Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

He's a clown.

You're from Chicago. Bozo entertained us for decades. Who's to say PJ won't do the same lol? 

Trying something new, a thread for the games to lead up to the actual games. 

Friday
Minnesota at Maryland, 7:30, ESPN

Minnesota probably needs a get right game after getting rolled by Michigan.  Maryland is just what the doctor ordered.

Saturday

Noon
MSU at Michigan, FOX - Sparty already in a hole and this doesn't look like a game made to stop the digging.

Purdue at Illinois, BTN - Purdue with a shot at 2-0.  Lovie going to find himself out the door if the Illini don't look competitive.

3:30
Wisconsin at Nebraska, FS1 - Things not getting much easier for the Huskers.
Indiana at Rutgers, BTN - Battle of first place teams in the B1G East
NW at Iowa, ESPN - Gonna see how legit Northwestern is, and where Iowa's heads are

7:30
OSU at PSU, ABC - Should be a heck of a game, Lions desperate for a win

Maryland - just because they have home field advantage.

MSU - Michigan hasn’t really impressed me much all season, and we all know the collapse is coming.

Purdue - because we’re awesome.

Nebraska - tough place to play for road teams in October. If this game were a day later, I might change my mind.

Rutgers - Indiana has 1 win all season and they think they’re OSU.

Iowa - probably the 2nd toughest team in the B1G right now.

PSU - OSU is desperately missing Urban Meyer’s leadership and discipline.

Maryland - just because they have home field advantage.

MSU - Michigan hasn’t really impressed me much all season, and we all know the collapse is coming.

Purdue - because we’re awesome.

Nebraska - tough place to play for road teams in October. If this game were a day later, I might change my mind.

Rutgers - Indiana has 1 win all season and they think they’re OSU.

Iowa - probably the 2nd toughest team in the B1G right now.

PSU - OSU is desperately missing Urban Meyer’s leadership and discipline.

I think we have found our replacement for McTwerps in the power rankings thread. 


https://www.cfb51.com/big-ten/b1g-power-rankings-week-1-18067/

Medina's gonna be like 

Michigan had a player vomit on the field(2x) and still would not leave the field?????  why??? 

Minnesota has been poisoning the drinking water in this contest for 117 years.

If Mertz and Coan can't go, who will be the QB?

Chase Wolf.


If Mertz is really positive, there's gonna be a lotta kids positive. Huddle and stuff. There may not be a game in Lincoln this weekend.

I'm always entertained by revered coaches with empty rivalry trophy cases and rings like this:

I mean, who does this???

As a somewhat neutral somewhat outsider, I see both sides of this.  

I think that @847badgerfan has a point: What has Fleck accomplished as a coach?  

• GA on the tOSU staff in 2006 when the Buckeyes went 12-1
• WR coach at N. IL in 2007-2008
• WR coach / Recruiting coordinator for N. IL in 2009
• WR coach at Rutgers in 2010-2011
• WR coach in the NFL (Tampa) in 2012

Those are all as an assistant, obviously.  Lets not dive into those because even if we agreed that his position group was phenomenal or sucked we could still argue over whether it was his fault or the HC's or whether it was to his credit or the HC.  

P.J. Fleck as a HC:

• 1-11 at WMU in 2013
• 8-5 at WMU in 2014
• 8-5 at WMU in 2015
• 13-1 at WMU in 2016 - finished ranked #15
• 5-7 at Minnesota in 2017
• 7-6 at Minnesota in 2018
• 11-2 at Minnesota in 2019 - finished ranked #10

At Minnesota he is:

• 1-2 against Wisconsin
• 0-3 against Iowa

And he has an Outback Bowl and a Quick Lane Bowl win.  

I get where Badge is coming from.  That isn't really all that impressive.  He is just 1-5 in his biggest rivalries (IA, UW) and his bowl wins are a meh win over Auburn in the Outback Bowl and a meh bowl that nobody cares about in Detroit over GaTech.  

OTOH, I can also see @Benthere2 's side of things.  Badge has been disparaging this hire since before it was even official and Fleck's accomplishments as a HC need to be viewed in context.  He is the coach of Minnesota not Ohio State.  

• His highest ranking is #7 and his highest final rank is #10 and both of those are the highest for Minnesota in nearly 60 years.  
• His WMU teams were ranked 10 times and got as high as #12 and Western Michigan has NEVER been ranked under any other coach before or since.  
• Minnesota's 11 wins in 2019 are their most since 1904 when their opponents included Twin Cities Central High, So Dak, Carleton, No Dak, Lawrence, Shattuck, and St Thomas.  
• Prior to Fleck, Minnesota hadn't finished with just two losses since their last league Championship in 1967 and the last time Minnesota finished a season with less than two losses the final win was a 41-6 blowout of Wisconsin almost exactly two weeks before Pearl Harbor

He hasn't exactly set the world on fire but he did more at WMU than any other HC EVER and he has done more at Minnesota than any coach since before the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor.  I used that reference because my point is that it isn't over.  Lets see how he does over time.  In retrospect 2019 may appear to be a flash in the pan of no significance or maybe P.J. Fleck will be Minnesota's Barry Alvarez.  I'm not in either of those camps, I just think that it is far too early to tell.

I'll leave you with the clip from the reference I made above:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8lT1o0sDwI

His lone win against UW was against UW's worst team since 2007. He may win again this year. It's 2020 and all that.

Ok, but his lone win against UW was Minnesota's lone win against Wisconsin since 2003.  

I have a hard time holding "not beating UW" against the coach of a program that had lost 13 straight to UW before he arrived.  

As you well know, Barry Alvarez arrived in Madison in 1990.  Prior to that UW and MN had generally been relative equals for decades because they generally both sucked.  Alvarez went 2-3 in his first five against the Gophers.  Since then the Badgers have dominated the series to the tune of 22-3 from 1995-2019.