Speaker 1: You are now listening to the Big Ten Paradigm podcast
here on the College Gridiron Coast to Coast podcast Network.
Please welcome in, Noah Drury. It's we covered the Big
Ten throughout this whole entire twenty twenty five college football season.
Speaker 2: And welcome in to the Big Ten Paradigm here on
College Gridiron Coast to Coast Network. I am no addura
and happy to be along with you for our Week
seven recapp And there was a lot of good games
this weekend, but I think first order of business and
the man that's kind of been the topic of conversation
of the Big Ten is no longer going to be
in it, at least with the Penn State Nitney Lyons
as head coach. James Franklin has been fired. I saw
the report from Pete Thamil, and quickly later everyone else
reporting about it in the Penn State Athletic department and
the whole university put out a statement saying they are
going to pay the buy out in that they needed to.
Kind of short story short if you haven't seen the
report already, y'all, though, this has been all over college
football social media, and if you're listening to this show.
I'm assuming you're at least a fan of a Big
Ten program or love following the Big Ten in general.
They need to move on and have a high standard
further athletics. So James Franklin is out at Penn State.
Now what are my thoughts about this? Well, they took
a twenty two to twenty one lost who Northwestern Andrew
Aller goes down in that game and he is going
to be out with the season ending injury. And yeah,
I mean back to back losses to two Big ten programs.
While UCLA they did handle their business against Michigan State
more on that later. And then Northwestern, which a team
with David Brown who's kind of been able to hold
its head above water since the firing of Patch Fitzgerald.
I know in his interim season he was able to
make a game, but Northwestern's not a program. I know
they've made a couple of Big Ten titles back when
it was the East and West, but this is not
two very good losses. And we see Oregon, you know,
being able to beat them, and it kind of broke everything.
You had to go take a West coast trip and
then you come back home and end up falling short
in the final seconds against the Northwestern team that got
handled by two lane early.
Speaker 3: In the season.
Speaker 2: Now, I'm not gonna say Northwestern's bad. They're not a
bad team. In fact, they might make a bowl game
because if you look at the Northwestern schedule and this
is not meant to be a Northwestern segment. But I mean,
they barely beat UCLA, get handled by Oregon in that game.
They had a backdoor cover in that game, and then
went against the ol Monroe, went against Penn State. Now
you got Purdue, Nebraska, USC, Michigan, Minnesota, and Illinois. I
think they could beat Purdue, and I think they could
beat Minnesota and have a chance to find their way
into a bowl game. And look, they're four and two
on the season, a lot of season left to be
played for the Wildcacts among other Big Ten teams, and
you know this, they did enough to win this game.
And I think it's more of Look, Penn State's quit.
They I don't know if it's quit or they just
didn't want to play for Franklin, but it has not
been well, not well for this team at all. Like
k Tron Allen was able to kind of produce in
this game and DeVante Ross had a huge game throughout
the air, but other than that, defensively only able to
pick up two tackles for lost against the Northwestern team
that I don't know if they recruit any blue chip
players at all, and that's just embarrassing. Now, Northwestern only
had two tackles for loss too, but I feel like
they were just kind of able to just slow this
Penn State team down enough where they really couldn't find
a moment to get up big. And while watching this
game the most intently, I saw that it was close
the whole way through. I'm like, God, dude, is Penn
State going to do it again? And this is a
team that was ranked number two to start out the
preseason AP Top twenty five pole, which is the reason
also why preseason rankings shouldn't matter at all, because situations
like this can happen all the time, so ap voters,
when you see teams struggle and they continue to fall down,
and I'm glad they got unranked after losing to UCLA
and against Oregon. While Penn State did have two backdoor
touchdowns to send it to overtime and actually had a
chance and they were leading in overtime, at a certain point.
They didn't look all that well that game. And I
think with Indiana beating Oregon, you know how good is
Oregon to this point? And are they still one of
those teams that you think could compete for a national title.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 2: That will be a discussion topic for later. I want
to stay on the Penn State side this this Penn
State schedule, you play Iowa, who just handled business against Wisconsin.
Like I'll touch on that game quickly. Wisconsin is quit.
Luke Fickle will probably be gone within the coming weeks.
They might let him finish out the season. I'm not
too sure, but I'm assuming Luke Fickle will be a
coordinator somewhere next season or at a Group of five job,
because he's not going to get a power coaching job
with how bad he's handled Wisconsin. I still think he
could be an excellent play caller and offensive mine somewhere,
but other than that, just because of really what he
did at Cincinnati. Needed a great job at Cincinnati's that
Cincinnati program, and I mean they're still getting out. They're
ranked in the top twenty five with Scott centerfield, but
that was a hot seat job at one moment not
too long ago. I want to say it was like
two seasons ago. Centarsfield jobs was almost called for. But
Fickle did a nice job with Cincinnati, and obviously he's
not going to go back there, but maybe a group
of five school will want to take a poke at
him and then Yeah, but regardless, Wisconsin's not a good
team and I was really starting to build it together
on the defensive side because they didn't play well offensively
that game. And I think if they could really halt
this Penn State offense, especially with having Krunkmeyer as their quarterback,
and he's someone that's just kind of been a backup
for this Penn State team all along, it could get
ugly for Penn State. Then you got Ohio State in Indiana.
