Five keys to a Wisconsin victory over Iowa on Saturday

The Wisconsin Badgers and Iowa Hawkeyes are set for an old-fashioned Big Ten slugfest on Saturday.

Each offense ranks near the bottom of the nation in offensive efficiency (Wisconsin No. 113, Iowa No. 119), and each defense ranks near the top (Wisconsin No. 3, Iowa No. 4). What does that set up for? A game where crossing the 50 yard-line may feel like scoring a touchdown.

Yes, turnovers will likely decide the winner with Iowa boasting a ridiculous +12 turnover differential and Wisconsin sitting at -8. But aside from that statistic, there are several areas of the game where the Badgers must dominate.

Here are five keys to a Wisconsin victory:

Three ruled out, six listed as questionable for Wisconsin’s contest vs. Iowa

Wisconsin has released its preliminary injury report for this weekend’s showdown with Iowa.

The team defeated Purdue 30-13 on Saturday without the services of TEs Hayden Rucci, Clay Cundiff and Jack Eschenbach, OLBs Spencer Lytle and Aaron Witt, ILBs Mike Maskalunas and Jordan Turner and CB Alexander Smith. Tight end Cam Large then left the game early with an injury.

This week’s injury report looks pretty similar.

Players listed as OUT: TE Cam Large, TE Hayden Rucci, OLB Aaron Witt
Players listed as questionable: TE Clay Cundiff, TE Jack Eschenbach, OLB Spencer Lytle, ILB Mike Maskalunas, CB Alexander Smith, ILB Jordan Turner

#Badgers preliminary status report. TE room will be without Cam Large and Hayden Rucci. pic.twitter.com/oyhsEbKxzd

— Jake Kocorowski (@JakeKoco) October 25, 2021

Contact/Follow us @TheBadgersWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Wisconsin news, notes, opinion and analysis.

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ESPN releases Power Rankings through Week 8

Notre Dame is not back there yet.

No, Notre Dame has not cracked the top 10 of ESPN’s Power Rankings just yet. It certainly made the case to do that with Saturday’s win over USC. It will have to settle for the No. 11 ranking for now with the hopes of improving that really soon. In the meantime, here are the top 10 teams that made ESPN’s Power Rankings through Week 8:

ESPN FPI sees a tight race to the finish for Wisconsin in the Big Ten West

The tides have begun to turn for the 2021 Wisconsin Badgers. The team has won three straight games, finally was able to beat a ranked opponent and now enters next weekend’s game with a chance at taking control of the Big Ten West.

While Wisconsin’s win over Purdue lined the Badgers up for a race to finish with first-place Iowa, the Minnesota Golden Gophers have also re-entered the picture with another Big Ten win.

All three teams are yet to play each other, so we’re in for quite a finish to the Big Ten regular season.

ESPN FPI projected a 6-6 final record for the Badgers entering Saturday’s contest. Those projections have now been updated in a positive direction for Wisconsin.

Here is FPI’s updated game-by-game prediction for the Wisconsin Badgers:

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Notre Dame moves up in USA TODAY Sports AFCA Coaches Poll

Notre Dame again moves up in the USA TODAY Sports AFCA Coaches Poll

Notre Dame handled business against Southern Cal last night as the Irish took down the Trojans 31-16, their fourth-straight win in the historic season. Notre Dame was in control the majority of the night in their first of two-straight night games at Notre Dame Stadium.

The win paired with a few loses from both Penn State and Oklahoma State moved Notre Dame up from 13th a week ago to 11th in the latest edition of the USA TODAY Sports AFCA Coaches Poll.

The entire rankings are as follows as No. 2 Cincinnati is Notre Dame’s only 2021 opponent to crack this week’s rankings while Virginia showed up in the receiving votes section.

