Look at news, analysis and insight from around the Big Ten conference. This
is Big Ten Paradigm, part of the College Gridiron Coast to Coast podcast network,
and here's your host, Mark Roger. Ohio State needed a signature win,
the Big Ten needed a signature win, and obviously Bryan Day needed a
signature win. Welcome into the Voice of college football courtesy right here on the
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on College Gridiron Coast to Coast. Let's talk Big Ten and before we move
on two week five, let's talk Ohio State Notre Dame. Not a pretty
game and not a pretty performance in many aspects. However, let's not in
any way under value the grit, determination, and toughness of this Ohio State
team and what may prove to be the coming out party. The maturity on
display in the final drive by quarterback Kyle McCord in just his fourth career start,
first hostile environment on the road, he drove the Buckeyes and faced a
number of situations in which it could have been the very last play for Ohio
State football on this night in South Bend, and he delivered when he needed
to, and the Buckeyes pulled it out, of course, with the final
play of the game and the toughness that Ryan Day talked about after the game
and then after in the postgame news conference and then ever since then, Ryan
Day driving home the point that his team is not soft, it's tough,
and that has yet to be proven in the Big Ten against the Lakes of
Penn State, and of course the BJOR test is Michigan. But on this
night in Week four, the challenge was Notre Dame on the road, and
that was a stiff and formidable challenge to the Buckeyes proved to be up to
the challenge, up to the test, and the defense gave up just fourteen
points. There were times when Sam Hartman completed passes at will, but they
were short underneath passes and the tackles were made assuredly by the Buckeyes in space,
and there were times in which Notre Dames seemed to run the ball at
five and six yards per clip at will. However, they never broke off
the long, long run that burned the Buckeyes and proved to be decisive.
Ohio State emerges victorious for a sixth to consecutive time in the series over Notre
Dame seventeen to fourteen. Every Wednesday at eleven am Eastern Time, we get
together with our Buckeye's crew of Steve Hellwagon from Buck Nutts two four seven Sports,
Tony Gerdeman, and Kevin Noun from Buckeye Huddle to talk Ohio State football.
And here's a dose of what you can expect each and every week.
As the guys and I discussed Ohio State's monumental win, it's going to be
a game that's going to live on forever for fans in terms of coming back
and really seemingly snatching victory out of the jaws of defeat the way that they
did. You know, I don't know if things are going to be remembered
of the smaller minutia, but as Steve put it, there certainly is a
lot of concern when it comes down to their third and short, their fourth
and short. I think the defense aid very well. Maybe there were some
moments that the linebackers would like to certainly have back there. Ohio State kept
audric estimate very much in check in my opinion, Really we did not see
this Sam Hartman that everybody had kind of talked about leading into it, you
know how prolific. I mean, he looked good throwing the ball around,
but he only had the one touchdown pass. Ohio State did a pretty good
job of locking guys down. Denzel Burke really was not tested in the game,
as Notre Dame was not going to have any of that as we go
through it a lot to still build off of. But you have to imagine
that the amount of confidence that so many players coming out of this game,
that level has got to be so high, and I think that this open
week comes at a really good time because you don't get drunk off of the
high of that game and have the risk of a letdown against you know,
a Maryland team that is taking care of everything in front of it. Maybe
not the most impressive Maryland team out there, but you know, I think
everything fits. I think nobody has ever played their best game in a seventeen
fourteen winner loss, and that's what this was. And nobody's ever played their
best game against a quality, very good opponent. There's going to be some
give and take there. I do think Notre Dame gave the game away,
but credit Ohio State for taking it. We've seen games that have been tried
to give it be given away by by opponents and it's not taken. But
Ohio State made it plays when they had to have him. As Steve said,
that drive is going to live forever and they need to take this week
to heal up because that was a rugged, physical game. Ohio State didn't
substitute really on either side of the ball. They went with basically the same
eleven people throughout, with a couple of exceptions here and there. I think
for Commacord, this was a coming of age type moment. Is fifth start,
and the last thing I'll say is our photographer Dan Harker was speaking to
an usher who's worked there for over twenty years and he said the end of
that game was the loudest that that usher had heard it for any game at
Notre Dame. Stadium, and that takes in all the Michigan down to the
wire games, all the Clemson down to the wire games, Georgia down to
the wire, et cetera, that they've had there in the last twenty years.
