Around the Big Ten

[Jeff Buchanan]

Man, weird line on IU @ osu. Did you forget a zero?

[iam416]

Bah. When you type an 8 and the ")" next to one another, the default is some emoticon bullshit.

It's 28. Down from 32. OSU hasn't beaten IU by more than 28 under UFM in 4 tries. I doubt it starts today.

[Cody_Russell]

Part of me wants to see OSU win because I want OSU and Michigan to both be undefeated for THE GAME.
Maximize the importance like 2006. It's still going to be important, but if both are 11-0, the loser might just miss the playoffs.
However, OSU losing to IU (very, very likely won't happen) would be crazy. I hate OSU so much.

I think IU's defense will get some stops and it will be the offense that lets IU down.
OSU 31
IU 6

[WM Wolverine]

Whenever write an "8" and then a ")" you create this emoji: 8) - So the line is 28...

Indiana has played Wake Forest, Florida Atlantic, Ball State and Sparty. Played there best game vs Sparty. Not figured them out yet or maybe Sparty is much worse than I figured. Either way, 28 points is too close to where I'd expect the line to be to touch that spread.

Ohio State 45 - Indiana 17.

[Jeff Buchanan]

I still think osu covers but I watched the Spartan loss and thought IU's D is no longer the sieve it used to be. DC is getting a lot out of 2-3* dudes. Besides the IU D sees osu's style of offense all practice long. They should know what to key off of. Will they or will ufm throw some different stuff out there is the question? Huge talent differential though obviously at play.

[Cody_Russell]

IU has not defeated Ohio State since 1988. IU actually won back to back years (1987 and 1988 ) vs Ohio State while outscoring Ohio State 72-17 in those two games.
I'm not sure what happened to Ohio State in the late 80s... can't believe that happened to to them. They can actually lose to programs like IU?!

There are some good B10 games early today.
Iowa vs Minnesota and Maryland vs Penn State. I'll probably be watching those two games.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Kevin Wilson is the best HC Indiana has had in a LONG time. Saw a piece somewhere out there that talked about IU's new DC that has improved IU's stats nationally by about 100%, e.g., ranked 100th in a category to ranked 50th. Given the Wilson coached offense, they are no longer the easy out they had always been.

Obviously osu has the talent to make the RPO hard for IU and ufm is as good as they get in figuring out best approach for the offense against a given D....... Except his brainfart v MSU in 2015. He's not likely to EVER repeat that.

[froot loops]

I don't trust the Spartans offense either.

[iam416]

IU has not defeated Ohio State since 1988. IU actually won back to back years (1987 and 1988 ) vs Ohio State while outscoring Ohio State 72-17 in those two games.
I'm not sure what happened to Ohio State in the late 80s... can't believe that happened to to them. They can actually lose to programs like IU?!

Indiana's best two years in like forever coincided with the end of the Bruce Era/Beginning of Cooper Era. Bruce's blowout loss to IU sealed his fate. Cooper's first year was awful. 4-6-1. Bruce's final season was 6-4-1.

And IU had Anthony Thompson, who was a badass.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Was it Cooper or Bruce who beat LSU in that era? Can't remember off the top of my head. I know the other game with them was a tie

[iam416]

Coop. First year. Bruce tied year before.

[Cody_Russell]

That's good information iam46.
With the Tressel and Meyer era, I've been taught to believe OSU doesn't ever lose.
Fickel's 6-6 season was my busiest semester in college... so I missed most of that.
Urban Meyer had a 1-3 stretch at OSU.
They lost to MSU, Clemson, and V-Tech. Outside of that stretch, Meyer is 53-1 at OSU.
Ridiculous.
AND Michigan has only defeated OSU once since 2003. Fickel's 6-6 team... Purdue beat that OSU team too!

Penn State has dominated Maryland, but it's only a 17-7 game. Come on DJ Durkin!!

[iam416]

Losing to IU was awful. I remember both those games.

Losing to NW in 2004 remains the most humiliating loss I've lived through.

But, yes, 1987 and 1988 were bad. 1989-91 were meh. Coop started to field good teams around 1992. He did a very good job of taking a sagging program back to the national conversation, but he couldn't close the deal. His 1996 and 1998 teams were easily MNC caliber.

Urbs is just stupid good. There are a lot of different ways to illustrate, but I think 3 winning streak of at least 20 at 3 different schools is the best.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Cooper and Bruce each brought their own version of mediocrity. Bruce did well against Michigan and in bowl games but consistently lost to teams with far less talent than us (Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, etc.). Cooper beat the weaker teams with talent (though he lost something like 5 straight to Illinois in his early years). But Coop was consistently outcoached in big games.

[Cody_Russell]

Mitch Leidner is still really bad.
There were some draft rankings early in the year that had Leidner as a top 5 QB in this 2017 class... something that was puzzling to me. QBs aren't that good this year maybe ... but Leidner?

Iowa is a mess on offense too.
Beathard has missed several throws, but he isn't getting any help from the WRs or o-line.
Lucky for them, they had a huge TD run.
Whoever rushes against Iowa's LT in the Michigan game (Taco, Gary, and Wormley?) will do good.