Big Ten Bloggers' Round Table

Thanks to Black Heart Gold Pants for hosting this week's Round Table.

1. Week 1's in the books. What surprised you about your team? Are you optimistic? Disappointed? (NOTE: Purdue does not apply here, so these fans must talk about Wake Forest instead)

Disappointed, mainly due to three things: the penalties, the special teams miscues, and the failure of the offensive line to consistently block. As I previously said, if Ringer's being held to less than three yards a carry, there's a failure somewhere in the rushing game, and nine times out of ten, that's the offensive line. Nevertheless, I'm optimistic, as MSU kept the game close even though it had no such business doing so, mainly due to capitalizing off of Cal's mistakes. One of the things that's keeping my going right now is that Cal's one of the frontrunners behind USC in the Pac-10. If they lose to both Washington teams, they might have to talk me down off of Hubbard Hall.

2. Beanie Wells' foot is definitely the top story in the conference. What's #2?

It's easily Michigan's failure to put up any semblance of a sustained offensive attack against Utah. The WoLOLverines' longest drive was seven yards, and the quarterback situation went as expected. However, while many are focusing in on the debacle at quarterback, I think the rushing game was easily more atrocious than the passing game. Stat of the game: Michigan rushed 25 times for 36 yards; one of those rushes went for 21 yards. Take that one big play away, and the WoLOLverines rushed 24 times for 15 yards, or an outstanding 0.6 yards per carry. Is there any way the offensive line can be renamed the LOLffensive line?

3. Admit it: you loathe DickFraudROFL (*neé* Rich Rodriguez), but when Michigan scored that last touchdown, you were rooting for them to make the 2-pt. conversion.

Nope, not in the slightest. I was debating in my head whether it would be better for Michigan to win to get some heat off the Big Ten, or to have Michigan fail, and deal with the media hate. All of a sudden, it hit me - the only place I have to deal with the Big Ten hate is on the internet and watching ESPN, while, living in East Lansing, I have to deal with Michigan fans on a semi-constant basis. If Michigan had tied it up and won that game, I would have had to deal with the hyperbole of mouth-breathing Michigan fans screaming, "#1 DICKROD ROOLZ SUCK IT SPARTY", all while they rush to Ann Arbor to see who can give Barwis a Z-Job first. Anything that humbles Michigan, I have to root for, even if it is at the expense of the Big Ten.

4. Is this weekend's slate of games actually *less* interesting than last week's?

Yup. The game that will be of most consequence is Oregon State at Penn State. Given the Beavers' loss to Stanford last week and the Nittany Lions' demolition of a Pop Warner team, I think PSU walks. The only other game of consequence will be Minnesota at Bowling Green. Bowling Green beat Minnesota last year, and is a six point favorite at home. Can Bowling Green keep up the momentum? Will Minnesota have a winning streak for the first time since '06? The storylines are endless.

There are two other games that might be of some interest to masochists: Northwestern @ Duke, where we'll see if the Wildcats can crap themselves again against the Blue Devils, and Miami of Ohio at Michigan, where one of the Michigan running backs will try to rush for more than 25 yards.

5. Don't you hate pants?

Absolutely. If pants are horrible enough for Alex Trebek to forego, then take the hint.