Yardbarker: Brian Hoyer

Week 6 Big Ten preview

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 20:02:30 -0500

The ultimate of optimists would say that Purdue is still alive for the Big Ten championship. They would also say that the quest for that title begins Saturday. Of course, I would like to see what this optimist is smoking.

#6 Penn State (5-0, 1-0) at Purdue (2-2, 0-0) Noon, ESPN

I took some flack this week for ranking Purdue at the bottom of the conference when I did Monday's power rankings. The real question is how can you say we're playing better than anyone else at the moment? I could see arguments for Indiana and maybe Iowa, but Minnesota? Illinois? Michigan? Everyone else is clearly playing better in most phases of the game. There is little argument that Penn State is on top at the moment. If we're ninth by the most generous of standards that's still a tough task.

The difference between both teams right now is that Penn State does not need to play an absolutely perfect game in order to win. Purdue does. I believe we're capable of that elusive perfect game, but I have little reason to believe it is coming this week. Penn State is the clearly better team, and as we know with Purdue football of late, the clearly better team will often win. Penn State 45, Purdue 21

Illinois (2-2, 0-1) at Michigan (2-2, 1-0) 3:30pm, ABC

This should be a very entertaining game if not crucial for each team's Big Ten chances. If Illinois wins, they stay alive and avenge a loss that happened mostly because of one mistake in Champaign last year (a muffed punt). If Michigan wins they find themselves 2-0 in the midst of a very difficult part of their conference schedule (Penn State and Michigan State follow). The Wolverines may have turned a bit of a corner last week. They still need to play a complete game.

Michigan's offensive numbers are still pretty bad. If it weren't for turnovers, Wisconsin would have won easily. As it was, the Wolverines gave them the ball five times. I need to see some more from Michigan in terms of limiting giveaways and more consistent offense.

I have said before how Illinois reminds me of our 2002 team. They are supremely talented, but they still tend to shoot themselves in the foot. They clawed within a touchdown in the second half last week at Penn State, but then gave up a kickoff return for a touchdown that quickly erased that score. There defense seems incapable of getting the one big stop they need, and the offense can either move quickly or break down quickly. It seems like they have no middle ground. The one thing they have going is that they do not fear playing in the giant venues of the Big Ten. That's why I give them a slight edge this week. Illinois 24, Michigan 17

Iowa (3-2, 0-1) at Michigan State (4-1, 1-0), Noon, ESPN2

Iowa needs this game badly. A pair of close losses in the past two weeks have them teetering toward .500. Turnovers have been an issue in both. With Penn State and Wisconsin left on the schedule as likely losses they cannot afford to fall to 0-2 in the league. Shonn Greene is gaining some big yards and Ricky Stanzi appears to be the answer at quarterback, but there are still several underlying issues. Turnovers are paramount among them, as good teams don't turn the ball over five times at home.

Michigan State's game plan has been simple so far: give the ball to Javon Ringer and get out of the way. Brian Hoyer has not been forced to make important throws yet. He has just three TD passes, but that is because he hasn't needed to do much. The defense has also been pretty good aside from the California game. They gave up some points at Indiana, but the game was never in serious danger of getting away from them. That is the mark of a good team, and Michigan State is becoming a good one before our eyes. Michigan State 27, Iowa 14

Indiana (2-2, 0-1) at Minnesota (4-1, 0-1)

The winner of this game will be a bowl contender, while the loser will begin to get nervous about the postseason. Both teams are looking at each other as a potential win, especially Minnesota, who is on a nine game conference losing streak. A win over the Hoosiers means Minnesota can reasonable think about wins over Northwestern, Iowa, Purdue, and maybe even Michigan. Three of those four are at home too. I like what the Gophers have done, and a little confidence can go a long way. The Gophers are limiting turnovers and improving the defense from abysmal to at not that bad. That is good enough to get them bowling in a year where teams are regressing instead of progressing.

Speaking of confidence, Indiana's has to be shot after their dream four game homestand to start the year sputtered to 2-2. Now there is no rock to defend except the old Metrodome turf that was removed to make room for FieldTurf. Indiana is in desperate need of a conference win, especially before a hungry Iowa team comes to Bloomington next week. I fear this game may make or break the Hoosiers' season. Considering they close with Central Michigan (who is more than capable of beating them), Wisconsin, Penn State, and the alleged "No way in hell" game of Tiller's finale in West Lafayette they need as many wins as they can get. This should be one of the most fun games to watch in terms of competitiveness. Minnesota 31, Indiana 30

#14 Ohio State (4-1, 1-0) at #18 Wisconsin (3-1, 0-1) 8pm ABC

This is where we begin the official I was wrong portion of the blog. Wisconsin felt like a dark horse national title contender until choking away a 19-0 lead against a Michigan team that had no discernable offense until last week. Now they can kiss even the Big ten title goodbye with a loss to the Buckeyes. Personally, I want them to win. I feel like it is time to mix things up for the Big Ten title this year, even if it is just the usual #3 and 4 teams playing for it in Penn state and Wisconsin instead of Ohio state and Michigan.

