Big Ten

Ohio State Buckeyes: Penn State Game Is The First Real Test

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Ohio State will have their first real test four weeks into the season, when they travel to play Penn State on the road, at night. Some teams played close games in their openers, others were challenged in weeks two and three as the season continued and more teams played the first games of their conference schedules. Ohio State, though, they’re a bit different.

It’s not that they haven’t played anyone good, but a good team isn’t always a challenging one. TCU was a good team. But they weren’t on the level of the Buckeyes. Sometimes, for a team like Ohio State, the true danger comes from not playing opponents that are the same caliber very often.

We’ve seen it happen before. Iowa going undefeated in the Big Ten West and then losing the conference title game to the winner of the east. Wisconsin losing to Ohio State last year in the conference title game, after running the table in the West. Believe it or not, it is possible to be too good.

That’s the reason why coaches aren’t automatically upset when they play a team close, even if that team is supposed to lose by a larger margin. While winning every game by big margins is nice for the fans, and inspires confidence, that confidence can be a double-edged sword. Play too well every week, and you can find yourself struggling once you go up against another team that’s on the same level.

And while Penn State is slightly below Ohio State in the rankings, they’re certainly on the same level. If Penn State pulled off the win, it wouldn’t be out of the question for them to trade places in the polls with the Buckeyes. They have advantages that other teams don’t, too. Ohio State had to play TCU in Texas, but TCU doesn’t have near the amount of fan support that Penn State does.

Playing at Beaver Stadium at night is something that you would expect from a late season matchup. Not one in week four. If you’re the visiting side, it’s not the game that you want as one of your first real challenges of the year. Because let’s face it. Oregon State, Rutgers, and Tulane were all warm up games. Even counting TCU as a quality opponent, the Buckeyes have at the most only faced a single team that’s anywhere close to their level.

Now, they have to go into an environment that is known as one of the best in college football. It comes only shortly after Urban Meyer returned as the head coach of the team, and while his absence didn’t have much of an impact, that wasn’t against teams like Penn State.

The point here isn’t that Ohio State is going to lose, or that they haven’t played anybody. It’s that they may be unprepared for a true test, while Penn State started the season out by almost being upset. Additionally, they turned relatively close games against Pittsburgh and Illinois into blowout victories. They’re no stranger to playing in close games like these, and they’ve come out on top in each one of these.

If Ohio State enters halftime, or even the fourth quarter, how will they react? That’s a question that’s hard to answer because they have less experience in those close games. But if the game is close, Penn State is closer to a sure thing. As much of a sure thing as you can have in a game like this, which will be decided by a small margin because of the two teams roughly being on the same level.

We don’t know yet if Ohio State will show up when it matters in a game like this. They may, they may not. But if there’s one distinct disadvantage that they have compared to Penn State? It’s that, while we can’t predict accurately how either side will perform, Ohio State has more unknowns.

And that’s why this isn’t just the biggest game of the season for them, it’s the game that will show us just how “for real” the Buckeyes really are.

Big Ten: Things Get Worrying For Nebraska After Michigan Loss

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When is the losing streak going to end? It’s only at three games, which wouldn’t be the end of the world in the NFL, but this is college football. Nebraska’s three game losing streak would seemingly signal that the season is over, for most teams. But for a team of their stature, it’s even worse. Three losses to open up the season, including one at home against Conference USA opponent Troy, is catastrophic.

While there will always be some fans that argue for a new head coach to be given time to fix an inherited roster, the majority is not usually level-headed. The honeymoon period for Scott Frost is over, and it’s not because the Cornhuskers lost to Michigan, but because of the way the loss happened.

The fact of the matter is that Nebraska didn’t look like a team coached by someone coming off of an undefeated season, at all. The coaching staff can’t fix a roster up immediately and take a bad team to the Playoff, but they can make the losses better than the ones Nebraska has had so far. Getting blown out by Michigan isn’t that bad in isolation, considering the current situation in Lincoln.

