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The journey into the second half of the season officially begins this Saturday.
The first portion of the B1G season has been a lot of fun. We’ve already seen an upset (Michigan State over Michigan), a Heisman-caliber performance (Saquon Barkley vs. Iowa), and a head coach completely change the mindset of a miserable program (Jeff Brohm at Purdue).
As fun as that’s all been, we’re about to really dig in to the meat of the B1G schedule. Who isn’t ready to see Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan State and Michigan all play each other? Plus, Wisconsin looks like a legitimate playoff contender as well. There’s plenty to be excited about regarding the second chapter of this season.
But before we look too far ahead, let’s just get to Week 8 and a few bold predictions first.
Minnesota finally gets its first B1G win of the season
The Gophers have come up short in the first quarter in all three conference games this season. They surrendered late touchdowns to Maryland and Purdue and couldn’t muster enough points in the final minutes of last weekend’s game to knock off Michigan State. It’s been tough sledding for P.J. Fleck.
But Illinois is coming at the perfect time for Minnesota. The Gophers are a two-touchdown favorite and shouldn’t have much trouble with an Illini offense that has been stagnant all season long. Minnesota finally gets the first B1G win of the season on Saturday.
The West goes 2-0 vs. the East
Basically, the favorites should come out on top. Wisconsin hosts Maryland and Purdue travels to Rutgers in a pair of match-ups that should help the West bolster its less-than-impressive record against the East.
Upsets aren’t out of the question, but Wisconsin has too many weapons, on both sides of the ball, for a depleted Maryland team to handle. Purdue and Rutgers poses a slightly more interesting match-up, but the Boilermakers have an edge on the defensive side of the ball.
The wins won’t be particularly impressive, this will be a weekend — potentially the only one — in which the West owns the East on the field.
Michigan State holds Indiana to single digits
Poor Indiana. Once again, the Hoosiers fell short of a potential upset bid against Michigan, and now, the nightmare continues as they’ll travel to East Lansing to battle Michigan State. That’s right, in the first four B1G games of the year, Indiana has played Ohio State, Penn State, Michigan and Michigan State. Talk about a gauntlet.
The Hoosiers are battling injuries and are crushed after another devastating loss. The Spartans — who are hoping to continue on this roll — may have the best defense Indiana has seen all year long. This is going to be a tough outing for Tom Allen and Co.
Saquon Barkley racks up 250-plus all-purpose yards vs. Michigan
Penn State is going to be hungry for revenge and Barkley is going to have one of those ridiculous, Iowa-like performances that completely steals the college football spotlight.
Don Brown’s defenses typically do a pretty good job of shutting down primary players and limiting big plays. However, Joe Moorhead has had an extra week to prepare and Barkley has had time to recover. Expect a Heisman-like outing from No. 26 on Saturday.
Northwestern’s defense gets multiple interceptions off Iowa’s Nate Stanley
Stanley hasn’t had many off days for the Hawkeyes thus far. Northwestern’s secondary hasn’t had a solid outing against a quality opponent. It feels like both of those things could change on Saturday.
Call me naïve, but I still believe the Wildcats’ defense has wildly underperformed this season and think it’s capable of producing one of those game-changing days. Maybe that will come against the Hawkeyes against a quarterback who’s been relatively solid all year.
Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB