[NU Sports] Big Ten today ...

[SjT (Stephen J. Truog)]

Hope the Cats are resting in the bye week - nice to see us getting some love from the national press and Fitz in the studio!

You can sure tell that Big Ten play is in full swing with the scores going down, the hitting getting harder and some great football on TV. Some thoughts ...

* Hard hitting game with MSU and Iowa ... we have our work cut out for us against Ringer next week. I see why Ferentz went for it at the end, but the call sure wasn't one of his best.

* Purdue really has hit the skids since the second half against Oregon - hope that slump continues for a couple more weeks at least. But they did show flashes of how good they could be against Penn State.

* Minnesota is quietly creeping up on the league and will probably play us needing that win to secure a bowl bid -- both UM and NU have made strides in their defenses since last year's game and it should be another close one.

* Penn State played their worst game of the year and still won comfortably. But the next three games will really tell if they're a title contender. Still, I was wondering how they'd respond to a tough game on the road and their QB kept his cool nicely.

* No band for the Badgers? Well, anyone who's run into the Badger band probably isn't surprised ... and it's gonna hurt the atmosphere for their game tonight as -- despite my personal feelings on the UW band -- no one plays to their crowd, is beloved by their fans and energizes the students better than the UW Marching Band.

Illinois - Michigan is going to be interesting to watch next. If the Wolverines win this one then they really have turned the corner under RichRod, but I just don't see them keeping up with the Illini (even with their lax defense).

GO CATS!!! BEAT SPARTY!!!
-SjT

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STEPHEN J. TRUOG
sjtruog at yahoo.com
GO CATS!!!