B1G Thoughts: Sometimes it’s not arrogance, it’s just a fact!
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The Curt Cignetti hire was the best move this offseason + the return of Rich Rod?
Every week after the Big Ten games, I will bring you some B1G thoughts on everything that happened! This will include analysis, stats, key players, moments, and more. With the Big Ten expanding from 14 teams to 18 teams in 2024 we will have a bunch of storylines to follow. Check out the I-80 Football Show for more in-depth analysis and to preview the next week of B1G games.
Did you forget to Google Curt Cignetti?
After being announced as head coach for the
Indiana Hoosiers, Curt Cignetti spoke about how he was going to turn around this football program. He mentioned wanting to beat Ohio State and Michigan by name. He joked at Big Ten media days that he was happy that was in Indianapolis because he planned to be back next year for the Big Ten championship game. His confidence bordered on arrogance and caused people, myself included to laugh. I felt like it was important to speak highly as a new coach but he was biting off more than he could chew. I wasn’t the only one because at Big Ten media days he dealt with a lot of skepticism that led him to drop a quote that will live on forever.
After continually being asked how he would turn around Indiana Curt simply said, “I win, google me”. I guess we forgot to google him because if we did we’d come across a coach with a combined 119-35 record across three schools. Curt Cignetti does indeed win and in year one at Indiana all he’s done is win currently sitting at 7-0 with the only real threat left on his schedule being Ohio State. 11-1 Indiana should be the expectation at this point but 12-0 isn’t off the table as they could challenge Ohio State. Indiana is on track to making the 12-team playoff in his first season, Curt Cignetti wins… Google says so.
So uh... Are we doing this again Nebraska?
I was high on Nebraska, I thought they had a chance to win eight or nine games this season and put a scare into some of the top contenders in the conference but after a 56-7 loss to Indiana, they are showing that they have a long ways to go before being the team many of us thought they would be. Don’t get me wrong, Nebraska is 5-2 and has UCLA on the schedule they should get to 6-6 and make a bowl game which is an improvement for sure but there was a lot of hope going into this season that is going to lead to disappointment if they lose five of their last six games and similarly ends the season to last season.
Unfortunately for the Cornhuskers, they don’t get much time to lick their wounds as they play Ohio State this weekend in what should be another drubbing. Luckily they ended the season with UCLA, a USC team that lost to Maryland and Minnesota, Wisconsin, and an Iowa team that lost to
Michigan State. It’s going to be ugly this Saturday but they have a chance to fix this season before it gets out of control and ends on a high note. Otherwise, there are going to be tough questions for Matt Rhule to answer after this season.
Rich Riley, Lincoln Rod
Lincoln Riley has become USC’s Rich Rod but unlike Michigan, USC won’t be able to get rid of him after three seasons. Before accepting the Michigan job, Rich Rod went 60-26 (34-14 Big East), winning four conference championships and going 3-3 in bowl games. In his final three years at West Virginia, Rich Rod went 32-5 including two Big East championships and all three of his bowk victories. Michigan thought they struck gold by hiring him away from the Mountaineers but at Michigan, he struggled to adjust to the Big Ten and went 15-22, (6-18). The Rich Rod era was an abject failure. Now on to Riley, before leaving Oklahoma for USC Riley was 55-10 with four Big 12 championships and a 2-3 record in bowl games including 0-2 in the college football playoffs. So far at USC he is 22-12 and has more losses in two and a half seasons than he had in five years at Oklahoma.
In his first season, he went 11-3 but since then he is 11-9 in his last 21 games and has lost five games in which he held a 14-point lead. This fails to mention that he did a lot of his losing with Caleb Williams, the best quarterback he’s ever coached. Now he doesn’t have Williams, he’s in a tougher conference, and he seems lost. He is 3-4 in 2024 and this year he doesn’t have the Alex Grinch excuse. Riley is failing at USC and with the number of changes he’d had to make starting with giving up playcalling, learning to value defense, and finding and developing talent on the offense and defensive lines, it’s hard to see him turning his tenure around. Michigan and USC thought they struck gold, instead, they stepped on a land mine and are having to pick up their pieces.
Welp… I wasn’t expecting that.
We all understand that anything is possible when you’re relying on 18-22-year-olds but some things are far more unlikely than others starting with UCLA having an offensive explosion against what was a good
Rutgers defense and Michigan State putting up almost 500 yards against what is a good Iowa defense. Let’s start with UCLA, Rutgers' offense is always middling and hardly puts them in a position to win games so they usually rely on their defense, a defense that forgot to leave the tailgate and show up for their homecoming game. UCLA entered the game 1-5 looking like the worst team in the conference. In six games they never scored more than 17 points including in their only win against Hawaii where they won 16-13.
Against Rutgers, UCLA put up 35 points with starting quarterback Ethan Garbers going 32/38 for 369 yards, four touchdowns, no interceptions, and leading his team in rushing with six carries for 62 yards and a touchdown. It’s safe to say that is the best game of Garbers career and it came against Rutgers, in New Jersey, on homecoming while playing at 9 am body clock time. That’s embarrassing, a once-promising season for Rutgers has a chance to spiral out of control as they now must find two wins in their final five games against USC, Minnesota, Maryland, Illinois, and Michigan State. There are winnable games but if you can lose to UCLA you can lose to anyone.
Iowa has one of the best defenses in the country, it has taken a step back this year but is still formidable except against Michigan State. Against the Spartans, Iowa allowed 256 passing yards and 233 rushing yards, something we saw from Ohio State against this defense but didn’t expect anyone else to put up those numbers. The most damning part of this loss is that Iowa’s averaging starting field position was the Michigan State 45-yard line, meaning on average they started all of their drives in opponent territory and could only manage 20 points. I know that may sound familiar for an Iowa offensive output, they can typically win this game 20-6 but instead, their defense failed to show up.
Aidan Chiles, Michigan State’s starting quarterback, entered the game with eight interceptions on the year which usually spells horror against the Iowa secondary. Still, he only threw one interception and eight total incompletions completing 73% of his passes against a once-vaunted secondary. This is very concerning for Iowa but Jonathon Smiths decision to let Chiles play through his mistakes seems genius as the quarterback is slowly getting better as the season progresses.
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./cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25694458/usa_today_24532889.jpg "NCAA Football: UCLA at Rutgers")