Full USA TODAY Sports AFCA Coaches Poll:

Rank	Team	Record	Points	Change
1	Georgia	7-0	1,600 (64)	–
2	Cincinnati	7-0	1,469	+1
3	Alabama	7-1	1,439	+1
4	Oklahoma	8-0	1,430	-2
5	Ohio State	6-1	1,338	–
6	Michigan	7-0	1,313	–
7	Michigan State	7-0	1,208	–
8	Oregon	6-1	1,139	+2
9	Ole Miss	6-1	1,019	+3
10	Iowa	6-1	1,008	+1
11	Notre Dame	6-1	950	+2
12	Kentucky	6-1	857	+1
13	Wake Forest	7-0	838	+2
14	Texas A&M	6-2	736	+3
15	Oklahoma State	6-1	684	-6
16	SMU	7-0	535	+3
17	Penn State	5-2	517	-9
18	Baylor	6-1	509	+2
19	Pittsburgh	6-1	487	+4
20	San Diego State	7-0	431	+1
21	Auburn	5-2	418	+1
22	UT-San Antonio	8-0	219	+3
23	Iowa State	5-2	190	+3
24	Coastal Carolina	6-1	134	-8
25	North Carolina State	5-2	73	-7

Dropped from the rankings:

No. 24 Clemson

Others receiving votes:

UL Lafayette 42; Brigham Young 42; Arkansas 41; Houston 27; Arizona State 27; Virginia 23; Oregon State 13; Florida 13; Fresno State 10; Air Force 9; Appalachian State 5; Texas 3; Liberty 3; Utah 1

If Notre Dame can beat North Carolina next week a return to the top-ten would seem likely assuming Cincinnati remains unbeaten and at number-two because No. 6 Michigan and No. 7 Michigan State are set to square off in East Lansing.

Notre Dame beats Southern Cal again – 5 quick takeaways

Five biggest plays from Notre Dame’s win over USC

Five stars: best and worst from Notre Dame’s win over USC

Three teams control their own Big Ten West destiny with six weeks remaining

Much has been made of the Wisconsin Badgers controlling their own destiny in the Big Ten West after Purdue defeated Iowa last weekend.

The current Big Ten West standings are as follows:

Iowa (3-1)
Minnesota (2-1)
Purdue (2-1)
Wisconsin (1-2)
Northwestern (1-2)
Illinois (1-3)
Nebraska (1-4)

The race is as wide open as can be. And somehow, the team in first place doesn’t even control its own destiny moving forward.

Here is where each team stands with six (or fewer) games remaining if they win out:

Iowa: Needs a Purdue loss
Purdue: Needs a Minnesota loss
Minnesota, Wisconsin, Northwestern: Control their own destiny

That’s right. Wisconsin is not the only team with the ability to win out and capture the division, yet Iowa and Purdue are not those teams.

Iowa: BYE, atWis, atNW, vsMINN, vsILL, atNEB
MN: vsMD, atNW, vsILL, atIowa, atIND, vsWIS
PU: vsWIS, atNEB, vsMSU, atOSU, atNW, vsIND
WIS: atPU, vsIowa, atRU, vsNW, vsNEB, atMINN
NW: atMICH, vsMINN, vsIowa, atWIS, vsPU, atILL

— Ben Kenney (@benzkenney) October 21, 2021

Contact/Follow us @TheBadgersWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Wisconsin news, notes, opinion and analysis.

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ESPN’s latest FPI Rankings leave much to be desired

Is the goal still to score more points than the other team?

Earlier this year I took some time looking at ESPN’s FPI rankings and had a lot of questions. Although the latest FPI rankings now at least have Georgia ahead of Clemson (unlike right after they straight-up beat them), I’ve still got questions.

Georgia is atop the rankings while Alabama, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Michigan, and Cincinnati come in 2-6. You can make some argument for an unbeaten Oklahoma over Ohio State, who lost at home to Oregon, but it’s hard to be overly upset about any of those teams.

So you’re aware, Notre Dame checks in 18th which is hilarious when you see some of the teams ranked ahead of them. I obviously think they should be higher than that but as you’ll quickly see, losing closely seems to reward teams more than winning narrowly does in this formula.

So which teams had me the most bumfuzzled (shoutout to Bobby Bowden for that one) this week?

Here are just a few observations:

Idle Notre Dame sees movement around them in USA TODAY Sports AFCA Coaches Poll

Movement around the Irish

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Bye weeks are alway rough, especially when Notre Dame needs to make moves in the USA TODAY Sports AFCA Coaches Poll, which saw other teams move around them.

