Tag: Northwestern Wildcats

Big Ten football recruiting rankings as of August 1

Ohio State continues to lead the Big Ten and nation in recruiting, with Penn State in 2nd. What about the rest of the Big Ten?

We have now arrived at the start of August, and Big Ten football will officially kick off later this month. While 12 of the 14 Big Ten members will have to wait until September to get things going, Nebraska and Illinois will be a part of college football’s Week 0 schedule when they begin their seasons against each other in Champaign on August 28.

Heading into the 2021 season, the recruiting classes of 2022 have been taking form for every Big Ten school, and things have been going incredibly well for Penn State and Ohio State. But it’s probably also a good time to take a temperature reading on how the rest of the Big Ten is faring on the recruiting scene both nationally and within the Big Ten.

Here is where things stand in the recruiting rankings for the Big Ten as determined by the composite team rankings calculated by 247 Sports. We have ranked each Big Ten team from the highest to the lowest ranking in the Big Ten, and have noted where each school ranks nationally.

Where does James Franklin rank among Big Ten coaches according to Big Ten media?

Where did Big Ten media rank Penn State head coach James Franklin among Big Ten coaches in 2021?

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Penn State head coach James Franklin is coming off his first losing season in Happy Valley, but he remains optimistic about what his team will do in 2021. But despite taking his team to 11 win seasons in three of the last five seasons with pair of New Years Six bowl victories and a Big Ten championship to his name, Franklin is not quite viewed as one of the top coaches in the Big Ten.

Voters in a preseason poll organized by Cleveland.com recently cast their votes for the top head coach in the Big Ten, and Franklin barely came in the top half of the final vote. Voters ranked their top three head coaches in the Big Ten. Franklin appeared on eight of 34 ballots.

Ohio State head coach Ryan Day narrowly edged Northwestern’s Pat Fitzgerald for the top spot in the poll, receiving one more vote to be named the top coach in the Big Ten. Fitzgerald actually received one more first-place vote (17) than Day (16), but Day accumulated more second-place votes to edge Fitzgerald by two points in the final voting.

Franklin finished with the sixth-most points in the poll, which put Penn State’s head coach behind Day, Fitzgerald, Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz, Wisconsin‘s Paul Chryst, and Indiana’s Tom Allen. Minnesota’s P.J. Fleck and Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano each received one point in the voting.

Notably absent from the poll was Michigan‘s Jim Harbaugh, who failed to appear in the top three of all 34 voters in the poll.

In the interest of full disclosure, I voted in the Cleveland.com poll and did include Franklin on my ballot. Day was my first-place vote and Franklin received my second-place vote. I voted for Wisconsin’s Paul Chryst with my third vote.

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Where Athlon Sports ranks Penn State and the rest of the Big Ten in 2021

What does Athlon Sports predict for Penn State football and the rest of the Big Ten in 2021?

The annual Athlon Sports college football preview magazine just arrived in my mailbox the other day, signaling the start of a new college football season is once again drawing closer and closer. And it may come as a bit of a surprise to you, but Athlon Sports is pretty high on one of Penn State’s rivals this season. But where does one of the most popular preseason magazines project the Nittany Lions this season in the Big Ten and the national picture?

We knew previously Athlon Sports was projecting Penn State to play in a New Years Day bowl game. Athlon Sports’ bowl projections paired Penn State up with Missouri in the Outback Bowl. So you could get an early sense of where Athlon Sports had Penn State in their national picture. Clearly not in reach of a College Football Playoff spot and just a bit shy of playing in one of the bigger and more notable New Years Six bowl games.

Athlon Sports is taking into account some of the questions stemming from the bizarre 2020 season, the hiring of a new offensive coordinator, and a challenging schedule to figure out what’s ahead for Penn State in 2021. And when it all comes together, Athlon Sports predicts Penn State will go 8-4 with a second-place finish in the Big Ten East behind the playoff-bound Buckeyes (Athlon Sports predicts Penn State will go 6-3 in Big Ten play). That would be good enough for a top 25 ranking, with a preseason ranking of No. 19.

