Big Ten Bloggers Roundtable: Week 3 (Answers)

By Sean · Thursday, September 13, 2007 · 11:24 PM |  Share | Leave a Comment 

I posted the below questions earlier this week as apart of the Big Ten Bloggers Roundtable for Week 3, here are my answers:

1. Now that two weeks of play are behind us, what is one encouraging surprise and one downing disappointment from your team? (Easy answer to the latter part of the question for Michigan bloggers)

Let’s get the easy part out of the way first. One downing disappointment would have to be the entire football program as a whole. The coaches don’t ever seem to be prepared and don’t know how to adjust and the players, minus a select few, look like they are lost and couldn’t care less anyways. Any time you start 0-2 there is a reason to be disappointed, but when you do it by losing to Appalachian State and then getting blown out by Oregon, it takes disappointing to a whole new level.

The only encouraging surprise from this team is the fact that Mike Hart still hasn’t given up. In the first two games, Hart was really one of the only players that appeared to be giving it his all. He never quits on plays and hasn’t quit on this team. Other than him, there isn’t any thing encouraging about this team except the fact that the season is over in roughly 3+ months.

2. A look at the current Big Ten standings shows things dead-locked record-wise for the most part. Once conference play actually begins, which two or three teams pull away from the rest of the pack?

I would have to say Penn State, Ohio State, and Wisconsin. Out of those three, I like Penn State the most. The Nittany Lions have a great defense and get most of their tough games at home. The one thing that will tell me the most about PSU is what they do against Michigan. Can Penn State finally end their losing streak against Michigan? Remember, two years ago when they came to Ann Arbor, they suffered the their only loss of the year to a Michigan team that would end up 7-5, so anything is possible.

Ohio State and Wisconsin will finish a close second in my opinion. OSU’s defense looks to be solid, but their offense hasn’t done all that much yet. Wisconsin I said was overrated before the season began, and I continue to believe that now, although I have no room to talk as a Michigan fan. After a scare at UNLV, the Badgers have to play better if they want to win the Big Ten title.

3. Has your team ever played in a game that was just downright boring and impossible to watch? I ask this because going into the Michigan-Notre Dame game, looking at it on paper, it is shaping up to be one of the ugliest we may see all year.

Michigan always plays in games that are tough to watch, but usually they never are really boring. I guess I would have to say the boringest game I can remember was against Purdue back in 1995. The Wolverines won by a score of 5-0, which just says it all. The weather sucked as well if I remember correctly, making for a tough day to watch a game that includes only a field goal and a safety.