Big Ten Football – Week 7 Predictions

Big Ten

Game of the Week

Michigan vs Michigan State

11AM - Spartan Stadium - ABC

Probably my favorite non-Iowa Big Ten rivalry plays this week.  No not the Big Game between Ohio State-Michigan, but rather Michigan vs Michigan State.  There always seems to be some classics that come out of these games.  These games are just fun to watch and this one should be no different.  Michigan is coming in unbeaten (again) but this time like I said last week, they some semblance of a defense.  Michigan State’s lone blemish is the loss to the desperate Irish in South Bend.  The winner is going to get control of the Big Ten Legends Division and looked upon as the leader in the clubhouse through 3 weeks of conference play.  To beat Sparty you need to shut down the run and run on them and control the lines.  They are missing Greg Jones in the middle of that defense.  As Denard Robinson goes, so goes the Michigan offense.  Make him beat you with his arm, because he WILL beat you with his legs.  This is going to be another slugfest and a great one that will come down to the 4^th quarter and Michigan will end its 3 game skid to the Spartans.  WOLVERINES 31 – SPARTANS 20

Big Ten Week 7 Picks

Wisconsin vs Indiana – Wisconsin (M/C/K)

Northwestern vs Iowa – Iowa (M/C/K)

Ohio State vs Illinois – ILL (M/K) OSU (C)

Purdue vs Penn State – Penn State (M/C/K)

Michigan vs Michigan State – Mich (M/C) MSU (K)

Jimmy John’s Big Ten Challenge

Week:   Matt (0-0)          Chad (0-0)          Kyle (0-0)

Season:  Matt (45-17)        Chad (44-16)      Kyle (42-20)

Upset Alert

Iowa

 – it’s the ‘Cats and Pat Fitzgerald seems to have the Hawks number, and the Hawks need to find an identity on offense and stop the run on D before they can be considered a threat to Michigan/Mich State/Neb for the Division Title.

Iowa Highschool Football Picks - Week 8

2 weeks and till playoffs are right around the corner.

Class 4A

WDM Valley over Waukee

Linn-Mar over Iowa City High

Muscatine over Davenport Assumption

Bettendorf over Clinton

Class 3A

ADM over Saydel

Norwalk over Newton

Pella over Fairfield

Decorah over Waverly Shell-Rock

Class 2A

West Marshall over Roland Story

Osage over New Hampton

Carroll Kuemper over Jefferson JSPC

West Liberty over Camanche

Class 1A

Wapsie Valley over Turkey Valley

Saint Ansgar over Nashua-Plainfield

Wapello over North Cedar

Class A

West Hancock over Algona Garrigan

Lyville Sully over BGM

Madrid over Martensdale-St Mary's

MC Newman over Rockford

8-Man

NEH over Cal Latimer

Janesville over Tripoli

Preson over Wyoming Midland

Lansing Kee over Riceville

Big Ten Awards - Week 6

Team of the Week : Nebraska - The Huskers got down big and early to the Buckeyes in their first home Big Ten contest and then on the legs of Rex Burkhead stormed back and got their first Big Ten Conference win.  Early on it looked like the new kids on the block would move to 0-2 but when Bauserman came in at QB for Ohio State, the Huskers went rolling, outscoring OSU 28-7 in the second half.  The Huskers don't look as dominant as we thought they would coming in, but still at 1-1 have a chance at Indy.

Helmet Sticker - Denard Robinson - Qb - Michigan : The Wolverine QB threw for 337 yards and 2 scores (also 2 picks) but also added 117 on the ground with 2 running scores.  Coach Hoke isn't completely abandoning the Rich Rod philosophy as he knows what he has in D-Rob and he is letting him do what he can.

AJ Jenkins - WR - Illinois : The Illinois wide out is playing like a WR possessed.  Moss and Megatron like.  This week the Illini wide out had 6 receptions for 182 yards and 2 more scores.  He's becoming the most feared and talented wide out in the Big Ten.

Game of the Week - Nebraska 34 - Ohio State 27 - The game was a tale of two halves.  The first half it was looking like the Huskers would go 0-2 in the Big Ten and Ohio State was going to shock the conference.  Then the 2nd half was all Huskers saying "Not so fast my friends".  The Huskers avoided a 2 game hole avoiding the loss 34-27.

Big Ten Takeaway - Michigan and Illinois are the 2nd and 3rd best teams in the conference.  Michigan isn't back but they are getting breaks and making the most of it.  Last time Michigan was 6-0?  They finished the season in the Rose Bowl.  Illinois is looking like a Jan 1 bowl bound and will give Wisconsin the biggest run for their money at the Leaders Division.