But opening the season with a loss to Colorado, and then getting beat at home by Troy, and annihilated by Michigan one week later? If the culture is changing at Nebraska, it looks like the changes won’t be complete until much further down the line. You could argue that any progress could have easily been lost in the results through the first three weeks.

It sounds harsh, but the Michigan running game made the Nebraska defense look like a high school one at certain points when Michigan made big gains. Their offensive line also didn’t do much to protect Martinez, who will be quickly injured once again at this rate.

“After the first series, when we went back out there, we just knew they wanted to give up. You could just see it in their eyes. It’s not anything I can really put into words [but] you could tell by the way a receiver is running his route, or the way you get blocked or the type of passion they’re playing with. We just sensed they didn’t have it, so we used it to our advantage,” said Michigan safety Josh Metellus, following the game.

What does it mean for Nebraska and their new head coach Scott Frost? It means that they need some urgency going into the Purdue game, which could end up being one of the most important ones of the season. Not because Purdue is a highly ranked opponent, but because coaches have been fired for less and an 0-4 start would risk turning Nebraska into another Tennessee: a program where the fans have no faith in the staff and where every loss worsens the situation until things spiral out of hand.

Scott Frost was expected by many to be the savior of Nebraska football. But right now? Nebraska is worse than they’ve been under any of their previous coaches in recent memory. They haven’t had a record like this at the start of the season since 1945. If things don’t turn around soon, the Frost era could easily be derailed before it can get off the ground initially.

And that’s why the Huskers should be worrying about Purdue, a team that not many thought they’d be circling on the schedule before the season started.

Highlights: Two Big Ten Teams Go Down In Big Upsets

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Three weeks into the college football season, and we’ve already seen plenty of great close games and upsets that few would have predicted before they happened. Week three didn’t disappoint in that area, with teams around the country going down to unexpected foes. The Big Ten in specific had a couple of the most notable upsets, as both Wisconsin and Nebraska fell.

#6 Wisconsin vs BYU

Wisconsin probably needed to run the table to get into the College Football Playoff. They missed out last season, and it was directly because of their loss in the conference title game. It was a decision that was debated for months after it happened, but in the end, the strength of schedule just wasn’t good enough for Wisconsin to reach the playoff despite losing to the winner of the east.

This season, though, getting to the Playoff might just be a distant dream for the Badgers. Entering the game as the sixth ranked team in the country, they didn’t go down to a tough conference opponent. No, they went down against an unranked BYU team in a loss that won’t look good to the voters. Will they bounce back? Was the performance at least a good one, despite the loss?

Check out the highlights above and decide for yourself.

Nebraska vs Troy

The Scott Frost era isn’t off to a good start. First, the Huskers loss starting quarterback Adrian Martinez to injury and lost to their old rivals from Colorado. Now, replacement quarterback Andrew Bunch couldn’t do enough to win the game in Martinez’s absence, as Nebraska lost at home to Conference USA opponents Troy.

Really, Nebraska just handed Troy a decent amount of money to come to Lincoln and beat them in front of a stunned set of fans. Special teams made a difference as Troy returned a punt for a touchdown, one that would eventually ensure they had enough points to survive through the end of the game. Check it out above, and decide for yourself if it’s the biggest upset of the weekend.

Penn State Football: Before Ohio State, Nittany Lions Face Illinois

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The Illinois game might be the one that Penn State fans are forgetting this season. It’s sandwiched in between the last out of conference game, which ended up being a blowout win, and the biggest home game of the season. The latter, of course, is the white out game against Ohio State.

Everyone in State College wants some revenge for how things turned out last year, and the game is even more anticipated because it’s happening early in the season. No need to wait until Halloween week, this time. Before that game, though, the Nittany Lions will travel to Illinois and will face the Fighting Illini in a night game.

The rundown on Illinois

It’s not that Illinois is expected to do much against Penn State, but Appalachian State wasn’t expected to either. It would be a mistake for the team to overlook this game, especially because PSU is the highest ranked team that Illinois should face this season.