But how will the rest of the Big Ten look? Will Wisconsin or Iowa (or Northwestern???) come out on top of the Big Ten West to face Ohio State in the Big Ten championship game? Was Indiana’s 2020 season a fluke? Can Michigan turn some surprises or are the Wolverines destined for a mediocre season? Can Nebraska manage to go to a bowl game? And can Michigan State avoid the cellar of the Big Ten East?

Here’s how Athlon Sports is predicting the Big Ten to look at the end of the 2021 season.

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Houston Texans 2022 NFL draft target: Northwestern S Brandon Joseph

The Houston Texans may need to replace safety Justin Reid in the offseason. Northwestern S Brandon Joseph provides a promising solution.

The NFL is a business. Players move on, and the basis for such dissolution of bonds between players and franchises can be due to better opportunities or salary cap restrictions.

Safety Justin Reid is in the last year of his deal with the Houston Texans. Although he is well respected in the locker room and would love to stay with the AFC South club that drafted him in Round 3 in the 2018 NFL draft.

“I love Houston,” Reid told reporters on a Zoom call on April 23. “I made a home here. At the end of the day though, that’s just going to be a decision that’s going to have to come throughout the year. I’ll be excited about it but that’s just going to have to be a negotiation between myself, my agent and the front office. We’ll see if we can come to a conclusion.”

It could be that Reid has an All-Pro season and just can’t turn down a contract offer the Texans can’t match. It could be that Reid has an underwhelming season and can’t adapt to the new Tampa 2 scheme with defensive coordinator Lovie Smith.

If the Texans have to move on from Reid, they ought to consider Northwestern safety Brandon Joseph.

According to Anthony Treash of Pro Football Focus, the junior safety from College Station, Texas, is the 26th-best player in college football ahead of the 2021 season.

Joseph played only 13 snaps in his first season on campus in 2019 before taking a redshirt, but he exploded in 2020 and established himself as one of the game’s top cover safeties. He intercepted six passes while being responsible for only one explosive pass play of 15-plus yards.

It didn’t matter if he was playing single- or two-high deep safety or if he was down in the box or manning the slot, Joseph’s coverage ability was on full display all season, and it ended in a top-three coverage grade among FBS safeties (88.5).

If Joseph enters the 2022 NFL draft as one of the top-50 prospects in the country, Houston would have a shot at him late in the first round with a trade back. If Houston waited until early in the second round to grab him, he could be gone, but it would be great value if they were to pick him up there.

The fall will tell the tale of whether Reid stays with the Texans, and whether Joseph can remain as one of the best players in college football.

James Franklin drops in Sporting News top 25 coach rankings for 2021

James Franklin slipped in Sporting News’ ranking of the top 25 FBS coaches entering 2021, but he’s still higher than Harbaugh.

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It goes without saying that Penn State had a tough 2020 season. And when you pair that with a few really good seasons by some other programs last year, it makes sense to see Penn State head coach James Franklin drop in a ranking of FBS coaches heading into the 2021 season.

Sporting News released its ranking of the top 25 FBS coaches for the 2021 season. And this year, Franklin has fallen out of the top 10, falling from No. 9 in 2020 to No. 11 this season. Not surprisingly, Penn State’s underperforming 4-5 record is a big culprit.

Here’s what Sporting News said about Franklin and his ranking;

The Nittany Lions are coming off a disastrous 4-5 season, which knocked Franklin out of our top 10. That took some momentum off a four-year stretch where Penn State had a 42-11 record that would be more conducive to a 12-team Playoff setup. Franklin still consistently puts out the biggest threat to Ohio State on the field in the Big Ten, and that continues to be the elusive next step for the program.