Then you go to Michigan State. I think Michigan State
is a game you can win. Then Nebraska, then Rutgers.
Like is Penn State making a bowl game this year?
Like they're gonna have an interim coach in Terry Smith,
which former player coach in the defensive back rooms, like,
I think there will be some sort of buy in,
but I think we're gonna see major losses in the
recruiting trail and then also a lot of exodus in
the transfer portal from guys who do not graduate in
their depth pieces and are like, what new staff is
coming in? Am I going to be able to play
with this new staff?
Speaker 3: And then not? It could be it could be bad.
Speaker 2: But that is besides the point. Who's next at Penn State?
This has been the big question all day that I've
been seeing everywhere and so far from every show that
I've seen react to this podcast or people on the internet,
mainly Twitter, who is Penn State gonna go after? Because
the first name I keep seeing is Kirk Signetti. And
I'm telling you right now, if I was Kurt Signetti
and the success I've been having at Indiana so far
one and a half years and just picking up my
first win and a really good shot at a chance
of playing in the Big Ten Championship and potentially getting
a bye in the playoff win or lose that game,
I don't think he would leave. So who else do
you look to? I see Matt Roll with Nebraska. That's
a possibility, especially with howt Nebraska is playing recently. You
could probably get Ryola to transfer over and have some
stability at quarterback. That could be good. You would have
Matt Campbell at Iowa State. I think that you would
definitely need to hire some assistance to help on the
recruiting side if you are Matt Campbell. But in terms
of player development and coaching, but good ball teams, I mean,
Iowa State's not this prestigious program that's been good for
a long time. Matt Campbell has been able to develop
this Iowa State team and put receivers in the NFL
like Xavier Hutchinson, Jalen know Well, a bunch of I
know there's two receivers drafted in that last draft class.
You've been able to have other good players Breze Hall,
Brock Purdy, a bunch of guys on the defensive side
as well. Like Matt Campbell, would be perfect in terms
of where this Penn State program needs to go. And
I don't know if they would recruit all necessarily that
well at Iowa State or excuse me, at Penn State
with him in the start, but I think if you
could really get something built there. And he's a former
Ohio guy, he's been wanting to probably have a Big
ten job. He was considered for the Michigan job. I
know that and the Wisconsin one as well, but I
think he wanted to move a little bit more east
and this might be a perfect opportunity. I've seen Manny Diaz.
I don't make that higher. I think he's fine at
Duke and he's got a good thing built there so
far taking over from Mike Elco. And I don't know
if he would want to leave. Obviously, if you get
that call, you might want to entertain it. I saw
Dan Mullen. I thought that would be interesting, but that's
kind of a tough job to call, and I don't
know if the Penn and State fan base would be
happy with that. And what were some other names? Lancelipoled In,
Clark Lee. I don't think Clark Lee leaves Vandy. To
be completely honest with you, I don't think that's something
that I don't think we see that, to be completely honest.
Is there anyone else? Yeah, I don't think John summerl
or Brent Key really take it. Alex Scholish is a
good name, and then I saw it, Yeah, this was
the one I saw. Fran Brown I think has a
good chance to maybe end up being that head coach.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 2: It would be tough because he doesn't have that much
experience as being a head coach and while he is
at the P four, Syracuse is a team that doesn't
really give you a good infrastructure in terms of actually
how to handle a big program. No, no offense to Syracuse.
I mean still, you know, this season's kind of gone
with losing Steven Jelly and obviously you know you want
to hear the All Day, All Sports discussion with the
ACC podcast and listen to that as well if you
want to hear more Syracuse talk. But yeah, I think
this is, uh, this is not good, not a good
place for the Penn State program. You gotta be able
to kind of heal the wounds as quick as possible,
you know, obviously with the advancements in medical and you know,
just in terms of recovery and everything like, obviously that's
gotten a lot better in terms of actual physical health.
But Penn State's got to find a way to work
or straight something for them to you know, be able
to bounce back and be able to get back to
where they were and even where they were winning in
top ten games, making deep runs in the postseason, which
they did last year with James Franklin. But being able
to beat those teams that are just as good or
better than them. And I don't think James Franklin's a
bad coach. I think we will see him somewhere, maybe
not next year. I think he could take it off.
And he's getting paid fifty million dollars, so I wouldn't
really it's I saw forty nine million, I saw fifty
six million. I don't know what the actual buyout is
going to come out to. It might be fifty six
million with his assistants. But yeah, I think that we won't.
I think we will see James Franklin somewhere again. I
don't know where it would be. He's good enough to
be a head coach. He's a great program builder, dragged
this Penn State program really out of the mud and
out of the old school ways and being able to
modernize this team. And he's had a lot of success,
won a Big Ten championship, but in the end, it
didn't go well. And I think Oregon broke this team
this season, and I think that everything kind of came
falling down after that. It's been so many long years
of Oh, is Penn State ever gonna get over the
hump with James Franklin.
Speaker 3: And they didn't. They didn't at all.
Speaker 2: Moving on from that discussion, Indiana and Oregon a Top
ten matchup on CBS in the three thirty window, and
we're gonna start with the winners in Indiana because wild
they did not play a perfect game by any means,
because Oregon's a really good ball team, the good ball club.
Mendoza had a solid game, and he got enough help
from the ground game with Hemby and Boy doing their part.
