Big Ten finally makes its return this weekend
Play could be shaky during the first week
The Big Ten will start playing football at what normally would be midseason.
Don’t expect the teams to be in midseason form.
The pandemic limited or eliminated most spring practices across the country. Positive COVID-19 tests and precautions, along with uncertainty about whether there would even be a season, caused disruptions in summer workouts and preseason practices.
As a result, conferences that started their seasons before the Big Ten saw a lot of early games filledwith gaffes on special teams and poor tackling, among other problems.
“You’ve heard the stories about a couple of teams not doing any live tackling going into the game. I don’t think I needed to hear that to know that that’s probably not a good idea,” Nebraska coach Scott Frost said. “Obviously, you don’t want to get a punt blocked. That’s cost some people some games.”
According to Associated Press and NCAA research comparing seven-week averages this season with the 2019 full-season averages, penalties are up 7.6% nationally and blocked kicks or punts are up 38%.
The per-teamscoring average of 30.3 points ismore than a point higher than it was last season and slightly ahead of the record of 30 points per game in 2016. The total offense average of 412 yards is on pace to be the second-highest since the NCAA started keeping records in 1937, behind 417
Quarterback Justin Fields, a Heisman Trophy finalist last season, returns for Ohio State.
yards per game in 2016.
“There does appear to be a lot of high-scoring games, that’s pretty obvious. Entertaining games,” Indiana coach Tom Allen said. “As a defensive coach, it’s rough to watch sometimes. When we were in the pandemic period, you couldn’t do a lot of defensive things. We couldn’t do seven-onseven, so that favors the offense. You couldn’t tackle during the pandemic. So I think there’s a lot of variables.”
Even programs around the country with traditionally strong defenses have struggled at times. Clemson and Alabama, the Nos. 1 and 2 teams in the Top 25 and the dominant programs of the 2010s, are both averaging double-digit missed tackles for the first time since Pro Football Focus began tracking that statistic
in 2014.
Alabama is allowing 10 more points per game than it did a year ago, and as a whole the SEC scoring defense average of 29 points is up nearly a touchdown from 2019.
Wisconsin safety Collin Wilder, whose team opens Friday night against Illinois, said when he has watched games, he’s noticed drop-offs in tackling and communication among defenders.
“Obviously, because of all the COVID protocols and the delay of the season, I’m sure (for) everybody across the board tackling is one of the toughest things to work on during that time off,” Wilder said. “The biggest thing that I want us as a defense to do is just to make sure that right from the gate, that we can tackle really well, that we can
tackle consistently. I think that’s going to be one of our biggest challenges because that’s just what the pattern is showing in college football right now.”
No. 5 Ohio State, which opens at home against Nebraska on Saturday, is considered the Big Ten’s best hope of making the College Football Playoff. Coach Ryan Day won’t predict how sharp his Buckeyes will be.
“I feel like it’s been so long since we played a game,” he said. “Sometimes you don’t know, just trying to figure out what kind of team you have.”
Like the Southeastern Conference, the Big Ten is playing conference games only. The luxury of working out kinks and getting timing down in nonconference games, usually against overmatched opponents, doesn’t exist this year.
Here are things to watch during the opening week of play in the Big Ten Conference:
• GAME OF THE WEEK: No. 18 Michigan at No. 21Minnesota. TheWolverines’ last four seasons have ended with whimpers— losses to Ohio State and ina bowl — and fans are getting antsy as Jim Harbaugh enters his sixth year. Michigan is breaking in a new quarterback, presumably Joe Milton, along with four offensive line starters in the Little Brown Jug game. They’re without elite receivers Nico Collins (removed from roster) and Donovan Peoples-Jones (NFL). The defense should be strong up front, but a secondary replacing two corners will be challenged by the Tanner Morgan-to-Rashod Bateman connection. The Gophers, who ended last season No. 10 and began this year in the Top 25 for the first time since 2004, are playing another ranked opponent to start the season for the first time since 1968.
• BESTMATCHUP: Iowa QB Spencer Petras vs. Purdue defense. The Hawkeyes have a new quarterback for the first time in four years. Petras has attempted 11 passes and one run in fivemop-up appearances the last two years. With an abundance of returning experience around him, Petras just needs to keep the train on the tracks.
The Boilermakers have long struggled on defense, but they return a decent amount of talent and should provide a good test for a new QB making his first start on the road, albeit with no fans in the stands.
•INSIDE THE NUMBERS: Penn State has won 22 of 23 against Indiana and is a seven-point road favorite. The Hoosiers have played Penn State tough the last two years, and getting the Nittany Lions in the opener at home presents an opportunity.
Harbaugh
Penn State will be without star running back Journey Brown (undisclosed illness) and linebacker Micah Parsons (opted out). Indiana QBMichael Penix, limited to six games in 2019 because of injury, is a dynamic talent.
• LONG SHOT: Nebraska heads to No. 5 Ohio State as a 26-point underdog and without a road win over a Top 10 opponent since beating then-No. 2 Washington in 1997.
Ohio State has won five straight in the series, outscoring the Huskers by an average of 53-19.
Nebraska’s last win in the series was a come-from-behind 34-27 victory at home under Bo Pelini.
• IMPACT PLAYER: Graduate transfer QB Peyton Ramsey will make his debut for Northwestern andnewoffensive coordinator Mike Bajakian at home against Maryland.
Ramsey started 23 games for Indiana and threw for more than 6,500 yards with 42 touchdowns.
He had 300-yard passing games against Nebraska, Penn State and Purdue last season and gives Northwestern a huge upgrade at the position.