this game - there will be two true freshmen quarterbacks - bouncing fumbles - multiple interceptions - crazy touchdown passes - great touchdown runs - I think it will be the most entertaining game of the early season, excluding the Michigan/App.State game.

Back to my multi-personality - OHIO STATE - The Buckeyes play boring games every week - last weekend OSU trailed 2-0 for most of the first half, until a 37-yard field goal by Ryan Pretorius gave the Buckeyes a 3-2 lead. OSU won 20-2 - Most of Ohio State’s games throughout history are extremely boring - occasionally you will get a high-scoring Drew Brees’ game or a last-second Cincinnati/Wisconsin game, but those games are boring until the last two minutes.