For Penn State, this is a game to be moved past quickly, to get to one of the biggest ones of the season. For Illinois, this might be their only chance of the year to play on Fox Sports 1 in a Friday night game in front of their own fans. But while the occasion is a big one for the Illini, their on the field results haven’t been so great.

Freshman quarterback M.J. Rivers was thrown into the starting job without a lot of preparation, after the favorite for the starting job, Cam Thomas, left the team for personal reasons. Last week out, the opponent was USF and Illinois leaned more on their running backs than their passing game. Their defense also helped them out with a couple of interceptions,

That same defense also showed some weaknesses when they needed to hold a lead and keep USF from storming back to a win. A touchdown to the corner of the end zone put USF back in striking distance at the top of the fourth quarter, and things went downhill from there. It’s not that one touchdown stole the game away from Illinois, and it took a pretty good throw from former Alabama player Blake Barnett to make it happen, after all.

But after that, Illinois allowed a deep pass from Barnett following Randall St. Felix beating their man coverage. They managed to hold USF to just a field goal, but when the Bulls had the ball again, Barnett’s pass to Darnell Salomon wasn’t even contested. It was one of the most wide open touchdowns you’ll ever see, and if Illinois wants to have any hope of hanging with Penn State, they can’t let plays like that happen again.

The verdict is that, while Penn State can’t just look past this game and only think about the one against Ohio State, this Illinois team isn’t in the shape to pull off the upset on Friday night. They might make things momentarily interesting, but after Penn State dropped 63 points on Kent State, Illinois should fear their offense.

Blake Barnett gave them serious trouble, so it’s not a stretch to say that Trace McSorley might do the same thing. Not only that, but their running game will likely have less success against the PSU defense.

They left a clear weakness for Penn State to exploit with their performance against USF, and they can expect just that to happen. The main question is, will they keep things close and surprise everyone by playing well in front of a national audience?

Nebraska Football: Huskers Will “Figure Out” Adrian Martinez Injury

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Last weekend wasn’t a good one to be a Nebraska fan. Not only did the Huskers take a 33-28 loss to rivals Colorado, in a close game that went down to the wire, but quarterback Adrian Martinez was injured in what had a chance to be a successful debut for the freshman.

He had completed 75% of his passes and thrown for 187 yards, but was forced to exit the game after being hit in the back of the legs in what was possibly a dirty play. It will go down as a knee injury, and now, Nebraska is forced to not only recover from the early season loss, but find out where to go from here at the quarterback position.

After all, Martinez was the one that was hyped up as the starter. Losing him at any point would hurt, but losing him this early in the season is even worse. There’s not a clear-cut solution about who should step up and replace Martinez, and even first year head coach Scott Frost admitted that himself.

“We’ll figure it out as it goes along, but we’re doing our best to get every quarterback on our roster at least familiar enough with the game plan to be able to go out there and function and execute,” said Frost. Additionally, it seems that Frost won’t be giving up much information about the injury. “It’s hard to keep secrets in this day and age, but what’s in-house needs to stay in-house.”

We do know, however, that Nebraska has three other quarterbacks to choose from following Martinez’s injury. None of them, though, are juniors or seniors. Nebraska has a young group of quarterbacks this year, and Andrew Bunch was the one that took snaps against Colorado after the injury to Martinez.

Bunch threw for 49 yards on 9 passing attempts, but the other options are sophomore Noah Vedral and freshman Matt Masker, who helped continue a long tradition at Nebraska when he walked onto the team earlier this year. Masker, who is from the state of Nebraska, would be a quick fan favorite if he found himself getting playing time.

However, neither Vedral or Masker took snaps in the Colorado loss, and it seems that Bunch is more likely to start against Troy if Martinez doesn’t make a quick recovery.

It’s unknown how long Martinez should be out with this knee injury, but fortunately for the Cornhuskers, they have a bit more margin for error against their next opponent, a Conference USA school that lost their only game against FBS opposition by the score of 56-20.

