Around the Big Ten

[THE_WIZARD_]

UNL will raise it to 125

[Mike]

Chyrst and Wisconsin agree to an $11M buyout to be paid in full by 2/1/23.

https://athlonsports.com/college-football/paul-chryst-reportedly-makes-surprising-decision-after-wisconsin-fires-him

[lineygoblue]

Chryst let them off the hook easy. He could have held out for about 6 million more, and he should have, IMO. They fired him without cause.

But maybe this opens a few more doors for him.

[Dr. Strangelove]

His bowl record was 7-2 when you include his time at Pitt. Didn't realize it was that good.

[Mike]

Chryst let them off the hook easy. He could have held out for about 6 million more, and he should have, IMO. They fired him without cause.

But maybe this opens a few more doors for him.

It's not as easy as it sounds. There's a bunch of clauses in the contract that relate to how the buyout is calculated. One big bargaining chip for the school is that if the fired coach takes a job somewhere else, they money they owe him is adjusted accordingly (or in the event of a lump sum payout, he'd be on the hook to pay some back). So it's very possible that got waived in favor of a lower lump sum payout.

EDIT:

Here's good info from Madison.com:

https://madison.com/sports/college/football/here-are-the-details-of-paul-chrysts-buyout-after-being-fired-as-wisconsin-football-coach/article_27a543a6-72e8-51c7-8d43-e0533893ee5e.html

McIntosh said the full amount Chryst could have been paid in liquidated damages exceeded $20 million, although earlier calculations based on the contract had the figure between $19 million and $20 million. He wouldn't say why Chryst accepted a lower amount — "That's a better question for Paul," McIntosh said — but it's important to note that the timing of the payment is accelerated.

Payment of the full amount could have stretched until Chryst's contract expired at the end of January 2027. This arrangement has Chryst getting paid a much less amount but in a shorter amount of time.

Chryst's contract also contained provisions about his duty to mitigate the liquidated damages, or decrease the amount UW owed him if he took another coaching job in Division I college or professional football.

McIntosh declined to comment on whether that provision was waived by Chryst agreeing to a lower payment, but a source said it was and Chryst has neither an obligation to look for another job nor a requirement to mitigate.

[iam416]

4-3 in conference last week and 3-0 on the wildcards. On the year, 22-22-1 and 11-4. Sort of keeping my head above water.


Rutgers (+3) vs Nebraska. Rutgers plays roughly 5 different QBs. They don't have much of a run game. Against most teams that would be a huge issue, but we're talking the UNL defense here. On the other side of the ball, it seems like UNL has found a running game and Thompson is sort of easing into being decent. I guess I can see why UNL is favored, but, honestly,I just can't bring myself to back UNL as a road favorite. I'll take the points. No idea what the score will be.

Michigan (-22') at Indiana. Last week M officially served notice on the rest of the CFB world that they are amongst the elite teams. HARBAUGH!!!!! dominated the best defense in the country with an offense so balanced and so varied that it was impossible to stop. And while the M defense had very little to do, it still did its job. And, more importantly, M has found its new dominating rush end in the form of the dude who was dismissed from Alabama for academic reasons and dismissed from Houston for academic reasons and other reasons. M, apparently, has lower standards than those beacons of integrity, so now he's fittingly one of the leaders and best and dominating. Meanwhile, the Hoosiers are just fucking terrible. They spent the better part of the game against Idaho getting whooped until they "turned it on" somewhere in the middle of the 3rd to pull it out. There will be no turning it on this week. Michigan wins ginormously, 48-10.

Purdue (+3) at Maryland. I guess I'm going to fall back on my analysis of Purdue from last week. You never want to bet them as the favorite because they will shit the bed, but they're annoying as an underdog. O'Connell is apparently healthy. They sort of have some sort of running game and they play mostly solid defense, except against Syracuse in the final 50 seconds. I'm still not sold on Maryland. It'll probably cost me another L, but so be it. I think Purdue pulls off the minor upset -- 27-24.

Northwestern (+10') vs Wisconsin. I don't think any P5 team outside of Colorado is 10' points worse than Wisconsin. But damn, nFw is really, really bad. There's no point in thinking about this rectal examine of a game more than you have to. I'll say the long grass at Evanston High and utter incompetence leads to something like a 16-10 unwatchable shitfest. Badgers get in the win column, I guess.

