Talk Hawkeyes

In an effort to publicly humiliate myself as much as possible this season, I would like to offer up my predictions for this week’s games involving Big 10 teams.

• Illinois - Michigan St
• Illinois is bad. Really, really bad. Michigan State can score faster than Paris Hilton at a Navy Boot Camp graduation party. Michigan State might be good at choking late in the game, but Illinois does not have an ounce of the Jesus luck that Notre Dame has
• MSU 42, Illinois 17
• Wisconsin - Indiana
• Wisconsin seems to favor not scoring much recently. They will this Saturday.
• Indiana will be emotional with the return of the head coach and could hang close for a while, but their lack of talent will shine late in the game.
• Interesting schedule note. Wisconsin only has one more road game they should be predicted to lose and after this game, only 1 other road game (against Purdue). If they get a road win here, they could be setting themselves up very well for a high finish in the Big 10 with no OSU or MSU on their schedule and home games against Northwestern, Minnesota, Illinois, Penn State, and Buffalo.
• Wisconsin 28 - Indiana 16
• Northwestern - PSU
• Northwestern is another really bad team in the Big 10. They had way too much happen in the off season to have any chance early this season.
• Penn State has to start winning some games. They will not be able to prove they can beat a good team this week, but they will get a win and maybe restore some confidence in their young QB before needing to go on the road next week.
• PSU 28 - Northwestern 10
• Purdue - Notre Dame
• Purdue is probably worse than their 4-0 record would indicate. They have played all of their games at home and only one Minnesota had a pulse. This will be their first road game.
• The magic that carried Notre Dame through the 4th quarter of last week’s game will still be lingering. And, as much as I hate to say it, Notre Dame is a pretty good team that can make a lot of big plays.
• Notre Dame will end up 3-1 in their Big 10 conference play. Seriously Notre Dame and Big 10. Bring Notre Dame in or kick them out. Don’t let them cherry pick games and play 3 of their 4 games in the conference at home.
• Notre Dame 38 - Purdue 24
• Michigan - Minnesota
• I normally love watching these two go at it. There is nothing like watching Minnesota think they are about to finally beat a good team only to choke in the end to the Maize and Blue.
• Michigan will need to stop a team that runs the ball and then runs it some more. If Minnesota can stay close, they will not have to resort to tossing the ball around and that could cause Michigan some trouble since Minnesota knows how to run the ball.
• Minnesota needs to prove that they can actually beat one of the big boys of the Big 10. I don’t think it will be this year. Michigan looks pretty solid across the board.
• Michigan 35 - Minnesota 21
• Ohio State - Iowa
• Oh Lord, help my heart this weekend. I’ll be front row for this monster of a game. I’m already starting to twitch and still have 33 hours left until kick off.
• Ohio State has beaten two pretty good teams. Texas and Penn State. Both teams had first year quarterbacks. Tate is not a first year quarterback and may not be intimidated by OSU’s defense.
• Iowa hasn’t played a good team yet this year and despite having moments where they looked really good, has not put together more than a few really good minutes in a row in any game. That will have to change on Saturday.
• Tate has beaten OSU once in his career and lost once. If he keeps under control and does not throw stupid interceptions, the game will stay close and the crowd will be insane in the fourth quarter.
• If you are looking for me on TV during the game, I will be on the 35 yard line, front row. If they show Drew Tate sitting on the sideline and there is some tall skinny guy screaming in the front row behind him, that’s me. Yeah, we have pretty good seats.
• Homer pick, so don’t bet your house or even your shoes based on this. And please, oh please, let us win this on a last second field goal.
• Iowa 24 - OSU 21

Update: As you can see, the Hawkeyes do not suck as badly as the Buckeyes so my prediction must be correct.