And he said that it was as loud as it's been in And of
course Notre Dame is dying for a winner. I mean, you know the
era of Lou Holtz and Newt Rockney and Ara par Siegeon and all those great
coaches and all those great teams and Heisman winners that all ended in nineteen ninety
three. And you know, people argue, you know, oh, Notre
Dame is this, Notre Dame is that. Well, since nineteen ninety three,
Ohio States won thirteen New Year's, six Bowl games, and two national
championships. Notre Dame in each category is zero and zero. So you know
that, I'll just tell you, you know how they sense that their breakthrough
moment was there and they didn't get it. This was more than just Lou
Holtz. This was not just Lou Holtz saying this. This was this was
a message that was being permeated throughout you know, and for years as well.
I mean, this goes back to and probably this goes back to c
J. Stroud Desmond Howard making a joke at CJ. Stroud's offensive line's expense
at the Heisman and has continued unabated since then, basically talking about Michigan,
Michigan, Michigan, and it's just it has become the outside identity of what
Ohio State is. And when you're the head coach of that and you see
your players being talked about that way, yeah, you're gonna get angry.
Unfortunately, you have to wait for a win over somebody significant to let out
that anger. And so that's that happened this time after the game because we
didn't obviously didn't hear what he had to say in the TV on TV,
but it was asked again in the post game and then he said that you
know, this narrative is over now, and it's it's not it's not over
until he beats Michigan. But this was as he said, it's two bad
halves against Michigan, and I would I would argue it's or it's one bad
half against Michigan, maybe two bad fourth quarters against Michigan. And that's what
the entire narrative has been built around on Ohio State being soft as far as
I can tell, I mean, I think that he wanted to get out
and say something, because if you say something over and over and over and
over again, does it become cannon? At some point? Does it?
Does it become that's what's there? And is that going to be something that's
going to follow you into the room in Grapevine, Texas where the college Football
Playoff Committee is making its selections and everything else. And I mean that it
permeates everywhere once you know, once you get labeled that, I mean,
it's it's the whole case of like USC having crappy defense under out scrinch,
which is actually something that is very easy to quantify. But if you keep
if you if you sit there and you allow this narrative to stay out there
and you don't do anything, either in words or in actions, and honestly,
in actions is going to be the best way to get through it.
It just seems like, well, then you're soft. I mean, you're
you're not even you're not even fighting it. At this point, two states
over to the East, while the Buckeyes were sweating it out to the final
second against Notre Dame, Penn State, was crushing Iowa in a game that
after halftime was not in doubt, and if you really took into account the
way Penn State's defense man handled the pathetic Iowa offense, it was never in
doubt. Thirty one nothing Iowa, four first downs, seventy six yards total
offense and shut out again thirty one nothing by Penn State. Marty Lee joined
us from Rivals on Penn State's platform there to discuss Penn State's dominant effort and
the defense they could prove to be the very best, not only in the
Big Ten, but maybe in all of college football. This is the best
Penn State defense I have ever seen in my lifetime. And that's saying something
because I've seen some good ones. But they're fast, they're physical, They,
in my opinion, may have the best secondary in the country. Their
defensive end room might be the best in the country. It was on full
display Saturday night, and then you throw that in. Like we talked about
last week, there was definitely a personal touch there after the game. James
Franklin did not hide. These players did not hide how they felt about Iowa
and about Iowa's coaches after that game. In twenty twenty one, So I
think it was you know, you you're throwing the old don't poke the bear
kind of thing, and they poked the bear and the bear came roaring back
big time on Saturday night. So it was just kind of the perfect storm
of things. But yeah, this defense is really good, and you know,
the offense is been fine. It's got some steps to take yet,
but this defense, without doubt, in my opinion, is good enough to
play for a college football championship and play in the College Football Playoff. I
wouldn't call it a concern yet, but it's definitely something of like, hey,
we've got a couple of weeks here until we play Ohio to stay and
then Michigan a few weeks later. We need to get this figured out.
