Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - BIG TEN SQUAD - Can Iowa Hawkeyes UPSET the Ohio State Buckeyes?

Episode Date: October 3, 2024

Welcome to this week’s episode of Big 10 Squad! Hosted by Craig Shemon from Locked On Big 10, we’re gearing up for an action-packed Week Six in Big Ten football. Join Craig and a panel of experts from Locked On podcasts as they provide an in-depth preview of the upcoming games, key matchups, and what to expect from your favorite teams.🚀 In This Episode:Upcoming Game Previews: Get ready for the matchups that will define Week Six, featuring powerhouse teams like the Illinois Fighting Illini, Indiana Hoosiers, Iowa Hawkeyes, Maryland Terrapins, Michigan Wolverines, Michigan State Spartans, Minnesota Golden Gophers, Nebraska Huskers, Northwestern Wildcats, Ohio State Buckeyes, Oregon Ducks, Penn State Nittany Lions, Purdue Boilermakers, Rutgers Scarlet Knights, UCLA Bruins, USC Trojans, Washington Huskies, and Wisconsin Badgers.Expert Predictions: Hear insights and predictions from Locked On hosts as they discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each team heading into their games.Key Players to Watch: Discover the players who could make a significant impact this week and potentially swing the momentum for their teams.Why You Should Listen: Whether you’re a die-hard Big Ten fan or a casual follower, this episode offers essential insights and analyses to keep you informed ahead of the games.🔔 Don’t forget to subscribe to Big 10 Squad for your weekly dose of Big Ten football previews, analyses, and expert commentary! Hit the bell icon to stay updated on new episodes.Join the Conversation: We’d love to hear from you! Share your thoughts on the upcoming matchups and your predictions in the comments below!#Big10Squad #Big10Football #LockedOnBig10 #CollegeFootball #WeekSixPreview #FootballAnalysis #CraigShemon #LockedOnPodcast #BigTenTeams #NCAA #FootballPredictions #BigTenRoundtable

Week six on the schedule. It's very exciting. It brings us a rematch of the national championship with Michigan going to Washington. Can Ohio State continue to just be on cruise control? And will Penn State continue to play well and keep that defense going like it was this past week when they take on UCLA? And let's not forget about the mighty Indiana Hoosiers. I'm serious when I say that. It's time to talk. It's time for the Lockdown Big Ten Squad. You're talking ball with the Big Ten Squad. From USC to Ohio State, from Michigan to Oregon, from Nebraska to Washington, it's the local experts of the Lockdown Podcast Network bringing you scoops, breakdowns, and the most comprehensive preview of the upcoming Big Ten

weekend. No hurt feelings and thin skin allowed. Squad up. You're part of the Big Ten Squad. Welcome to the Lockdown Big Ten Squad. Sit back, enjoy. We're going to talk some foot breeze. Getting ready for week six already. I'm Craig Scheman for Lockdown Big Ten, and I'll have my guests here in a second.

But I want to tell you that we're brought to you by FanDuel. Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Place your first $5 bet, and you'll get started with $200 of bonus bets guaranteed. Visit FanDuel.com and get started. We are joined today by Jacob Goins of the undefeated Indiana Hoosiers from Lockdown Hoosiers. We got Zach Anderson-Yoxheimer from Lockdown UCLA. Also, Zach Saco, who hasn't been here in a couple of weeks.

We got some stuff to talk about with the Lockdown Nittany Lions. And of course, Jay Stevens, always here, always on cruise control with the Ohio State Lockdown Buckeyes. If you're just checking us out for the first time, everybody here does their own individual shows every day on the Lockdown Network. Subscribe and follow each and every one of them. All right, gentlemen, let's get started and talk about the zach zaco let's start with you because uh i'm the penn state uh nittany lines got a game against um ucla this weekend but uh before you get into that game and we'll get uh get some thoughts on it from uh zach and ucla as well oh two zacks we got the battle of zacks i just that just hit me just now

um impressive defensive effort by Tom Allen. I've been a little critical of the Penn State secondary as of late, but they gave up that opening drive to Illinois and then shut it down in front of a great atmosphere out there, by the way. Yeah, and I've been gone for a couple of weeks, and I'm glad I get the first crack at this. So thank you for that, Craig. Penn State's in a really good spot. I like their, now I thought there were going to be more points

