{"id":1402,"date":"2014-10-25T07:18:02","date_gmt":"2014-10-25T14:18:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/?p=1402"},"modified":"2014-10-25T11:31:12","modified_gmt":"2014-10-25T18:31:12","slug":"big-ten-rundown-so-to-speak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/uncategorized\/1402\/big-ten-rundown-so-to-speak","title":{"rendered":"Big Ten rundown. So to speak."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2014\/10\/2011-Big-Ten-10-logo.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-1400 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2014\/10\/2011-Big-Ten-10-logo.jpg\" alt=\"2011-Big-Ten-10-logo\" width=\"469\" height=\"264\" srcset=\"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2014\/10\/2011-Big-Ten-10-logo.jpg 469w, https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2014\/10\/2011-Big-Ten-10-logo-300x168.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 469px) 100vw, 469px\" \/><\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0My<strong> Illini<\/strong> friends keep asking, so here\u2019s the answer regarding Tim Beckman. Barring a miracle on South First St. It\u2019s when, not if. . . on Nov. 30, if athletic director MIke Thomas follows his usual M.O.<\/p>\n<p>* Given <strong>Wisconsin\u2019s<\/strong> running backs and <strong>Maryland\u2019s<\/strong> run defense (13<sup>th<\/sup> in the Big Ten), the Badgers should be able to run all day. But there\u2019s something off about the Wisconsin offense. The feeble passing, which lacks a big-time receiver as well as a reliable passer, is well documented. The run-blocking is missing something, too.<\/p>\n<p>If the Badgers stumble today, their remaining schedule, which is already challenging, will look even more ominous.<\/p>\n<p>* Little Brother a 17-point favorite in the Pure <strong>Michigan<\/strong> battle? That\u2019s a lot of points for <strong>Sparty<\/strong> to lay. But if you have to do something, that\u2019s the way to lean. The wheels seem to be coming off on Ann Arbor, which has been in freefall since that 31-0 debacle vs. Notre Dame.<\/p>\n<p>Still, the unexpected is not out of the question. If the Wolverines get mad, this game could be a springboard. Until Ohio State, there\u2019s no one imposing on their schedule. At this point, Michigan has nothing to lose. The Wolverines don\u2019t seem to have anything. Period.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1401\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2014\/10\/big-ten-logo-divisions-03.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1401\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1401\" src=\"http:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2014\/10\/big-ten-logo-divisions-03-300x214.jpg\" alt=\"Those were the days. . . \" width=\"300\" height=\"214\" srcset=\"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2014\/10\/big-ten-logo-divisions-03-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2014\/10\/big-ten-logo-divisions-03.jpg 426w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1401\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Those were the days. . .<\/p><\/div>\n<p><strong>* Rutgers-Nebraska<\/strong>. . . The case against Big Ten expansion. Any good Conference USA games today? \u00a0Nuff said.<\/p>\n<p>* If <strong>Ohio State<\/strong> does what it ought to do against a decent <strong>Penn State<\/strong> team, the Buckeye bandwagon will start getting crowded. I\u2019ve been on it since the beginning. That Virginia Tech loss was pretty bad, but Urban &#8220;Legend\u2019\u2019 Meyer remains one of the two or three best coaches in the nation, and I don\u2019t know who the third in that group is after him and Nick Saban.<\/p>\n<p>When everybody was screaming about this being a lost season because a freshman, J.T. Barrett, was replacing Braxton, I was thinking, &#8220;Just wait.\u2019\u2019 Meyer knows how to do this.<\/p>\n<p>And here he is. A good performance against Penn State will be another signal that Ohio State, not Michigan State, is the most dangerous team in the Big Ten. The Buckeyes are a genuine candidate for the inaugural four-team college playoff.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0My Illini friends keep asking, so here\u2019s the answer regarding Tim Beckman. Barring a miracle on&#8230;  <a class=\"excerpt-read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/uncategorized\/1402\/big-ten-rundown-so-to-speak\" title=\"ReadBig Ten rundown. So to speak.\">Read more &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":1400,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,202,334],"tags":[977357],"class_list":["post-1402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","category-football","category-commentary","tag-big-ten-football"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2014\/10\/2011-Big-Ten-10-logo.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1402"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1402\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1408,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1402\/revisions\/1408"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}