And look, Elijah Suratt is one of the best weapons
in the Big Ten. He was someone that I did
really like coming into this season. Obviously last year he
played decently well for them as well, getting almost a
thousand yards and eight touchdowns.
Speaker 3: He was a jam you guy.
Speaker 2: And then before that, looks like Saint Francis Pennsylvania, This
kid and Kurt Signetti and his team one and a
half years are able to pick up a top three win.
And look, they're sitting at number three in the AP
poll right now. And the one thing and the one
difference between this year's narrative about the Indiana team and
last year's team, you know that had a lot of
success and did things. Indiana football was really never expecting
The only time they came close was the COVID year
with Michael Pennix and Kitlin de Boor.
Speaker 3: It was that they.
Speaker 2: Have legit dudes at the line of scrimmage on both sides.
Their offensive line did well enough in this game, and
their defensive line absolutely confused Oregon and especially Dante Moore
six sacks, eight TFLs, and they played relatively well in
the secondary. Dante did not have a good game, two interceptions,
five point five yards per attempt. I still think he
made some good plays in this game, but as looking
at as an overall grigrade in terms of the game
they made Dante Moore and will Stein as the play caller,
they've got him in so much second and third and
longs with getting these tackles for loss that it kind
of took what Oregon wanted to do, which with will
Stein is you know, have this more short converted offense
and not really have to make too many reads down
the field, and they took it away. Malik Benson had
that one shot play. Other than that to Coreyan Moore,
Gary Bryant, Kenyan Sadik guys that we've thought we're really
good players just not really come to life in this game.
And this was at Austin Stadium too. And look, Indiana's
got two really good wins on the season now obviously
the one versus Illinois, which that one looks less impressive
after they drop out, and Indiana six and zero again,
this team plays Michigan State, UCLA, Maryland, Penn State, Wisconsin, Purdue.
There is a really good chance that this team's twelve
and zero and goes to the Big Ten title game.
Speaker 3: Are they.
Speaker 2: A national championship contender? You really have to ask this question.
In twenty twenty five, a school that has a basketball
school label on it, Hwire's this coach from James Madison.
Kurt Signetti would be great for WWE as like a
Paul Hayman or some sort of manager or maybe he
has like a GM some sort of role in that
because he gives great postgame interviews, press conferences, everything.
Speaker 3: You know, he is very.
Speaker 2: Very fun to watch, maybe not if you're a er
actually in the room, but turns as an outsider who
looks at media. You know, has talked smack all this
time since really coming to Indiana. I remember when he
first got hired and went to the basketball game and
set a bunch of stuff like people are like, oh, okay,
well let's see if it actually no, it's actually happening.
On the organ side, I thought they still played decent,
like especially on the defensive side. I know they gave
up some stuff, and I think the secondary might be
a little questionable, but like Dynaman was flying around out
there making tackles in space, Boshtter as well. I just
think really they got owned on the defense. On the
offensive line for Indiana did a pretty solid job, and
Mendoza was orchestrating in a way where it was hard
to establish pressure on him. And Mendoza made one really
bad throw fading away trying to throw a crossing route
and Oregon ended up picking it off and I'm pretty
sure that was a touchdown Forregan off the pick six
is well, yeah from Finney junior. But I mean Indiana
did a really good job of running inside zone and
scheming up plays on the outside. There's multiple comeback routes
from sarat and Amari Cooper back shoulder throws that you know,
we're really impressive. And you know, Indiana, I thought coached
a better game and I thought their players played a
little bit more harder. There's multiple times where there was
broken tackles in that game, and Indiana was able to
take advantage. They were able to come away with a victory.
And that's what you want to see if you are
it's Kurt Signetti and it's an easy road from here.
I don't think we'll ever have to bring on or
we'll have to talk about Indiana as a headline unless
they get upset, which is possible in the Big Ten.
Speaker 3: I'm not gonna say it's not, but.
Speaker 2: It's going to be tough for anyone to really stop
this team that's left on its schedule out Big Ten Championship.
Still a lot of season left. We'll see what happens
next game. I wanted to move on to the seven
to thirty game on nbc USC Michigan, so King Miller
came out because Waymont Jordan didn't have a great game.
King Miller one of the six guys I think he
was the only left guy in the top six in
the depth chart for USC that was actually available for
this game, and he has one of the best rushing
performances I've ever seen. Eighteen not and I've ever seen,
but like in terms of a guy coming out of
nowhere since like one of the kind of Walker games
obviously when he was at Northwestern, one of the Hassan
Haskin games. Like in terms of Big Ten football, he's
a guy that really emerged. And I believe he's not
on scholarship either, so they will be paying up for
him in giving him some sort of money. Eighteen for
one fifty eight point eight yards per carry at a
touchdown with him in Miava. Mieva looked really good. He
did have that one interception in the red zone that
was like what are you doing? And I know he
was probably intending to throw that one out in a
way because he was outside the pocket, but ended up
being a pick by Barry of Michigan. But man, McKay
Lemon one of the most special players in the Big
Ten across the whole entire country. I think he's gonna
be a nice Day two pick for someone in this
NFL draft. Kobe Lane ended up having a nice touchdown
grab and I think if you have Lane and Lemon
and whoever is at the running back position in Mayeva, Wow,
I don't know. If USC is a top four team
in the Big Ten, they're making their case and I
think if they have their weapons playing all right and
can really scheme it up, and you got one of
the best offensive coaches in Lincoln Riley with the good
quarterback and good skilled players, and that if the defense
is gonna play like this now, I don't think Michigan's
uber talented on the offensive side. Justice Haynes goes to
in this game, and I think there's a difference between
him and Marshall out of the backfield, and look, Caines
went down. You know, in the first half. Marshall was
able to do okay, but Underwood didn't necessarily play bad,
but he had some plays. I was kind of just like, man,
this is just and I'm I'm sure he got hurt
because you remember he came up after getting hit. He
came back up and he yeah, it was It was
kind of all over from there. Jane Davis goes in
at the end, he throws an interception, and how about
Bishop Fitzgerald getting two picks. But I think Ramsey coming
back in the secondary for this USC team really made
a difference. Eric Gentry is a stud That kid should
be an All American if he remains to stay healthy.
