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B1G Thoughts: You can blame this on Jim Harbaugh!
JordanW330 via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images
Michigan won a national championship, but at what cost? Plus other thoughts from a wild Week 2!
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.
Ryan Day and Ohio State are all in for the 2024 season. Is Oregon a national championship contender or will they stumble in their first Big Ten season? How do the former members of the Big Ten West fair in the new divisionless format? We track all these storylines and more as the Big Ten hopes to win back-to-back national championships.
Check out the I-80 Football Show for more in-depth analysis and to preview the next week of B1G games.
#BlameHarbaugh, but also kind of Sherrone Mooore and partially Warde Manuel. In reality, blame everyone at Michigan — including Conor Stallions — for the state of the Wolverine program. You won a national championship, but at what cost?
Now, I’m sure there are a lot of Michigan fans who are fine with the cost of winning a title, but I can promise you it did not need to get this bad. After a beatdown from Texas and back-to-back weeks where their defense didn’t look dominant, the offensive line looked bad, and the quarterback looked unplayable, Michigan is at an all-time low. You can have the best defense in the country, but without a complementary offense, it means nothing — just ask Iowa.
This is where this is Harbaugh’s fault. For the last three to four years Harbaugh has openly flirted with the NFL every offseason, leading to lackluster recruiting classes specifically at quarterback and offensive line. One of the best things Michigan did the last few years was identify key portal pieces on the line to go with their seniors. It worked, but now after having essentially their two deep drafted it’s clear the lack of snaps for younger players has created a problem.
The biggest blame that falls on Harbaugh, until the program gets potentially heavy sanctions from the NCAA, is that he left the program late while waiting on the NFL, and during that time he did nothing to support the future of the team. Either Harbaugh knew he was getting an NFL job or he was leaving no matter, what because they did not attempt to build up their roster in the December transfer window, and by the time he was in the NFL and Moore hired his staff it was too late to find good players at key positions.
This is a lost season for Michigan. Their best-case scenario is 8-4, but after Illinois upset Kanas and Northwestern continues to show life under David Braun, those games aren’t the easy wins they were expected to be either. At least they won a national championship, right?
I won’t get fooled again. Oregon is not a national championship contender until proven otherwise. You do not get the benefit of the doubt after going deep into the fourth quarter in back-to-back weeks against Idaho and Boise State.
Oregon is going to have nightmares about the state of Idaho — don’t remind them where their potatoes come from. Oregon beat Boise State by pure luck. Two special teams touchdowns in the same game is luck. There’s a reason it’s not a common occurrence, just ask Ohio State, who hasn’t had one in what feels like a decade. It took two plays so unlikely you can’t consistently do them in a video game for Oregon to win, and Boise still could’ve won with better play-calling in the fourth quarter.
Oregon may figure it out. Their whole season is in front of them, but the Oregon we’ve seen for the past two weeks is not a national championship contender, and doesn’t scare any good team in the Big Ten. They have some serious issues to figure out, starting with their offensive line, or this season could turn on them quickly.
After two rough weeks their outlook isn’t any better, as they have to face an angry Oregon State team looking for a win over their rival who left them in college football purgatory. All this before their first nine-game Big Ten conference schedule. Dan Lanning and the Ducks have some work to do if they still want to reach their goals this season.
There’s a common theme in this week’s B1G Thoughts. Outside of Ohio State, the teams expected to contend for the conference title and make a run in the playoffs have looked uninspiring so far this season.
After beating West Virginia in Week 1, Penn State was riding high, convincing fans and national media alike that they had a new offense to go with one of the best defenses in the country. That feeling lasted exactly seven days, as Penn State was in a legitimate fight with Bowling Green.
A lot of times when these close games happen we find ourselves saying, “I never thought they were going to lose,” but that is not true for me in this game. If Bowling Green had a better quarterback they absolutely could’ve won this game, but after playing a stellar first half, Connor Bazelak reverted and handed the Nittany Lions two interceptions to seal the game.
