Look at news, analysis, an 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 Rodgers. Let's face it, folks. Week four is why we are college football fans. Welcome to Big Ten Paradigm right here on the College Gridiron Coast to Coast Network. I am Mark Rogers and appreciate you being here. And let's make this a habit each and every week on College Gridiron Coast to Coast. And while you're at it, expand the habit because there are so many great podcasts covering the landscape of college football right here on College Gridiron Coast to Coast. You can join me Mark Rogers on YouTube every day at the Voice of College Football. We've got fifteen team channels. They include from the Big Ten, Ohio State, Michigan, Iowa, and Nebraska, and a national channel. We talk football every day with you, so please join us there as well. All right, let's get right to it, because there are two Mammoth games, both on the national scale and inside the Big Ten, meaning Ohio State, Notre Dame, historic brands, not just in the scope of college football, two of the biggest sports brands in the world get together. The campuses are three to four miles apart, something like that, three to four hours apart. But they play infrequently. Actually, it's been postseason play that has brought them together a great majority of the time. Nineteen thirty five thirty six Notre Dame swept Ohio State in a home and home series. And I remember this well as I was growing up in college football and going through my high school in college years, that these two teams never played. And then they signed a series to play in the mid nineties, and it was a big freaking deal and it should have been and it was. It was mammoth because I thought, why don't these teams play? And they finally did nineteen ninety five ninety six Ohio State swept those two and then they played in a couple of Fist Bowls. Of course, two thousand five twenty fifteen following those two seasons in Ohio State again the better team in those matchups. And then they got together last year in Columbus and the Buckey's best in Notre Dame twenty one ten now winning five consecutive in the series. But that's all in the past. There is a growing contingent of fans, not just Notre Dame fans, college football fans that believe Notre Dame is the better team and they're going to win this game. And in its simplest form, I get it. Ohio State was one of the two or three or four best teams in the country last year. Notre Dame was more in the twenty range. But when they got together in Columbus, and this was Marcus Freeman's first game, so big disadvantage for the Irish had a quarterback is in terms of injury and both selection between Tyler Buckner and Drew Pine, and of course c. J. Stroud is now quarterbacking in the NFL as as starters, the second overall pick, so no comparison at that position, and Ohio State had to slug its way to a eleven point win, pulling away in the fourth quarter. So it was a dog fight for four quarters. Now they go to South Bend and Notre Dame has flat out been a better football team more consistently this year. Ohio's State looked really good and this might be a huge breakthrough and boost to the Buckeyes confidence. What happened last weekend in Columbus as they put up sixty three and they limited Western Kentucky Austin Read and company, who threw forty touchdown passes last season, to just ten points. So enormous effort by the Buckeyes. You got to think it's a huge confidence boost to Kyle McCord in particular. Let's break down Ohio State Notre Dame. We go to our Buckeye live stream that we air each and every Wednesday with the crew Steve Hellwagon from Buck Nutts Kevin Noon Buckeye Huddle, also Tony Gerdeman from Buckeye Huddling. I get together every Wednesday at eleven am Eastern time. And we also brought in Tim O'Malley of Irish Illustrated to break down the game of the week in college football, Sorry Clemson, Florida State, Sorry Colorado, Oregon and to be talked about later Penn State, Iowa. Game of the week in college football Notre Dame hosting Ohio State. And now we've got a much different looking Notre Dame team. For people that don't even follow the team, they closely know the name Sam Hartman and know the dimension that he brings is probably the best Notre Dame quarterback since. For me, it's Brady Quinn. Talk about the difference in Notre Dame offensive philosophy and approach in this one. Yeah, it's so obvious. Even Marcus Freeman had to admit it in a Monday press conference, which never happens. He said he kind of admitted last year he wanted to play that game close, close to the vest. Was Tyler Buckner's first career starts. Pretty obvious as the game progressed. It was Tyler Buckner's first career start, and they were huddling, they were taking time in the huddle, they were running the ball. They were happy to punt at times to keep it close. You know that that's not going to be the approach today. All right, on Saturday, they'll have to play some complimentary football, though I don't Notre Dames offensive line is good, but it's not the type of thing that could usually will totally control the game. If Ohio State fans watched Notre Dame once last year after that game, it might have been against Clemson when they did indeed control that Clemson defensive front, which is a huge surprise. Last year, the line lost two twenty three year old guards from that. It's it's a good line. I mean it's it's still a very good line. But I think Notre Dame is gonna have to attack and get some chunk plays. So it's it's it's the opposite of last year. Really Notre Dame offensively. Sam Hartman's at his fiftieth start. We used to watch practices and hope Tyler Buckner could complete a couple of slants in a row. Now you're watching an actual college quarterback who will you know one day play in the NFL, pending where he's drafted. But Sam Hartman is their best quarterback since Brady Quinn for sure. Jimmy Klauss was very good one year, but the team wasn't very good. I've already thrown this theory at Kevin and Steve when we don't know much about the two teams. We know what the talent is and we can go that direction as well. Whether you think let me start there, I'm going to throw this one out there. Ohio State is either on par with, or maybe a shade below George and Alabama in terms of recruited talent. If you believe in the recruiting rankings or Dame's a solid top ten. That doesn't sound on the surface like a big deal, but we all understand the recruiting rankings and the points and how it just falls off a cliff after like three four five that it's decided. Do you believe in that disparity? No, I do. The one thing I believe about recruiting rankings is ten five stars are better than ten four stars are better than ten three stars. And that's what you're dealing with with Georgia versus Notre names ten fives versus one five star. Here. You know, when Georgia goes out and Georgia doesn't need JD. Bertrand a low top three hundred, number two hundred and ninety eight, number three hundred rank linebacker to hit and become a three year starter, Notre Dame needed it. Notre Dame needs guys like that to hit, and it happens they do it all the time. Jeremiah Usu Cormo was a three star. If Georgia had jere Jeremiah Wosu Cormoa and he didn't hit, it wouldn't matter at all that have somebody else that would come in and do that. But it does matter Notre Dame. I think the designation is true. I think right now Georgia is ahead of Ohio State and recruiting at Georgia's just ridiculous at this point and now like Alabama was for years. But it's always to me been Georgia and Alabama, or Alabama and Georgia. Flip it. Now Ohio State right there, nice solid gap. And then Notre name is one of the better programs that recruits well. I mean Texas A and m recruits great, and they're not as anywhere near as good of a program as Notre Dame or Michigan or anything like that. It's it's Clemson recruits well, they are better program than Notre Dame over the last ten years because they have two national titles and have appear and other things. But Nor Dames recruiting a little better than Clemson right now. The real key for Notre Dame is they have had playoff level rosters. I don't mean ten out of ten years, but I mean more than two out of ten years. And they have not had a playoff level quarterback. It has just not been the case. I mean Deshaun Kaiser for one year, his regishirt freshman year was a playoff level fringe quarterback when Ohio State beat Notre Dame in the festival. He was a quality quarterback that year. But then you got to go back to Jimmy Clawson's one year and Brady Quinn. Brady Quinn. I mean that's two thousand and five and two thousand and six. We shouldn't be referencing those names. Ian Book, I mean, God love him. He got norded to two, he got Notre Dame into two playoffs. I don't think anyone looked at ian Book in any of those playoffs and thought, well, ian Books the difference maker here. I mean, there is Trevor Lawrence involved in these games. There was later on, there was Bryce young involved in these games. It's not even close to what but the quarterbacks ian Book was up against in eighteen and twenty and Ohio State was involved in twenty. You look at the quarterbacks, you think, how in the world did they get here with him? That has just been a huge difference, And I think Sam Hartman is giving people if it's one year, Sam Hartman is giving people a lot of belief right now because they have a playoff level quarterback. Sam Hartman, as you mentioned, and started fifty games. There's not going to be much that he hasn't seen from the standpoint of the big stage, even though he played it wake, he played Clemson every year, so in terms of competition as well on the field, Kyle McCord is, you know, it's a new experience almost every week for him, and now it's hostile environment for the first time and a level defense that he's never seen before except in practice. So the conventional thought is that the pressure can't get to Sam Hartman. The physical pressure sure gets to any quarterback if they're on their backside, they're not going to win. But in terms of anything getting between his ears, that Sam Hartman should be able to just shrug it off, while Kyle McCord, I'm not going to say that he can't, that he doesn't have that mojor or that mentality, but we just don't know. So it's kind of a wild card and the probability is that it's going to possibly be an issue with him. Well, it has to be for Notre Dame. I think for Notrey to win the game. Same Hartman has to be the better quarterback on this field. That's it's a it's a rare thing. We're talking about that in Ohio State Notre Dame game. But Hartman has to be the better quarterback. If he's not, How's Nor Dame pulled off this upset? If Sam Hartman plays even with McCord, I don't see that happening now. It's funny. As you were talking, I thought back to the Notre Dame Georgia game where there was a first time starting freshman named Jake From and we're like, well, he's gonna get rattled at Notre Dame. And Jake From did not get rattled at Notre Dame. And it wasn't a good offensive game, but Jake From didn't get rattled and Georgia pulled out the win by one point. If McCord channels c. J. Stroud in the fourth quarter last year, nobody would be in trouble. I think that. But that's the that's the hope, is that you can rattle McCord. Guys start somewhere, though, right Great quarterbacks start somewhere. They have a breakout game when they're young somewhere. And it's not like he's a true freshman that's never been out there before. I would expect him to play well now. Djuga his first time at Notre Dame was absolutely phenomenal. He almost beat Notre Dame in double overtime. Dj came out last year and was destroyed by Notre Dame and Kate Club. They replaced him with Kate Club neck of the five start and he walked in and he threw the ball rights to Benjamin Morrison for an interception. The two true freshmen, so you don't know how they're going to handle it. I would expect Sam Hartman to settle in at some point in this game if he jitters might be natural even for Sam Hartman. Though Notre Dame. Ohio State is not wake forests in Florida State. I just don't feel that way. I think his jitters have to be there because the weight of the world is on his shoulders too. I just think he's the guy. When he settles into a game, he's going to be fine. I wanted to correct myself real fast in case any Ohio State fan heard this when I said that those are the two best corners these receivers are gonna face. I met until Sundays because those receivers at Ohio State are obviously gonna start facing better corners. But I am telling you Benjamin Morrison, cam Hart are very good college corners right now, and it's a fun matchup. The thing is fun matchups kind of favor future first round draft pick sometimes on the outside as well, whether you go to games all the time or you've got your heart set on that one huge matchup. Go to ticketsmarter dot com to save Big Ticket Smarter technology gives you the best competitive prices on the secondary market. Your purchase price is safe and guaranteed. Use promo code big Big to get ten dollars off of any purchase of at least one hundred dollars, or the promo code big twenty Big twenty to get twenty dollars off of any purchase of at least three hundred dollars. Use the promo code as many times as you'd like. There is no limit. Get in the game with ticketsmarter dot com or the ticket Smarter mobile app Think Smarter, Ticket Smarter. My final conclusion on this matchup is that Ohio State is the more talented team. They are overall a better team that would win this game sixty or sixty five percent of the time, even on the Road in South Bend. However, two big considerations for me in this one. Number one is that Notre Dame has a better to date better offensive line, and the better offensive line typically wins the game. And I can see Notre Dame getting much more push running lanes against an Ohio State front seven than I can on the flip side, the Buckeye offensive line creating running space for Trayvon Henderson and company in the Ohio State running back room. That's point number one. Point number two may be more crucial as this game comes to a close. Sam Hartman is starting his fiftieth game. He has seen just about everything you can see. Maybe this is the biggest stage he's ever played on, but still fifty career starts. And even though wake Forest isn't exactly Notre Dame, he was playing against Power five competition on a regular basis, Clemson at the top of the line, and so he's seen everything. He's a poise quarterback. He will play on Sundays. Kyle McCord may eventually be as good, if not better than Sam Hartman some day, maybe, but he has started three times, and with all apologies and considerations to our friends in