Around the Big 10 Conference for 9/19/08
Coach Tressel giving
Pryor more practice for the game against Troy, no
Beanie against Troy, Michigan State v. Notre Dame and more.
By Bill Smith
Ohio
State
Coach Tressel giving Pryor more practice for the game against
Troy.
This
is an excellent decision. Letting
Terrelle Pryor get experience in a non-Big 10 game against a credible defense
makes a lot of sense. If he does well,
he earns more playing time. If not, then
Todd Boeckman gets the vast majority of practice reps and playing time in the
Big 10 season while Pryor continues to get some reps in the game to prepare him
for next year.
No Beanie against Troy.
This is
probably a good decision. Let's focus on
winning the league.
Kreskin
predicts OSU 31 Troy 7
Michigan
State
With
Notre Dame coming to town this week, expect to see star RB Javon Ringer will
see the ball a lot. ND has struggled to
contain rushers this year and Ringer is one of the best unknown RB's in the
country. QB Brian Hoyer is having a great
season to this point. He has a passer
rating of 105.5 since the disappointing loss to California, the Spartans have won 2
straight.
Kreskin predicts MS 31 ND 14
Wisconsin
The Badgers
take the week off preparing for the Sept. 27th game against Michigan and the OSU
game the next week. The win over Fresno State
was a big one. FS was nationally ranked
and playing at home. Wisconsin
should have no problem with Michigan
who is struggling to put their own offense together.
Senior LB
Jonathan Casillas was charged with DUI last month. He has a court appearance scheduled
today.
There is
nothing wrong with the Badgers' running game.
PJ Hill has run for 379 yards and 4 TDs.
All three top rushers are averaging over 5 yards per attempt.
Penn
State
The
“Nibbly” Lions as Sen. Obama called them had a nice win against Oregon State. Although OS had some significant losses from
last year's team, it was still fairly well regarded. Now at 3-0 PS prepares for Temple
as a warm up for their big game next week hosting Illinois.
That game will be a key one for both teams seeking to be the biggest
threat to OSU and Wisconsin.
Evan
Royster has emerged as the big running threat.
He is averaging 8 yards per carry and has scored 6 TDs. Daryll Clark, the 231 pound junior QB is a
pocket passer that has thrown for over 500 yards and 5 TDs. He has a passer rating of 165.
The good
preseason has not overshadowed the suspensions.
One big question is how the team will fair without suspended linemen
Maurice Evans and Abe Koroma and the other players that are not active. Temple will
not be a problem but next Saturday's game against Illinois will be the first true test.
Purdue
After
jumping out to a big lead against 16th ranked Oregon last week, Purdue ended up losing in
overtime 32-26. Senior QB Curtis Painter
had 0 TDs and threw 2 interceptions against the Ducks in that game. He has not enjoyed the success he was
expected to have so far. His QB rating
is 109. That is not bad but not what was
expected.
Returning starting
Senior RB Kory Sheets is averaging 5.8 yards per attempt.
Illinois
The
Juice is definitely loose. Juice
Williams has a passer rating of 140, and has thrown for over 700 yards and 7
TDs in the first 3 games. He has also
has run for 200 yards and 2 TDs.
The loss at
#6 Missouri
was not his fault. He did throw 2
interceptions but also threw 5 TD's. The
D just couldn't stop the Missouri
offense. Now the Illini have an off week
to prepare for their game against Penn
State on the 27th.
The offense
taketh but the D giveth back. Not only
did the D yield 52 points to Missouri, it gave
up 21 to Eastern Illinois and 17 to
Louisiana-Lafayette. If the Illini is
going to compete for a Big 10 championship it will have to tighten up the D.
Bill Smith is a
former coach of several semi-pro teams and has scouted talent. He is a senior writer for http://BrutusReport.com. He has
also published several novels on http://ebooks-library.com/index.cfm and edits http://fryingpanpolitics.blog.com