It's Big Ten Time: Now They Count

By Coach Hayes

The non-conference portion of the NCAA schedule has concluded and that means its time for some real games. On Saturday the Big Ten season begins,  and these are the games that really count. Wisconsin and Purdue opened up the Big Ten a week early with the Badgers putting it to the Boilermakers; but that was to be expected after what happened to Bucky Badger the week before against Arizona State. Tell you the truth, if Wisconsin played a sounder game against the Devils, then that loss would have never happened. So shame on you, Bucky Badger for making the Big Ten look bad on the West Coast. That was the same day Ohio State bucked Cal on their home turf scoring three times in the first 6 minutes. So now Saturday will be the real opening day for the Big Ten.

Wisconsin is coming to Ohio Stadium for a clash of the big boys in the leaders division of the Big Ten. These teams haven't met this early in the season in few years. I want to say it was in 2008 when the once great Buckeye QB with the last name Pryor came into Camp Randel stadium and showed Bucky Badger that an underclassman can get it done in a hostile environment. That was a long time ago it seems but hey it still happened. Now Wisconsin will travel to the Buckeye State for a highly anticipated 8:00 PM game on ABC. Braxton Miller has been cleared to resume play, but Kenny Guiton has played his ass off while Miller was recovering from that MCL sprain suffered in the second game of the season against SDSU. Guiton also wrote his way into the OSU record book with a 90-yard TD toss just 3 minutes into the Cal game. There is speculation that coach Urban Meyer will come up with some special packages that will have both Miller and Guiton on the field at the same time. That may spell trouble for the Wisconsin defense. Not only do they have to pay attention to both QBs, they also have a full plate of RBs waiting to hit the whole and gash that defense at will. 

Wisconsin also has a decent run game that the OSU defense will have to defend if they want to continue the nations longest winning streak to date at 16 games. Its a whole new front 4 and they have stepped up to the challenge. When Cal scored a TD in the 1st quarter of the game 2 weeks ago, that was the first points the defense has let up in the opening quarter this year. The LBs are a stand out at OSU as they usually are. They had to replace a decent amount due to graduation and injuries but they have managed to hold their own. Nothing has to be said about the All-American defensive back field. Those guys can cover no problem. So what it comes down to is will the Buckeyes continue to Flex their muscles and take care of business or will Wisconsin come to play. Two years ago it came down to a last second pass from Miller to Gardner to win the game. This year in my opinion the Buckeyes will come out strong on both sides of the ball and finish off Wisconsin early in the second half. The nation's longest winning streak will continue at 17 games.

As always O-H-I-O and screw Bucky Badger where it hurts!