Big Ten: Updated Heisman Trophy Race After Week Two

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Two Saturdays into the season, and we have a good idea of who the superstars are. It’s still early in the season, so the battle for the Heisman Trophy is still in its opening phases. But let’s face it, everyone is going to talk about it anyway. Because of that, we might as well go over some of the players from the Big Ten conference that could win the award.

Jonathan Taylor, Wisconsin RB

Wisconsin’s coaches are certainly doing their part in helping Jonathan Taylor win the Heisman. He was given 33 carries in the blowout of New Mexico, and he made the most of them to reach an average of 7.7 yards per rush. Not only that, but Taylor helped his team on the scoreboard by punching in three touchdowns.

They weren’t all goalline touchdowns either, with one of them coming from a 16 yard run around the edge. Overall, he had 253 yards and looked pretty good with the exception of the fumble. That’s going to be a problem if it happens in bigger games, but not many will care about early season fumbles like this. If a running back wins the Heisman this year, it looks like Taylor is the one that’s on pace to do it.

Like many of the other players that are putting up big numbers in the early season, we still have to see him against better competition. The Badgers, after all, have only played against New Mexico and Western Kentucky at this point in the season. In their next game, we’ll see Taylor against a BYU team that already has a win against power five opponent Arizona.

Dwayne Haskins Jr., Ohio State QB

Haskins already has five touchdowns through two games, despite this being his first year in the starting role. And boy, has he taken to that starting role well. You could have called the quarterback position a question mark for Ohio State going into the season, but after the first games, it doesn’t seem like there will be an actual competition mid-season.

After throwing for four touchdowns against Rutgers, Haskins should have secured the job. You could make an argument, however, that this game only has a limited value for telling how Haskins will play later in the season. Rutgers didn’t get much pressure on the quarterback and Haskins made some of his best plays while standing in a large and well protected pocket, one that gave him enough time to put the ball where he wanted.

Still, you can’t discount the throws themselves, or the staggering 87% completion percentage from 23 passing attempts. Haskins only threw three passes that weren’t caught, which is pretty impressive. Next week, we’ll get to see what Haskins and the rest of the Ohio State offense looks like against an opponent that has more quality. The Buckeyes have to go to Arlington to face TCU, who won both of their opening games in convincing fashion and currently hold the number sixteen spot in the national rankings.

Trace McSorley, Penn State QB

There might be some doubts about McSorley as a Heisman contender after this week, but he’s on this list of players because he entered the season as one of the biggest favorites. Where does McSorley rank right now? That depends on just how much emphasis you put on pure statistics. Because McSorley didn’t look good statistically against Pitt, but he did his job and helped lead the Nittany Lions to a dominant win.

He had a pair of touchdowns in the blowout, but after only completing 14 out of 30 attempted passes, his stat line isn’t as impressive as the team’s overall performance. Still, it wasn’t a bad game from McSorley, who made plays when they were needed and did his part to push the result from a close game to a much stronger win. His 4.8 yards per pass average, however, definitely doesn’t look good.

To be fair to McSorley, the weather during the game wasn’t good for passing. It just won’t be a game that wins over Heisman voters, and if McSorley wants to stay near the top of the race for the award, he’ll have to start taking over games in conference play. Furthermore, McSorley should likely have three touchdown passes in this game, as one surefire touchdown was dropped by the receiver in the end zone after a good pass.

Michigan State: Overlooking ASU Would Be A Grave Mistake

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Strange things happen during west coast night games. That sounds like an empty platitude, just like “intangibles” or “the it-factor.” But ask anyone that stays up to watch the late night PAC-12 games, and they’ll tell you that the conference has a reputation for some of its best moments happening when many college football fans are sleeping.

When Michigan State travels to Tempe to face the Arizona State Sun Devils tonight, they would be crazy to think that it’s impossible for them to end up on the wrong side of a wild game. After ASU hired Herm Edwards, they were made fun of by both their rivals and various neutral fans. Many asked why ASU had hired a coach that’s roughly 20 games under the .500 mark in NFL winning percentage.

