FanHouse Pat Fitzgerald

We finally figured out what sort of misfortune Iowa's Cardiac Kids couldn't survive. They couldn't survive losing Ricky Stanzi. As a result, No. 8 Iowa fell to unranked Northwestern on Saturday, 17-10.

The junior quarterback left just before halftime after Northwestern's Corey Wootton tackled him in the end zone. Stanzi sprained his right ankle and fumbled the ball. As Northwestern's Marshall Thomas recovered the fumble for a touchdown, Stanzi remained on the Kinnick Stadium turf. He would walk off the field on his own power, but Stanzi would not return to the game. Neither would Iowa's offense.

Every Thursday, Pickin' On the Big Ten previews the weekend's action, even when the truth is ugly.

It was a bad week for vowels.

The seven Big Ten schools whose names start with consonants played anywhere from OK to brilliantly this past weekend. The four that start with vowels -- Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, and Ohio State -- all dropped a pantload on the field.

Illinois gets a partial pass because Missouri has been on a nice run lately. Ohio State played a Navy team that usually goes bowling. Indiana struggled with a Division I-AA FCS school, but they're Indiana; you kind of expect these things from them after a while.

That leaves one school. Iowa. And if I was an Iowa fan ... wait. I am an Iowa fan. Make the jump and see what has me feeling punchy. I promise I'll get around to the games eventually.

The college football season is fast approaching, with many fall camps set to open this week. Thus it's time to lay aside our interregional bickering and turn our thoughts to, you know, what might actually happen on the field.

The big question in the Big Ten this season is whether Penn State's conference championship was just a momentary burp in the conference's Buckeye-dominated food chain, or whether things might actually be shifting just a bit in the conference. Do the Buckeyes claim the title again? Will the Nittany Lions defend last year's crown and make a run at the national title? Will there be some giant, world-rocking surprise team that comes in and knocks them both out of the BCS?

Make the jump and all shall be revealed.

If there's a recession in college football, it has yet to reach the coaching ranks. Well, not the head-coaching ranks, anyway. In the past week, three head coaches, Bob Stoops, Pat Fitzgerald, and Brian Kelly, have signed contract extensions that will keep them at their present jobs for a while longer.

We start at Oklahoma, where Bob Stoops is now signed through the 2015 season. Despite several big-bowl bloopers, the people in and around the Oklahoma program are happy with their head coach, and who can blame them? In addition to the extension, Stoops also gets a $250,000 raise to $3.675 million a year, plus $700,000 each July if he remains at OU. If he doesn't stay, they are so defriending him.

In the first installment of the end-of-season report card on the Big Ten, we looked at the schools in the first half of the alphabet. Know what letter is in the first half of the alphabet? That's right. F. But then, all the other grade letters are in the first half of the alphabet too.

Even though it wasn't a great year overall for the conference, there were plenty of bright points and hopeful signs and "wait until next year" moments which should have Big Ten fans excited for next season. Either that, or we'll all look like Charlie Brown did five seconds after Lucy teed up the football. But I digress. Let's take a look at the teams in the second drawer of the Big Ten file cabinet, shall we?

Every Thursday, Pickin' On the Big Ten breaks down action across the conference.

RIGHT: One of these is the alpha cub. But which one is it?

They're 6 and 1. They've lost to the only good team they've played. Their signature win thus far is over a team that, in retrospect, may not really be that good. They're solid on one side of the ball but they have issues on the other. Quick, which 6-1 Big Ten team am I talking about?

Answer? All of them. Ohio State, Minnesota, Michigan State, Northwestern ... on some level, they're all the same team. You know about OSU. Lost to USC, has a gutty win over Wisconsin which seemed huge at the time, solid defense but an offense that suddenly isn't doing so hot. Minnesota lost to the Buckeyes but beat Illinois. So have two other teams. The Gopher defense is much improved but still isn't great. No complaints about the offense.