to be had in that game, but I always liked the Penn State's chances against Illinois. I never thought of that. I thought that was at least a two touchdown game. I had Penn State as a 15 point margin of victory. So Illinois did cover that hefty spread, but that was a game that actually should have been well out of hand. Penn State had special teams issues. They missed two field goals. They opted not to kick another 37-yard field goal, and then Drew Aller missed a wide open wide receiver in the end zone. He looked off of his read. He didn't miss the throw. He just missed the read. There was a guy running wide open in the end zone, so I feel like there were about maybe at least another two touchdowns worth of points that could have been scored by Penn State to really make that an emphatic victory.

Something along the lines of 34 to 7 was realistic. And there's a metric chart that goes around after every week. How badly did your team get beat? And Penn State, in terms of the analytics, had the widest margin of dominance over IllinoisR over Illinois. Excuse me. I'm getting ahead of myself there, but maybe that might be the case as well. Uh, the margin of dominance over, uh, over Illinois was the biggest out of any matchup from the weekend. Well, I need that. That's a fantastic. I've never heard of that. How bad did we get beat? I'll find, I'll find it for you. It pops up on X from time to time. I want to see that link. I don't know if I want to see that link.

You can say anything you want. All right. Zach Sacco before Zach Anderson. Yaksmeyer, your prediction this game at UCLA has struggled as of late. I saw some signs of life of them here and there. But, Zach, how's Penn State going to do? Is this going to be another? What's the line on this thing, by the way look i'll be nice about it so the line's moving back

and forth the sharps have kind of taken this uh on fan duel from 27 and a half to 28 and a half i'll be nice to ucla because i think this schedule that they played i am not envious of it all traveling to hawaii then back to california then oh, look, you're going to you. Then you're going to LSU. Then you're going back to California. Then you go to Pennsylvania. Then you go back to California. And then eventually they go to New Jersey. They have been all around the country and it is just not fair. So UCLA, I think is a competent team. They're also playing a game that would be at 9 a.m. Pacific time. Just nothing about this sets up nicely for the Bruins. I think they're going to be tired. I think they're going to be exhausted.

They're not going to play a good four quarters of football. And Penn State, with the energy that's probably going to carry over from that win against Illinois, they have a lot more to prove. I think this is a game that Penn State wins convincingly. I think four touchdowns is fair from the Vegas spread. All right. Other Zach, go ahead. What do you think about this? Where are you at after a few games under your belt?

Well, four quarters of football. I'm looking for four quarters of football combined between the four games. I haven't found that just yet. So until we get there, who knows? The big question for the UCLA side of things this week, Garbers, Ethan Garbers, the UCLA starting quarterback, was banged up against Oregon. He left early, so UCLA finished the game with a backup. The game was well in hand at that point.

If he is out, it will be ugly against Penn State. They already predicted to be ugly. It will be actually ugly, all caps. If Garbers plays, my bold prediction, if he plays and finishes the game, I think the Bruins can cover. But that's a gaudy spread. And I guess that's not a lot to say that they can cover that.

This man said, I got a bold take. We can win. We can cover. God, you know, it's bad in LA, man. Wait, wait a minute. I'll speak on behalf of us. Indiana Hoosiers there, Jacob. That's what we used to do in Bloomington. Okay. Look, man, I'm not saying our head's too big in Bloomington, but it kind of is. It is. I mean, we're 5-0.

We got to rub it in somebody's face. I just hate that it's my boy Zach over in L.A. All right. Now, Jay, you're just sitting there cool, calm, and collected because you got no worries right now on the most loaded roster. You know what I thought about this weekend after I saw Josiah Smith make that one-handed catch on the sideline at michigan state i thought and then we also saw ryan williams with that game winner for alabama the the 2027 nfl draft those might be the one two two receivers

going first i don't know who's gonna go first but those guys are spectacular you know my boy jeremiah smith my he got my vote to go first he is insane he had a one-handed touchdown catch which is after another one-handed catch of the sidelines he's just so much fun to watch and i think about like an all-around receiver he is kind of that right now and he's doing things in the passing game that you would think an elite receiver is doing but he's so unselfish he's giving up his body in the run blocking game and blocking downfield consistently. It makes it hard to take him off the field.

