Dust off your pom-poms, your food-shaped headgear, your pin-striped overalls. College football season has at long last arrived. The Big Ten’s opening week should give plenty of the conference’s fans reason to celebrate and provide one big opportunity to make a statement for league pride.
With more FCS teams (4) than Power 5 conference opponents (3) on the schedule for Big Ten teams, it’s a good week to fly under the radar amid a schedule packed with high-profile matchups. If the college football world is talking in depth about the Big Ten on Sunday morning, that’s probably not a good sign. The one exception, of course, is Wisconsin, which heads up the road to Lambeau Field to face No. 5 LSU (ABC, 3:30 p.m. ET) in the league’s only contribution to a mouth-watering open weekend.
The College Gameday crew will be in Wisconsin and shining plenty of light on the not-yet-frozen tundra. Here’s what we’ll be watching for elsewhere around the Big Ten in Kickoff Week.
Blowouts or bust: The Big Three -- No. 6 Ohio State, No. 7 Michigan and No. 12 Michigan State -- don’t have much to gain this weekend. The Wolverines and Buckeyes are expected to win their games against Hawaii and Bowling Green by a combined total of 68 points, according to betting odds. Vegas didn’t even bother to set a spread for Michigan State’s home opener against FCS opponent Furman.
The underwhelming matchups give each school a chance to ease into replacing huge chunks of their starting lineups or dealing with an elevated level of preseason hype. Anything less than a systematic steamrolling for all three, though, will be a disappointment and an opportunity for the other two rivals to claim as a sign of impending demise or an overrated impostor.
Coaching debuts: Maryland’s D.J. Durkin, Rutgers’ Chris Ash and Illinois’ Lovie Smith will all be coaching their first games as college head coaches this Saturday. Durkin and Smith get the luxury of facing FCS teams in their debuts. Ash and the Scarlet Knights, on the other hand, have to travel the length of the country to battle No. 14 Washington on the road. At least he’s more likely to learn a few things about his new group against a talented Huskies team.
Upset alerts: P.J. Fleck's Western Michigan team put a scare into Michigan State a year ago before the Spartans went on to win the conference. This year Northwestern gets the unenviable task of trying to fend off the Broncos and their energy bundle of a head coach (ESPNU, Noon ET). The Wildcats quietly won 10 games last season, but kick off 2016 with a stiff challenge.
Purdue has a 93.8 percent chance of beating Eastern Kentucky, according to the Football Power Index, but it’s been a while since any game in West Lafayette could be considered a gimme. Best to add them to the upset alert list as well.
A name you should know after Kickoff Week: Unless you enjoy Dilly bars in December, you probably don’t yet recognize the names Shannon Brooks and Rodney Smith. The sophomore running back duo at Minnesota combined for nearly 1,400 yards as rookies last season. With a new offensive coordinator who promises to keep the focus on running the ball, the Gophers open their season against an Oregon State defense that allowed 225 rushing yards per game last season (115th nationally). Smith, a redshirt sophomore, will likely be featured to start the season while Brooks recovers from a broken foot. Smith, a Georgia native, might make Beavers' coach Gary Andersen (formerly of Wisconsin) wish he never left Madison if Minnesota’s offense can open up some gaps at the line of scrimmage on Thursday night.