Creepin' The Big Ten: Week 1

Kudos to Galen for the name behind this new segment. As you all know, there’s more to college football than what’s happening with Penn State. Hence, we feel it’s our duty here at LBU to give you a recap of how our fellow Big Ten brethren fared in the past weekend:

Indiana 51, Towson 17 – Yes, it was Towson, but IU’s offense was as good as advertised. Ben Chappell tossed a pair of TD’s to go with his 182 yards passing while Darius Willis tacked on 102 yards and two rushing TD’s himself. IU coach Bill Lynch also tossed his gum and yelled at a ref for no apparent reason.

Ohio State 45, Marshall 7 – Marshall got plenty of TP for their bungholes* in OSU’s Thursday Night debut. Terrelle Pryor picked apart the Thundering Herd’s secondary with 247 yards passing and three TD’s, one to eighth-year senior Dane Sanzenbacher and two more to DeVier Posey. Brian Rolle also added a pick-six along with Brandon Saine running for 103 yards and a pair of TD’s. Freshman Jamaal Berry had a solid debut as well, running for 80 yards on seven carries.


Minnesota 24, Middle Tennessee State 17 – Minnesota is widely expected to be a Big Ten cellar dweller. Perhaps it’s the fact that Tim Brewster’s spent more time preparing and less time writing FIGHT VICTORY WIN TRY HARD twitter posts. Or maybe it was due to Mid Tennessee State missing their starting QB Dwight Dasher to an injury. Whatever it was, Minny went on the road and beat a stingy Blue Raiders team behind Duane Bennett’s career-high 187 rushing yards. Good for them.

Michigan State 38, Western Michigan 14 – Sparty unleashed its latest two-headed monster backfield as true freshman Le’Von Bell and sophomore Edwin Baker both rushed for over 100 yards and a pair of TD’s each. Kirk Cousins also threw for 186 yards and a TD. Mark Dantonio is pleased.

Iowa 37, Eastern Illinois 7 – Unlike last year’s season opener against Northern Iowa, the Hawkeyes didn’t need to pull any miracles out of their collective asses to beat the Sex Panthers of Eastern Illinois. Adam Robinson led the offensive attack with 3 TD’s on 109 yards rushing, Ricky Stanzi also pitched in a passing TD of his own. Stanzi put the entire Hawkeye fan base in a “Oh crap, here we go again..”state when he briefly went out with a leg injury before returning. Paki O’Meara also had a blocked punt return for a TD, sparking an awesome “Pakibomb”photoshop job over at BHGP.

Missouri 23, Illinois 13 – Needless to say, I was shocked to see the Fighting Zookers leading 13-3 at the half during a random score check on my phone. It all turned out to be a mirage of course for the Illini, as the Tigers rallied from behind and made Illini QB Nathan Scheelhaase’s debut a nightmare (81 yards passing, 1 TD, 3 Ints). The Ron Zook Farewell Tour is up and running folks, point and laugh while you still can.

(Photo: MVictors.com)

Michigan 30, UConn 10 – In perhaps the most stunning result of the Big Ten slate, Michigan laid a whooping on a UConn team most felt could at least give the Wolverines a close game, if not beat them. Perhaps UConn is vastly overrated, or maybe Michigan might need to be taken just a little more seriously. Denard Robinson threw for a TD and ran for one while coming awfully close to having 200 yards passing and rushing. Robinson carried the ball a whopping 29 times, the same number of carries that true tailbacks Vincent Smith and Michael Shaw had combined. This of course, has only further fueled the "Denard Robinson = Pat White" fire and will probably not stop until Robinson gets injured when Dick Rod tries to run him 20+ times against a Big Ten-caliber defense.

Notre Dame 23, Purdue 12 – An extremely difficult season opener for Purdue ended as many thought it would, with a loss. However, the Boilers should be commended for not throwing in the towel when trailing 20-3 in the second half. Instead, Purdue rattled off 9 straight points (a safety and a touchdown) before Notre Dame sealed the deal with a late field goal.

Northwestern 23, Vanderbilt 21 – Your classic Battle of the Nerd Schools: Fumbled snaps, missed PAT’s, and other petty mistakes that made what should’ve been a handy win for Northwestern become a nail-biter that came down to a botched two-point conversion by Vanderbilt that would’ve tied it with two minutes to play in the game. The refs didn’t do themselves any favors either with a controversial late-hit call Vandy that allowed Northwestern to run out the clock and escape with the “W.”

Wisconsin 41, UNLV 21 – I fell asleep shortly after this game started, not because it was boring, but because I was dead tired from a day of football/tailgating. From reading the game description though, it sounds like one of those games where one team was dominating in all aspects of the game but the scoreboard. Wisconsin only led 17-14 at the half but released the Kraken in the third quarter, which ended with the Badgers holding a 41-14 advantage.

* Beavis and Butthead references FTW

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