So I think it'll be good for this team to
continue to play on and do well and look USC
they play Notre Dame next week. We'll preview that game
a little bit. I also want everyone to hear Matt
Zemic on Get Off My Pylon. He's an editor for
Trojan's Wire, and we should have him on the show
at some point during the year. He does a really
good job of covering the West Coast, and yeah, I
think that getting his opinion on what USC and Notre
Dame can look like, and also the reaction on this
game as well, would be good for your ears. Also,
they play Nebraska, Northwestern Iowa, Oregon UCLA. Not the easiest
schedules of finishing up, but hey, you know they're five
and one to this point. Back in Salet the top
twenty five. They're going to South Bend. That will be
a very crucial game to really see if the Big
Ten's is gonna get a fourth team in because I
think Oregon's still going to be able to maintain their
way in there. I think Illinois and Michigan and losto.
Michigan goes undefeated the rest of the way or out
of it. So I think USC is kind of detrimental
and will they be.
Speaker 3: In it or not?
Speaker 2: And I mean if the USC can be Oregon, that
would be huge. I don't know if that's necessarily possible,
but that could be huge. Also, does Orgon get in
if they have two losses because they would lose to the.
Speaker 3: Two best teams on their schedule.
Speaker 2: That's a conversation for another day. All Right, a couple
more games I want to react to, and then we'll
get into the AP Top twenty five and see if
we will or we'll get a prediction of the week
eight matchups. This I can't believe we're already almost halfway.
Speaker 3: Through the year.
Speaker 2: It's been going by so fast, right, And another team
that makes games go by so fast with how dominant
they are the Ohio State buck Guys. Look, if you
box score this box score watch this team, you're gonna
be like, man, this Ohio State team, Like how were
they ranked number one? But you have to watch this
team play on the tape. They just took care of
Illinois and got them out of this game. They ended
up going up twenty to nothing at one point. Illinois
was able to do some things when Ohio State was
playing more and a relax just oh we can't let
him beat us type of way, and the better. While
Julian san is not the best quarterback in the country,
not even in my opinion, the best quarterback in the
Big Ten in terms of the talent perspective, but the
way he is utilized in this offense is I would
describe him maybe not Steve Nash. What's like a good
overall point guard that's like a very solid contributor on
a team. But you know, he's not necessarily this super
elite guy, at least not yet. He's still young. He's
a red shirt freshman, and he's got more time to develop,
like a Mike Conley, like a guy that's really good
and funny because Mike Conley actually.
Speaker 3: Went to Ohio State too, and Mike.
Speaker 2: Conley had some years on the Grizzlies. He's really good
and yeah, but regardless, Okay, getting off topic, he does
a really good job of just kind of you know,
doing what he's told, just really setting up the offense
for success. Jeremiah Smith, Carnell Say Max Claire are really
fun weapons for this team. And Brandon Innis I think
could be worked in there more as that third like
dynamic receiver Bo Jackson and CJ. Donaldson doing off out
of the backfield, and then the defense is special on
all fronts, defensive line, linebackers. I think they have the
best secondary with guys like Davison and mc nosen, Jalen McClain,
Caleb Downs, Like this is a really special group, Jermaine
Matthews as well, Like they seriously have the best defensive
backfield in America. Like I don't think it's close. I
think they have one of the best d lines and
really front six is front sevens and the way Matt
Patricia is able to utilize those guys and kind of
just keep them disciplined, like you don't see Ohio State
really get super undisciplined on the defensive side. And Jim
Knowles was a little bit more of a gambler. And yeah,
I mean he did a good job coaching this defense
the past two seasons, especially last year on their playoff run,
Like they did a good job. But I think there's
something a little bit more different about this group. Even
with losing JTT and Jack Sawyer and Denzel Burke who
really didn't have a great last year but still a
good solid player, Cody Simon as well, this is still
a really good Ohio State team, and then on the
Illinois front, like they got handled. And I don't think
Illinois necessarily the bad team or a bad team, but
I think they just kind of got taken care of.
They used Laffert Laffery at the running back position as
their main guy that got touches, Like they just they
got taken.
Speaker 3: Care of early.
Speaker 2: And when that happens to you, you're just not gonna
be able to come back in that game, especially when
you don't have an explosive offense. I mean, hink Beat
he's a very fun weapon for this team, and I
mean Dixon Clement are other solid guys on the outside,
but they ain't no USC. They're not Washington, which that
was a fun game Friday night. We'll get into it.