NCAA Takeaway - They need to get a playoff in this year!  One of the SEC teams will lose and so will one of  Big XII teams but then there's Wisconsin, Boise, Clemson and Stanford out there.  Will everyone unbeaten, no but the cream at the top are really good.

Heisman Ballot - 1. Russell Wilson : 2. Robert Griffin III : 3. Denard Robinson

Jimmy John's Big Ten Challenge

Week:  Matt (5-1)           Chad (5-1)          Kyle (4-2)

Season:  Matt (45-12)          Chad (44-13)          Kyle (42-15)

Iowa High School Football Picks - Week 7

Wow is this week in Class 3A loaded.  Webster City vs Clear Lake is a huge game any week, but then add on ADM vs Newton and also Nowalk vs Carlisle and then Solon vs Williamsburg in Eastern Iowa.  Then in 2A there is a heck of game with West Marshall vs Ft Dodge St. Edmond.  Class 4A usually gets all the pub in the media, especially here in the Des Moines area, but look at the smaller schools here this week, and all season.  There is good football there too. 

Class 4A

Marshalltown over Ames

Davenport Assumption over North Scott

Muscatine over Pleasant Valley

Class 3A

ADM over Newton

Carroll over Creston

Webster City over Clear Lake

Sioux City Heelan over Denison-Schleswig

Norwalk over Carlisle

West Delaware over Waverly-ShellRock

Solon over Williamsburg

Class 2A

Carroll Kuemper over Ida Grove

Prairie City-Monroe over Clarinda

Unity Christian over Sheldon

West Marshall over Ft Dodge St Edmond

Class 1A

Dike New Hartford over Saint Ansgar

IKM-Manning over Manson NW Webster

Inwood West Lyon over Sioux Central

Leon Central Decatur over Mount Ayr

Class A

Don Bosco over North Tama

Madrid over Earlham

Lone Tree over Lisbon

LeMars Gehlen over Woodbury Central

8-Man

Remsen-Union over Kingsley-Pierson

Preston over Lansing Kee

Clarskville over Riceville

Tabor Fremont-Mills over Sidney

Big Ten Football – Week 6 Predictions

BIG TEN

GAME OF THE WEEK

MEMORIAL STADIUM : ABC – 7pm CST

Buckeyes vs Huskers

This week the Nebraska “welcome tour” continues with the depleted Buckeyes going to Lincoln for the Huskers first home Big Ten game.  Both teams coming off losses, the Spartans beating the Buckeyes and in the shoe and the Huskers getting humbled by the Badgers in Madison.  Ohio State will still be a few men down, and allegations may still be a black cloud over the program.  They just aren’t the Buckeyes of the past 10 years and as I predicted in the off season, this could be a 5-3/4-4 conference team.  Another loss here and they are looking at 4-4 in mirror.  The Huskers need to show they can win with Taylor Martinez throwing the ball.  The first 20 minutes they were decent vs the Badgers and then the wheels fell off due to 3 picks by the Husker QB.  Game, Set, Match.  I think the Huskers get out quick and on top of the Buckeyes and win easy and don’t have to rely on Martinez’s arm.  Huskers 30 – Buckeyes 17

Big Ten Week 6 Picks

Illinois vs Indiana – Illinois (M/C/K)

Iowa vs Penn State – Iowa (M/C/K)

Michigan vs Northwestern – Michigan (M/C/K)

Minnesota vs Purdue – Purdue (M/C/K)

Ohio State vs Nebraska – OSU(K)/Neb (M/C)

Jimmy John’s Big Ten Challenge

Week – Matt (0-0)          Chad (0-0)          Kyle (0-0)

Season – Matt (41-11)          Chad (40-12)          Kyle (39-13)

Upset Alert

Penn State

The Nittany Lions are favored by 4 over the Hawks, Iowa’s won 8 of the last 9.  If Vandenburg and the Iowa offense can move the ball in the air, its game set match for Penn State.

Best and Worst of the Weekend - No Hawks? No problem

Was a pretty good weekend with out Hawkeye Football.  Friday finally had supper at the new restaurant in the East Village, Zombie Burger.  I had the Trailer Trash burger.  It was ok, decent burger but kind of pricey.  And really french fries ala cart?  The Zombie Bride Wedding Cake shake was really good.  Then after that went to a friends new house and hung out with beer and brews, and before heading home saw a hell of an ending in the Utah State-BYU game.

