Is There Real Progress In The Early B1G Progress Report?

The Buckeyes are sitting comfortable at 2-0 this weekend, the first open weekend on the schedule for Ohio State.

This is the weekend for Ohio State fans to get married, do housework, visit family or just sit on the sofa and watch football all day long.

While the first eight quarters of the season have not been mistake-free, things have gone well for Ohio State with a scoring margin of 108-6. Granted, the Buckeyes have had a relatively easy schedule to date, two games against the MAC, and not even teams that are expected to finish on top of the conference. But you can only play who is in front of you and the degree of difficulty will pick up in October and beyond.

It is too early to have any definitive thoughts on how the remainder of the season has gone but it is never too early to take inventory of the first two weeks and talk about what we have seen in that brief window of football.

So, let’s focus on five items and lay it out there and see if it holds true once all of the football is finished come late-January.

Dylan Raiola adds legitimacy to Nebraska

It has been tough sledding for the Huskers upon joining the Big Ten conference. As with other teams joining a new league, expectations are sky-high about flexing muscles and showing the world that success can be had anywhere.

That really has not been the case for Nebraska, zero league titles and one appearance in the championship game, allowing 70 points to Wisconsin in 2012.

Since joining the Big Ten, Nebraska has had four full-time head coaches, and two interim coaches and big wins have been hard to come by.

Let’s fast forward to 2024 and the Huskers are sitting pretty at 2-0 and quite possibly could be undefeated going into the game against Ohio State.

What’s different? Why is this year different than all the years that football watchers believe that ‘this is going to be Nebraska’s year?’

Enter one-time Ohio State commit, quarterback Dylan Raiola.

It’s hard to walk in as a true freshman and be ‘the man’ but to date, Raiola has done that.

History will show that neither UTEP nor Colorado are great tests in the 2024 season, but Raiola’s 73.7-percent passing percentage, three touchdowns to zero interceptions and 153.4 passer rating are all positives.

Upcoming games with Northern Iowa, Illinois, Purdue, Rutgers, and Indiana will not exactly equal the same test of either Ohio State or USC on the schedule, but sometimes momentum can carry a team.

Remember, the Huskers have not had a winning season since 2016 under Mike Riley when they went 9-4 and then lost in the Music City Bowl.

The addition of Raiola and what appears to be a more consistent defense have really turned around fortunes in Lincoln (Neb.) and it is worth the watch.

New additions undefeated but not exactly dominant

We will get to you in a second, USC. You have been the closest of the four teams to not having to sweat things out.

But Oregon, Washington and UCLA have all been pressed and while those three teams have not dropped a game yet, it has been touch-and-go.

Everyone came into the year expecting Oregon to be right there with Ohio State atop the Big Ten standings, and while both teams are sitting at 2-0, neither Oregon’s 10-point win over Idaho or three-point win over Boise State have exactly demonstrated a reason to have unwavering faith in the Ducks, yet.

Sure, Boise State is better than either team that Ohio State has played, and Idaho may be a toss-up, but you have to win the games on your schedule, and while Oregon has done that, both of those games were very losable.

Washington is a team that is replacing everything, including its head coach and wins of 32 and 21 points shouldn’t really sound too many alarm bells, but Weber State and Eastern Michigan are both teams that the 2023 Huskies would have beat by 50+.

UCLA has played one game, against Hawaii, and the Bruins were losing that game for large stretches before coming back and winning 16-13. A league game will really determine a lot for UCLA as the Hoosiers of Indiana come west to play in the Rose Bowl.

Finally, there is USC, a winner over LSU in week one and then a dominating performance against a weak Utah State team.

The point here is that USC looks like the most complete team ‘at this moment’ as the Trojans jettisoned Alex Grinch and seem to have a defense to go along with the offense.

So, going into week three, USC is the only fanbase that has any right to crow about their on-field performance, while the other three, while unblemished, have some work to do.

Wolverines are who we thought they were

At risk of stepping on Tony Gerdeman’s toes and his fantastic Michigan Monday feature, I am going to talk about them for a second.

There were plenty of questions about the Wolverines going into the season and some of those questions were actually about football (while all the rest are about the NOA, Conor Stallions and other significant charges against the defending national champions).

Plenty of experts saw a team with a fantastic cornerback, two great defensive tackles and maybe the top tight end in the nation.

They also saw a rookie head coach, significant turnover (scattering if you will) in the coaching staff, no front-runner at quarterback, no receivers and really no identity, among other things.

This Michigan team has not lived up to any (good) expectations, sitting at 1-1 on the year and having a very real opportunity to be 2-2 after four games (with a predicted win versus Arkansas State and loss to Southern Cal).

Just as we have watched Michigan fans go from “Scouting ain’t cheating” to “Everybody does it” to “crickets”, we are watching Michigan fans continuing to downgrade what the season win total will be and just hanging on to any shred of the 2023 championship run.

The Wolverines have gone from #Bet to being a bad bet to win nine-plus games.

Is Iowa’s O fixed?

Did the removal of Brian Ferentz from the equation fix Iowa’s offense?

After week one and a 40-point output, people may have been willing to at least look at the bandwagon.

After putting up only 19 points in the CyHawk game against Iowa State, it seems like a return to the bad ‘ol days.

Looking at the base stats, Iowa is up with its total offense No. 68 in the nation, No. 27 running the ball and scoring 29.5 points per game. This team is also No. 104 in passing offense, an issue that we have seen through the years.

The Hawkeyes were able to stack the deck early with the win over Illinois State, legitimizing a top-25 ranking from the preseason. And then it all went horribly wrong (dare I say, predictable?) against their first Power Four opponent.

Iowa threw for 99 yards against the Cyclones. Cade McNamara threw two picks and no touchdowns. Iowa would have been run rules if not for running back Kaleb Johnson and his 187 yards and two touchdowns.

Is Iowa built to run like that in the Big Ten? I wouldn’t count on it and the season of discontent in Iowa City for their beloved football team will only continue to grow.

Badgers running into a wall?

The Badgers are 2-0, as with many teams in the league, but the Badgers’ 2-0 record is not nearly as dominating as Ohio State’s or USC’s or others at the top of the conference.

Luke Fickell’s team was tested against Western Michigan, the same WMU Bronco team that Ohio State dispatched of 56-0.

The Badgers would then beat South Dakota but 14 points and make no mistake, South Dakota is a solid team in its classification, but really had no business being only a touchdown behind the Badgers as the students nervously jumped around.

Miami (Fla.) transfer Tyler Van Dyke was supposed to be the answer, leaving the Hurricanes and finally fitting in Phil Longo’s Air Raid system.

Amazon’s unmanned drones have more firepower than this offense has, to date, especially in air superiority.

Van Dyke has one passing touchdown on the season. That’s it, the team has one passing touchdown. There is no halfback pass buried in the stat book, no backup quarterback. Just one passing touchdown.

The ground game is what has kept Wisconsin in the win column, but even that isn’t firing on all cylinders with five rushing touchdowns, led by Chez Mellusi.

This team is hosting Alabama this weekend and while there are some debates as to how potent this Bama team will be against great competition; we have no reason to believe that Wisconsin will be great competition.

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