Bloomington, Indiana. This is going to be the first hostile environment that Kyle McCord is going to have to face. So my thought here is not just the overall is the stage too big for Kyle McCord, But I would feel much more confident in Kyle McCord leading a two minute drive at the end of the ball game down four if he's had success. If this is a shootout and the Buckeyes are down forty four forty with two minutes left to play and they've got to go seventy five yards to score the game winning touchdown and Kyle McCord's thrown for four hundred yards and five touchdowns, well, he's going to be in the flow. He's going to be feeling at it, and even though the pressure of the moment is still going to be there. He's had success versus same score differential. Let's say they're losing fourteen to ten, but the defense is carried Ohio State to this point and kind of accords eleven of twenty five or one hundred and twenty five yards and two picks. I just think that that may be a little bit too much for him to take. Having not experienced that moment of leading a team down the field. In any situation when you have to have points. The other consideration is the pressure. And I'm not just talking about game pressure, the big stage pressure. I'm talking about ashtual pass rush pressure. No quarterback likes it, No quarterback can throw through it. When it's extreme. Tom Brady cannot beat any team sitting on his rear end. Just can't happen. Can't throw from sitting on your rear end. If you're on your back all day, I don't care who you are, you're not winning the game. You're not going to be successful. However, there are quarterbacks who get hit time after time after time after time and face a pass rush, and that may throw them off their game. They may be somewhat ineffective. But when the offensive line does block for them, so maybe it doesn't do its job for consecutive dropbacks. On that fifth one, he's got a clean pocket, he's got time to throw, and he's unfazed, unnerved by what happened previously, and delivers the football. There are quarterbacks, however, that that pass rush stays in their head and when the offensive line does its job, they still envision, still feel, still are distracted by the fictional pass rush that's not there on that particular dropback, and it throws them off their game for the rest of the game. Is that going to happen in Kyle McCord. I don't know, nobody knows, nobody knows. We have no idea. Accept I work in probabilities, and the probability is that that is going to affect Kyle McCord much more than Sam Hartman Ohio State Notre Dame. Of course, Saturday night, we've got a watch party. Join us on the Voice of College Football on our main channel on YouTube, and let's watch it all together. Now, let's turn our attention to another enormous matchup that unfortunately is being played at the same time. For you folks who like to focus and watch one game at a time, make an exception because Iowa Penn State is going to be worth the watch and in some ways is a more important game than Ohio State Notre Dame for obvious reasons. It's a big ten game. I was a fourteen and a half point favorite. I don't know that the Hawkeyes should be this kind of underdog against anyone. And I'm somewhat kidding, but I never take Iowa to cover the points. But I never take any one to cover against Iowa for the simple fact that it's a math equation. The closer you keep the score to zero zero, the less likely it is that a large point spread is going to be covered. And Iowa is the most likely team in America to keep the score on both sides closest to zero. They're expecting rain and Happy Valley on Saturday night. That plays in Iowa's favor, not just from the standpoint of the obvious that the skill position players on offense cannot be freewheeling and make cuts, and that the speed factor that favors Penn State overall is going to be mitigated, and the passing game, which highly favors through Holler and Penn State, is going to be mitigated. But also Penn State's got what could turn out to be the best defense in the Big Ten, and nationally they are that good. Potentially the ceiling is that good. They've got first round NFL Draft selections at each level of the defense. So what happens there when those players that are the most physically dominant speed explosion are mitigated by the field. Marty Leap and Elliott Cluff of rivals joined our weekly Iowa's Show that we present for each and every Tuesday at four thirty Central Time on our Iowa Channel with Corey Brata from the Hawkeye of the Storm. What has been a phenomenal series between East and West, the most hotly contested, controversial, and highest stake game between the West and East on a regular basis. Iowa Penn State. Yeah, it's a big test without a doubt. Now, I mean you look at Iowa some of the things today, you already knew they're going to be without the tight end Lache, who's their best offensive weapon after dislocating is