Big Ten Blogger Roundtable - Week 6

High Fives For Week 6 of the Big Ten Blogger Roundtable!

It may be an off week for the Cats, but LTP is on. Ohio State blogger, OurHonorDefend is the lucky sap tasked with doling out fragens and tallying the witty repartie. Awayeth we goeth...

01. We're all basically in conference play now, sans Purdue who played visitor to Notre Dame over the weekend. What did you see in the conference opener that you liked? What did you see that sucked noodles?

LTP: Lots to like especially the ugly win. The most noticeable difference in this team is the moxie it has on "D". We hit harder than even the 1995 team in my mind. The severity of the hits we are bringing combined with the aggressive defensive play calling have resulted in our best scoring defense since 1995 and one less sack (17) than we had all of last year. The LB play is much better than I anticipated and it seems like CJ may have broken through in the second half as our offense has yet to put a full game together that wasn't in a monsoon. The most impressive part is how the team is carrying itself - they are building confidence at an exponential rate.

On the flip side, it is relatively obvious that our rush defense is still suspect as Shonn Greene had gaping holes and also made the first man miss several times. I'm hoping the kicking game was an aberration and Villarreal will return to his confident self.

02. Ole Miss punked #4 Florida in Gainesville. #1 USC got punked by Oregon State on national television? What's the underlying theme behind these bizarre upsets? You guessed it: magic. Some kind of hocus-y pocus-y sorcery in the form of "familiarity". The idea being pitched around is that these upsets come in conference games because the underdog has played the heavily favored team before, and thus isn't afraid of them nor surprised by anything they do. Should I buy this idea? Or are these upsets more likely the combination of something more conventional, like great/horrendous gameplanning, preparation and execution by the underdog/favorite team respectively?

LTP: I'm a big believer in the "familiarity breeds content which breeds upset" theory. However this does not apply in the Big Ten between Northwestern and Ohio State sans one special night in 2004. I can't think of another Big Ten series that has been so incredibly one-sided for so long. We don't just lose, we lose big. As in Horseshoe big. The biggest shocker to me was that Oregon State had several key young players, including Jaquizz Rodgers, their freshman RB who technically didn't enjoy the familiarity advantage. I do think another factor is atmosphere. Go to any Northwestern 11 am game and compare it to the one game a year that involves portable lights. It just has a different feel. How can you not get up for a ESPN Thursday night game if your Oregon State. By the flip side, every USC game seems to have that atmosphere. I somehow don't know how these college kids even get up period for the 11 am games.

03. Entering the season, Beanie was the Big Ten's Heisman favorite.After a few games, Javon Ringer had put up the Heisman stats, though I don't think anyone could've believed that Ringer would have the hype machine necessary to get him to New York. Yet, after this week, I see his name mentioned more and more in the Heisman race. Do you think Ringer, at this pace, gets to New York on something more than a courtesy visit (on courtesy visit, see: everyone last year not named Tim Tebow; everyone in 2006 not named Troy Smith)? How about Daryll Clark? Is Daryll Clark of Penn State legitimately in the Heisman race after week 5?

LTP: Hmmm. I've seen this question somewhere before on the blogger roundtable. Oh yeah, right here when LTP hosted and I got the "what are you smokin'?" response. Ringer only gets the Heisman invite if Sparty rips through October with one loss. Due to the Big Ten's not-so-stellar reputation, he'll have to put up Troy Davis numbers and somehow stay injury free while being involved in 50%+ of MSU's plays. His carry per game numbers are downright silly. He'll also need to post 200+ in marquee games. I actually like Darryl Clark emerging as a dark horse. If Penn State is in top 5 status by year end he'll be in the, ahem, Chase. He's only in if Penn State wins and wins big with good numbers. The Penn State ranking is directly related to style points right now.

04. With the nonconference schedule basically over, do you think the Big Ten collectively bettered its standing from the maligned positionit was in before the season began? For every Wisconsin victory over Fresno State and Penn State thrashing of Oregon State, there's Michigan's turnover bonanza against the Irish and Ohio State's neutering by USC. Long question short, what sticks out more: the positives or the negatives for the conference?

LTP: No question-negatives. I'm sorry but a 1-2 mark against Notre Dame alone is exhibit "A" of inadequate showing. Add in Iowa's loss to Pitt, Purdue's meltdown against Oregon and you had some real opportunities to surround the USC debacle with a case study in parity. No such luck. I'm going to the bank that the NU win over Duke, which everyone has mocked me for, will be a quality conference win come November. It will all be forgotten though in December when the Big Ten vs The World bowl games play out. I love Jim Delany's angle on how no one ever mentions the fact that the Big Ten essentially plays every bowl game as a road game in opponent's back yard (SEC in Florida, Pac-10 in LA, Big XXII in Texas etc...).

05. As I'm sure you may have seen on your moving pictures box, the Ernie Davis movie has been getting a lot of publicity for its imminentrelease to theatres. The story, of course, centers around the first African-American Heisman winner and some of the trials that come from being a black athlete, playing before the Civil Rights movement and playing in the Cotton Bowl. Does your football program have an uplifting story that you think is movie-worthy? If so, please share it.

LTP: This one is close to home as many of the football "home" scenes for the movie were shot in Ryan Field. Also, Damien Anderson, NU's last Heisman finalist, tried out to be the athlete double for Ernie Davis and lost out. I've always said I'm going to do a screenplay on the 1995 Northwestern team. It has all the trappings of a Disney feature film. The worst program in the history of college football in a dilapidated facility overshadowed by pipe smoking sportcoat-wearing professorial environments becomes a national power by heeding the unorthodox motivational tactics of their spunky coach. Those outside of Northwestern can't appreciate the truly amazing things he did. The montage scenes of cementing goal posts, banning marshmallows and painting the Big Ten Champions sign with a 199? are stuff of legend. It doesn't compare with the somber, yet important message of Davis' epic struggle against racism, but it would make a helluva silver screen play.

(photo courtesy of Chicago Tribune)