And I know he's a true freshman. I know he's going to lead you in stats, but also you may think that he may hit a mental wall, a mental block. Travion Henderson, his freshman year, hit a freshman wall after six or seven games and really wasn't the same back the latter half of the season. I don't know if Jeremiah Smith is going to get there and that's going to happen.

It's possible it may, and I realize that's a realistic thing. But the reason I'm not sure if it will is because he's just more mature. He's made for the moment. And we got to see some of that South Florida swag and some of that edginess that he has when he scored that touchdown. The first one was a running touchdown. The second one was that one-handed catch. He just talked in trash to everybody in the stands

because he realizes he is made to play college football. You know, and that's the difference between him and Ryan Williams, the kid at Alabama who literally is 17 years old. He's just a string bean. He's a kid. But Smith, I think he's like the leading weightlifter in Ohio State Buckeyes' whole entire program. He's a man-child right now.

You know what's crazy is Ohio State does this thing in the offseason, winter workouts and summer workouts. At the end of that workout portion, you get named an Iron Buckeye if your workout session is superior over others. It may be eight or nine guys that may get that. Sometimes it's less. As a true freshman during his first offseason, he was named an, an iron Buckeye. And I'm thinking all the things we heard,

all the recruiting shows I did with Brian Smith and Brian Smith knows him personally. So it's a little bit different, not just recovering a guy that's on the other side of the country. You're covering a guy you personally know everything people have said he's doing and exceeding all of the expectations he's so much fun to watch as we get deeper especially this week against iowa and then the rest of the season i just can't wait to see what he does against big 10 opponents that 12th game of the year against michigan i expect him to do big things but him versus will johnson that's match up i'm waiting

for what are your thoughts about the Iowa game? I say this in all seriousness because I think this is going to be the best defense you've faced so far this year. I still expect Ohio State to win handily, but, I mean, they might put a few wrinkles in there defensively, do you think? It's probably been the same defense that they've been running the whole time that Kirk France has been there. The thing is, there's no issues with it. You're going to get a very disciplined defense a very fundamentally sound very physical but I think Ohio State can

still do a lot of things they've been doing in the past game against Iowa which may be rare but I do think with Will Howard the weight and the weapons he has on the outside do you want to double Jeremiah Smith well you got a Buka and Cardinal Tate that are open do you want to go one-on-one against all the other receivers most of the time the other the defense Do you want to go one-on-one against all the other receivers? Most of the time, the other, the defense can't stop those guys one-on-one. So it's kind of just pick your poison, whatever the defense does. Ohio state has an answer. Now, Jacob, the Hoosiers are five and O for the first time since 1967.

In my brain, I'm going, say it again, say it again, say it again. We got to hear five. And well, here's the deal. 5-0, but Northwestern's coming up next. Oh, 6-0. 6-0. 6-0, baby. 6-0.

Not even stressed. Not even worried. No, I actually said on my show earlier this week, this is such a classic game for any football team to say, oh, we're 5-0. Big win over Maryland on the road. Northwestern's terrible. They're playing in a stadium that holds 2,000 people. We got this. You can't do that in this

conference. I don't care if it's Northwestern. So I don't think Kurt Cignetti lets the boys do that. I think we're fine. 6-0 heading to the bye week, and Nebraska comes to Bloomington the following time, I guess after the bye week great things are happening in bloomington discipline lack of turnovers they turned it over for the first time this season this past saturday so i think we're doing okay but cannot overlook northwestern on saturday not only they turn it over to turn it over four times and still wanted a blowout i mean indiana football is usually not that team that does that. Yeah, watch out, Jay. We're coming to Columbus late in the season. Watch out.

Y'all can come. Y'all going to leave with an L. Trust me. Y'all don't want this smoke. Y'all don't want it at all. Yeah, talk to me in November. I'll talk to you then, too. We're just warming up with the trash talking.

We'll get everybody's opinion on the rematch of the national championship with Washington and Michigan, amongst some other games. I think Spencer's floating around somewhere, flying around with the Ducks. We'll get to all that as we continue right here. The Big Ten squad continues. Let me tell you about FanDuel. We all like watching sports. Gets you excited.

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at week six, we picked up somebody. Spencer McLaughlin has joined us from Lockdown Oregon Ducks and Lockdown College Football. Look at that face that Jacob's making. He's happy I'm here already. Meanwhile, Zach is disgusted because I am the face of his 34-13 most recent but not final loss of the 2024 season.

Hi guys. You just got here. Your fans already hate you already, Spencer. Yeah, that's, that's okay. Because when you're right in those online feuds, it feels better. We missed you. I love the trash talking. I do.

I do. Hey, what are your thoughts? You got Friday night lights. You're on the national stage. Couple of weeks. I love the trash talking. I do. I do. Hey, what are your thoughts? You got Friday Night Lights. You're on the national stage a couple of weeks in a row. You got this game and then next weekend, you and Jay will be going at it pretty hard on this show. It's the game of the year with the Ducks and the Buckeyes. But you got Michigan State Friday night,

another nationally televised game. Yeah, I think Michigan State is a better team than UCLA. Sorry, Zach. Bruins taking all sorts of body blows from me today, but that's what happens. So I think Michigan State provides a better challenge for Oregon, but it is still at some level a tune-up opportunity, or at least it should be. Last time Oregon played on this field was supposed to be a big win, certainly could have been, and it wasn't. The time before that was supposed to be a big win, certainly could have been, and it wasn't. The time before that was supposed to be a big win, and it wasn't. So this is the first time in a few weeks, because Oregon had a bye in two games on the road, that they've actually played in front

of their home fans, and I think Michigan State can maybe hang around for a little. I just think Oregon's too talented, and I think Oregon wins this one pretty big. All right, fair enough. I think they're on a roll. Going to get a lot of attention here over the next couple of weeks. By the way, any pre-banter back and forth? Jay, you got Oregon a couple weeks? I mean, that's the big game. That's the big game on the schedule.

You tell me Jay's picking Oregon? Is that what you said there, Craig? No. I'd be news to Buckeyes fans. I'm not saying anything right now, Spencer. I think you know where my mind sits right now with that game we'll talk about that next week you and I will I do think though that the Oregon game Ohio State is going to be forced to do some things differently with their linebackers last week and really all season linebackers have been the weakest spot on the defense and especially against Iowa the linebackers have to play better and I don't know if Ohio State

can get used to playing certain guys at certain spots that are consistently showing they're not getting the job done the benefit is you're going to get Talik Williams back the defensive line is going to be solid the safeties are doing exact what they need to do so they're kind of covering up the linebacker play but the Buckeyes will need better linebacker play against Oregon for sure. All right. I want to get everybody's comments on the rematch of the national championship with Michigan going out to Washington. Obviously, it's a rematch of laundry.

Coaches are different. Players are different. Jacob, we'll start with you at the top. How do you see this game? Both teams have a lot in common. New head coach, new quarterbacks, new players. How's it going to work out? Washington's actually a slight favorite in this game.

Yeah, I know. That's what I saw. It's like two and a half, three points to our friends at FanDuel. I don't see how, especially with how they performed last week. It's just, I don't know. Michigan hasn't been overly impressive. I mean, a controversial call gives them a win over Minnesota. But i don't know i just they were up 24 to 3 in that game they were fine okay okay but still they still let minnesota hang around and make it a game in the end like

michigan is michigan's an average team okay they are yeah so with washington average below average i mean probably below average but what is this at home in, in Seattle? I'm going to take Michigan. I don't feel good about it, but I'll take them just because I think they're the better team question mark on that one though. Okay. Yeah. Here's, here, here's an interesting little backstory and Zach, my former Pac-12 brother in RIP might, might remember this as well. Not so much. You got Gonzaga coming, man. Don't worry. That's true. The good old Pac-12 is kicking around with Gonzaga and trying to sway everybody else. But I think for the interesting thing about this game, the last time a team from the state of Michigan ranked inside the top 11 came to Seattle where Washington was favored as an unranked team with a first year head coach who

came from a power four program at some point and who has a new transfer quarterback Washington blitzed Michigan State and it led to the downfall of Mel Tucker in East Lansing that's all I'm going to say there is a weird confluence of factors that that's like six different things that line up almost perfectly other than it was a non-conference game in 22, and now it's a classic Big Ten showdown. All right, Zach from UCLA Bruins. You're talking some former Pac-12 here, Washington and Michigan. Your thoughts?