Ankled this past Saturday, and today when they released their depth chart for the week, neither of their top two running backs are present. So there might be an Iowa offense that's really hamstring on Saturday. But with Iowa, like I feel like it doesn't matter because you know, if they win, it's gonna because their defense anyway. So it should be a good test. It's gonna be the white Alpha Penn State, so that place is gonna be juiced up. A lot of fans still have some bad blood about that twenty twenty one game in Iowa City, where Penn State looked like they were on their way to just romping Iowa that day int twere Sean Clifford got hurt. There were some comments made by Kirk Ferren's after the game that I know did not sit well with Penn State fans and Penn State coaches alike. So it should be a great atmosphere Saturday night. It should be a great game. I definitely think it's a good litmus test though, for this Penn State offense because they come out they've scored thirty points and it's either ten or eleven straight games now, and the only other time they did this in the James Franklin era, it was Iowa who snapped the streak. So they come out Saturday and keep that thirty point streak alive. I think you're gonna feel really good about this offense, and I think it's safe to say they'll have a good bounce back performance. But regardless, should be a great game Saturday night, a good test or Penn State's offense. And like I said, regardless of what Iowa does or does and have alable offensively, when you're playing the Hawkeyes, it's that defense. It's the pick sixes, it's those things that worry you because Iowa does it better than just about anybody. But yeah, definitely should be a great game on Saturday. It's hard to explain to people who have never been to one, or don't you know, follow Penn State religiously, just that atmosphere makes things happen. I wouldn't be the least been surprised to see Singleton's do. He has not had a big I think his longest rush this year's like sixteen yards. As long as pass receptions like twenty five he is do, I won't be surprised to see him get it Saturday night and rip off a forty fifty sixty yard run or get a pass and the flats and go for forty yards. Yeah. I think if Penn State's offensive line can just play how they've played, they'll be all right. It's they played better against Illinois than I think it seemed on the first watch from going back and rewatching the game, so I think come out to repeat that performance. I see no reason they can't average four so yards per carry again, and hey, you'll take that all day because four yards of eclips can get your first downs. So it will be a big test for the offensive line that I think I think they'll be. Okay, yeah, that Penn State defense my good, and I know I'm I need to tread lightly here because the Iowa folks take a lot of pride in their defense, and it's been arguably the best defense and sometimes clearly the best defense in the Big Ten at times in recent years. But sheer athleticism and not that it's not a good defense in terms of execution. But this Penn State crew, Wow, they've got athletes. They've got NFL players just all over the place, all three levels. I don't know why I didn't pick this team to win the Big Ten, but I didn't. But let me just make they've got dudes all over the place. You're you're I'm sure you're totally right. You know a lot more about that defense than I do. I always got NFL guys at every level on defense too, so they may not be as many. Okay, Okay, I don't know that. You could be you could be right. I have no idea they probably have. Will I will say about this Penn State defense, it makes it so special. Even if you look at you know, this team, it's unavoidable. Gets compared up and down to twenty seventeen. It is part of this. Your twenty seventeen is James Franklin's best team. That twenty seventeen team didn't have a true game wrecker on defense. This defense has at least one first round pick at every single level. And that's when you start getting into that special territory. You know, Chop Robinson is going to be a first round pick. Abdel Carter will be a first round pick. Kayalen King will be a first round pick. You go back up to the defensive line, then Identa Sutton will probably be a first round pick when the time comes. Like this team, it's not just that they're loaded with NFL guys. They're loaded with legitimate first round, second round, five ten years stuttlework kind of guys and just you don't you don't get that very often in college football. If you're not in Alabama, you're not a Georgia even know how the state doesn't have a lot of their defense. And you know, some of it is good recruiting wins, some of it has been great development by Mandy Daz and the staff. Some of it is just these guys fit. Manny Das This scheme perckly, but I think that's with me at least. That's what makes this defensive potential to be so special. It is not that