Northwestern has seen tremendous improvement in its defense. coupled with an inexplicable drop in its offensive production. The Cats' biggest win is over ... who? 3-2 Duke? Or 4-3 Iowa? 3-2 Southern Illinois? Those are the only teams NU has defeated who currently have winning records, and SIU doesn't really count, being a 1-AA Football Championship Subdivision squad. When the Fightin' Fitzgeralds went up against Michigan State, a team with a pulse, they got flounced.

Oh, and what about Sparty? Does Mark Dantonio's team break the pattern?

While college football fans across the country await the start of the new season with a drooling fervor there are also some fans who dread it. Why? Because they know their season is already over before it's even started. Oh sure, their boys are still going to go out there every Saturday and play hard for 60 minutes, but it's not going to make a bit of difference.

They're going to lose, and they're going to lose a lot.

No conference can escape from having teams like this, it's just a part of the game. They still serve their purpose because the good teams in the conference need a breather once in a while, and they also need six wins to qualify for a bowl game.

These teams are the conferences dirty little secret. They're the red-headed step child that's told to stay in their room when company comes over. They are the dregs of Big Ten, and they're here to play another set of 12 games whether we want them to or not.

The Fanhouse is at Big Ten Media Days providing a slanted and enchanted view of the proceedings. Here's the main post.

Pat Fitzgerald. Nice purple tie. Dissatisfied with the outcomes of last season despite the steps forward; new "leadership council". Changing both coordinators, new guy from BGSU on O and oldster Mike Hankewitz on D. Again, an awkward pause before the first question. This guy starts off with "coach" but omits who he is.

Good Q about how the offense will change: 8 Big Ten offenses out of the spread, each a little different. Executing, tempo... ANOTHER playclock mention. I don't get it, man.

Another spread question: why so popular? So much flexibility in the system. High school players put their best football(!) player at quarterback. Puts the defense on their heels. The ability to go four vertical and run a triple option out of the same formation is hard on a defense. (This was perhaps the most astute thing said in the first half of the day.)

"Of the newcomers, who is the most likely to make the quickest impact." Redshirt freshmen linemen, one at LT (eek). Charles Brown at WR. Vincent Brown at DE and Ben Johnson at LB. Michael Bolden (a Michigan legacy, btw) and David Arnold (ditto) are in line for serious playing time.

Terrel Sutton... what kind of confidence does he bring to the team? Just insert a Fire Joe Morgan post here.

Last Year: 4-8, unranked.

Fans Are: Still in shock over the untimely death of Randy Walker and adjusting to the Pat Fitzgerald Era. Results on the field won't really start mattering until next year.

Expectations: Low, unless you're Fitzgerald:

"I expect to win a Big Ten championship and go to the Rose Bowl every year," Fitzgerald said. "We could have some success and go to bowl games, but if we don't do that, the season is a loss. When I look at last year, it was as much adversity as a football team can go through, and we left three or four victories on the field."

A more reasonable goal is one of the rinky-dink bowls at the bottom of the Big Ten ladder.

1. Can CJ Bacher stay healthy?

Northwestern was two different teams last year: a trainwreck without Bacher and an almost mediocre team with him. The California quarterback was anointed the starter last spring after four-year starter Bret Basanez (finally) graduated, but a stress fracture in his leg held him out for the first half of the season. In his stead, Andrew Brewer -- now a starter at wide receiver -- and Mike Kafka -- now a beetle -- took turns driving the Northwestern offense nowhere except into the ground. When Bacher returned, Northwestern suddenly rejoined the ranks of teams able to use the forward pass and the offense ground to life, most notably in a turnover-plagued but impressive game against Ohio State. Northwestern racked up a ton of yards but no points, presaging the Buckeye D's collapse in the last two games of the season when the yards came but the turnovers didn't.

So that would all be well and good, except that Bacher is missing spring practice with a toe injury suffered during that OSU game. He's coming dangerously close to the dreaded "injury-prone" tag. Northwestern's already proven that there are no good options behind him; any bowl hopes they have rest squarely on Bacher's arm... and his glass legs.