The Big Ten: Can We Compete?

I really can't write anything here about the Illini today since they played Illinois State yesterday. It was a completely one-sided affair in which the Red Bird players looked more like high school players than Division I athletes. So, I turn my attention instead to the Big Ten as a whole and a question that continues to plague one of the most storied conferences in all of college football. Can they win big games against other conferences' marquee schools? Most these days would say no.

We had an opportunity to see this mentality shift a little bit yesterday. Michigan played Notre Dame, who annually receives a Top 5 or Top 10 recruiting class. Purdue played Oregon, who has shown some real talent of recent in their spread offense with Dennis Dixon, Jonathon Stewart, and now Jeremiah Masoli. And the big one, Ohio State played USC, who has pretty much been a perennial contender for the national championship for the last 9 years.

Michigan, even in their supposed 'rebuilding' period, looked very good. They played tough defense and made good open field tackles. Tate Forcier is also the real deal. The kid looked poised and led that team like he'd been there for 3 years. The Wolverines 38-34 win was a big one, helping to reestablish themselves within the conference. But Notre Dame's lack success of recent years has to make people wonder whether they could really be able to play with the heavy hitters in other conferences.

Purdue looked sharp at points yesterday. Ralph Bolden did a little bit of everything for the Boilermakers, carrying the ball 29 times for 123 yards and 2 TDs, as well as caught 3 passes for 52 yards and 1 TD. But the Boilermakers kept shooting themselves in the foot. Joey Elliot threw an INT that was returned for a touchdown, there was a fumble returned for a TDnd the Ducks blocked a Purdue PAT. All real bad mental mistakes. Purdue couldn't boiler up enough and lost 38-36. While Oregon is not a ranked team, a win here could have done some good reputation-wise in terms of the Big Ten's ability to play against the spread offense and the Pac-10.

The big let down of them all though was Ohio State. They came out in the beginning and played some really inspired looking football. The defense came ready to play and held USC to 5 offensive yards in the 1st quarter. They were pressuing Matt Barkley and made good open field tackles. They only reason that the score was tied 7-7 was because of a Tyrelle Pryor INT that was returned to the OSU 5 yard line and later punched into the endzone. The defense really came to play in the 1st half. In the third quarter, they looked a little gassed, and in the fourth quarter, they just could not stop Joe McKnight and Damian Willaims. The two main things that came to mind in the 4th was (1) On 4th -and-1, why is there no LB right over the center to stop Barkley from easily picking up the 1st down? and (2) Why continue to give the ball to Boom Herron and take it out of Pryor's hands? I felt that the OSU offensive coordinator should have done more to roll Pryor out of the pocket and give him the option to either tuck it and run or throw it. This is not to say that Herron is a bad RB. He just wasn't able to shake the defenders or really push the pile like the 6'6'', 240 Pryor can. This loss is REALLY disheartening to any Big Ten fan and only gives that nay-sayers more ammunition to put down the conference.

Overall, I can't say that I can argue with any of the experts, etc. that the Big Ten is just not as good as the Pac-10, SEC, or certain other conferences. I am a firm believer in the old homage 'believe what I do, not what I say'. And the fact of the matter is that the Big Ten has not proven themselves to be in the same league as the rest. Until a team goes out there and is able to defeat one of these perenially contenders, the Big Ten will continue be in their shadow and not garner the respect that they deserve.

On a side note, I think that Matt Barkley definitely has the talent to develop into a top QB. But I think all the acclaim he has received to this point is ridiculous. He stats from yesterday's game were not good (15-31, 195 yards, 1 INT) and the final drive was at least half running plays. The few times he did throw, they were short crossing routes or slants in which the receiver did most of the work. People need to get off their knees and realize that just because this kid starts at USC does not mean that he is that good at this point (especially since its likely that 4 of the 5 starting linemen for the Trojans are projected 1st and 2nd round draft picks and he has Joe McKnight in the backfield who is compared to Reggie Bush).