Ohio State (-27) at Michigan State. This is just a "bad" matchup for Sparty in that they are pretty awful at pass defense and Ohio State is pretty decent at pass offense. I guess Sparty could keep it close if they force some turnovers and Thorne has a really good game. But, man....this is a tough one for Mel. I'll say Ohio State wins this 48-17.

Illinois (-3') vs Iowa. I've mostly been a believer in the Genius of Bert and I see no reason to stop now. Iowa remains fucking terrible on offense. However, Iowa can play defense. And Iowa will likely shut down Illinois on the ground and force Danny DeVito to beat them. That could lead to Iowa's defense scoring ala the Rutgers game. But, I'm betting it won't. I'll say Bert grinds out really gruesome 13-6 win.

BYE Weeks: Penn State and Minnesota

Nevada (-3') vs Colorado State. Nevada is awful. I mean, really bad. Colorado State is even worse.
Utah (-3') at UCLA. I think Utah is actually pretty damn good. And their style of play is generally such that they realize their advantages.
North Carolina (+3') at Miami. I'm pretty sure UNC can score on almost any ACC team. I'm pretty sure Miami isn't that good. I'll take the FG and the hook.

[THE_WIZARD_]

shaddup

[Jeff Buchanan]

Illinois (-3') vs Iowa. I've mostly been a believer in the Genius of Bert and I see no reason to stop now. Iowa remains fucking terrible on offense. However, Iowa can play defense. And Iowa will likely shut down Illinois on the ground and force Danny DeVito to beat them. That could lead to Iowa's defense scoring ala the Rutgers game. But, I'm betting it won't. I'll say Bert grinds out really gruesome 13-6 win.

I took a close look at mgo UFR offense v. Iowa D. There was some cool stuff that Weis and Moore dialed up involving abusing Iowa's certainty the M would run certain plays. In this case a lot of counter-trey..... and they obliged. Then once inside the red zone - something the Iowa D feasts on opponents - having run multiple counter treys on this drive and others, they broke out what was called in the UFR a "loop-de-loop." Basically, M showed a counter-tre look with Corum getting the handoff to follow the pulling L guard on the play-side (R), JJ pulled it and flipped it to an arching Ronnie Bell. The entire Iowa defense (except one of the Ss who tried to signal Bell was the ball carrier to no avail) was moving to hit Corum for a TFL on the right. Meanwhile Bell was racing outside (looping actually) to the left where only one Iowa defender was in a position to make a play and he got ejected by the TE (Schoonmaker). Walk in 16y TD.

That was one of several innovative calls that took advantage of scouting the Iowa D as well as adjusting the play calls on O to what Iowa was doing. That's obviously what is supposed to be going on with good OCs. We rarely saw that with Gattis calling plays last season - it was a recurring complaint from mgo wrt to M's offense. Few constraints and innovation and a lot of tipping by formation what was coming. M's 2022 offense is noticeably more efficient and was able to out think a talented Iowa D. Good sign going forward.

[iam416]

It's an elite offense. Probably best in country.

[THE_WIZARD_]

Ferentz got HARBAUGHED!!!!!!!

[Hannibal]

The Paul Chryst firing was a huge surprise. One of the few times in my life that I think that a program has fired a coach too quickly.

Here's a good column on Chryst's downfall.

https://theathletic.com/3661745/2022/10/06/paul-chryst-fired-wisconsin-jim-leonhard/

He'll definitely land on his feet. If Sherrone Moore takes off soon, I'd be interested in seeing Chryst take that spot, although it sounds like he's a pretty meh recruiter.

[Hannibal]

It's an elite offense. Probably best in country.

They aren't elite yet. They are one feature away from being elite. Namely, a deep ball from JJ. His deep ball the last two weeks has stunk.

I really do like our offense though. We have a Top 10 OL, J.K. Dobbins 2.0 as our running back, and the best crop of tight ends that we have ever had (even with All hurt). I like our receivers, but I don’t love them. I like JJ but he hasn’t reached his potential yet. We’ll need him at his ceiling to beat OSU.

[WingsFan]

Ha ha... I don't think Tuck Comin and Kirk Ferentz understand the question. Its not want is your team horrificallly bad at?

[Mike]

LOL. That’s perfect.

[iam416]

Iowa has 3 points, 2 first downs and -7 yards rushing late in the first half. They are horrific.