Tag: bigtenblast

Big Ten East’s ‘Big Three’ dominate Week 7 top peformers

The Big Ten’s “Big Three” dominated the list of the conference’s top performers in Week 7

Ahead of one of the conference’s premier matchups of the season in Week 8 as Penn State and Ohio State battle it out in Columbus on Saturday, the Big Ten’s “Big Three” all remained undefeated in Week 7, dispatching their opponents with ease.

Penn State shutout UMass 63-0, Ohio State defeated Purdue 41-7, and after a slow first quarter, Michigan crushed Indiana 52-7. Unsurprisingly, with their wins, defeating their three opponents by a combined score of 156-14, the three programs make most of this week’s top performers in the Big Ten for Week 7.

Other notable results from the week included Rutgers erasing an 18-point deficit to defeat Michigan State 27-24 and put the Scarlet Knights one win away from bowl eligibility.  In an important Big Ten West matchup, the Iowa Hawkeyes now control their own destiny after a 15-6 win over the Wisconsin Badgers.

Here are the Big Ten’s top performers in Week 7.

Iowa vs Wisconsin is the Big Ten’s top game in Week 7

College Sports Wire looks at the top games from around the Big Ten for Week 7

The Week 7 slate in the Big Ten is not an overly exciting one. This week in the conference, there are six games scheduled to be played, but most of the matchups are quite forgettable, with multiple blowouts very likely.

Of the conference’s 14 teams, 12 are in action this week, with the Northwestern Wildcats and Minnesota Golden Gophers both enjoying their bye week this weekend.

The conference’s top three teams Michigan, Ohio State, and Penn State are all likely to not be challenged. Michigan and Ohio State will take on the Indiana Hoosiers and Purdue Boilermakers, while Penn State will take on UMass.

Out of this week’s six matchups, four are ranked below, with the aforementioned Penn State and UMass as well as Illinois at Maryland both not making the cut this week.

Here are the top four games in the Big Ten in Week 7.

Kyle McCord, Marvin Harrison Jr among Big Ten’s top performers in Week 6

College Sports Wire takes a look at the top perfromers rfom the Big Ten in Week 6

The Week 6 slate in the Big Ten got started on Friday evening with the Nebraska Cornhuskers moving to .500 with a 20-7 win over the Illinois Fighting Illini. While the Cornhuskers improved to 3-3, the Illinois Fighting Illini suffered their fourth loss of the season and are now 0-3 in Big Ten play this season.

On Saturday, it was a small slate with just five games starting with the Maryland Terrapins traveling to Columbus to take on the Ohio State Buckeyes. The Buckeyes outscored the Terrapins 27-7 in the second half to improve to 5-0 on the season.

In addition to the Buckeyes win, Wisconsin took care of business against Rutgers 24-13, Michigan dominated Minnesota 52-10, Iowa defeated Purdue 20-14, and Northwestern escaped an upset bid from FCS opponent Howard by the final score of 23-20.

With Week 6 now in the past, here are the top performers from the week that was in the Big Ten.

Maryland vs Ohio State leads Week 6 slate in the Big Ten

College Sports Wire looks at the top games from around the Big Ten for Week 6

Week 6 of the 2023 college football season has arrived with games getting underway on Wednesday night.

In the Big Ten, the Week 6 schedule is an improvement from Week 5’s but still isn’t a slate of games that raises eyebrows. It is a solid slate but by no means a great one.

Overall, there are six games on the Week 6 schedule for the Big Ten this week, the only two games that did not make the cut below is Nebraska vs Illinois and Howard vs Northwestern.

But how did the other four games on this week’s schedule fall in College Sports Wire’s weekly rankings? Take a look below.

College football’s top performers in the Big Ten during Week 5

College Sports Wire looks at the top performers in the Big Ten from week 5

Week 5 of the college football season in the Big Ten was an unceremonial one. There were no major upsets, all seven games were decided by double-digits, and the favorite won in each game. Perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising, there were no exciting matchups this week in the conference.

Ohio State was off for the weekend ahead of a potential sneaky matchup against the Maryland Terrapins. While, Michigan and Penn State matched up against two of the Big Ten’s worst teams in Nebraska and Northwestern.

Either way, despite the uneventful results, there were a handful of very strong performances from players throughout the conference. College Sports Wire looks at some of those top performers this past weekend.

J.J. McCarthy recaptures top spot in Big Ten QBR race

The Big Ten QBR races continues to see a pair of Big Ten East quarterbacks battle it out for the top spot.

After the first four weeks of the 2023 college football season, it’s clear that there are three programs at the top of the Big Ten, with everyone else falling behind. Michigan, Ohio State, and Penn State have emerged as legitimate Big Ten contenders

Week five of the season is a quiet week of the Big Ten with very few exciting matchups, especially with the top three. Michigan faces Nebraska, Penn State faces Northwestern, and Ohio State is off with a bye week. We ranked the top five matchups of the week in our weekly Big Ten schedule breakdown. 