Even with teams around them making moves, the Irish remained in the same spot they were last week, No. 13. Kentucky fell under the Irish as they lost to No. 1 Georgia, while Ole Miss jumped the Irish after defeating Tennessee.

The biggest mover this week was Iowa, after they were upset by Purdue, who the Irish defeated earlier in the year. By transitive property, that means if Notre Dame was to face off against the Hawkeyes, they’d beat them right? That might not be the case according the newest Coaches poll, as the now defeated Hawkeyes fell nine spots to No. 11.

With them dropping, the Big Ten only has four schools inside the top-10 now, led by Ohio State at No. 5, Michigan at No. 6, Michigan State at No. 7 and Penn State at No. 8. The conference is very top heavy according to the latest poll, which you can see below, with last weeks ranking in parenthesis.

1 – Georgia (1)

2 – Oklahoma (3)

3 – Cincinnati (4)

4 – Alabama (5)

5 – Ohio State (6)

6 – Michigan (7)

7 – Michigan State (9)

8 – Penn State (8)

9 – Oklahoma State (12)

10 – Oregon (10)

11 – Iowa (2)

12 – Ole Miss (14)

13 – Notre Dame (13)

14 – Kentucky (11)

15 – Wake Forest (16)

16 – Coastal Carolina (15)

17 – Texas A&M (18)

18 – North Carolina St. (21)

19 – SMU (23)

20 – Baylor (NR)

21 – San Diego St. (24)

22 – Auburn (NR)

23 – Pittsburgh (NR)

24 – Clemson (25)

25 – UTSA (NR)

Why Saturday was a perfect storm for the Wisconsin Badgers

Well, we may soon be forced into again believing in Wisconsin’s chances in the Big Ten West. The Badgers defeated Army 20-14 last night

Well, we may soon be forced into again believing in Wisconsin’s chances in the Big Ten West.

The Badgers defeated Army 20-14 last night on the strength of dominant games from linebacker Leo Chenal and running back Braelon Allen. The win moves the team to 3-3 on the season and 2-1 in out-of-conference contests.

Yes, Wisconsin still sits 1-2 in Big Ten games—good for T-3 in the Big Ten West.

But yesterday was a perfect storm for Wisconsin and its chances at returning to the Big Ten Championship. Why? Because Purdue went on the road to Iowa City and beat No. 2 Iowa 24-7, giving the Hawkeyes their first loss of the season and first in Big Ten play.

So what does that mean? Wisconsin now controls its own destiny in the Big Ten West. If the Badgers beat Purdue next weekend, Iowa on October 30, then go on to beat Rutgers, Northwestern, Nebraska and Minnesota, they will win the division and return to Indy.

Wisconsin controls its own destiny.

— Ben Kenney (@benzkenney) October 16, 2021

The current Big Ten West standings:

Iowa (3-1)
Minnesota (2-1)
Purdue (2-1)
Wisconsin (1-2)
Northwestern (1-2)
Illinois (1-3)
Nebraska (1-4)

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Updated ESPN CFB power rankings show Alabama on a rise to the top

Alabama on the rise, once again!

The Alabama Crimson Tide entered this week ranked No. 5 in the nation, following a close, yet devastating loss to an unranked Texas A&M team. Yesterday, they earned themselves another win, in blowout fashion, on the road against Mississippi State.

There will be a bit of a shakeup within the top-five, as No. 2 Iowa suffered a tough loss at home against unranked Purdue.

However, Georgia, Cincinnati and Oklahoma all won their respective games. So, where does tat leave Alabama?

Well, according to ESPN’s latest college football power rankings, the Crimson Tide move up to the No. 3 spot. This moves Alabama above Oklahoma, but right behind No 2 Cincinnati and No. 1 Georgia.

Alabama will take on Tennessee next week as they look to sweep the remainder of their schedule to get to the 2021 SEC Championship game.

Contact/Follow us @RollTideWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Alabama news, notes and opinion. You can also follow AJ Spurr on Twitter @SpurrFM.