they've got NFL guys at every level, but they've got at least one first round pick at every single level, potentially multiple first round picks in the defensive end room. I think we can all agree if I was going to win this game, or have any chance of winning this game heading into the fourth, the score wasn't going to be thirty to thirty three. It's gonna be low scoring regardless. So if I was going to win this game, they have to hold Penn State two under twenty. And I just don't know that those offensive injuries hamper i was offense anymore significantly than it's already hampered based on its ineptitude of recent data. I mean, maybe it will, and maybe you're right about you know, Kayleb, we haven't seen Kyle Johnson break really anything off, at least for the first two games, first three games. We really well I guess he played in first two games. We haven't seen him really break anything off. We saw that ability last year, and you're right, his top end speeds better than anything else they have it at running back. I think you're right about Jaz Patterson Kmary Molton runs the ball down hill. I think it was really good that Camari fumbled the ball on Saturday. I know that sounds dumb. Get get that out of his system now, and I have a lot of confidence in Ladell Bets to clean that up. I mean he fumbled the ball right on because you know Steven Selly almost picked the ball up. But boy, imagine doing that at Happy Valley and that might be their only chance to get to the end zone. And Camari Molton fumbles the ball at the goal line. So that will be addressed. Ball security will be I guarantee you as being emphasized strongly with that position group this week. And I just you know, I go back to the defense. They're healthy. I mean, as far as I'm aware they're healthy. Is there anybody out defensively right now Elliott besides Noah for for the season, so that full strength I'm aware of, Mr Harris back. I think I think the big thing to watch for as far as injuries moving forward is you know guys like Jay Hagan's, guys like Cooper the Jean. If you start getting some of those guys dinged up, then I think we start running into some problems. And I don't think. I know. I was talking to to coach Patterson last night and I know he won't mind if I share this. He's been a little bit underwhelmed by Xavier Wampa this year, a little bit. You know, he's obviously very athletic, he's he's got great ball skills, but just a little bit underwhelmed with his with his reaction time, and just he's just not been maybe quite as as good as you'd expect out of a second year five star. But he's also still young. If he starts playing up to his expectation. Uh, you know, they've got a lot of sure tackling machines out there, and Jay Higgins and Quinn Schulty and Sebastian cast On those guys. So I don't know. I just I don't know that they're going to go there and win. I hope it rains. While we're on the topic of Cade force and things, some of those throws against Western Michigan, I mean, I'm sitting next to Adam in the press box, like, what the hell was that? Is he looking? You know, what do you think it comes down to him just forcing things or what are your thoughts there, Corey, I don't know. I think he's hurt. I think I think he's hurt. Yeah, and I know that I sound like a broken record, and I got ripped for saying it a week ago. I can only speak out of turn because I'm not there every day and I'm not seeing I'm not a part of the medical staff. But based on what I know, which is limited, Based on what I know, he should have been shut down last week. That's my opinion. I believe they should have shut him down the day after the Iowa State game, let him rest that quad for eight eight days, assuming that would have helped the situation. Instead, we got what I believe to be malarkey on that Tuesday from Kate about how he felt better than he has in a month. What first drive of the game, he tries to scramble for eight yards and he literally looked like Don Patterson running down the field. No offense to Don Patterson. Loved the guy, but don't want him running as a quarterback and IA's offense right now, and I don't think Don Patterson would want that, So like he was hurt, I don't want to hear this ridiculousness about how he feels almost like he's back. He looked as I think, as hampered as he has, and he took a beating on Saturday, Elliott, he got blasted, and he had a play late in the game where he got rocked, and even Don said to me last night, you know he Kay could have easily gotten hurt on that play. Kade was in the game too long on Saturday. Let's talk about that for a second. He didn't come out of the game until like eight minutes to go in the game. You're up thirty one point, sir, well, i went thirty one the twenty four. That's ridiculous. He shouldn't have even played in the game. Deacon Hill should have played, or Joe Labors should have played. Don't tell me for a second that you're that you win a