Night games in Madison are always special. The Badgers have always been a team that defends the home turf well. If they do so again they'll be right there for a Rose Bowl berth at the end of the season. The Michigan loss is really inexplicable.

Ohio State also gets another prime time shot against a good team on the road. I don't want to say it was only Minnesota they beat up last week, but the Gophers provided a decent warm up game for Beanie's return. Even though Javon Ringer has stolen eh show a bit, this is a match up of the preseason's two best running backs in P.J. Hill and Beanie Wells. It has defensive slugfest written all over it, but there hasn't been a good 7-3 Big Ten defensive slugfest in years. I like the Badgers in Madison because they won't let Ohio state fans take over the stadium like they do everywhere else. Wisconsin 17, Ohio State 14

Quickie Boilermakings:

- The #18 women's volleyball team continues to play well at 12-2 overall and 1-1 in the Big ten after losing to #1 Penn State last week. More importantly, we beat Indiana for a half Crimson and Gold series point. After Saturday's football game they will host Minnesota in a Dig for the Cure match where proceeds will go toward Breast Cancer research.

- Things are quiet on the basketball front, but we have a new recruit in Terone Johnson for the 2010 class. I like that Johnson comes from one of the top programs in Indiana. Eric Gordon, A.J. Ratlif, and Jason Gardner all played well for North Central. I saw him play in a game against Kokomo last season and he was an impressive scorer.

- The women's soccer team is off to a 2-0 start in Big Ten play with wins over Northwestern and Wisconsin last week. Both wins were of the 1-0 variety. This weekend Michigan and Michigan State come to town.

Brian Hoyer's passing stats on first down

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 21:47:56 -0500

Bad News: This is another football post. Good News: At least the post is based on statistical analysis. (Bad/good from the standpoint that this blog's tagline used to be "A statistical look at Michigan State basketball.") Brian Hoyer remains an enigma to Spartan fans.A His season stats are pretty mediocre to date: 59-127 (46.5%) for 961 yards (7.6 [...]

Brian Hoyer's passing stats on first down

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 21:47:56 -0500

MSU-Indiana Recap, Bulletpoint-Style

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 21:47:56 -0500

Note: It was a busy Saturday at the Spartans Weblog residence, so I only saw about three-quarters of the game.A These musings are, therefore, even more random than my normal football musings.A Nevertheless: Another monumental performance by Javon Ringer: 198 yards on 44 carries.A The offensive/special teams touch counts are now up to 203 for Ringer [...]

Brian Hoyer's passing stats on first down

Sun, 28 Sep 2008 21:45:56 -0500

Brian Hoyer's passing stats on first down

Sun, 28 Sep 2008 21:45:56 -0500

MSU-Indiana Recap, Bulletpoint-Style

Sat, 27 Sep 2008 21:55:22 -0500

IBB Report Card: Michigan St.

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 14:39:16 -0500

No need to panic yet Irish Fans. The wheels have not come off and neither has the spirit of the Fighting Irish players.

Keys to the Game: Michigan State

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 11:53:40 -0500

There is a lot of momentum for the Irish heading into East Lansing on Saturday. Before the season started, this was one of the two games, Southern Cal being the other, where I felt the Irish would lose. After last week's 35-17 game, I'm not so sure anymore.

Cal Bears at Washington State Cougars: A pummeling in Pullman?

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 06:11:55 -0500

The Cal Bears travel to Pullman, Washington for their Pac-10 opener on Saturday, September 6, at 3:30pm PST. Coming off of a thrilling victory last Saturday at home against Michigan State, the Bears will hope to put this one away early, but those types of victories within the conference are rare gems....

Friday Links and MSU-Eastern Discussion Thread

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 21:02:15 -0500

A few basketball links: As part of their "State Project," Storming the Floor notes that the seven Division 1 basketball programs in Michigan posted an overall losing record last year. And they've got the Fab Five just ahead of the Flintstones as the "most memorable team" in the state's history. Snicker-inducing headline for MSU fans: "Spartans, Wolverines [...]

Big Ten week 1 wrap-up

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 23:27:01 -0500

After seeing yesterday's college football results I realize that I should probably stick to covering the Big Ten. At the end of the week's preview I went on a diatribe about Alabama, and specifically coach Nick Saban, being overrated. The Crimson Tide crushed Clemson, and officially shut me up from saying anything about the man again.