They don't have n Isaiah Hunter and Dean Key. Not
like I'm not saying they're necessarily that much worse, but
especially with the quarterback and Luke Altmeyer, that's someone that
you want to have when you're ahead, but maybe not
when you're behind because he's another like game managing point
guard type of quarterback. You're just not gonna win football
games that way. Speaking of fun football games, there's two
that I want to talk about, and then I'll lightly
touch on Michigan State, ucl In Purdue Minnesota. Nebraska won
a crazy game. They have one of the best running
backs in the Big Ten and m at Johnson. I mean,
he averaged eight point four yards per carrion. While he
didn't have touchdowns because Dane Key and Isaiah Hunter are
freaks and Lindenmeyer had that nice touchdown grab, he was
really good for Nebraska, and I think kind of the
difference in this game because while on the one Ray
and Dawan Williams weren't bad for Maryland, I think he
was just kind of the X factor in this game,
especially with Riola throwing three interceptions, which he is sometimes
way too careless of the ball with the ball and
he plays so nonchalantly and tries to have almost this
like gimmick, like he's a pro wrestler, you know, at
the quarterback position, when he's still a really talented kid.
I mean, when you throw three picks and still have
nine yards per a time, typically you're doing something well.
And I known Isaiah Hunter had that one, you know,
kind of broken play on the outside and was able
to take it for a huge touch and then also
having weapons like day Key, like is Isaiah Hunter is
a very good receiver. I would expect him to play
on Sundays. And you know this is this was a
kid they got out of the transfer portal from cal
He's only a sophomore, so there's a chance that he
will be back next season two, which is crazy to
say unless you know Matt Rule goes and takes the
Penn State job and then he's at Penn State, which
would give Penn State a great wide receiver to work
with because they don't have that necessarily. But oh, I
want to hate and look, Nebraska is not great on
the defensive lines of scrimmage. I don't think they're that
great of a defensive team. But they were able to
force Maryland to some stops and force them to field goals,
So or a field goal, I should say, and I
think Malik Washington.
Speaker 3: Let's see.
Speaker 2: I don't wouldn't want to do a quarterback power ranking
at this point, but I'd probably go Mendoza. I probably
go to Mott Williams. I think Dante's still up there
even after the bad performance versus Indiana, Like I still
think he's a good quarterback, But I'd have Malik Washington
up there with like Myeva. I guess he would put
Maeva up of all of them. But I think Malik
Washington is a top five QB in the Big Ten
and he's only a freshman. Keep that in mind, and
he looks so well controlling that Maryland offense if he had.
I mean, not that there's skilled players are necessarily terrible,
but like they're not the best group of players that
I've seen. If there's there's a chance that this man
enters the portal, this young man enters the portal and
he finds himself some money in a really good offense
to orchestrate. And does Indiana take him next year, or
is there a Big Ten team that goes in or
would he He might be an acc guy too. Duke
wouldn't take him because they have Mensa. An lost Mensa
goes pro. Syracuse could be a great option for him
if they give him some weapons to work with. Penn
State might throw a lot of money at him. Like
there's a lot of teams Michigan. Now Michigan has Bryce
and Bryce is still a good quarterback, just kind of
had a bad game. I'm just trying to think because
Ohio State's gonna have saying next year, maybe a team
if aguilars, There's there's so many endless possibilities, right, maybe
Alabama will take some after Simpson leaves.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 2: I know they also have Austin Mack you know, Kelan Russell.
But Milik Washington will get paid and go play somewhere
next season. I think that's the bottom line of what
I'm trying to say, because I like, even though Maryland
has a really good kid and maybe they can recruit
some talent over there to go play with them on
the outside and an offensive line to block for him.
I'm not the biggest Mike Loxley guy, and I don't
think that they're gonna be able to have the money
or really recruiting staff to get a players in position
where Maryland's a winning program.
Speaker 3: Oh look, they've had.
Speaker 2: Two tough losses back to back, and there's still a
good amount of season left to be played. Still six
games for the Turps. They traveled to UCLA, which UCLA's
favored in that game, host Indiana travel the Rutgers travel
to Illinois and Michigan and Michigan State like there's a
chance at this team, a solid chance that this team
finishes and goes to a bowl game. How good is
that chance, I don't know, but I think Michigan State's
definitely win because that's the game Lake Washington could have
like five hundred yards. And then Ucla, like it's possibility
they beat them as well. And I don't think necessarily
Michigan or Illinois or invincible either. All right, time to
talk about it. Ucla is a.
Speaker 3: Good is a good football team.
Speaker 2: Apparently I said we weren't going to talk about him
on the show the score and anything. That's just not
true anymore. Nico had another great game, and with the
coaches at or with the coaching changes, and also jalen Berger,
by the way, I saw he was out here, former
Michigan State running back, former Wisconsin running back. He's in
his sixth season of playing. I saw he was on
the field. I was like, Wow, this gotta be a
great revenge game for him. But Nico looked really good.