Meanwhile, archrivals Arizona pulled in Kevin Sumlin, former Texas A&M head coach and someone that’s already experienced the college game and had decent success there. Sumlin would help Arizona improve following a mediocre season, right? Well, so far, Edwards is 1-0 with the Sun Devils and Sumlin is 0-1 with the Wildcats after losing to BYU in the season opener.

While Arizona didn’t look that good against BYU, Arizona State ensured that they’ll enter their second game with momentum. They won by a margin of 49-7, which is impressive even if the opponent was a poor UTSA team. They aren’t expected to win many things like this, but it flashed their potential.

Michigan State will have to be careful of wide receiver N’Keal Harry in specific. Out of his six catches in the UTSA game, two of them were touchdowns. He also had an average of 23.3 yards per reception, and 140 total yards on 6 catches. It was against a bad defense, maybe, but it’s not easy to get those kinds of numbers even against lesser competition.

The ASU defense is a concern for them, and Michigan State’s star duo of L.J. Scott and Brian Lewerke should be able to put up points, but their offense is good enough to make this interesting. Furthermore, Harry was the only ASU receiver to have more than two catches. They could spread the ball around more in this game, giving the Spartans some offensive looks that they haven’t seen yet.

On the other hand, Michigan State enters after looking uninspired at times in a game where they almost blew a lead to Utah State. It’s hard to imagine lightning striking twice, but it shows that hurting the Spartans is easier than some would think. The running game in particular didn’t produce as well as it could have, as Scott finished with less than 100 yards.

If Michigan State expects Lewerke to do everything on offense, they could end up with another scare on their hands. It’s also worth remembering that the game is one of the biggest of the season for Arizona State, and should be their biggest home game other than the one against USC later this year. Some of their biggest matchups are on the road, meaning the atmosphere for this one should be top notch.

There’s no guarantee that Arizona State wins. But if the Michigan State team doesn’t have the possibility in mind, the circumstances are definitely in place for the Sun Devils to give them a run for their money in what would be one of the more exciting games of the week.

Penn State Football: What To Watch For During The Pitt Game

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Going into the second week of college football, Penn State versus Pittsburgh might just be the most interesting matchup featuring a Big Ten team. It’s debatable, with Colorado versus Nebraska taking place earlier in the day, but the Keystone Classic is the game that features one of the top teams in the nation.

And in a rivalry environment on the road, a surprising result isn’t out of the question. Especially after Penn State’s lackluster start to the reason, a game that will surely give motivation to Pitt after watching their rivals stumble and nearly fall.

What should be expected from this game?

Pittsburgh rolled over Albany to open up their season, allowing only seven points and shutting out the Great Danes once the first quarter was over. They actually managed to run back the opening kick for a touchdown, which could sum up how the game went in general.

Maurice French, who scored the touchdown on the return, ended up adding to the lead with his second non-receiving touchdown of the day. The score came on an end around run, despite French’ being a receiver. It just goes to show that the Penn State team will need to work on their tackling going into this game, because Pitt has more weapons than Appalachian State did and the margin for error is much lower.

If there’s one player in that receiving corps that Penn State fans should be aware of, it’s Rafael Araujo-Lopes. For a player with only three catches, his stat line was very good. 50 yards overall, and two of those three catches were touchdowns. The number matches his total number of touchdowns from last year, showing that he’ll play a large role as a senior.

Pitt is starting an inexperienced quarterback who only played in four games last season, but that inexperience didn’t really show in the result against Albany. Kenny Pickett threw for 16 completions and a great 72.7 completion percentage, with two touchdowns to one interception.

Safety Nick Scott and linebacker Cameron Brown both had sacks in the Appalachian State game, but a stronger and more consistent performance from the defensive line would work wonders in helping Penn State to avoid another scare. One area where Penn State should have an advantage, however, is the running game.