game forty one to ten with Kade McNamara playing poorly. You're telling me they wouldn't have beat they wouldn't have been able to win with Deacon Hill or Joe Labis. They did not win that game Saturday because of Kade McNamar, and they still won in Flying Colors. With Flying Colors so I think they should have arrested him. That's my one fear is now he's going to be hampered the rest of the year because there one real opportunity minus the bye week, was this past week and we didn't take it. The JJ McCarthy four eisman hype that subsided somewhat this week on social media. Of course, JJ had a rough, rough outing against the likes of the Falcons of Bowling Green with three picks. JJ is still off to a great start Michigan as well. They've not given up more than ten points in a game this year, not more than one score. They coast home through this three games without Jim Harbaugh now he's back from suspension and coasting through three low level group of five culminated with the thirty one six outing against Bowling Green, although the Wolverines were only up fourteen to six at half in a lackluster performance, but they got the running game going and again JJ uneven in the passing game for the first time in a long time. He only threw five picks last year, or two of them. The pick six is in the College Football playoff game against TCU in twenty twenty two. Christian Dyer of Redger's Wire joins John di Edemo and the Michigan Writers as they got together on Wolverines Live. That's our show delivery every Wednesday at five pm Eastern Time on our Michigan channel. So it's rud Curs, it's Michigan Big Ten opener for both. The Scarlet Knights are three and oh, but they've done that three consecutive years. Now they start to play with the big boys. Although Rudgers with two Power five wins, one against Northwestern in the Big Ten, of course, and then coming off an impressive showing against the Hokies of Virginia Tech, a bad acc team. This is not your father's Virginia Tech, Frank Beamer teams or justin point eight teams. Early in his tenure, Greg Siano and Rudgurs has presented Michigan with a challenge the last two years, and they've got a good team Defensively, they led it halftime last year. They took Michigan to a one score game two seasons ago in ann Arbor, it's Michigan, It's rud Curse. Let's hear from the guys. But I do think Michigan's going to be testinate a little bit more in this game than they have been. This is a good ramp up test game, I think measuring stick game for Michigan in many many ways, because I'm assuming it's going to be a little bit of a higher quality of reckers can admit the mistakes. I think it's going to be a game where we're going to find out a lot about these two teams. By two thirty three Filty in the afternoon, if Jim Harbaugh had been suspended for four games, I'm not sure fundamentally changes this game on paper a whole lot. You know, things can happen in games, Mistakes can happen, obviously, But this is this is a Michigan team that to me is the deepest team in the Big Ten by far. You and I think player for player, it's the best team in the Big Ten. I, for the life of me, can't figure out this is, with all due respect, why Ohio States getting all the buzz they're getting with the pieces that are in place back in ann Arbor. And I'm not just saying that because I'm on a Michigan show. I'm saying that from the bottom of my heart. When you look at the returning pieces, under center, in the backfield at wide receiver is probably the only place where you could say Ohio State offensively, it would have an edge, if not a significant edge, But you got to get the ball to those guys right on the outside. And I think that's where Ohio State's struggling this year. So you know, Johnson and Moore not coming, potentially not being available on Saturday. Jim Harbaugh, you know, if he was suspended for the four games, like we all thought he was going to be, would be suspended for this game. I still think Michigan just kind of rolls along and goes along. There's a mindset, there's a mentality, there's a mission. I think the worst thing to happen to Rutgers this year is Michigan losing in the College Football Playoff last year. Right, this is a hungry team, This is a team on the mission. And you know, so I think that well, I think this has the potential to be a closer game and the closest out of the first three games. I don't think it's a thirty one point spread like we saw from Vegas at the beginning of the week. But if Rutgers is able to run the ball, consistently get first downs. Keep in mind, Rutgers did have a halftime lead last year at Shi Stadium. Maybe not a deserved halftime lead, right, but it was a halftime lead. A special team's play made the difference. You know. It's I think this has the potential maybe not to be what you saw in an arbor two years ago when when Rutgers was unfortunate not to come away with the upset, but I think that this could be a