Week 1 Big Ten Recap

Ohio State – 43 :: Youngstown State – 0

The Buckeyes rolled against YSU in dominating fashion. Terrelle Pryor actually got into the game early on and much to the dismay of Michigan fans, he played quite well. OSU does have to be concerned with the status of Beanie Wells, who left the game injured in the 3rd quarter. He was carted off the field and could be out only a couple weeks or it could be much longer than that. Right now it isn’t known how severe his injury is.

Prediction: Correct

Wisconsin – 38 :: Akron – 17

P.J. Hill’s 210 rushing yards led the way for Wisconsin in their win over the Zips. The Badgers were only up by a touchdown at the half, but pulled away thanks to a pair of third quarter touchdowns.

Prediction: Correct

Penn State – 66 :: Coastal Carolina – 10

Joe Paterno tied Bobby Bowden for the most wins in major college football history as his Nittany Lions destroyed Coastal Carolina. Penn State put up 59 points through three quarters en route to their big blowout.

Prediction: Correct

Northwestern – 30 :: Syracuse – 10

The Wildcats got off to a slow start and only held a 9-3 lead at the half, but they quickly padded their lead in the third quarter with two touchdowns before going on to win 30-10. C.J. Bacher threw for 215 yards in the win and Tyrell Sutton added 215 on the ground.

Prediction: Correct

Indiana – 31 :: Western Kentucky – 13

The Hoosiers were never really threatened in this game and won comfortably. Kellen Lewis broke the all-time Indiana career passing touchdowns record and led IU to a 1-0 start.

Prediction: Correct

Iowa – 46 :: Maine – 3

Iowa’s balanced attack got them out to a big lead before putting the game way out of reach with three 4th quarter TDs.

Prediction: Correct

Minnesota – 31 :: Northern Illinois – 27

The Golden Gophers equaled their win total from a year ago after only one game. Their match-up with NIU was close throughout all four quarters and Minnesota only pulled ahead to win the game with 22 seconds left when Duane Bennett scored on a 1-yard TD run.

Prediction: Sort of correct; Minnesota didn’t win comfortably

California – 38 :: Michigan State – 31

MSU began their season with yet another loss by only 7 points. Every loss since Dantonio took over as their head coach has come by 7 or less points, which is both disappointing and encouraging at the same time. Either way, they did have a chance to beat Cal in this game, but couldn’t overcome a bad defensive effort (sans Otis Wiley) and another not so good game from Brian Hoyer. Wide receiver Mark Dell did play outstanding as he had 9 catches for 202 yards, so perhaps he could be this year’s Devin Thomas for the Spartans.

Prediction: Correct

Missouri – 52 :: Illinois – 42

This was definitely the wildest Big Ten game in the season’s first week. Illinois made a nice comeback attempt, but still fell 10 points short of winning. Although their defense and special teams didn’t play well, their offense was tremendous. Juice Williams, who is not known as a good passer, threw for 451 yards and 5 touchdowns. That was very surprising as Williams never had that kind of success last season. Hopefully it was only a onetime thing.

Prediction: Correct (Although the final margin was only 10 points, Illinois scored a touchdown on the final play of the game to cut the lead down)

Overall I went 9-1 with my picks this week. The only game I got wrong Michigan’s loss to Utah. I predicted a win and we all know how that turned out.