Big Ten Football: Why the Big Ten has Been a Big Disappointment This Year

Wisconsin can't do it all by itself.

By that I mean, singlehandedly keep the conference nationally relevant.  The Badgers are doing a helluva job trying, though.  After dismantling Big XII transplant Nebraska last weekend, there is little doubt that Wisconsin is one of the best programs in the country.

Problem is, the rest of the Big Ten old guard seems to have taken the year off.  Nebraska gets a pass—for now—because the Huskers haven't had a chance to prove much of anything other than Wisconsin is really, really good.

Besides, the Big Ten shouldn't need to rely on some cocky new kid on the block to carry the conference's reputation.  There are enough perennial powers in the conference that it shouldn't be like this.

So why is the Big Ten such a disappointment?

Penn State

Penn State has a quarterback problem.  Its name is Mattbert McBolden, and it is eating the Penn State football team from the inside out.

Despite having a solid defense, the Nittany Lions are continually unable to develop any consistency on offense and put games away.  Against Indiana last week, what should have been an easy win turned into a dogfight because the offense couldn't finish drives.  Two turnovers in the red zone led to just a 6-3 lead at halftime.

A big part of this offense problem rests in the hands of quarterbacks Rob Bolden and Matt McGloin.  On the year McGloin has been the seemingly better option, with a 57 percent completion rate, 625 yards and four touchdowns to surprisingly no interceptions.  But his 1/10 for zero yards against Alabama doesn't bode well for his chances against a defense with a pulse (the only other decent defense Penn State has faced was Temple, and McGloin only threw for 124 yards on 19 attempts and no touchdowns).  Rob Bolden has, unbelievably, been worse.  He is completing just 46 percent of his passes and has four interceptions to just one touchdown.

All this passing incompetence has led to a one dimensional offense that relies too much on the overmatched run game.

Until Penn State finds a quarterback capable of efficiently moving the ball, the Nittany Lions are going to be stuck in the middle of the Big Ten pack.  This isn't where the conference wants one of its marquee programs.

Iowa

Iowa can't decide what it wants to be.

Sometimes the Hawkeyes act like the classic underdog, such as the 2009 season when the team marched through the Big Ten season only losing to Northwestern and Ohio State after an injury to starting quarterback and great American, Ricky Stanzi.

Last year, with most of the team's personnel returning, it looked like Iowa would turn the corner and challenge for the Big Ten title.  That team went on to a .500 record in the conference with losses to Wisconsin, Ohio State, just Northwestern, and completely inexplicably, Minnesota.

This year Iowa seems to be having the same identity crisis.  Picked early as an outside contender for the Legend's division behind favorites Nebraska and Michigan State, the Hawkeyes non-conference schedule was a roller coaster.  First Iowa let rival Iowa State fight back in the fourth quarter and beat the Hawkeyes in double overtime.  Then on the heels of that disappointment Iowa fought back from its own fourth quarter deficit against Pitt the next weekend.

Iowa has the offensive personnel to be a solid Big Ten team, and the defensive track record to inspire confidence, but the Hawkeyes have lacked the ability to finish games consistently the last two years.

The Big Ten needs Iowa to finish out games consistently, and Kirk Ferentz needs to capture that magic from 2009 and bottle it, because it hasn't been back in Iowa City in a while.

Michigan

Face it, nobody trusts Michigan.  The Wolverines have started the past two seasons a combined 9-0, and finished a combined 3-13.

While Rich Rodriguez—and more importantly, Greg Robinson—are gone for good, and early returns on the new coaching staff are positive, things still don't look incredibly rosy for Michigan this year.

The defense is vastly improved from last year's dismal unit, but it is hard to do anything but regress to the mean when you set historic levels of awful.  This year the Michigan scoring defense is holding teams to 10 points a game whereas last year at this time the average was 25 points.  The difference in total defense is over 100 yards per game as well.  However, Michigan has only played one really good offense, and doesn't face its first Big Ten challenge until tonight's game against Northwestern.

Offensively Michigan has kept pace with the rushing numbers from last year, but Denard Robinson has struggled to adapt to Al Borges' new passing game, and currently the Wolverine passing attack sits at 97th in the nation after being 38th a year ago—a difference of over 50 yards per game.

Michigan is on its way back, but there is too much ground to cover between where it was (Awfulsville) and where it is going (Nationally-relevantsburg).  Expect a quick pit stop in Averagetown this year.  Not good enough for the Big Ten, but to find it, Michigan fans are going to need a completely new map after the last three years.

Michigan State

This was supposed to be Michigan State's year.

After winning a share of the Big Ten title in 2010, MSU was bringing back all its offensive skill position players, more than half of its defensive starters, and lining up a third year starter at quarterback.

Then the offensive line fell out from under them.  The Spartans lost three starters on the line to graduation last year, and almost immediately ran into trouble replacing them.  First MSU started moving DT's over to offense in the spring to bolster depth during camp.  Then in the fall those position switch players were seriously challenging for starting spots (rule of positions switches: they are never good in year one, only serviceable at best).  Now with a rash of injuries the depth along MSU's offensive line is dangerously thin and inexperienced.

Of course this offensive line has struggled.  Despite having three very talented running backs in Edwin Baker, Le'Veon bell, and Larry Caper, Michigan State has only been able to average 128 yards per game this year on the ground, 81st nationally.  The majority of these yards were gained against bad teams (Youngstown St, FAU, Central Mich.), and when MSU has met good rush defense, it has struggled to produce much of anything on the ground.  Against Notre Dame the Spartans only gained 29 yards on 23 carries, and against Ohio State just 71 yards on 31 carries.

Michigan State lives and dies by the run game.  When the Spartans can't control games on the ground it forces quarterback Kirk Cousins into passing to win the game.  Cousins is an effective quarterback, but relies on the credible threat of play action for big plays, and doesn't deal with pressure well.

If Michigan State can't figure out a solution to its offensive line problems in a hurry, 2011 will just be another disappointing season.

Ohio State

I have said it before, and I'll say it again: when you have two quarterbacks, you have none.  In Ohio State's case, not having a quarterback might be a preferable option.

So far this year the Ohio State offense has been absolutely awful.  Despite cupcake games against two very terrible teams (Colorado and Akron) and an average MAC team (Toledo) Ohio State is still 111th in the nation in pass yards and 73rd in pass efficiency.  Total offense: 108th.  Scoring offense: 91st.

Redshirt senior Joe Bauserman won the starting job from the start, but by the time he threw up a stat line of 2/14 for 13 yards against Miami, he had wore out his welcome.  In came freshman phenom Braxton Miller...who looked anything but phenomenal against Michigan State going 5/10 for 56 yards and an interception.

It has so far been a team effort, as the offensive line has struggled to block for the running backs, who have in turn struggled to run against defenses that know there is no passing threat to be found.

The NCAA violations of last year have sealed Ohio State's fate this year.  Without departed quarterback Terrelle Pryor to lead the offense and his other suspended offensive starters, Luke Fickell just doesn't have enough to work with on the offensive side o the ball.  This has exposed the fact that for all Jim Tressel's faults when it came to NCAA compliance, the man knew how to get the most out of his offense.

The concern for Ohio State—and for that matter, the Big Ten—isn't just how bad the Buckeyes are this year.  Now with the possibility of NCAA sanctions, a lost year under Luke Fickell, and no promising candidates for the open coaching job*, Ohio State could be a couple years away from regaining its footing.

Having its most dominant program of the last ten years in utter disarray is about the last thing the already beat down Big Ten needs.

*(I'll believe Urban Meyer takes the job when I see it.)