As far as the Big Ten goes, Things went almost exactly as planned. Only Michigan, Michigan State, and Illinois went down to defeat. Those were defeats that were somewhat expected, even mildly in Michigan's case. The other seven games were the blowouts that we expected.Teams that weren't supposed to have problems with their opponents did not. Teams that were expected to have some problems did. The glaring exception was Minnesota, which pulled out its game, but will likely continue to have defensive issues. Perhaps the worst thing is that The Big Ten went 0-2 in its biggest games this week, further weakening the stature of the conference at large.

There's no real change in the power rankings this week. This is mostly because there isn't enough evidence yet to necessitate a change. There will be after next week when there are some better games and Purdue finally joins the party. What follows is a quick wrap up of each team in order of its original ranking.

Ohio State 43, Youngstown State 0 – The goal of these games is obviously just to keep everyone healthy. Ohio State probably was not going to lose unless it committed about 15 turnovers and generally played the worst game in its history. As a result, they simply wanted to avoid injury. Since the story of the game was Beanie Wells getting hurt that is a fail.

Wells looked impressive from what little he played, but if it is indeed turf toe/Lisfranc/a sprain it is the kind of nagging injury that can derail a season. The Buckeyes face another near certain win this week, so it may be best to rest him before the showdown with USC (which looked awfully good on the road against a team with a pulse). Like many games yesterday, this one simply went as expected aside from Wells' injury.

Wisconsin 38, Akron 17 – This was likely a little too close for comfort with it only being 17-10 at the half. As we were driving toward Wrigley Field yesterday (a small benefit of Purdue not playing, I must say) my wife was checking scores and I was surprised to see it so close in the fourth quarter. Wisconsin's depth, experience, and talent took over in this one and made it the expected margin by the end.

Akron had no answer for P.J. Hill. That's not a surprise considering that few teams will have an answer for him this season. The running game as a whole generated 404 yards. That's just a staggering number. 75 passing yards from Allan Evridge is far from a concern if they can keep putting up numbers like that, but more balance will be necessary. Still, if a team can find a way to slow down Wisconsin on the ground they have a chance. I am incredibly thankful that is a question we won't have to answer until 2009.

California 38, Michigan State 31 – I am not surprised that Michigan State lost. It's hard to begin the season with such a long road trip. Traditionally Big Ten teams struggle when they go on the road to face the Pac-10 early in the season. The last time I think a Big Ten team won such a game was our win at Arizona in 2005 and Ohio State at Washington last year. What is a concern is that Javon Ringer and the vaunted running game did so little. Ringer did find the end zone twice, but had to work hard for his 81 yards with 27 carries.

Brian Hoyer also had the type of game that fans hate to see: a ton of passing yards but not a lot of production. Of course, two of those drives were ended by Ringer TD runs, so it wasn't a total wash. Spartan fans have to be concerned that the defense gave up a lead early and just couldn't quite get the one stop it needed to turn things around. Cal did a good job of keeping the lead comfortable throughout. Michigan State is one of the conference's best teams, but they still have a couple of steps to go.

Penn State 66, Coastal Carolina 10 – Everyone expected a blowout, but probably not of this caliber. Everyone got in on the act for the Nittany Lions, including a peanut vendor, a Make-a-Wish Foundation kid, and four cheerleaders if you look at the box score. Like Ohio State's win, it's hard to take much else from this one because of the margin. At least for a week Paterno pulls even with Bowden in the battle to see who blinks first. Since Florida State has not one, but two 1-AA opponents this year I think it is an unfair advantage.

Purdue 457, Dreaded Bye Week 3 – We had another good scrimmage on Friday afternoon. Coach Tiller also seems to think the defense will be very good. I agree with him, but because Northern Colorado is quite punchless I don't expect to find out for myself for another two weeks when Oregon comes to town.

Speaking of Oregon, once we got settled into our hotel last night I was able to watch a good portion of their game against Washington. The first thing of note was that Justin Roper did not play much at all after getting banged up in the first half. Washington had it close for awhile, but they were unable to offer any protection for Jake Locker against Oregon's pass rush. Three quarterbacks ended up playing, and all three are dangerous on the ground. Running back Jeremiah Johnson looked especially imposing with 124 yards and two scores.

This was a close game (14-10 at the half) that Washington let get away late with 30 unanswered points in the second half. I don't know if it was a case of Oregon being that good, or Washington's defense being that bad. Honestly, it was probably a little of both. The Duck defense did a very good job of containing Locker, but he doesn't have as many weapons as Painter. They face a meek Utah State team next week, so they won't have another good opponent until they face us. We'll need to be ready to face multiple speedy quarterbacks.