Nilen Berger led and rushing its kind of just like
UCLA just handled this Michigan State team. They didn't like
play particularly well. But Michigan State's so bad on the
offensive side Aiden Schiles with another like absolute performance you
just want to forget about. Couldn't get anything really going
with McKay Fraser, especially with going down so early in
this game. Milovich goes in as well, and Nick marsh
ends up having like a decent stat line. And he's
someone that could leave next year because I mean, he's
a sophomore that's got very high on talent. And I
think the question needs to be asked. And while we ask,
is Luke Fickel gonna be gone at Wisconsin? Is Jonathan
Smith going to be gone at Michigan State? I think
there's a good chance to be honest by the end
of the season. I know I said last week, I'm like,
do not have the Smith era? And I think it's time. Honestly,
after watching this game, I'm gonna be honest. I'm a
Michigan State fan. I'm my girlfriend goes to Michigan State.
And by the way, they'll be like, oh, you're a creep.
Speaker 3: I'm twenty years old. Okay, it's not weird.
Speaker 2: I just work in the media space and I'm lucky
to do so at such a young age and get
the opportunities to do these things. But you know, I'm
in an East Lanton affair amount. I'm been a supporter
of Michigan State football since I could really comprehend what
team sports were football, basketball, I haven't really been too
impactful and something else. I know, we've had good tennis
players in our Michigan State women's soccer team won a
big ten championship not too long ago, and I really
care about the university and how their athletics are doing. Wow,
I don't have any significance or really have any investment
in it in terms of a like being affiliated with it,
Like as a fan, I would probably say I love
Detroit Sports and the Tigers, by the way, and that
fifteen inning loss was it was, it was dreadful. But
this is just such a bad team to watch, and
ever since the twenty twenty one season, like it was
going downhill with Meltsucker. While I don't know how twenty
twenty three goes. If he you know, he doesn't have
the whole situation happened, that's what we'll call it. I like,
maybe it's a little different, but I don't know, because
twenty twenty two is such a bad year and it
just it wasn't going well and you know, when we
make the Smith higher and thinking he can really change
this program around.
Speaker 3: And while.
Speaker 2: Jay Batt didn't make the hire, I don't know because
it was Alan Haller and then Hallar ends up stepping down.
I don't know if Smith is the guy because he's
a West Coast guy, and you know, regionality and trying
to relate to these players and coaching staff fits and
really the area and what type of influence you want
to have on a football program. I don't know if
he's done his job, and there is a quit watch
on the defensive side. And it really sucks because I
really thought Joe Rossi was gonna be one of the
best hires in the Big Ten at a coordinator position
in quite some time, and it's just turned out to
be the opposite. Like Michigan State in the twenty twenties
has just had horrendous defenses on all fronts. I mean,
like we've had Halliday, who is decent, but like other
than that, Charles Brantley was good, but he ended up transferring,
so he's gone. It's really there's just been no sort
of effort or development like we had. We've had We
were lucky to have three NFL wide receivers and a
NFL running back, starting caliber guys on the same team
and Camp Coleman Jayden Reid, Jalen Naylor, Kenneth Walker. We
were lucky to have that because now, like I think
Nick marsh is definitely an NFL caliber player, but other
than that, like Jordan Hall, mo Leik Spencer, maybe that's
about it. So regardless to say, Michigan State football not
a good product to watch, not a good thing to
be affiliated with at all. Minnesota ends up escaping with
the win over Purdue. Purdue had control in this game
early and then all of a sudden came crashing down.
Drake lindsay whole kind of inaccurate able to pull this
out with a win with the team, and they're able
to get a defensive touchdown with the Koy Perch twenty
seven yard I n T return, and yeah, it was.
It sucks for Purdue And I said they were a
fun team. This game wasn't as fun to watch if
you were a boiler Maker fan. Ryan Brown did not
have a great game, and you know, it just kind
of kind of went downhill from there. Not too much
thoughts on it because I don't really know, if I
personally just don't think Minnesota and Purdue, it was more
of a game that I saw every so often, watched
a little cutup of it, and that's that. Not to
piss off the boiler Maker Golden Gophers fan base, but
you know, Golden Gophers got handled last week and Purdue
has not been able to win really any any games
of substance, to be quite honest. Let's let's take a
look at the top twenty five and yeah, Ohio state
number one team, still fifty first place votes. Indiana goes
up to number three, three first place votes. They move
up four spots. Oregon's gonna drop down to eight, going
down five spots from the number three place. I think
that's fair because I mean it's a ten point loss
at home to Indiana, and yeah, I mean you're still
above Georgia and LSU, which I think they have looked
better than this point. I don't know if they've looked
better than Bama and Texas Tech, which Tech's Tech very surprising,
but they also spend a lot of money in the offseason,
so they're going to continue to perform well. Notre Dame
at thirteen in Big ten countries, so we'll mention them
here which they slob or knocked NC State. I don't
know if Dave Doran is going to be there once again,
not my place to talk about it, but yeah, USC
at twenty.
Speaker 3: Good football team.
Speaker 2: I really like USC. I don't know if they're college
football player COLLEAA college football playoff caliber, but I still
think they're a team that's going to finish top twenty
five at the end of the season. And then Nebraska.
Nebraska gets in there at twenty five, Illinois and Michigan
just minising the cut and Washington, Oh. I forgot to
talk about that game. Washington Man Demon Williams is one
of the best quarterbacks in the Big Ten. That team
is fun, and Rutgers is fun too. I mean Cally Yacmanis,
he had a really good three quarters of that game.
Antoine Raymonds a fun player. They still have Ian Strong
and Sheffield and all of these guys on the outside.