I tried to give Penn State the benefit of the doubt, but they have not earned that offensively, and now there may be questions about their defense under Tom Allen’s leadership. It could be worse though... they could be Notre Dame! A clunker isn’t fun, but a win is a win.
Heading into the weekend I can’t imagine many people had watching Michigan State and Maryland high on their list, and yet it turned out to be one of the best games of the weekend.
After a tough first game as a Spartan, Aidan Chiles bounced back in a big way, leading Michigan State past Maryland by scoring 10 points in the final four minutes of the game. Chiles still has some room to improve after throwing three interceptions, but Michigan State doesn’t have any expectations this year, so they should view this as a learning experience and hope that he will start to make better decisions with more experience.
It helps when you have a freshman who might just be a stud after wide receiver Nick Marsh had eight receptions for 194 yards and a touchdown. It might be a tough year in East Lansing, but they can find joy if Chiles and Marsh can continue to connect all season.
Nebraska said they thought they could dominate Colorado, and they did with a suffocating defense that sacked Sheduer Sanders six times and baited him into throwing a pick-six. Nebraska is far from a finished product, evidenced by the fact they scored no points in the second half after scoring 28 points before halftime, but they proved to be mentally and physically tough despite not clicking on offense the whole game.
After two games, the most important thing for them, outside of being 2-0, may be that their quarterback hasn’t committed a turnover yet. Nebraska is building towards something. It’s impossible to know their ceiling in 2024, but they should be bowl-eligible by the end of October and that is a major step in the right direction for this program.
Nebraska being good is fun. Shoutout to Matt Rhule for opening the windows, buying the smell goods, and getting the Scott Frost stench out of the building.
Follow The I-80 Football Show on YouTube: @JordanW330.
Subscribe to the podcast: RSS | Apple | Spotify | Google Podcasts | iHeart Radio
Connect with me on Twitter: @JordanW330
Follow I-80 Football Show on Instagram: @I80FootballShow
Continue reading...
JordanW330 via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images
Michigan won a national championship, but at what cost? Plus other thoughts from a wild Week 2!
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.
Ryan Day and Ohio State are all in for the 2024 season. Is Oregon a national championship contender or will they stumble in their first Big Ten season? How do the former members of the Big Ten West fair in the new divisionless format? We track all these storylines and more as the Big Ten hopes to win back-to-back national championships.
Check out the I-80 Football Show for more in-depth analysis and to preview the next week of B1G games.
#BlameHarbaugh
#BlameHarbaugh, but also kind of Sherrone Mooore and partially Warde Manuel. In reality, blame everyone at Michigan — including Conor Stallions — for the state of the Wolverine program. You won a national championship, but at what cost?
Now, I’m sure there are a lot of Michigan fans who are fine with the cost of winning a title, but I can promise you it did not need to get this bad. After a beatdown from Texas and back-to-back weeks where their defense didn’t look dominant, the offensive line looked bad, and the quarterback looked unplayable, Michigan is at an all-time low. You can have the best defense in the country, but without a complementary offense, it means nothing — just ask Iowa.
This is where this is Harbaugh’s fault. For the last three to four years Harbaugh has openly flirted with the NFL every offseason, leading to lackluster recruiting classes specifically at quarterback and offensive line. One of the best things Michigan did the last few years was identify key portal pieces on the line to go with their seniors. It worked, but now after having essentially their two deep drafted it’s clear the lack of snaps for younger players has created a problem.
The biggest blame that falls on Harbaugh, until the program gets potentially heavy sanctions from the NCAA, is that he left the program late while waiting on the NFL, and during that time he did nothing to support the future of the team. Either Harbaugh knew he was getting an NFL job or he was leaving no matter, what because they did not attempt to build up their roster in the December transfer window, and by the time he was in the NFL and Moore hired his staff it was too late to find good players at key positions.
This is a lost season for Michigan. Their best-case scenario is 8-4, but after Illinois upset Kanas and Northwestern continues to show life under David Braun, those games aren’t the easy wins they were expected to be either. At least they won a national championship, right?
