Wisconsin (6-4 Big Ten, 14-6 overall) returns home this week to take on No. 17 Purdue (17-4, 8-2) and Indiana (13-10, 3-8). Purdue’s scouting report has already caught the attention of the Badgers’ coaching staff.
When defensive backs coach Daronte Jones suffered a season-ending injury his sophomore year at Morgan State, he didn’t know it would be the last time he played football. After receiving too many stingers, Jones learned he had cervical nerve damage, which occurs in the neck.
The Big Ten is two years into its experiment and it’s clearly not working. The addition of Maryland and Rutgers in 2014 has had its time to steep, and it’s become evident that their fit isn’t perfect.
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.
It wasn’t that long ago that Alex Erickson was leaning toward playing basketball at UW-Stevens Point.
Bret Bielema, Arkansas
If it seems like there’s a logjam at the top of the AP rankings this year, it’s because there is. A remarkable 12 teams have made it through the first eight weeks of play without a blemish on their record. That’s the most undefeated ranked teams in college football since the AP Poll expanded to 25 teams in 1989.
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
Desperately searching for its first win of the season, Wisconsin (0-3-3) will welcome the Arizona State Sun Devils (4-4-0) to the Kohl Center this Friday and Saturday. Despite an offensive outburst last weekend at Ferris State, the Badgers were unable to earn their first victory of the season after tying the Bulldogs 5-5 and losing 2-1 in consecutive games. Although the Badgers are still winless, head coach Mike Eaves has remained upbeat noting several positives that have resulted from his young team’s play. “One of the good things was the fact we scored five goals.
Despite what appeared to be a lost year at the beginning of the season, the Badgers enter their final two contests with a considerable amount still on the line.
In a stunning end to what was a dominating eight-game win streak and miracle season turnaround, the Badgers fell to Northwestern in a heartbreaking double-overtime defeat at the at the McClimon Sports Complex Wednesday night. While having clinched a share of the Big Ten title last weekend with its victory on the road against a struggling Maryland, Wisconsin lost the distinction of being the only holder of the conference title. The Badgers (8-2-1 Big Ten, 10-5-3 overall) needed a win or a draw against the Wildcats (7-3-1, 13-4-2) to claim sole ownership of the Big Ten title.
No. 3 Wisconsin (6-0-0 WCHA, 8-0-0 overall) has scored a lot of goals this year, and has given up very few.
It’s the sequence that some Wisconsin fans have visualized since the 2013 season: Joel Stave is forced out of the game, Bart Houston enters and the highly recruited quarterback from the Class of 2012 starts making it rain while the former walk-on stews on the bench. That’s what plenty of Wisconsin fans saw last Saturday against Illinois. It’s not really what happened, but it’s what people saw.
Football is a team sport, but sometimes one player can have a game-changing impact on their team.
NFL fans were treated Sunday to a free live stream on Yahoo of the Bills and Jaguars battling it out at Wembley Stadium in London. It’s usually a relief not having to watch the Jaguars play until after Sunday morning breakfast, potentially the best meal of the week, but Jacksonville and Buffalo actually put on a good show and represented the League well in Europe.
It’s safe to say that Bart Houston had thrown a myriad of touchdown passes before Saturday’s 24-13 win against the Illinois Fighting Illini. Yet it’s not hyperbolic to say that Houston’s two touchdown passes on Saturday were unlike any he’s ever thrown prior to this weekend.
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Solutions by The State News