Saturday Brayden had flag football practice again at 9.  He's been doing pretty good except when he takes a ball off the nose then he gets tentative.  Saturday he got to do some defense finally!  They had to run from one cone and then around another and back to the first.  Well most kids would follow the kid around the cone, Brayden saw the kid turn, and didn't follow but stayed in front of him and grabbed the kids flag with some nice closing speed.  When Brayden was the ball carrier he got around the cone and a yard away from the starting cone and was taken down by a horse collar tackle.  They did this for a bit and he really enjoyed it.

After that we went home, changed and headed to Pella to see Coe vs Central in some IIAC, Division III college football.  My cousin is the head coach at Coe and his son is the offensive coordinator.  My uncle and 2 other first cousins went to Central.  So we had to decide who to cheer for, we chose the KoHawks.  Hell of a game, that involved some big offensive plays, a goal line stand and then a last second heave for a chance to win.  In the end Central won 38-35.  Got to see some family members who I don't normally see often anymore so that was good.  Also got to meet @kvnrbnsn at halftime too and talked a bit about the game and Hawkeye football.  After the game Brayden got on the field too.  My first time on the field turf, it was an interesting texture.  Kind of spoongy.  He ran end to end, so a good 220 yards and walked back to the car.  Let's just say it was a good day and on the car ride home he was out.  Before he crashed he did say "Dad, I wanna play football on the Hawkeye team."  So that was really cool!  Saturday night got to watch a little more football and got some XBOX in too.

Sunday we went to a apple orchard (Iowa Orchard in Urbandale).  They had some hay slides, and corn and soybean box.  The older kids played in both and went down the slides and got some face painting done.  Afterwards we got some apples to bring home.  Brayden scarfed down an apple pretty quick while Addy with no front teeth kind of went at it slower.  The older kids helped pick up sticks and leaves too, first of many times we will be doing this.

Weekend ending with some Jets/Ravens, laundry, and apple crisp.  It was a good weekend!

Big Ten Awards - Week 5

Team of the Week - WISCONSIN - Well that wasn't the welcome Tom Osborne and Big Red.  Wow did Wisconsin look good.  Getting down 14-7 and then rallying off 34 straight points.  Russell Wilson looked great like he has the past 4 games and Monte Ball scampered for 4 tds and 151 yards.  Nebraska got into passing situations and this is were Taylor Martinez struggles, and it showed.  The Husker QB tossed 3 picks.  The Huskers welcome tour heads home to face the struggling Buckeyes next week.

Helmet Sticker - AJ Jenkins-WR-Illinois - The Illinois wideout had a HUGE day in the shoot out with the Wildcats.  Jenkins caught 12 passes for 248 yards and 4 scores in the 38-35 win over Northwestern.

Monte Ball-RB-Wisconsin - The Badger running back rolled up 151 yards and 4 scores vs the vaunted Nebraska Blackshirt Defense.  Ball has been a touchdown scoring machine for the Badgers, with 6 tds this year on the ground and 22 since the beginning of last season.

Game of the Week - Illinois 38 : Northwestern 35 - If you blinked in the 2nd half you missed an arena game break out at Memorial Stadium in Champaign.  The Illini needed 21 points in the fourth quarter to move to 5-0/1-0 and are a surprise in the Big Ten and the nation.  Northwestern couldn't contain AJ Jenkins as he rolled up 248 yards recieving and QB Nathan Scheelhouse had 391 yards passing a 4 tds.  In return to Big Ten play, Wildcat QB Dan Persa tossed 4 tds.  

Highlight of the Week - coming soon

Big Ten Takeaway - Where did the Fighting Zooker's come from?  5-0/1-0?  Will the keep up with the Badgers?  That will be hard, Wisconsin looks really good and like a top 4 team in the nation after they rolled up Nebraska.  Michigan State got a nice win in the Horseshoe to stay a top the Legends Division with rival Michigan.  

National Takeaway - Alabama, LSU, Oklahoma and Wisconsin are the class of FBS.  I wish we could see these four teams playoff.  Luckily we get to see the Tide and Tigers face off, but a four team playoff?  Hello NCAA?  Robert Griffin III has had one hell of a season so far, and has thrown one bad pass, an interception that lead to Kansas State to an upset of Baylor.  

Heisman Ballot - Russell Wilson:Wisconsin, Robert Griffin III:Baylor, LaMichael James:Oregon

Jimmy John's Big Ten Challenge

Week – Matt (6-0)          Chad (5-1)                Kyle (5-1)

Season – Matt (41-11)          Chad (40-12)          Kyle (39-13)