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me
I won’t get fooled again. Oregon is not a national championship contender until proven otherwise. You do not get the benefit of the doubt after going deep into the fourth quarter in back-to-back weeks against Idaho and Boise State.
Oregon is going to have nightmares about the state of Idaho — don’t remind them where their potatoes come from. Oregon beat Boise State by pure luck. Two special teams touchdowns in the same game is luck. There’s a reason it’s not a common occurrence, just ask Ohio State, who hasn’t had one in what feels like a decade. It took two plays so unlikely you can’t consistently do them in a video game for Oregon to win, and Boise still could’ve won with better play-calling in the fourth quarter.
Oregon may figure it out. Their whole season is in front of them, but the Oregon we’ve seen for the past two weeks is not a national championship contender, and doesn’t scare any good team in the Big Ten. They have some serious issues to figure out, starting with their offensive line, or this season could turn on them quickly.
After two rough weeks their outlook isn’t any better, as they have to face an angry Oregon State team looking for a win over their rival who left them in college football purgatory. All this before their first nine-game Big Ten conference schedule. Dan Lanning and the Ducks have some work to do if they still want to reach their goals this season.
Penn Stank, anyone?
There’s a common theme in this week’s B1G Thoughts. Outside of Ohio State, the teams expected to contend for the conference title and make a run in the playoffs have looked uninspiring so far this season.
After beating West Virginia in Week 1, Penn State was riding high, convincing fans and national media alike that they had a new offense to go with one of the best defenses in the country. That feeling lasted exactly seven days, as Penn State was in a legitimate fight with Bowling Green.
A lot of times when these close games happen we find ourselves saying, “I never thought they were going to lose,” but that is not true for me in this game. If Bowling Green had a better quarterback they absolutely could’ve won this game, but after playing a stellar first half, Connor Bazelak reverted and handed the Nittany Lions two interceptions to seal the game.
I tried to give Penn State the benefit of the doubt, but they have not earned that offensively, and now there may be questions about their defense under Tom Allen’s leadership. It could be worse though... they could be Notre Dame! A clunker isn’t fun, but a win is a win.
Well, that’s a surprise!
Heading into the weekend I can’t imagine many people had watching Michigan State and Maryland high on their list, and yet it turned out to be one of the best games of the weekend.
After a tough first game as a Spartan, Aidan Chiles bounced back in a big way, leading Michigan State past Maryland by scoring 10 points in the final four minutes of the game. Chiles still has some room to improve after throwing three interceptions, but Michigan State doesn’t have any expectations this year, so they should view this as a learning experience and hope that he will start to make better decisions with more experience.
It helps when you have a freshman who might just be a stud after wide receiver Nick Marsh had eight receptions for 194 yards and a touchdown. It might be a tough year in East Lansing, but they can find joy if Chiles and Marsh can continue to connect all season.
Nebraska Rhules. #GBR
Nebraska said they thought they could dominate Colorado, and they did with a suffocating defense that sacked Sheduer Sanders six times and baited him into throwing a pick-six. Nebraska is far from a finished product, evidenced by the fact they scored no points in the second half after scoring 28 points before halftime, but they proved to be mentally and physically tough despite not clicking on offense the whole game.
After two games, the most important thing for them, outside of being 2-0, may be that their quarterback hasn’t committed a turnover yet. Nebraska is building towards something. It’s impossible to know their ceiling in 2024, but they should be bowl-eligible by the end of October and that is a major step in the right direction for this program.
Nebraska being good is fun. Shoutout to Matt Rhule for opening the windows, buying the smell goods, and getting the Scott Frost stench out of the building.
Follow The I-80 Football Show on YouTube: @JordanW330.
Subscribe to the podcast: RSS | Apple | Spotify | Google Podcasts | iHeart Radio
Connect with me on Twitter: @JordanW330
Follow I-80 Football Show on Instagram: @I80FootballShow
Continue reading...