No back finished with more than 100 yards, but the Penn State running backs were good when they needed to be. Miles Sanders had two touchdowns, while Ricky Slade scored in his very first game as a college player and had an average of 6.8 yards per carry with a small sample size. Will Slade get more carries against Pitt?

It wouldn’t be an unwise move from the Penn State staff. While passing ultimately won the game for PSU, it wasn’t consistent and had a sluggish start. Watch for the Nittany Lions to try establishing the run, to avoid putting too much pressure on quarterback Trace McSorley to carry the offense in the absence of NFL draftee Saquon Barkley.

Finally, it’s important to remember that the game is in Pittsburgh, and that the atmosphere will be more intense than a normal nonconference game. Penn State might be favored by just about everybody, but in a game like this, the unexpected always seems to happen at some point.

If you have any doubts that Pitt will be playing this game differently, head coach Pat Narduzzi summed it up himself.

“Anyone who wants to argue and say this is no different than any other week, it is. That’s a fact. If you want to ignore that, you can ignore it, but it’s a big game… I think our kids will be excited. They got a great football team. They’re talented, they have great players, and they have a great program, so we’re looking forward to having them come to Heinz Field again.”

What Happened In The Big Ten On The First Saturday?

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The first full weekend of college football is done, and teams from the Big Ten finally kicked off their seasons with some exciting matchups. Some of them were projected from the start to be great games. Others, like Penn State versus Appalachian State, were simply a case of an underdog turning up and not bowing down to the favorite. And then there were some games that were just strange, like the 108 point clash between Ohio State and Oregon State.

What were the biggest moments from the first Saturday?

Matt Canada starts off with a win as Maryland head coach

Maryland is not the team that most would have picked to pull off an upset. Especially not over a team that should have been at least somewhat wary, after losing to the Terrapins last year. But despite all the drama around the team’s coaching staff, and the fairly recent suspension of D.J. Durkin, the team pulled together and managed an upset win in honor of Jordan McNair.

It was a close game but it was one that Texas trailed most of the time. Maryland kept Texas from gaining the lead until the later part of the third quarter, and even then, they would take it back near the start of the fourth. Their quarterback situation was lamented going into the season, and yet Maryland starter Kasim Hill had a higher completion percentage and passer rating than Texas QB Sam Ehlinger. Additionally, Hill threw for no interceptions, while Ehlinger had two.

Despite the game being stopped for over an hour because of the weather, Maryland was able to hold the lead throughout most of the fourth quarter to secure the win. It’s a win that will greatly help the resume of Matt Canada, a figure that many have mixed opinions about after his failed stint at LSU. Now, however, he has a 1-0 record while acting as head coach.

Penn State beats Appalachian State, but not in the way they wanted

The Nittany Lions did what was expected of them and they dispatched their visiting opponents from Appalachian State, but just about nobody within the Penn State fanbase would like to repeat a performance like that anytime soon. It didn’t exactly make the team look good, after all.

Trace McSorley is one of the Heisman favorites this year, and Miles Sanders should be a good enough replacement for number two overall draft pick Trace McSorley, but none of Penn State’s stars really looked like themselves for this game and the offense was sluggish for much of it. The 45 point output doesn’t tell the actual story of the game, because Penn State only did as much as they needed and not even a tiny bit more.

They only managed ten points in the first half, after all. The third quarter went Penn State’s way, but allowing 28 points in the fourth quarter isn’t going to fly when playing against conference opposition, especially elite opponents like Michigan State and Ohio State. On the bright side, the team showed a good amount of resilience to take over during the OT period and put an end to the game.

But everyone, both fans of Penn State and fans of their rivals, know that it never should have reached that point. If the Nittany Lions want to keep their spot in the rankings, they’ll certainly have to avoid letting lower ranked opponents play up to their level as the Mountaineers did.

Michigan State gets past Utah State… Barely

Penn State isn’t the only highly ranked Big Ten team to have some trouble with a nonconference opponent that everyone overlooked. Michigan State was picked by Vegas as the second most likely team to win the Big Ten East, but they had a scare at the hands of Utah State regardless.