It's a weird game, right? Washington, they got Will Rogers who threw for 300 yards, but they couldn't go beat Rutgers. I think after Rutgers, right, they had the Rogers who threw for 300 yards but they couldn't go beat Rutgers I think after Rutgers right they had like the big 10 leader rushing wise Michigan loves to run the football right down USC's throats letting Minnesota back in the game I think they'll be more physical I believe in Washington's future I just I think Michigan can control the time of possession whole possession and just churn up yards on the ground to beat Washington. All right. Oh, there's Zach. How do you see the game? I wonder if this game has, if it even reaches double digits, I add that's an over-exaggeration

or an under-exaggeration, but this total, I, the fact that it's at 41 with Michigan, if they had an offense, if Michigan had a semblance of an offense, because that defense is top five in the country still with Will Johnson and Mason Graham, and then Washington's defense is actually proving to be really good, better than at least what I expected from them. So this game probably might be, it might be 13 to 10 for all I know. And I liked that Michigan, or I like the spot for Washington bringing Michigan over to their home field. I think that these plane trips are proving to be pretty costly

for the opposing team, whichever team is making that cross-coast travel. So UCLA's figured that out, how bad it can be. USC went to Michigan and look how that ended up. I picked Michigan to win that game. I kind of like Washington to return the favor for their Pac-12 former brethren. I have a fun hypothetical to lay out here. What's going to be a higher point total? Penn State as a team through three quarters against UCLA or Washington, Michigan combined points for four quarters? Penn State. Penn State.

Penn State. 100%. Well, wait a minute. Do you hear that, top corner Zach? They're dogging your Bruins. It's not just me. Basketball season's almost here. But wait a minute.

It is very close. It is very close. That's the good news. The media team came out today i want to boil down a little bit here zach zaco you predict maybe a 13 10 game but on your little cheating little scale that you mentioned in the first segment what's that real score gonna be for i'm not following craig you said there were you said there was a score but then what the real score was based on the stats you mentioned in the first segment the dominant site yeah that site you used oh yeah the uh so i mean if you if i don't i don't

mean it's going to be a close game it's going to be a field goal game so that that margin of whoever wins it's a coin flip i'm just going to give the edge to to washington in that case in that game if you're looking for the dominant victory penn State might be on the top of the graphic again against UCLA all right Jay how do you see your uh unbeloved Michigan Wolverines doing at Washington at some point you just think that running the ball consistently for Michigan won't work and I think this is going to be one of those times and that night game in Seattle will be tricky. I can't go with Michigan in this one at all. I have to go Washington.

And before the season, I want to pick Michigan to win the game. I just don't think they can just keep the same formula going on Saturday and expect to win. They've got to figure out something else with the offense. Orgy's not the guy. Not at all. You know what? Okay, Orgy's more the guy than Davis Warren. I mean, come on.

30 passing yards gets it done, right? Is that what we're saying? I'm not disagreeing that he's a poor passer. There's a reason Portnoy's out there saying, I'll give you $3 million to go buy a quarterback in the portal. Just get one because he knows, yeah, these guys stink and they can't throw the football.

Now, if Colston Loveland comes back, I think that helps for Michigan in the passing game. Maybe they could get to 100 passing yards. You never know. Could be something dramatic like that. Is 50 fair? 50? No, the over 100.

At least be 85. Hey, just go get the UNLV kid. If they got money, go pay him. He'll come play quarterback. Matthew Sluka? Yeah. Well, I mean, potentially. But here's the interesting thing about Washington.