Franklin is still ranked admirably among his peers in college football, but he was passed by two coaches making big gains since last year. North Carolina head coach Mack Brown jumped up four spots from No. 14 to No. 10 after taking the Tar Heels to the ACC championship game last fall. But it was Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell making the monster jump in the rankings by moving from No. 24 in 2020 all the way up to No. 9 this year. Campbell also coached his team to its conference championship game, but both Brown and Campbell came up short in their respective conference championship games to Clemson and Oklahoma, respectively.

Alabama head coach Nick Saban remains the No. 1 coach in FBS after winning another national title. Ohio State‘s Ryan Day is the highest-ranked Big Ten coach at No. 6. Northwestern’s Pat Fitzgerald comes in just behind Franklin (the second highest-ranked Big Ten coach) at No. 12, and Michigan‘s Jim Harbaugh is ranked No. 15 by Sporting News. Wisconsin‘s Paul Chryst is ranked No. 17 (arguably too low, but he did drop five spots from last year).

Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz (No. 20) and Indiana’s Tom Allen (No. 21) also appear in the top 25 to give the Big Ten seven of the top 25 FBS coaches in 2021, according to Sporting News.

Follow Nittany Lions Wire on Twitter and like us on Facebook for continuing Penn State coverage and discussion.

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Ohio State baseball drops final game of season to Northwestern

The Ohio State baseball team dropped the final game of its 2021 season Sunday against Northwestern.

The 2021 Ohio State baseball season has come to a close, and it was in a nondescript fashion, losing to Northwestern 8-2 on Sunday to conclude the three-game weekend series. The good news is that OSU still took two out of three to finish the season with a 21-20 winning record. The bad news is that Ohio State didn’t do nearly enough to continue on into the postseason.

But back to the action on Sunday.

Northwestern didn’t take long to plate a run, smashing a home run in the top of the first inning to take a quick 1-0 lead. The Buckeyes answered right back in the bottom of the first to tie things at 1-1 when Connor Pohl brought home Zach Dezenzo on an RBI single.

But that would be all that OSU could muster until the seventh inning, as the Wildcats pitching stymied most of the Buckeye threats the rest of the way. Meanwhile, the Northwestern offense got two runs in the second, two in the third, two more in the sixth, and one more in the ninth inning. The Buckeyes scrapped together one more run in the seventh inning, and that was all she wrote, a final 8-2 score.

Time to turn the page and hope for better in 2021 for the Ohio State baseball team.

 

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Ohio State baseball team wins game two of weekend series against Northwestern

The Ohio State baseball team used some solid pitching to win the second of a three-game series against the Northwestern Wildcats Saturday.

After winning a wild one on Friday 13-10, the Ohio State baseball team backed it up by winning a lower scoring affair 4-1 against Northwestern on Saturday evening.

It all started on the mound for the Buckeyes with junior right-hander Garrett Burhenn. He went six innings, allowing just one run on five hits, and struck out 11 batters. It was Burhenn’s second-straight brilliant performance on the mound for the scarlet and gray.

There wasn’t much offense, but the Buckeyes jumped on the board first when Marcus Ernst was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in the bottom of the first to give OSU a 1-0 lead.  Ohio State struck again in the bottom of the third inning when Zach Dezenzo hit his third homer of the weekend, a solo shot to extend the lead to 2-0.

Northwestern would get its lone run in the fourth inning on a single and a double, but that was all the offense the Wildcats would be able to muster, as the OSU bullpen nailed things down for the final three innings. Colton Bauer delivered the remaining two runs with a clutch two-run single in the bottom of the sixth to score Marcus Ernst and Brent Todys. That would result in the final 4-1 score.

The win boosts the Buckeyes record to 21-19 and assures a winning record for the season. Ohio State and Northwestern will finish up the three-game series at 2:05 p.m. Sunday.

 

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Ohio State baseball wins wild, high scoring affair against Northwestern

The Ohio State baseball team erased a five-run deficit and came back to win a wild, high-scoring affair against Northwestern Friday night.

