Another week, another batch of results that yield some interesting numbers in regard to Big Ten football. Here’s what I pulled from this past weekend.
22.9
This is Wisconsin’s average margin of victory through 10 games this season. That’s 10 wins in 10 games — perfect. They are simply wearing down teams with both an elite defense and highly effective rushing attack. They are everything any old crusty guy at the end of the bar has ever said you need to be to win football games. It’s not sexy, but it works, and you gotta respect it.
Be that as it may, there are still people out there — important people in the world of college football — who seem to be ok with the notion that the Badgers could run the table all the way through the Big Ten Championship game and still watch the College Football Playoff from home. The people who pitch that idea and ask you to accept it should not be allowed to cover any sport of any kind. Block them on Twitter and slap them if you see them in person.
Zero
This is how many times Noah Fant touched the ball in Iowa’s loss to Wisconsin last weekend. Zip, zero, zilch. And it wasn’t like they were trying to forces the ball to him all day either. It was just a straight up neglect of the most prolific downfield threat wearing an Iowa uniform. There was plenty to be upset about over the weekend, but for me, Fant’s lack of involvement in the offense was right at the top of the list.
Three
Speaking of things to be upset about, I give you this. Nebraska’s soon-to-be former head coach Mike Riley called three timeouts in the last 35 seconds of what was a blowout loss with absolutely nothing to gain. He claims he did it to get backup quarterback Patrick O’Brien more games reps. In reality, he only put O’Brien in danger behind an offensive line that had already packed it in for the day. The redshirt freshman signal caller was obliterated on two of the three plays that followed those timeouts. Shame on Mike Riley.
409
Speaking of reasons Mike Riley won’t be coaching at Nebraska next year, this is how many yards Minnesota ran for against the Nebraska defense.
1,000
This is how many yards Ohio State freshman J.K. Dobbins eclipsed on the ground for the season during Saturday’s win over Michigan State. He’s the fourth freshman in the history of the Buckeye program to achieve that feat.
Zero
This is how many interceptions Michigan quarterback Brandon Peters has thrown in three games as the starter/primary snap-taker. Before plugging Peters in as the go-to guy under center, the Wolverine quarterbacks had combined for seven interceptions in seven games.
Five
This is how many games Northwestern has now won in a row. As mentioned in our weekly power rankings, the Wildcats have a serious shot to win ten games this season. I’d never thought we’d be talking abou double-digit wins for this team after they got their doors blown off by Duke earlier in the year.
Nine
This is how many times Penn State head coach James Franklin typed the word “Nebraska” in one tweet earlier in the week, just so the world knew who his team was focused on.
Nebraska, Nebraska, Nebraska, Nebraska, Nebraska, Nebraska, Nebraska, Nebraska, Nebraska
— James Franklin (@coachjfranklin) November 13, 2017
Godspeed, Huskers.