Big Ten Opening Weekend Preview

October 23, 2020 by Staff

For the first time this season, the Big Ten comes out to play football with a full slate of 7 conference games. Topping the list, and drawing the ESPN College GameDay crew to town, is Michigan at Minnesota.

A year ago, Minnesota posted the school's best win total since 1904 while finishing 11-2 and 2nd in the west division. The Wolverines went 9-4 and finished 3rd in the east. Tanner Morgan is back at QB, along with 8 other starters on offense and 17 total. Look for Mohamed Ibrahim to replace leading rusher Rodney Smith who left a mark with 4,122 career yards. Ibrahim ran for over 600 yards and 7 TD's a year ago, and 1,160 yards in 2018. Michigan loses QB Shea Patterson and the offensive line. Redshirt freshman Joe Milton tops the depth chart at QB and will be the first Harbaugh recruit at Michigan to hold that honor. The Gophers seem like a pretty solid play for the opener and are a 4.29-point computer favorite (Congrove Computer Rankings at CollegeFootballPoll.com) as the outright underdog against a 2-point line in favor of Michigan.

One of the more intriguing games this week sends Penn State to Indiana. The computer's preseason forecast picked the Hoosiers to go 6-2, including a win this week and another home victory over Michigan two weeks later. Keep in mind that an Indiana win over either of those schools has happened twice in over 50 years. Indiana is 1-22 all-time versus the Nittany Lions with the only win in 2013. Every meeting has occurred since Penn State joined the conference in 1993. Over the past two seasons, PSU has eked-out victories by scores of 33-28 (2018) and 34-27. If the Hoosiers are, indeed, victorious this week, then all eyes will be on Indiana when Michigan comes calling on November 7. The Hoosiers are 1-39 versus Michigan since 1968, and 9-59 all-time. The Wolverines dumped Indiana 37-14 a year ago by holding the Hoosiers scoreless in the second half.

Wisconsin is the surprising computer pick to win the Big Ten championship, with the Badgers and Ohio State each going undefeated until their showdown to decide it all. The opening opponent is Illinois on Friday night. The Illini are projected to go 3-5 and are a 20.47-point underdog against the Badgers. The big question marks for Wisconsin reside on the offensive side of the ball where QB Jack Coan is out with a broken foot, and Jonathan Taylor is gone after rushing for 6,174 yards in 3 years. Taylor's consistency was remarkable with a 1,977-yard season in 2017, followed by 2,194 yards in 2018 and 2,003 yards last year. The Wisconsin depth chart indicates redshirt freshman Graham Mertz will get the start at QB after throwing a total of 10 passes last season, with prized recruit Chase Wolf as his backup. Sophomore Nakia Watson, who ran for 331 yards behind Taylor, is listed as the No. 1 running back.

In the other conference games this week, Iowa is a 7.84-point pick at Purdue, Michigan State is favored by 12.67 at home versus Rutgers, Northwestern gets a 14.26-point home advantage over Maryland, and Ohio State is a 20.84-point choice at home over Nebraska.

Michigan State and Rutgers both open the season under new leadership.

Mel Tucker moves over from Colorado to replace Mark Dantonio as the head coach of the Spartans. Dantonio resigned on February 4 after a 13-season tenure that produced records of 115-57 overall, 69-39 in Big Ten games, and 6-6 in bowl games. He is the school's winningest head coach.

Greg Schiano is back for a second stint at Rutgers. He was 68-67 from 2001-2011, including a 56-33 mark over his last 7 seasons. During that tenure, he led the Scarlet Knights to 6 bowl games and won each of the last 5. Rutgers had never won a bowl game prior to his arrival and had only played in one