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| “Autumn Days” by Jochen Abitz, CC BY 2.0 |
We had a lot of good games last week, didn't we? From the 11 am games straight through till dark, the blowouts were minimal and the competition was fierce. Wouldn't it be great if every week could be like that?
Well, it can't. If you've got yardwork you've been putting off, or if you've promised to take the kids to the apple orchard/pumpkin patch/ice cream shop/corn maze/petting zoo, Saturday looks like a pretty good day, at least as far as we are concerned. But, regardless of all that, we do need to take a look at the games. I guess.
No. 22 Illinois at Purdue (11 am, BTN): Purdue is much improved over its standard of the past few seasons and wow, is that faint praise. The Boilermakers still don't have the juice to take down a ranked team, even at home, and even if that ranked team is Illinois. Maybe they can keep it close at halftime, but the Illini should eventually pull away in this one. Illinois 38, Purdue 24.
Minnesota at No. 1 Ohio State (6:30 pm, NBC/Peacock):
Michigan State at Nebraska (3 pm, FS1): The Nebraska faithful will hate to hear this, but I am already known for telling them things they don't want to hear, so: Unless things get wacky in Washington-Maryland, this is probably as close as you're going to get to a good game in the Big Ten this weekend. . Nebraska is the better team, but it's not as much better as Nebraska fans and the college football hype machine might lead you to believe. Thus, much like a creepy friend at a pool party, this is going to be too close for comfort. Nebraska should win, though. Plant Strippers 28, Overhyped Ancient Soldiers 20.
Wisconsin at No. 20 Michigan (11 am, Fox): This week College Football News published a prediction that Wisconsin will win no more games this season, thus finishing 2-10, which would probably do in Luke Fickell. I was outraged, not for Fickell, but because the thought of 2-10 Wisconsin just seems so unlikely.
Then I looked at the schedule. Yeah, that's probably what's going to happen. Michigan 31, Wisconsin 17.
Because Iowa is off this week -- and needs to be -- we once again look beyond the boundaries of the Big Ten for an intriguing non-SEC matchup. Unlike last week, I don't have to shift down multiple divisions to find it.
UNLV at Wyoming (7 pm, CBSSN): No, I'm not kidding. You probably haven't been paying attention, but former Mississippi State/Florida head coach Dan Mullen has taken over at UNLV and the Rebels are spitting fire, putting up good offensive numbers against three admittedly lower-division opponents (Sam Houston State, Fake Miami, and UCLA). Meanwhile in Laramie the Cowboys are in their second year under Jay Sawvel, a Jerry Kill disciple. Sawvel would probably like to forget his first season (3-9) but he has Wyoming at a not-horrible 2-2 coming into this one.
You can find something else to do when Wyoming has the ball; that will be a classic case of "resistible force meets moveable object." The matchup of UNLV's decent offense against Wyoming's stingy D will be worth watching, though. My usual rule applies: competition creates competitors, so I think Wyoming defends its home turf. Wyoming 23, UNLV 20.
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