West Title Chase

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MaxyJR1

MaxyJR1

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I've seen publications for at least 4 teams to win the West. This is going to be a crazy season. Have to win the right games. Could someone go 6-0 in the West and not win the division this year? Will 6-3 win the division?

Iowa?
Wisconsin?
Minnesota?
Purdue?
Off Season National Champs Nebraska?
 

MaxyJR1 said:
I've seen publications for at least 4 teams to win the West. This is going to be a crazy season. Have to win the right games. Could someone go 6-0 in the West and not win the division this year? Will 6-3 win the division?

Iowa?
Wisconsin?
Minnesota?
Purdue?
Off Season National Champs Nebraska?
Click to expand...
The only team that could go 6-0 in the division and not win it would be Iowa.
If you got 6-0 in the west you are pretty good. And the only team with a tough enough schedule to go 6-0 and not win via tiebreaker is them.


I also don’t see 3 loss team winning the division
 

How I would Power Rank the top 5 in the B1G West right now:

1. Minneosta - Veteran QB and RB behind a massive, although inexperienced, OLine that could be better than last year. Very deep secondary with a lot of experience. Change at OC will be major lift on the offense.

2. Wisconsin - Wisconsin is always full of talent. Have an elite Running Back and always has a good OLine. Downside on Offense is a QB that hasn't fully lived up to expectations and needs to improve.

3. Iowa - Defending West champs, the turnover luck has to end at some point and without that their team isn't frightening. Average to above average QB at best.

4. Nebraska - QB transfer from Texas not getting talked about enough. The talent is there. If they can figure out the winning part of the game, could be a team worth paying attention to that could play spoiler for some team in the West down the stretch.

5. Purdue - Arguably the best QB in the division, but what else do you have? Lost the keystone of the defense, and doesn't look like much has been improved overall for the team. Not as talented as the 4 teams above them.



Division will be decided the last 2 weeks of the season. Iowa @ Minnesota, Wisconsin @ Nebraska and then Nebraska @ Iowa and Minnesota @ Wisconsin.
 

Interesting take, particularly with Purdue as I see them semi-consistently being placed above the Gophers in a lot of preseason division predictions. I’ll be cheering for actual results to match your listing.
 



Wisc has two very good RBs. Chaz Mellusi is back and healthy last I heard. Excellent 1-2 punch. Wisconsin will ground and pound, and will score—but not prolifically (unless Mertz has made a huge leap forward). We’ll need to put meaningful points up to best them. They’ll have their usual stout defense, but I think we’ve got a more well rounded offense (better WRs).

We pounded Iowa last year on every game statistic but … the final score. 🤯 Time for Fleck to get the monkey off his back.

Because we always seem to find a way to beat Purdue, we tend to marginalize the threat they pose. Purdue is an aerial attack offense playing in the stodgy B1G West. A change of pace for defensive game planning and practice. But, I think this year’s secondary might give Purdue fits if we have a decent pass rush.

Nebraska has the talent on paper to be very disruptive (as it has for all Frost years). But it has a lot of new coaches on offense and has to integrate a lot of new players. And it has to kick its several year culture of losing close games.

B1G might not have a dominant team in the national sense, but I suspect it will be hugely competitive with several teams perhaps deserving to be ranked.
 
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Schnauzer said:
Interesting take, particularly with Purdue as I see them semi-consistently being placed above the Gophers in a lot of preseason division predictions. I’ll be cheering for actual results to match your listing.
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Schedule wise Purdue is setup pretty well. No Big Ten schedule is easy but their toughest crossover game is at home against Penn State and their other two are Maryland and Indiana.

Will be a shame if the West division ends up going away because the parity in the division is a lot of fun. The East is super top heavy but the West has a bunch of teams that all have a legit shot of winning the division on a yearly basis.

The reality is that you can make a case for pretty much any team in the West at least having a shot to win the division if everything breaks right for them.

In the East...yeah not so much....
 


RogueGopher said:
4. Nebraska - QB transfer from Texas not getting talked about enough. The talent is there. If they can figure out the winning part of the game, could be a team worth paying attention to that could play spoiler for some team in the West down the stretch.
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Thompson was terrible against every team that plays legit defense. He'll face that every Saturday. I'm not realworried about what he'll do in the B1G and likely ends up being a downgrade from Martinez!
 



Gophers7NatTitlesBadgers0 said:
Thompson was terrible against every team that plays legit defense. He'll face that every Saturday. I'm not realworried about what he'll do in the B1G and likely ends up being a downgrade from Martinez!
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I just think he has potential to be better for Nebraska than Martinez was. Will he? Depends how is ppr is in fall camp ( pukes per rep )
 

Howard Griffith from the BIG Network was interviewed on Sirius College Sports channel this afternoon and he was very high on Minnesota, picked us to win the West. He said he surprised at the amount of talent and depth he saw at practice this week. Although he said there was no outright obvious favorite, Griffith picked our Gophers to win the division. Howard Griffith is currently not a dink! Go Gophers!
 

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