The Ohio State baseball season is winding down and the Buckeyes are looking to finish strong. So far so good in game one of its final weekend series vs. Northwestern. It was a wild, high-scoring affair that was about as entertaining as you’ll find, and the Buckeyes did it in come from behind fashion.

The Wildcats jumped out to a 5-0 lead after some weather threatened to kill things all together on a cloudy, blustery day in Columbus. They jumped all over OSU starter Seth Lonsway who was uncharacteristically wild, plating five runs in the top of the first inning, three coming on a home run by David Dunn.

But the Buckeyes would strike back a couple of innings later with a four-spot of their own. Archer Brookman got Ohio State off and running on a two-run homer. Then in the bottom of the fourth inning, Zach Dezenzo hit a three-run bomb into a stiff wind to tie the game at 7-7 and the Buckeyes officially erased a five-run deficit.

But things wouldn’t end there. In the very next inning (the fifth), the Buckeyes would plate two more runs on a double by Colton Bauer and an RBI single by Brookman, and OSU had officially taken the lead for the first time and got out of the inning up 9-7.

Dezenzo would strike again with another three-run homer in the bottom of the seventh inning to extend OSU’s lead to 13-7 and it looked like the Buckeyes would cruise.

However, Northwestern managed to score three more runs in the eighth inning and actually had the tying run on before Patrick Murphy shut the door for a 13-10 Ohio State victory.

With the win, Ohio State improves its record to 21-19. The Buckeyes are next in action against Northwestern again Saturday at 7 p.m.

 

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BetMGM: Michigan State opens as near touchdown underdog vs. Northwestern

Michigan State will kickoff the 2021 season as an underdog, according to BetMGM, The King of Sportsbooks.

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Michigan State will kickoff the 2021 season as an underdog, according to BetMGM, The King of Sportsbooks.

BetMGM has posted betting lines for a handful of season opening match-ups including Michigan State’s road trip to Northwestern on Friday, Sept. 3. The Spartans are currently listed as a 5.5-point underdog against the Wildcats.

The Spartans got the best of the Wildcats this past season in Mel Tucker’s first season as Michigan State’s head coach. Michigan State was heavy underdogs in that match-up so maybe the Spartans can once again surprise some folks with another upset of the Wildcats.

Kickoff between the Spartans and Wildcats is scheduled for Friday, Sept. 3 at 9 p.m. EDT. The game will be televised on ESPN.

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Ranking of Big Ten’s basketball cities from best to worst

Which Big Ten school has the best basketball city to play in? Which has the worst? Some of the answers may surprise you.

Penn State isn’t necessarily viewed as a college basketball hot spot. Games in the Bryce Jordan Center struggle to bring the kind of electricity another arena around the Big Ten can offer. But how does the college basketball environment in State College rank compared to others around the Big Ten? Is Penn State home to the worst college basketball city in the Big Ten?

Not according to a recent ranking compiled by personal finance outlet WalletHub. Using data comprising of data such as winning percentage, stadium capacity, and social-media engagement, WalletHub ranked every Division 1 college basketball city on the map. Keep this in mind as a city like Philadelphia is home to multiple college basketball programs (Temple, Penn, St. Joseph’s, LaSalle, and Drexel) while Penn State is the only program in the game in State College.

The ranking ranges from No. 1 Durham, North Carolina (Duke), and No. 2 Lexington, Kentucky (Kentucky Wildcats) at the top all the way down to No. 290 St. Georgia, Utah (Dixie State) and No. 291 Stephenville, Texas (Tarleton State).

You can view the full ranking and breakdown of the list here, but we trimmed out the Big Ten-based cities for you below so you can see just where Penn State stands in the Big Ten college basketball scene.

Editorial note: There was no ranking given to Piscataway, New Jersey, the home city for Rutgers. It’s possible Rutgers flies under the New York umbrella for this ranking (New York is No. 6), but it has been omitted from this listicle.