This game will come down to whether the Huskies can stop stepping on a rake and banging themselves in the forehead, because that is all they have done through the first few games. It is just over and over again. It's like bad play call on fourth down, bad execution, penalty. Last week, this is a real sequence. This is a real thing that happened if you missed it Rutgers on third down fails to convert they line up to kick a field goal Washington blocks the field goal as the play is ongoing a freshman runs onto the field to celebrate oh yeah oh the place still going crap I gotta go off and the officials just sitting there watching are like, I saw that. I saw it all the way.

Illegal substitution. Defense, 12 men on the field, five-yard penalty, first down. And on the next play, Rutgers scores a touchdown. Like, that's the sort of crap that Washington's been pulling. Will Rogers is capable. They've got some good wide receivers. Jonah Coleman's a beast. Their offensive line, just okay. Jonah Coleman's a monster. I can see Washington winning this game if and only if they get out of their own way. Spencer, it's funny you

mentioned that. So back to that. It's called the net success rate. So Penn State was at the top. Rutgers in that win was at the wall bottom like it was it Washington should have won the game correct and the analytics prove that yeah yeah but you know they're sitting at three and two and they like that and then that's kind of the question is like can they get out of their own way they haven't shown that they can yet yeah they'll get an opportunity to uh That was a beautiful description, Spencer, of what happened at the end of half of that Rutgers game. That absolutely nailed it.

All right, we'll take a look at a final word, some other games that are catching our eye as we continue with the Big Ten squad here on Locked On. As we continue here with Lockdown Big Ten Squad, getting ready for week six around the Big Ten in college football. Very excited about it as we continue with Jacob and both Zachs. A couple other games around the conference I want to talk about and get your thoughts on.

We spent a lot of time with Michigan and Washington and whatnot, some other big games. The USC Trojans, you guys have seen them. You know, they were down by 11 points at home against a wisconsin team that's still trying to figure things out they go on the road to minnesota ironically both minnesota and usc lost at michigan by three in the past couple weeks i don't know if this is an even matchup or not what do you guys think? Jacob, we'll start with you. Yeah, USC, as we look at it, they're an eight-point favorite on the road at Minnesota. It's a night game.

It's going to be on the Big Ten network. Not sure how many people are going to go out of their way to watch this game, but I'll at least check it out to see what's going on. I think USC bounces back. I think they play well. I think they're just too much for Minnesota who played a good game against Michigan, but they played their style of game against a team that plays their style of football. It was slow. It was gross. It was ugly football. USC is not going to do that, man. They're going to high fly

and do whatever they can to light up the scoreboard. Give me USC. I think they cover. I think they win by double digits on the road. All right. Zach from lockdown UCLA. How do you see that USC Minnesota game going? Well, we do you see that USC-Minnesota game going? Well, we haven't really talked about that Minnesota-Michigan game too much, right? You gave a lot of love to that Ohio State receiver making the one-handed catch. What about Daniel Jackson's one-handed catch

at the end of that game against Michigan? They say, what, catch of the year? I don't want to give too much love to that onside kick miss because if they almost beat Michigan, UCLA's next winnable game is Minnesota. I don't want to give thought that Minnesota could beat UCLA in the Rose Bowl. So besides that point, USC, eight-point favorites. They didn't play well.

Speaking of Washington shooting themselves in their own foot, USC did the same thing against Wisconsin. I don't believe Minnesota could play up to the challenge, but USC, I think, is also a little overrated as well. Sorry, Trojan fans, but it's coming from your counterpart across town. I know I haven't seen good football in a while but you know i do think usc should win this game by double figures two scores although minnesota has shown they're scrappy they're a couple weird plays from maybe being four and one who knows i i just don't think they're capable enough to hang

around with the usc offense that i think should score considering Michigan just hung 27 on them. They can't throw the football. Zach Zanko, how do you see USC and Minnesota? So this is another instance of the not full cross country coast to coast trip, but USC has got to hop on a plane and, and go to Minnesota. Now this would be a four 30 kickoff, uh, USC time, but Minnesota at night, this is a physical team that is basically a Michigan light. I like Darius Taylor, the running back. I think Minnesota can, for USC, the key to this is how much, how many points can you get ahead? Because we saw Wisconsin give USC a game and then they ran out of gas, what, early in the third quarter?

