Chaos ruled Week 11 of college football, as eight ranked teams lost and nine more won by 10 points or fewer. It was an especially rough week for teams with Tigers as mascots: Both Memphis and No. 17 LSU lost to lower-ranked teams, while No. 1 Clemson survived a scare from 3-7 Syracuse, which it fended off by just 10 points.
In 2012, the Badgers’ defense was 15th in the nation in yards per game. In 2013 it was seventh and in 2014, the Badgers finished the year ranked fourth overall. This season, the Badgers defensive continues to prove nearly impenetrable.
In some games, a team can rely on one player or one unit to carry them to victory. A running back or an impenetrable defense can win a lot of games on their own in college football. For the Wisconsin Badgers, they needed all three phases to beat the Maryland Terrapins 31-24 Saturday in College Park, MD.
When redshirt junior running back Corey Clement took the field for the Badgers just two minutes into last Saturday’s game against Rutgers, the home crowd let him have it. After he scored his first touchdown of the season just under five minutes later, he let the crowd have it back, tossing the ball in the air and earning an excessive celebration penalty.
Ever since his return last Saturday, junior running back Corey Clement has been the talk of the town.
The rain may have kept away the fans, but it didn’t keep away the Badgers (4-1 Big Ten, 7-2 overall) offense as they rolled over Rutgers (1-4, 3-5) 48-10. Getting a win is something the team wanted, but junior running back Corey Clement’s return after missing eight games was much more important.
Ohio State has been a bit of a disappointment this year. Sure, they’re still undefeated and No. 1 in both rankings, but a worrying number of games in which they failed to pull away early has created a sense that they are this year’s Florida State, a defending champ sleepwalking through the regular season and waiting to get exposed by a plucky upstart in the College Football Playoff. The most visible reason for this iffy play is at quarterback, the position considered the Buckeyes’ greatest asset in preseason.
Oregon
Rutgers football does not have a long history with the Big Ten, having joined the conference for its first season last year.
It was a rather uneventful Week 8 for the Big Ten. Ohio State and Michigan State both kept their undefeated records intact, Penn State edged past Maryland and Bart Houston laid the foundation for his 2016 Heisman campaign by helping Wisconsin best Illinois.
1. Houston to the rescue
Football is a team sport, but sometimes one player can have a game-changing impact on their team.
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – When redshirt junior quarterback Joel Stave left the game with a head injury late in the first quarter, redshirt junior Bart Houston was thrust into an uncomfortable spot.
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - “It’s the next man up.” This quote has been uttered by head coach Paul Chryst, offensive coordinator Joe Rudolph, redshirt senior quarterback Joel Stave and on Saturday night in Champaign, Ill., redshirt junior quarterback Bart Houston was the next man up to say the phrase. Late in the first quarter of Wisconsin’s (3-1 Big Ten, 6-2 Overall) 24-13 win over Illinois (1-2, 4-3), Stave was sacked by junior defensive end Carroll Phillips, who beat redshirt senior left tackle Tyler Marz to the inside.
While the Big Ten East continues to dazzle, as the Michigan-Michigan State matchup may go down as the best game in the entire FBS this year and Ohio State has finally found a way to maximize the Braxton Miller-Cardale Jones- J.T.
When people think of the Big Ten, the first image that comes to mind is usually three yards and a cloud of dust, a byproduct of ground-and-pound running offenses.
Solutions by The State News