good test for Michigan and get them primed up for Week five. Big Ten Fans. Week four provides a special treat with a Friday night a conference game Wisconsin and Purdue. Can you believe that the Boilers have not defeated the Badgers in sixteen consecutive tries going back to twenty four. Wisconsin a six point favorite on the road. The Badgers have not looked good on offense, still trying to pull it together between Luke Fickle, offensive coordinator Phil Longo and new starting quarterback at Tanner Mordecai Braylan Allen is banged up Purdue. Coming off a bad fourth quarter against Purdue, they could have won the game. They were right there, but they altered with a ton of turnovers was at seven Hudson Cart had four at halftime against Syracuse. They fill in that one thirty five twenty at home. So it's Purdue at home against Wisconsin on Friday night. Other Big Ten matchups include Maryland Michigan State. We know the fiasco that is Michigan State. Harlan Barnett will continue to coach the team, coming off that difficult forty one to seven debacle against Washington. Of course, Mill Tucker in the process of being fired by the MSU administration. Maryland coming in with an undefeated record, having won its final nine conference game in glorious fashion over the Cavaliers of Virginia, going down fourteen to nothing for a second consecutive game in Maryland raced off forty two consecutive points to win that one. Turps and Spartans get together. Maryland is a seven and a half point favorite on the road until Lee Attenkavloa has got to be salivating. Michigan State's past defense is awful. They're coming off a school record seven hundred and thirteen yards given up in total offense. Michael Pennox could have thrown for a million yards. He left the game sometime in the fourth quarter and Washington throttled down and still set the all time record against Michigan State's defense and totally yardage. So Maryland playmakers have fun at the expense of Sparty. We also in the Big Ten have a matchup between Minnesota and Northwestern that's on the Big Ten Network Saturday night. The Gophers lost its first game at the season against North Carolina on the road last weekend. They need to find a passing attack. Northwestern at one and two, lost a Big Ten opener against Rutgers a few weeks ago. The Wildcats have its win against UNLV out of conference play. Indiana should get healthy at the expense of Akron. The Hoosiers, coming off an extremely excruciating fourth quarter against Louisville IU, down twenty one nothing, scores a couple of touchdowns, gets within a score, marches down the field in the final minutes, has a fourth and inches at the goal line, and they don't run the sneak to get the automatic first down. They run some exotic zone rushing play that lost a zillion yards and that was that. Indiana Tavan Jackson is now solidified by coach Tom Allen as the starter in Bloomington, and he threw for three hundred yards in this game. We thought Indiana did not have a passing attack and it was going to take time for him to develop well. Of course, he's still developing as a young, young freshman quarterback. But man, that is good news. I don't know if it's in time to save Tom Allen's job, but three hundred yards passing from Tayn Allen and they kept up with a decent Louisville team. So some hope for the Hoosiers. Theirs they take on Acron and they should run their record to two and two. Elsewhere out of conference, Louisiana Tech at Nebraska. Matt Rule with his first win at Nebraska in fairly easy fashion over Northern Illinois thirty five eleven. Heinrich Harburg started that game fourteen of twenty four two touchdowns. Nebraska, I know that you've not heard this statement made in a long time from your quarterback zero interceptions. Will Jeff Simms get back to the starting role this week against Louisian attach a Bulldogs team that is two and two three and nine last season. Huskers, though without starting running back Gaybervon out for the season, also backup Premier Johnson. This leaves a ton of responsibility on near thousand yard rusher from last season, Anthony Grant and backups of course, and so Nebraska, hurt at the running back position, takes on Louisiana Tech as a twenty one point favorite, and finally Florida Atlantic and Illinois and the line I look to get healthy in the wind column after losing to Kansas and Penn State back to back. There one and two. Fau comes in with Tom Herman on the sideline, Casey Thompson, the former Husker quarterback manning the offense, and Fau is one and two. That's the rundown to the Big ten right here on Big Ten Paradigm Again, college football fans go nuts this weekend, But before you do, listen to all the podcasts here on the College Gridiron Coast to Coast Network and join me Mark Rogers on YouTube at the Voice of College Football. And hey, guess what we get to talk about all this next week with you? So meet us on back here at Big Ten Paradigm