I do wonder though, watching Nick Singleton, it just seemed to me at
times there's been holes. There's been the ability for him to balance it and
get big gains, and he hasn't. So I wonder if they've almost tried
to overcorrect. We're last year he tried to bounce so much instead of just
kind of being that true between the tackles runner. So I almost wonder if
that's something they see and they kind of go back on it and tell him
like, hey, Nick, what makes you great is that ability to get
the edge, run past the defense, and go and try to go back
to that some more. But yeah, ultimately, if you're still averaging three
and a half four yards per carry, which they have, you're gonna take
that because that's going to be a first down in every series as long as
you can do that. So I agree the running game could definitely improve,
and I think it's something they'll look to try and get hammered out. I
also know they have some interior offensive lineman who are banged up right now,
so you know, in theory Northwestern by week you mask should be a good
opportunity for those guys to really have a light workload and get healthy, and
that will probably help too. But yeah, I agree with you that if
there's one thing on this offense you really want to receiver drops aside because as
I've said before, they're executing everything perfectly on those plays, you just got
to catch the football. If there's one thing on this offense you really want
to see get cleaned up, it's trying to get a little more explosiveness to
that running attack, because that's what made this rushing game so potent. Last
year was Singleton I think had something like seven or eight carries of fifty plush
yards, which I believe was a Big Ten freshman record, And even Ka
tron Allen, even though he's not as explosive, still would regularly, you
know, probably once or twice a game, rip off a twenty plush yard
or so. You want to try and get back to that. I'm sure
they will spend the next three weeks trying to get that figured out. But
yeah, still, if you're you're averaging three and a half to four yards
per carry, you overall you're gonna need to be happy with your rushing attack.
Now, let's look forward to Week five in the Big Ten and a
few conference games, some teams playing out of conference in a few bye weeks,
especially for Ohio State, who I'm sure could use the bye week after
a physical contest at Notre Dame and the upcoming challenge with Maryland coming to town
in week six. So let's talk about the two teams that we just addressed,
Penn State and Iowa. The nintey Lyons have a date against Northwestern,
the Wildcats coming off and impressive. Now think about this Not only did Northwestern
look to be one of the worst or the worst Power five team in twenty
twenty three, but you couldn't pick a worst candidate to come back from a
twenty one point deficit then Northwestern, and you couldn't have picked out a stingier
defense at least over the last few years then Minnesota to have that comeback take
place. It gets but Northwestern and head coach Ben Braun give them a ton
of credit coming back from twenty one down and Ben Bryant, the transfer quarterback
from Cincinnati, throwing for three hundred ninety six yards and four touchdowns, Kyle
Curtis two hundred and fifteen yards in Northwestern receptions ten on the day, and
they pulled it out in overtime against Minnesota. It's Penn State, It's Northwestern
coming up here in week five. Meanwhile, in Iowa City, the Hawkeyes
will look to get off the deck after that humiliating loss. In a Happy
Valley. They take on a Michigan State team without a permanent head coach.
It was made official on Wednesday, Meltucker out at Michigan State and of course,
Harlan Barnett, longtime defensive assistant and also former star defensive player at Michigan
State is taking the Spartans to the close of twenty twenty three. It's Michigan
State, it's Iowa. And we do our Hawkeyes Live show each and every
Tuesday at five thirty Eastern time with Corey Brada from the Hawkeye of the Storm,
and here's our take on Iowa Michigan State. Michigan State does have players,
They're just in disarray. Who knows what the motivation is, but they
were within they were in the red zone, deep in the red zone,
like inside the ten yard line to give Maryland a bit of a game at
one juncture. Now, I know they got blown out thirty one nine,
but I think they were within six seven yards of making a twenty four sixteen
in the third quarters. So you know, it's a fairly competitive game for
a while. So they didn't get just completely destroyed by Maryland. So I've
got one question for you, as I say, if they lose to Michigan
State, then it is tortures and pitchforks, because they are a mess.
