The Iowa Hawkeyes rode five Michigan turnovers to a 30-28 victory in Iowa City tonight. The victory was their tenth in a row, which is the second-longest winning streak in the nation after Florida.
Iowa's passing game took control after quarterback Ricky Stanzi's first pass was intercepted by Michigan's Brandon Moore and returned for a touchdown. Stanzi threw two touchdown passes, both to tight end Tony Moeaki.
Every Thursday, Pickin' On the Big Ten stays late to run the TPS reports on the coming weekend's games.
In a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his or her level of incompetence.
The above statement is better known as the Peter Principle, and if it doesn't make sense to you, join the club. I didn't get it the first 1,378 times I read it. Now I recognize it for what it is. It's an overly intellectual way of saying "People who do a good job keep getting promoted until they wind up in a job they can't do."
So what does this have to do with Illinois, you ask?
Every Thursday, Pickin' On the Big Ten tries to make sense out of the upcoming weekend's games.
It was not supposed to be like this for Mark Dantonio and the Michigan State Spartans. Sure, they lost in the Capital One Bowl last season, but not by much, which is why many people tagged them as the Big Ten's third-best team going into this year. It was going to be hard to replace Brian Hoyer and Javon Ringer, but at long last things were looking up for Sparty.
Now, after a heart-shattering 1-3 start, things are still looking up, if only because "up" is the only direction left. Now it's time to pull the wreckage of this season out of the ditch to see what can be salvaged.
Michigan quarterback Tate Forcier suffered an injury to his right shoulder during the Wolverines' come-from-behind victory over Indiana on Saturday. He said after the game that he thought it was just a bruise, but he looked during the game like he was in more pain than "just a bruise" would imply.
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.
They all laughed when Rich Rodriguez said he was going to play three quarterbacks, two of them true freshmen, against Western Michigan.
Many wrote off the Wolverines when the allegations of practice time violations broke earlier this week. No way, no how, could an inexperienced team that went 3-9 last season overcome all the distractions and the Wheel of Quarterbacks. Some even thought it really wouldn't have been an upset if Western Michigan won. The Wolverines had lost their past two home openers, after all.
Sooner or later, you would expect Rich Rodriguez's luck to turn around at Michigan. It looked like things were headed in that direction when Rodriguez landed a very strong recruiting class back in February, but apparently the universe has some more kicks to the crotch in store for the Wolverines' second-year coach.
UPDATE: The Free Press is reporting that Sheridan fractured a bone in his lower leg, and will miss four-to-six weeks. If that's the case, the impact of this is pretty minimal, seeing as how the season doesn't start in May.
The Iowa Hawkeyes rode five Michigan turnovers to a 30-28 victory in Iowa City tonight. The victory was their tenth in a row, which is the second-longest winning streak in the nation after Florida.
Every Thursday, Pickin' On the Big Ten stays late to run the TPS reports on the coming weekend's games.
Every Thursday, Pickin' On the Big Ten tries to make sense out of the upcoming weekend's games.
Every Thursday, Pickin' On the Big Ten previews the weekend's action, even when the truth is ugly.
They all laughed when Rich Rodriguez said he was going to play three quarterbacks, two of them true freshmen, against Western Michigan.
Sooner or later, you would expect Rich Rodriguez's luck to turn around at Michigan. It looked like things were headed in that direction when Rodriguez landed a very strong recruiting class back in February, but apparently the universe has some more kicks to the crotch in store for the Wolverines' second-year coach.