Speaker 3: For Rutgers, they just don't know.
Speaker 2: What defense is so and when you're playing one of
the best teams with also Denzel Boston, you got Jonah
Coleman out of the backfield. Demon Williams had like over
five hundred something yards in that game. He is a
fun player to watch. And look, he's he's only a
second year player, so he's going to be around next season.
And look, Jetfish is a good head coach. He knows
how to win, he knows how to do things him
Noah Fafida to Tedroa McMillan. You know, there's a bunch
of good Arizona players on that team from the last
year in the bat Pac twelve and Arizona is looking
good and Jackson Ardol and when he actually looked like
a good player and Arizona played and that was a
great clash.
Speaker 3: And I believe the Alama.
Speaker 2: Bowl and then Jetfish leaves and then he's at Washington
as a kind of a slow start, but there was
a lot of promise. And now Washington they're what five
and one, there's a chance they finished top twenty five.
They gave Ohio State a little bit of a push
in that game. I think they're decent on both sides
of the ball. They're a fun team. And then other
than that, there is no other teams but Michigan and
Illinois drop out of the top twenty five. And while
I think the top three teams in the Big ten
are pretty solidified. It would be interesting to see who
fights for that fourth spot. If we look at the
Washington schedule for the rest of the seasons. We go
back and pull up some stuff. And this is the
great thing about doing a show recorded, is I uh.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 2: They play Michigan next week. That will beat so off
at the Big House. Michigan a five and a half
point favorite. Illinois, Wisconsin, Purdue, Ucla, Oregon. There's a chance
for ten and two, but most likely I'd say nine
to three.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I would say so, although they.
Speaker 2: Do have that Oregon game at home and wile Kalin
de Bor is not there anymore. Dan Lanning has not
had the easiest time with Washington when they've been a
good team so far in his young tenure Army. He's
a third year head coach. But yeah, all right, we
do we do next week in the Big ten Week
eight man. It's once again mind boggling to say that
we are eight weeks in, well technically nine with week zero,
but we are very close to, you know, having the
College Football Playoff rankings and all these things and season
coming to an end. I don't want to see it
happen at all. Nebraska Minnesota will be the Friday night
game and it will be an eight o'clock kick on Fox.
Nebraska coming out as a six and a half point favorite,
opened up at five and a half, and we'll see
how it continues to move along in the week over
under a forty six and a half. I'd like Riola
to take care of the ball more and I'd really
like to see Nebraska absolutely dominate that six and a
half point spread. Going to Minnesota is going to be
a tough test the team that is four and two,
and you know, they've been able to pull out a
couple of close ones versus Purdue and Rutgers, but I
don't think they've looked that impressive on the season. And
the loss to California was really weird, and obviously it's
a West Coast game late at night. You know, it
definitely in terms of body clock had an effect. But
I think Nebraska is a good football team, and I
think if they can find a way to maybe establish
more pressure and continue to run the ball, great because
they've been a solid running team on the season with
Johnson and really just kind of worked Minnesota in all
phases of the game. I think they'll be able to
take care of business. Being completely honest, Washington and Michigan.
Michigan five and a half point favorite has not moved yet.
Fifteen and a half over under got betted down the
under just one point. Will Justice Haynes be back for
Michigan because that will be huge in how this game goes.
Washington has really long corners on the outside, so they'll
match up with McCauley well. And I think Andrew marsh
is starting to really become a factor in this Michigan
offense with you know, Smaje getting a little less touches
and other guys playing. Can the Michigan defense find a
way to stop Demon Williams. He's been great so far
over sixteen hundred passing yards, ten touchdowns, one interception, one
in seventeen from one fifty eight. Jonah Coleman's a very nice,
steady back, and they got players on the outside in
terms of receiver too.
Speaker 3: It could really go both ways.
Speaker 2: Michigan might have to play catchup or Washington's really gonna
have to find a way to play more physical to Michigan.
It'll be a tough one, especially in the Big House.
Should be a fun game, and then Purdue Northwestern. They're
playing at the practice field. Northwestern is a three and
a half point favorite, forty eight and a half over under.
I think if this game becomes a slug fest, I
think Northwestern is more likely to come out as the victor.
I think if Purdue can work the ball out into
space and you know, find ways and get creative to
come up with touchdowns, I think Purdue could have a shot.
And I think the three and a half point spread
is very iccative of you know, this should be a close,
fun game. While it's two teams that aren't really going
to compete for much in the Big Ten or the
Northwestern trying to get to a bowl game, you know,
it'll be a fun game on Big Ten network. That's
honestly the bottom line of all it. Ohio State hosts
or travels to Madison, Wisconsin and twenty and a half,
twenty seven and a half points spread, forty one and
a half. I think Ohio State will come in take
care of business. Wisconsin is a kind of dead. They're
on Hunter Simmons. He played really bad in that game
versus Iowa, and Ohio State's got a defense where I
don't I would I don't know if Wisconsin's going to
score any points and their defense, while for Wisconsin is
not bad, it's not good, it's really not And I
think we can I think we can expect Ohio State
to come out as big victor, same thing within the
end eversus Michigan State. Indiana might score sixty by themselves
in this game. I would bribe take their team what
is their team total.
Speaker 3: Over on FanDuel.
