10 things I’m absolutely overreacting to in the Big Ten after Week 3

The Big Ten is a dumpster fire, a GIF-imploding break-the-internet five-alarm dumpster fire. What was considered to be the best conference in America in the preseason has turned into an absolute joke — and there are no excuses for it.

There were issues in the first two weeks that proved we were wrong about how good the Big Ten could be from top to bottom, but Saturday proved that the Big Ten, with just a couple of exceptions, really stinks this year.

And I mean really, really stinks.

On Saturday, seven Big Ten teams lost to unranked opponents and most looked very ugly in defeat. And what is funny in retrospect is that I didn’t see all that coming. I spent most of my Friday having a hard time finding a Big Ten favorite who might fall. BYU over Wisconsin? No way. Temple or Maryland or Troy over Nebraska? Not possible. They all lost!

With all this craziness going on, it’s so very easy to overreact on a bunch of Big Ten things this week. Here are 10 things I am definitely overreacting to:

1. The Big Ten, especially out West, is a total fraud

Wisconsin has been the prohibitive favorite in the Big Ten West for two reasons. One, they’re supposed to be really good and, two, no one seemed prepared to challenge them. We were at least curious about whether teams like Northwestern, Purdue and Nebraska where ready to take the next step.

Well, Wisconsin lost at home to BYU and now we laugh that we considered them to be a team capable of winning a national championship. We apologize for the hype. Nebraska is 0-2, with losses to Colorado and Troy and Northwestern has lost back-to-back games at home against Duke and Akron, which hadn’t beaten a Big Ten team since 1894. (That’s not a typo.) The Wildcats do have a win. It came in the opener against Purdue, who is now 0-3 with all three losses coming at home. Illinois stinks, too. The Illini blew a huge fourth-quarter lead Saturday and lost to South Florida. At least we don’t have anything bad to say about Iowa and Minnesota.

2. Tristan Gebbia still ticks me off

Tristan Gebbia wanted to be the starting quarterback at Nebraska and he went through the spring and summer working out hard with his boys. He was a Cornhusker. But when new coach Scott Frost announced that true freshman Adrian Martinez had won the starting job, Gebbia simply up and quit, walking away from his teammates.

And, of course, Martinez gets hurt in the opener and all Nebraska had left in the QB room was sophomore walk-on Andrew Bunch. He did all he could Saturday, but his two interceptions were critical in a shocking home loss to Troy and now the Cornhuskers are 0-2. I know kids can do what they want, but Gebbia quit on his buddies and I can still be upset that he had no loyalty. That’s just not right. Sorry, Huskers.

3. Bucky, Bucky, Bucky

This I never saw coming. How can BYU, a team that went 4-9 a year ago and lost to a very average California team last week, come into Madison and stuff the Badgers like that? Wisconsin was that trendy playoff pick lately, but the Badgers sure didn’t look the part Saturday.  Wisconsin’s Heisman Trophy candidate, running back Jonathan Taylor, was held in check and the Badgers passing game didn’t deliver when it needed it. More fraud.

4. Thorson struggles with turnovers for Northwestern

I have to admit, I am completely shocked with what’s happened to this Northwestern team. I thought they were going to be good, and had them as a top-three team in the Big Ten West. But now they’ve lost to Duke and Akron back-to-back and looked bad doing it.

Saturday was sickening. Northwestern blew a 21-3 halftime lead to an Akron team that hadn’t beaten a  Big Ten team since 1894 and was a three-touchdown underdog. Northwestern QB Clayton Thorson was 33 for 52 passing for a career-high 383 yards, but he had two interceptions and a fumble that killed the Wildcats. “We shot ourselves in the foot,” Thorson said. “I was responsible for three of their TDs. You can’t have that. I think everyone on our team played well enough to win and I didn’t.” Agreed.

5. Purdue still winless despite opening with 3 home games

And then there are the Purdue Boilermakers, the most disappointing team in the Big Ten. Everyone loved the Jeff Brohm hire in West Lafayette, and we saw during his first season a year ago that he was going to be capable of turning this program around.

But after a 40-37 loss to Missouri, the Boilers are now 0-3, with all three losses coming at home. What makes that worse was that in preseason betting lines, Purdue was favored in all three games. It was a 3-0 start that was expected, not 0-3. Sure, Missouri wound up being favored Saturday, but still, it was a game Purdue should have won. The game-winning field goal at the buzzer was a killer.

6. Illinois blows a massive late lead

Illinois fans had to be so disappointed with what happened Saturday against South Florida. Lovie Smith’s squad came into the game as a home underdog despite starting the season 3-0, but they got off to a great start and were playing great, building a 19-7 lead into the fourth quarter.

And then, poof. USF scored 18 unanswered points in the fourth quarter to win 25-19. USF won the game on a 50-yard pass play from Blake Barnett to Darnell Salomon in the final three minutes when Illinois’ defense got confused and Solomon was wide open. More Illini shoot-in-the-foot pain.

7. Ohio State QB Dwayne Haskins is really good

Finally, to some good news in the Big Ten. In the premier game of the day, the Big Ten’s best team, No. 4-ranked Ohio State passed its first road test with  40-28 win over No. 15 TCU in Arlington, Texas. Ohio State is now 3-0 and looking good.

Buckeyes quarterback Dwayne Haskins was excellent. Haskins completed 24 of 38 passes for 344 yards and two touchdowns, and he also scored rushing touchdown without making any turnovers all night long. Bravo, Dwayne.

8. Maryland and Rutgers: East teams with West-like stink

Maryland and Rutgers struggle to get out of the bottom of the Big Ten East standings, but at least we’ve been feeling good about the Terps after they started out 2-0. But then Temple — yes, Temple! — comes into College Park and crushes Maryland 35-14. Temple was 0-2 with losses to Villanova and Buffalo. That’s just a terrible loss that can’t happen — especially that way.

Rutgers was even more embarrassing, losing to a horrible Kansas teams 55-14. Kansas has now won back-to-back games for the first time since 2011 by putting up 544 yards of offense — 400 on the ground and Rutgers’ offense committed  six turnovers, including two interceptions for touchdowns that were returned for touchdowns. This was the epitome of ugly, and we had lots of ugly to choose from.

9. Iowa offense finally makes an appearance

It took three weeks, but the Hawkeyes are now finally a complete team after rolling past Northern Iowa 38-14 on Saturday. Nate Stanley threw for 309 yards and the Hawks rush for 207 more. They look like a very legit 3-0  team now.

This all came after Iowa struggled mightily on offense in the first two games, wins against Northern Illinois and Iowa State. It had to be a great sight for the Iowa defense, which has been carrying this team. Iowa looks like a legitimate threat in the Big Ten West now.

10. Ranking the five 3-0 teams in the Big Ten

Iowa, Penn State and Ohio State are 3-0 as expected, and ESPN’s Paul Finebaum even said Sunday morning that he thinks Ohio State is the second-best team in the country behind Alabama. Two other teams, Indiana and Minnesota, are also 3-0 and they’ve all avoided this dumpster fire talk.

Ohio State is clearly the Big Ten’s only complete team. I’d put Penn State second, because they’ve bounced back nicely from that opening week scare against Appalachian State. I’d give Iowa a very narrow edge over Indiana right now because of that defense, but they’ll settle that argument on the field on Oct. 12, and I’m looking forward to that. Minnesota, even at 3-0, still has a lot to prove.

Tom Brew

Tom Brew has been a recognized reporter in Big Ten sports for decades. Among other projects, he writes about Big Ten football for Saturday Tradition.