Like Penn State, the Spartans did enough to win the game but didn’t do enough to please their fans and critics, their pass defense failing to close out Utah State and quarterback Brian Lewerke throwing an interception that would be returned for a touchdown. The running backs didn’t have the best game either, with top back L.J. Scott finishing with less than 100 yards on 23 carries.

Furthermore, the winning run didn’t come until there were about two minutes left in the game. That kind of close margin just isn’t what any top team wants out of a nonconference game like this, and you can be sure the Spartans will make some tweaks going into their next game.

Will they have a better defensive performance over an Arizona State team that put up 49 points in their season opener? That’s a question that will loom large going into their west coast road trip this Saturday.

Three Big Ten Games To Watch On Opening Weekend

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College football has been going since the end of August, but the first Saturday in September marks the start of the real season. It’s the day when most of the country’s teams will begin their seasons, and that includes the majority of the Big Ten. Plenty of teams are playing, with the games starting at noon, but which games are the ones worth watching?

Three Games From The First Saturday Of Football

Northern Illinois @ Iowa, 3:40 PM on the Big Ten Network

This one is on BTN rather than ESPN or FOX, but don’t let that fool you. It should be an interesting matchup between a hopeful Big Ten West contender and an underdog that enters the season renewed after losing ground last year to quarterback injuries.

MAC Defensive Player of the Year Sutton Smith, who had 14 sacks last season, returns for Northern Illinois as a junior, and quarterback Marcus Childers will have more preparation for a starting role as well as more experience. Safety Mykelti Williams is another player to watch on the underdog team. As a sophomore, he had the third-most tackles on the team, with 73.

Northern Illinois only managed an 8-5 record, but they did have some bad luck during the 2017 season and that might cause the Hawkeyes to sleep on them heading into the opening game of the season for both teams.

Oregon State @ Ohio State, 12:00 PM on ABC (Or Texas vs Maryland)

Alright, there’s a decent chance that this one isn’t actually a good game. But it’s one of the first games of the day, and there’s more intrigue around it than, say, Texas versus Maryland. No offense, Maryland.

The reason this game is so interesting is that head coach Urban Meyer is suspended for it. Not that the talent level of Ohio State is any lower because of it, but stranger things have happened in college football than a team losing to a big underdog on opening day because they don’t have their head coach for whatever reason. Coaching is one of the most important aspects of the game, and once you remove a successful head coach for even one game, anything can happen.

Oregon State, though, did not have a good time last year. They only won one game, and head coach Gary Andersen felt bad enough about the situation there to leave 12 million dollars on the table and leaving the program of his own accord. While there is a chance that the off the field drama affects Ohio State, there’s also a chance that the Buckeyes run riot on their opponent and start Dwayne Haskins’ career as a starter off the right way.

In that case, it might be a perfectly good idea to flip the channel to Texas versus Maryland, assuming you aren’t a fan of either team and just want to see action.

Michigan @ Notre Dame, 7:30 PM on NBC

Did you really think this game wouldn’t be on the list? This one isn’t just the best Big Ten game of the week, but one of the best games in the nation, period. For those who have been complaining about neutral site games, and top programs not wanting to play each other home and away anymore, this one is for you.

Jim Harbaugh needs to get results at Michigan, after having a few years to bring in some of his own players, and this game should be a make or break one for him and his staff. Except, it’s not a late season game within the conference. It’s on the first Saturday of the season, and you don’t see too many openers with this much on the line for both teams.

Both of these fanbases are very large and vocal, and you can bet for sure that the loser will have a decent amount of people calling for the head coach to be fired. Also, Shea Patterson will make his Michigan debut. That’s not something that you’ll want to miss, especially if your favorite team plays the Wolverines later in the year.

Harbaugh hasn’t had a star quarterback since coming back to the University of Michigan. Will having that, plus a tough defense, be enough to knock off a top fifteen ranked rival? We’ll all find that out soon, with the top night game of the first weekend.