Northwestern 30, Syracuse 10 – The Wildcats passed their toughest test of the non-conference season, but that is not saying much. Their preseason schedule makes Indiana's seem rough. At least the Hoosiers are playing two really good MAC teams. Northwestern has four godawful teams to open against. The Wildcats actually trailed in the second half of this one, but went to the ground game like Wisconsin to dominate behind Tyrell Sutton.

Getting Sutton to the 100 yard mark in each game will be critical to Northwestern's success. If he does that, the Wildcats have the balance that good teams need in order to win. Look at Michigan State this week. They had over 300 yards passing but didn't hit 100 yards rushing and lost. If you can generate about even numbers in each phase of the game it makes things much easier. Northwestern did that yesterday and won comfortably.

Missouri 52, Illinois 42 – The Illini are clearly not ready, at least nationally. They have an offense that can do a little bit of everything, but their much talked-about defense didn't even slow down Chase Daniel. If you have a good defense you should at least be able to force a Heisman candidate like Daniel work for his yardage. Illinois did not do so. For good measure they also surrendered a kickoff and interception returns for scores.

Missouri achieved the balance mentioned above and won going away. Illinois only gained 17 fewer yards, but barely gained anything on the ground by comparison. A ton of passing yards don't equal wins. Just ask Drew Brees in against Wisconsin in 1998 and Brady Quinn against Purdue in 2004. Illinois' defense failed it on this day.

Utah 25, Michigan 23 – I found this very interesting perspective on the Utah-Michigan game through CFN. Essentially, it states that Most of Michigan's points came off of mistakes that Utah made. They are the types of mistakes that Michigan won't get, at least in terms of total volume, the rest of the year. Teams will play sharper as the season goes on. The Big Ten is also better than the Mountain West, meaning better athletes will also factor in.

I still like Michigan to win their other three non-conference games. Despite everything, the Wolverines do not lose games against the MAC. That means Toledo and Miami should be wins. I still also favor them against Notre Dame, though it could be as big of a cripple fight as last year. I can't help but think the Wolverines will have trouble, however, when they meet the better defenses of the Big Ten.

Indiana 31, Western Kentucky 13 – I know it was only a game against a team that's not quite Division 1-A, but Kellen Lewis looked awfully good yesterday. Like Antwaan Randle El a few years ago, the Hoosiers are a much better, and more dangerous, team than they have been in a long time. I refuse to join my Purdue brethren that continues to cut them down. This is a good football team that can use this season to springboard into a very promising future. If we're not careful, they will pass us.

Indiana has taken that critical next step where it is learning to dominate the games they should win. It used to be they would struggle somewhat, but still beat these types of opponents. Now they are learning to take care of business early, which is a very necessary skill if you're going to become a good football team. They still must develop a ground game outside of Lewis, but if they do they will be dangerous.

Minnesota 31, Northern Illinois 27 – I was surprised that Minnesota had so much trouble with the Huskies, but the 10 game losing streak is at least officially history. They cannot be happy that Bowling Green took out a ranked Pittsburgh team on the road, but I am sure Gopher fans are happy to have any win after last season.

Still, the story was the same. The defense gave up an alarming number of big plays to an opponent that is nowhere near the talent level that the Gophers will face the rest of the year. Northern Illinois scored three touchdowns from farther than 50 yards. Two of those came as Minnesota already held a lead, a rarity in itself from last year. This is not a good sign for the future of the season.

Iowa 46, Maine 3 – This is another incomplete game, as any marginally good Big Ten team should beat a 1-AA opponent by a similar margin. Iowa continues to do what I hate, and that is not settle on a quarterback and stick with him. The dual quarterback system, unless you're Florida, NEVER works. You might win a few games with it, but in the end it is more likely that you won't have a ton of success. Nothing really stands out from this one.

Since this is another team that has the perfect schedule to build some confidence. Florida International will provide better competition next week, but not a lot better. We likely won't have a full handle on iow until the end of the non-conference season.

Cal shows that this isn't your 2007 Bears team: Beat Michigan State in opener

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 03:35:30 -0500

This year's Bears team has been touting their new toughness since the end of camp a week ago. They've also been sure to point out that the leadership on the team is much better. We already knew that they were a young team, but what we weren't sure of was how good this team would be....

Cal Bears Football: Spartans invade Memorial Stadium

Sat, 30 Aug 2008 03:33:01 -0500

It's opening day! The Cal Bears will finally be playing a football game and when it comes to college football, every game counts. They'll be facing the Michigan State Spartans from the Big 10 conference...

California Golden Bears: Michigan State shouldn't come close in opener

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 15:08:20 -0500

As I review the Spartans for Cal's football home and season opener this Saturday night, I keep running across pundits that are convinced that...