College football Week 5 thread

For the handful of us who care, let's not forget about Saturday's battle for this:





Besides playing for a bronzed pig, the winner of the Iowa-Minnesota tilt has the inside track to a berth in the prestigious Little Caesars Pizza bowl.

Go Hawkeyes!

 

Fear the Gopher!

8)

 

Minnesota cocks 'em.

 

Instead of becoming another Hayden Fry, why has Kirk Ferentz made like Jeff Tedford? Why has that program been stuck in neutral for the last three seasons?

 

Hayden Fry had his ups and downs during the 1990s, with several losing seasons mixed in. Although Fry retired for health reasons, there wasn't much talent around when he left.

My personal opinion is Ferentz is right to stick with a traditional/conservative offense; they've been able to recruit players to make it work in the past, and can do it again. We'll see how this year's group does in the Big 10 part of the season.

They've had incredibly bad luck with injuries and off-the-field drama with their running backs over the past 3-4 years, and that's why they have a walk-on fullback as their starter now. Their young QB is OK, but he could use a few more guys at WR like Derrell Johnson-Koulianos or Marvin McNutt.

 

I bring up Fry because not only did he enjoy staying power (three Rose Bowls in 10 seasons), but he did so when the conference was a lot tougher than it is now. Ohio State, Michigan, even Illinois took turns in the top five back then for a while. Ferentz doesn't have that kind of competition.

Of course, then there's the giant pig (as opposed to elephant) in the room: Generation upon generation of Minnesota teams simply sucking.

 

Ole Miss hangs with 'Bama for a quarter, maybe even a half, but the Tide shall rolleth.

 

You make a good point about the conference ... at the national level, Big 10 teams were powers in the 1980s and 1990s, and Fry's teams managed to knock off a few of them.

Iowa catches a break when they add Rutgers and Maryland next year; the "west" division will be the easier of the two, by far.

 

I don't know how much of a break Rutgers and Maryland are for present-day Iowa.

Rutgers just beat Arkansas and has been more than respectable the last 5 years (39-21, several bowl wins) and Maryland seems to have found a little newfound swagger. Edsall built UConn into a thing for a few years. He'll do the same at Maryland.

Iowa should worry about finding more guys like Tavian Banks who can rush for 1700 yards in a season to keep up with the joneses.

 

Rutgers and Maryland will be in the Big 10's east division, Xan, along with Michigan, Michigan St., Ohio St., Penn St. and Indiana.

So once the Big 10 goes to a nine-game sked, the Hawkeyes will play their six west division foes (Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Illinois, Northwestern and Purdue) and only three from the East, probably on a rotating basis.

So it may take a while for that Scarlet Knights-Hawkeyes rivalry to develop.

 

Georgia, playing at home, beats LSU, but probably by less than a touchdown.

 

Oh, fuck Maryland and its "swagger". It's beaten Florida International, which asked for a fucking running clock at Louisville. It beat Old Dominion, which gave up 58 at home to The fucking Citadel. It beat UConn, which got corn holed at home by fucking Towson. It beat a shitty West Virginia team at a neutral site. Fuckabuncha Terps.