You have to think John Mellencamp’s birthday was a lot sweeter after his beloved Hoosiers pulled one out at Champaign. Mellencamp, whose name is on Indiana’s indoor facility, might say it was special.
Special teams were huge in Saturday’s Big Ten games. Indiana wins on a last-second field goal, scores on a kickoff return and stops Illinois on a pair of two-point tries. Minnesota coach Glen Mason has been going nuts trying to find some consistency in his team’s kicking game the last two seasons. Judging by a missed extra point in overtime that resulted in a 28-27 loss to Penn State, he still hasn’t found it. Goodbye, Motor City Bowl.
Iowa kicker Kyle Schlicher, aka Schlicher the Kicker, missed his first PAT of the season after the ball was moved 10 yards back because of a holding penalty.
Wisconsin won the battle of the kid coaches. The Badgers’ Bret Bielema was definitely more prepared for being a head coach, and that’s no fault of NU’s Pat Fitzgerald. The former Wildcats linebacker was thrust into a tough spot when coach Randy Walker died. It’s hard to imagine Walker doing any better considering Northwestern’s youth. The Wildcats will continue to struggle this year, but don’t count them out. Wisconsin looks like it’s growing into a team, along with Iowa, that will lead the Little Nine behind Ohio State and Michigan.
The real mark of the Buckeyes and Wolverines would be how they would do if they lost their quarterbacks to injury. Troy Smith and Chad Henne are indispensable to their respective teams. Iowa’s Drew Tate practiced all week for the first time since August, and the result was 539 yards of total offense.
