Big Ten teams hungry heading into Week 6

October 3, 2017

Michigan State head coach Mark Dantonio speaks during the Big Ten Media Days at McCormick Place Convention Center in Chicago on Monday, July 24, 2017. (Joseph Cress/The Daily Iowan)

Penn State not overlooking Wildcats, Purdue looking for QB.

By Courtney Baumann
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Michigan State is coming off a big win over Iowa heading into this weekend, and it hopes to use the momentum as it faces off with No. 8 Michigan on Saturday.

Set to face their second ranked opponent of the season, the Spartans hope that this time around turns out better than the last time. Michigan State faced Notre Dame on Sept. 23 and lost, 38-18, mainly because of the team’s lack of ball control.

Last weekend, however, the Spartans did not turn the ball over to the Hawkeyes and went on to get their third win of the season, tying the number they had during all of 2016.

The upcoming game puts added fire under the Spartans; they take on their in-state rival. Michigan State head coach Mark Dantonio wants to make sure that his players keep their emotions in check throughout the week, though, in order to keep the momentum rolling in the game.

“Big win versus Iowa. So now we get ready for another big emotional game, big rivalry game.” he said. “So we have to maintain our emotion throughout the week and bring that to Saturday. Big rivalry game … Everybody understands that.”

Penn State not taking Northwestern lightly

The No. 4 team in the country is not taking anyone lightly.

Aiming to go for its 14th-straight win, Penn State will head to Northwestern to take on the 2-2 Wildcats, who have had a difficult time finding any rhythm this season.

Nittany Lion head coach James Franklin drew comparisons between Northwestern and Iowa during his press conference on Tuesday.

“You know what you’re getting with them. They are going to have a few things in the game plan, offense, defense and special teams like we all do, but you know, I would probably compare them a lot like Iowa,” Franklin said. “They are going to be fundamentally sound. They have got good schemes. But what you see is what you get.”

Though Northwestern is primarily known for being an academic school, Franklin put to rest thoughts that anyone may have had about the Wildcats.

“I think whenever you’re at an academic school like Northwestern … Everybody just likes the story to be that you don’t have the same type of athletes,” he said. “They are tough; they are hard-nosed; they are smart; they are disciplined. They got really good schemes. They’ve had a lot of consistency in their program and in their coaching staff for a number of years.”

Injury-prone Boilermakers

Coming off its bye week, Purdue’s lineup of challenges is not getting much smaller.

In their most recent contest, the 2-2 Boilermakers fell to Michigan, 28-10. Three of the next four games for Purdue will consist of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Nebraska.

First on the slate is Minnesota, which lost last weekend to Maryland, 31-24, at home.

Still, the Gophers could pose a challenge for the injury-riddled Boilermakers, who are without quite a few players — most notably quarterback David Blough.

Blough suffered an AC sprain in the game against Michigan, and head coach Jeff Brohm said he has only practiced “some” throughout the week.

Other injuries to keep in mind are running backs Tario Fuller and Markell Jones, as well as defensive end Austin Larkin.

The injuries have caused Purdue to lose some depth, but Brohm isn’t too worried about players getting worn out.

“I think on the defensive side of the ball, you know, we use some different packages of different defensive linemen in the game at times, and that was successful,” Brohm said.

“I do feel like we need to rotate the offensive line a little bit and make sure that those guys are hungry, and not only feel part of it, but that there is competition; so that if things aren’t going exactly the way we want, we are able to rotate guys in and out of there.”