Though. I mean, regardless of a competitive they were against Maryland, they've
got they've gotten beat their last two opponents they've had like these last two weeks.
Their margin of loss has been like sixty points. Yes, so I
always should be able to under the lights at Kinnick at home with the defense
alone when this game. Think of this, I'll check the numbers for the
Michigan State defense versus Maryland. But the previous week, and I know it's
Michael Pennox and he's a top three to four quarterback in the country with an
excellent wide receiver room, but they put up more yardage on Michigan State than
any team in history. That was the Michigan State record defensively, gave up
seven hundred gave up seven hundred and thirteen yards of total offense. I know
Iowa fans have never heard a number anything close to seven hundred and thirteen yards
of total offense in a game in which Michael Pennox sat out the fourth quarter
and they didn't even throw the ball, they could have thrown up like nine
hundred yards of total offense. That's crazy. And Michigan State's secondary was never
even good under melt Tucker. Let's just make that clear. So it's obviously
probably gotten worse now maybe week three day rally behind this interim coach. Maybe
it just takes a few weeks and they you know, that's possible, but
it regardless of that, it doesn't take the US away from Iowa, but
they have to take care of business. Two years ago, Michigan was on
its way to a Big Ten Championship College Football Playoff appearance for the first time,
but it went to Lincoln and almost was stripped up by the Huskers thirty
two, twenty nine, a hotly attested game that went down to the wire,
and the Wolverines take on Nebraska again now since then, of course,
the Huskers visited the Big House last year and there was no contest thirty four
to three. Nebraska will once again start Heinrich Harburg at quarterback against the Maze
and Blue. The Huskers are two and two on the season, having defeated
Louisiana Tech last weekend twenty eight fourteen. Anthony Grant picking up the running duties
now that they've had a couple of injuries to Ramier Johnson and Gabe Irvin out
for the season, and picked up one hundred and thirty five yards against Louisiana
Tech. We'll try to run against that stinchy Michigan defense that many believe as
the best defensive front in all of college football. Meanwhile, statistically the toughest
defense to run against one point in years per carry. It's Michigan, It's
Nebraska Saturday in Lincoln. Every Tuesday, we get together with Greg Peterson from
Husker Online and also Justin Adams, our postgame host for Nebraska football on our
Huskers Live show that's every Tuesday at seven pm Eastern Time, and also our
Michigan Live shows at eight o'clock Eastern on Tuesdays with John d Adamo talking Wolverines
and Huskers on the O line. In particular, they're finally taking the advice
that we had on the Michigan Wolverines Live and we said put Ladarius Tenderson at
left tackle, and we said put Carson Barnhardt at right tackle, and then
put Trent A. Jones's number six right on either side for that sixth personnel.
And they finally, I think, are going to that. At the
at the end of the last game, they finally were in that set.
So if that's the case, if you see that exact personnel group, lookout,
because I think you've got the best possible match up there in the O
line. But yeah, three three five has not been the easiest for us.
It hasn't. You don't see it a ton. But you know,
I don't know the dc UH super well. I mean, obviously, Jim,
you know we had you know TCU. They they they scheme very well.
You know, there's other times that we've had the three three five that
you know we've done better against them. So yeah, it just depends.
I guess just what. You know, what does Nebraska need to do on
all phases to to beat Michigan. They need to have an offense. That's
really what it comes down to. They need to. Honestly, our offensive
line is a work in progress. And that's probably being kind. I don't,
I don't. I don't know what you're gonna hear from out of the
Nebraska people. But here's what I see. They don't come off the ball
very as quickly as they need to, and I don't think that they can.
