This week in the B1G

[TeeJay88]

Obviously, MSU came up big. There have been a lot of huge positives for our conference the last two weeks. OSU, MSU have performed as advertised. Northwestern has stunned. Iowa is much improved.Bill Cubit has motivated the Illini. IU is the worst two win team in the conference but don't ever forget, it's two wins. The one loss teams are IMHO, led by Minnesota, which has played a great schedule so far, Wisky, Michigan, Nebraska have done some good work. Questions remain about the others but Purdue seems to be at the top with Rutgers next and Maryland searching for some defensive answers (same as our Hoosiers).

The point here is this, the B1G has cycled back towards being one of the top conferences in NCAA football. Our program is improving but the gains may not be proportionate to many of our conference foes. With that said, I'm hopeful that we may continue our improvement and win our ooc games and two in conference games. I also think we have a shot to win the home game against UM.

Todays defensive improvements must be continual and IF we see the same levels of improvement weekly, our program could end up #3 in the east division which would be an unqualified success. We've got a long way to go to get there but I'm happy with this week's improvements, challenge the team to continue this trend and am hopeful we'll be in a GOOD bowl game at seasons end.

 

[Big Red Crimson Buffalo]

Honestly, you cannot tell much of anything after 2 weeks.

Don't think the mix and match of some of these opponents tell us really....zilch.

I do know that I for all of the angst an FCS opponent caused us last week, it happens to everyone, including #6 Auburn.

 

[TeeJay88]

Honestly, you cannot tell much of anything after 2 weeks.

Don't think the mix and match of some of these opponents tell us really....zilch.

I do know that I for all of the angst an FCS opponent caused us last week, it happens to everyone, including #6 Auburn.

I agree. I will say that the test in Blacksburg last week and East Lansing this week are decent indicators at the top of the standings. Northwestern was dominant against Stanford but we really don't know who or what they (Stanford) are. Pundits lauded the PAC 12 and the B1G is 2-0 against two of their predicted best. Couple that with Michigan's dominant performance against OSU and being highly competitive with Utah and I'd say the B1G is competitive with the PAC 12 at the very least. The SEC has been unimpressive and the ACC almost always trips up somewhere and is developing depth but has lost some at the top. The Big 12 is an enigma but Minnesota showed well against their best. It's been a good start for the B1G despite a few losses last week and a couple this week.

 

[GoBigRed1983]

I'm happy with this week's improvements, challenge the team to continue this trend and am hopeful we'll be in a GOOD bowl game at seasons end.

I would agree on this team being able to be bowl eligible and at this point ANY BOWL would be a "good" one.

Go IU!

 

[Sope Creek]

Honestly, you cannot tell much of anything after 2 weeks.

Don't think the mix and match of some of these opponents tell us really....zilch.

I do know that I for all of the angst an FCS opponent caused us last week, it happens to everyone, including #6 Auburn.

Like Auburn, IU won that FCS opponent game. It took a bit of good luck, but all in all I think IU showed to be the better team against both SIU and FIU, and still isn't playing at anything close to its best football this season yet.

I cannot overstate how important it is that, like Auburn vs. Jacksonville State, IU won the close games against SIU and FIU, and not just because we want to get bowl-eligible. Some of us have been saying that building a program takes time, and for a program with IU's history learning to win is a part of that building process that comes later rather than sooner. The program is learning how to win games because Wilson and his coaching staff have both laid the ground work with better recruiting over several years plus teaching those recruits how to play and how to compete . . . and now all of them, Wilson, the staff and the kids are learning how to win games that they could easily lose. That's a big development.

Let's see how well the program is doing next week. I didn't know that both SIU and FIU were going to be as good as they are, and frankly I'm happy to see that they were competitive teams for us because I think that having the competition is going to help prepare this team much better for the BiG than it has been prepared in the past. We know that WKU is a good team . . . let's take another measurement against them and then keep moving on to the next opponent.