Speaker 2: Let's take a look real quickly, because I think this
will be a really uh really good best bet for
anyone maybe to take, like Mendoza. Sorry, I'm trying to
look at this live really quickly. Let's let's see three
thirty on Saturday. Yes, twenty six half, twenty six and
a half point. I want to see, Oh do they
not have that out yet? Okay, I guess they don't
have it out yet. So but twenty six and a
half point spread over unders at fifty two and a
half on FanDuel, fifty three and a half on ESPN bet.
Michigan State doesn't play defense, and I don't know what
their offense looks like, and I don't really trust it
to score points against Indiana defense that has been really
good at all three levels as well in terms of
you know, linebacking, corps, defensive backs. Secondary has been really
good this season too. With the Angel Pond's kind of leading.
There can get ugly for Michigan State in that game.
And they got to go to Bloomington, a college football
town now that really is actually very supportive of this
Hoosiers team. Oregon and Rutgers Oregon sixteen and a half
point favorite, sixty and a half go both ways. Either
they have a little bit of a hangover, you know now,
losing on their home turf going over to Rutgers. Rutgers
as a team that might challenge them through the air.
There's the reason why it's a sixteen and a half
point spread. I think Oregon still is going to be
able to take care of business. I think Dan Lanning
is a coach that can get him fired up for
this game and really have a point to prove that
Oregon is still a really good football team. I think
they will want to prove that versus Rutgers and the
Scarlet Knights six thirty, Big ten Networks seven o'clock on
Peacock Penn State versus Iowa State, Oh Boy two and
a half point favorite the Iowa Hawk guys at Kinnick
Stadium thirty eight and a half total. God, the undersunds
so good in that and maybe we'll see if Penn State,
you know, can get it going on the ground and
you know, Iowa gets a defensive touchdown or two. I
would favor the under in that game, just being completely honest.
I think that's I think that's where it goes. Maryland
Ucla gonna be on o FS one. Two and a
half point favorites are the Bruins fifty two and a
half point total. Nicos looked really good ever since the
coordinator changes and the head coach change, and uh yeah,
I don't know. Maryland drop two games, It's be a
great spot if you want to make a bowl game
for Maryland. Malik Washington, like we've mentioned, one of the
most talented quarterbacks. Can someone in the receiver room really
kind of step up and have that breakout game? I
really liked what I've seen him flashes from Octavion Smith.
But you know who's gonna step up and be that
game changer for Maryland because I think they will have
to have one in this game based on how UCLA
has played and then finally, probably the biggest game in
the Big Ten of the week, obviously with an independent
school coming to town, but or I guess going to
the independent school is USC Notre Dame eight and a
half point favorites over under sixty two and a half.
USC's got one of the best looking offenses in terms
of skill of talent, and their offensive line has played
solid so far this season. Not particularly well, but they
played fine. And I think that Mayava was one of
the best quarterbacks in the Big Ten. And while I
haven't paid two close attention to Notre Dame this season
after taking the first two losses, CJ. Carr still looking
pretty well in the season. Jeremiah Loves still one of
the most standout backs, Faizon leading the team and receiving.
They're a team that's been able to dial up pressure,
and look, they look solid defensively after the first two
weeks against well really last three because uh Purdue scored
some points on them, but dominating Arkansas, Boise State, and
NC State. They know they got a challenge that's coming
to South Bend. And look, it'll be a good game
between both of these teams. I really, I really think so.
And it'll be a good one and it'll be on NBC.
I think the winner of that game you could have implications.
Speaker 3: For the UH.
Speaker 2: The College Football Playoff, because if Notre Dame lose is
they're definitely not getting in, especially with not really having
a resume win losing to tex A and M in Miami.
He usually two top five teams you gotta play in
the same season. Definitely not what you want. And you know,
you got to prove it that you can, you know,
beat a top twenty five caliber team, and they were
right there with Texa, A and M and Miami too,
So there's a chance that obviously, you know, maybe they
look really good versus USC USC drops out of the
top twenty five.
Speaker 3: I am not too positive.
Speaker 2: What I do know is that this episode of the
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going to wrap up the Big Ten Paradigm Week seven
recap in a little bit of a Week eight preview
as well as looking at they I can't talk. It's
been it's been a fun weekend for me personally, other
than just can stay football, of course, but watching the
rest of college football, watching the Lions play currently right
now as I'm recording this Sunday night in there, Hollywood
Brown actually just scored and dropped him in fantasy not
too long ago. But I also had Worthy too, so
you know, regardless, that's not important. My fantasy team, by
the way, not doing too well this year, but we
won't get into that.
Speaker 3: But yeah, it's it's been.
Speaker 2: A pleasure of doing another edition of The Big Ten
Paradigm and I can't wait to continue more and more
until when the season unfortunately comes to an end. But
for now, I'm gonna sign off and say so long everybody,
and you stay tuned in next week and make sure
you follow College Grade Iron Coast to Coast Network on
whatever podcast platform you prefer. Make sure to subscribe Believe
or Five Star Review. Also watch the other shows on
the network. We have a lot of great hosts, a
lot of great shows. Covering the whole entire sport and
you know, whatever pokes your interest.
Speaker 3: I would definitely take a look at it, but for now.
Speaker 2: I'll say see you everybody, have a great week on Compoland.
Speaker 1: States anst patent from Contents to Poland.