It's we can't. We don't really have a passing game because we don't
have great playmakers in the receiver and corps. Now, maybe maybe something will
happen during this game where we'll make some plays and Michigan will have to respect
the passing game, but we're gonna have to run the ball, and we're
gonna have to run it very well. And I just think that our offensive
line is gonna have to play better than they have yet this season. They're
gonna have to come off the ball. We have. We run counter plays
sometimes in trap plays, and in those plays we pull right, and I
just wonder if we have the speed to get off on those plays and get
the blocks carried out. Without Michigan, you guys have probably one of the
best defensive lines in the nation, right, Yeah, we have one guy
that's like projected in the first two rounds. I can't remember his name,
but yeah, I just those if Nebraska's offensive line can't man up, then
I think your defensive line will just treat us like rag dolls. And you
know, I think our defense can probably keep up with you for a while,
but not if we can't make first downs and possess the ball. And
that's that's the other key is, you know. I hate to say this
too, My god, I've already said nice things about Colorado. I think
we want to do. We want to be what Minnesota has been. We
want to be able to possess the ball, extend possessions, run the clock,
keep your offense off the field, get first downs, and then score,
you know, just get some scoring. And I think if we can
do that, you know, then you know, keep it maybe within a
touchdown going into the fourth quarter, and we'll see what happens. Nebraska's last
two games against Northern Illinois and Louisiana Tech, we have looked really Yeah,
Chris Jenkins, that's the guy I was thinking of. Yeah, I was
it was it was yeah, because the other one I was thinking he has
another year still, So yeah, Chris Jenkins. But I think that for
the last two games, Nebraska has been fairly flat in the first half.
And I came out with a theory, and that was because the guy we
fired, he would always lose games at the end. They'd always looked like
they were completely petered out by the fourth quarter. Now we just like walk
around. We kind of just you know, we're really flat in the first
half, so we can be really good in the second half and then win
the game at the end. It's been a rough early season for Illinois and
Perdue. The boiler Makers are one in three entering this game against the LINEI.
Illinois at two and two. However, they needed a last minute drive
and last second field goal to defeat Toledo, and also the last game against
FAU should have been a route, but Illinois struggle, trailed to nothing and
eked out a twenty three sixteen win at home against again FAU. For Purdue,
they have the one win at Virginia Tech by a touchdown, but this
past weekend they went down to defeat on a Friday night against Wisconsin by twenty
one points. Hudson card and the Purdue offense committing too many mistake, too
many turnovers, too many dropped passes, and too many short yardage situations going
the defense's way. It's Illinois and Purdue coming up on Saturday. The other
Big Ten Conference game in Week five Indiana at Maryland. The Hoosiers sidestepped in
embarrassing loss against Akron. They pulled it out twenty nine twenty seven and overtime.
The Zips missed a field goal in the waning seconds that would have handed
Indiana the loss. The Hoosiers are two and two on the season. They
go to Maryland the Turps still four and zero. They should win this game
and of course march on to a five and oh record and a matchup in
Columbus against Ohio State. But first they got to take care of the Hoosiers
to Leah Tungavloa off to a strong start for the Turps. They come off
a win over Michigan State thirty one to nine. The Maryland defense also looking
strong. Louisiana at Minnesota. The Gophers looking to get off the deck after
that embarrassing meltdown in the fourth quarter against Northwestern. The Gophers are just two
and two and just an eleven point favorite at home against Louisiana. So that's
the plight of Minnesota football right now. Rudker's taking on Wagner. The Scarlet
Knights, of course, fell to Michigan and the Big Ten opener for Michigan.
The Knights had defeated Northwestern in Week one, but Rudkers still off to
a decent start at three and one, just couldn't move the ball against Michigan
after scoring on a long pass play of sixty nine yards and the third play
of the game. Should get healthy against Wagner. That is the slate in
the Big Ten. That's week five, September thirtieth. As we head into
October and just start to separate the elite from the possible contenders from the also
rans in the Big Ten. My thanks go out again to College Gridiron,
Coast to Coast and all the fine podcasts. Please check them out covering college
football from coast to coast, of course, and check us out on YouTube
the Voice of College Football. We've got fifteen team channels, including Ohio State,
Michigan, Nebraska, and Iowa in the Big Ten. In our main
channel where we do call in shows and live streams all week at the Voice
of College Football on YouTube. Thanks so much for joining us and we will
see you next time. Enjoy Week five.