With Week 5 of the season almost here, College Sports Wire looks at how the Big Ten’s quarterbacks rank based on ESPN’s QBR metric. In this week’s rankings, the battle between Michigan’s J.J. McCarthy and Ohio State’s Kyle McCord continues.

While we know J.J. McCarthy and Kyle McCord are fighting for the top spot? What quarterbacks in the Big Ten are right behind them? Who were this week’s big risers? Who fell the most? Here’s how the Big Ten starting quarterbacks fall according to their QBR.

Quarterback Team QBR Last Week’s QBR (Ranking)
J.J . McCarthy Michigan 91.0 85.7 (No. 2)
Kyle McCord Ohio State 87.7 87.2 (No. 1)
Drew Allar Penn State 82.2 78.1 (No. 3)
Gavin Wimsatt Rutgers 76.2 77.4 (No. 4)
Taulia Tagovailoa Maryland 70.7 66.3 (No. 5)
Luke Altmyer Illinois 62.1 56.6 (No. 6)
Athan Kaliakmanis Minnesota 57.3 49.2 (No. 10)
Hudson Card Purdue 52.1 53.6 (No. 8)
Tanner Mordecai Wisconsin 48.6 39.0 (No. 12)
Ben Bryant Northwestern 41.8 25.2 (No. 14)
Heinrich Haarberg Nebraska 40.7 51.8 (No. 9)
Noah Kim Michigan State 39.9 44.2 (No. 11)
Tayven Jackson Indiana 33.5 55.5 (No. 7)
Cade McNamara Iowa 29.5 30.4 (No. 13)

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Big Ten Football: Michigan State – Iowa leads weak schedule of Week 5 games

Michigan State and Iowa for all the wrong reasons is Week 5’s top Big Ten game

The week five slate in the Big Ten is yet the weakest of the conference’s schedule this season.

There are seven games set to take place this weekend across the conference, with Ohio State and Wisconsin both on bye weeks this weekend.

Out of this week’s seven games, College Sports Wire ranked the top four matchups of the week, leaving just two games off the list below. The two matchups that did not make the cut are Penn State vs. and Wagner vs. Rutgers.

Penn State vs. Northwestern should be no contest, nor should Rutgers hosting FCS opponent Wagner.

The Big Ten schedules get progressively better over the next few weeks, but in the meantime, fans will have to go through this less-than-exciting slate of games.

College football’s top performers in the Big Ten during Week 4

Who was the Big Ten’s top standouts in week 4?

Week 4 of action in the Big Ten was an eventful one.

Wisconsin opened up the week with a 38-17 win on the road against Purdue before Rutgers gave Michigan a strong half of football before the Wolverines pulled away for a 31-7 victory. Maryland took care of business against Michigan State, while Nebraska, Illinois, and Indiana all survived potential upset scares.

The highlight of the slate was, without a doubt, a trio of evening matchups. The Ohio State pulled out a miraculous win in South Bend over Notre Dame, Penn State out Iowa’d, Iowa 31-0. The most shocking result, however, may have been Northwestern scoring 21 points in the final 12 minutes of regulation to erase a three-touchdown deficit to Minnesota before beating the Golden Gophers on their first play from scrimmage in overtime.

With all those games, there were quite a few strong performances throughout the conference, making it hard to narrow down this week’s standouts. After deliberation, here are College Sports Wire’s Big Ten’s top performers from Week 4 of the 2023 college football season.

Week 4 Preview: Ohio State vs Notre Dame among top week 4 Big Ten matchups

What are the top four matchups in the Big Ten for week four?

Non-conference play, for the most part, is over in the Big Ten, with most of the conference’s 14 teams getting into the heart of their conference schedule this week.

There are still a few non-conference matchups headlined by No. 6 Ohio State traveling to South Bend, Indiana, to take on the No. 9 Notre Dame Fighting Irish. That matchup, of course, made this week’s list of top matchups.

Other games that did not make the cut below include a Friday night showdown between Wisconsin and Purdue and a Saturday night matchup in Evanston between Minnesota and Northwestern.

Below, College Sports Wire looks at the top four matchups in the Big Ten in week four.

College football’s top performers in the Big Ten during Week 3

Who was the Big Ten’s top performers in week 3?

The first three weeks of college football action are in the books.

This past weekend, the Big Ten had itself an up-and-down week. Its top teams in Michigan, Ohio State, and Penn State all improved to 3-0, while teams such as Maryland, Iowa, and Rutgers continued their strong starts.

However, it also saw Minnesota, Michigan State, Northwestern, and Purdue all lose by double-digits to non-conference Power Five opponents.

It surely wasn’t a banner week for the conference, but it wasn’t a terrible week by any means, either. Despite the up-and-down nature of the week, there were still multiple strong individual performances throughout the weekend in the conference.

Below, College Sports Wire looks at the top performances in week three across the Big Ten.