Because that trip is daunting. Jet lag is a very real thing. I don't care how physically fit Division I football players are. These trips are unprecedented with this new conference realignment. If USC can be ahead by maybe two, three touchdowns, then they win this game just fine. I can see Minnesota going through the seven, eight offensive linemen because P.J. Fleck will do that. He'll do something like that. Brett Bielema did it to Penn State three years ago. What's to stop P.J. Fleck from doing that against a USC team that just doesn't see that kind of ground and pound power football? Oh, and Minnesota has the running backs to do it. So I'm not saying, here's what I am saying.

Never say never about a Minnesota upset. I actually like them to cover. I see this being a seven-point game. I see USC being ahead by enough to maintain the win, but Minnesota will make it interesting. And that is a case in point because they made it close against the top five Michigan defense on the road. I think that carries over. Zach, I'll stay with you for the final game I want to talk about,

and it's more interesting. I shouldn't have saved it for last, but Rutgers at Nebraska. I have them in my own lockdown Big Ten power rankings neck and neck, so whoever wins this game is going to leapfrog the other one. But Rutgers, Dylan Ray, Dylan Ray for Nebraska. I love watching him play. Rutgers is a scrappy team. I think they're both kind of scrappy. Nebraska has way too many penalties these days, but how do you see that game coming out? Rutgers really struggles against the run, losing their top overall defender. That's a big deal because Washington, Washington should have won that game. Do not look at Rutgers record and say, oh, this team is legitimate. They can go 9-0, and they might have a shot, an inside track, into being a surprise in the Big Ten Championship.

That is not the case. This Rutgers team is okay at best going on the road to Nebraska. Nebraska's defense is arguably top 10 in the country. They still are, even though they lost that game to Illinois. I still think that's a top 10 defense. I think Dylan Rayola, his better days of football are ahead he's a true freshman he's going to make freshman mistakes Nebraska should have won that game against Illinois give you the corn huskers by at least two touchdowns against Rutgers because Nebraska will get the lead and then they'll be able to maintain it with a solid ground game Rutgers has no answer for that if they play from

behind they are doomed all right other Zach how do you see that Rutgers has no answer for that. If they play from behind, they are doomed. Other Zach, how do you see that Rutgers-Nebraska game? I mean, this is the same Nebraska team we're talking about that had zero points for a while against Purdue, right? They're down 3-0 into the third quarter at Purdue. Yes. I'm hoping they play the same type of football against the Bruins and Lincoln later that year,

and it's a little closer. So I was high in Nebraska until they blew that game against Illinois it's a weird game right Rutgers shimmed to one but Nebraska just played terrible at Purdue it's a classic look ahead game classic trap game they survived it they won by 18 points I will say Nebraska I've been riding their train pretty hard but I know you know Rutgers could put up a fight I I'm going to lean with Nebraska, though. All right, Jacob, this is a scouting match for you because after Indiana beats Northwestern to go 6-0, I think they got Nebraska next, right?

That is correct, yes. Off of a bye week for the Hoosiers. One of the later bye weeks in the Big Ten. After six weeks of football, we will finally get that. Still have to take care of Northwestern. I just want to put that out there so I can't be blamed if this goes south, but Nebraska and Rutgers, one of the three games in the big 10 this week with a total less than 42. So if they're not expecting it to be a high flying crazy game, because of what you guys were just talking about, I just think Nebraska finds a way to kind of get

through and beat Rutgers and almost expose that Rutgers team because Seiko, you were talking about it. I'm just not fooled by the Rutgers record. I'm not fooled by what they think they are. They're just not that good of a team. And for Indiana's sake, I hope Nebraska wins. I hope they roll and I hope somebody in front of them in the rankings loses or one or two people. I need them to creep back inside that top 25 craig i need this to be a top 25 matchup in bloomington in a couple of weeks but all seriousness i think nebraska wins i think they roll i think they cover a six seven point spread depending on what it is on saturday all right gentlemen you guys always do a great job always tell our new listeners

subscribe and follow all these guys they work hard for your favorite teams every single day as we cover your teams throughout the season. And don't forget, I got you covered for the entire conference every day with Lockdown Big Ten, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. I'm Craig Scheman. We'll talk to you next time.