By Woodrow Carroll
Going into last Saturday’s Minnesota at Illinois’ football game, Illinois head coach, Brett Bielema, had a 10-0 lifetime record against the Minnesota Golden Gophers. Seven of those victories were from when Bielema was the Wisconsin coach and the final three were a product of Bielema’s last three years in Champaign. As they say, all good things must come to an end. Or, bad things, viewing it from Minnesota’s standpoint.
Thanks to a late touchdown and field goal, Minnesota recorded a 25-17 victory over Illinois before a near sellout crowd of 58,088 in Memorial Stadium in Champaign. For Illinois, the loss was enough to knock them out of the Top 25 in the polls.
After a Homecoming victory over Michigan, the Illini were 6-1, looking like a force in the college football ranks. Losses to Oregon and Minnesota have taken much of the luster off Illinois’ hot start. The loss to top ranked Oregon came as no surprise. The loss to Minnesota was a major setback.
Illinois is off this week, but will play host to Michigan State Saturday, Nov. 16 in Illinois’ final home game, before closing out the regular season. Illinois will next be on the road against Rutgers and Northwestern.
The conquest of Illinois was the fourth consecutive victory for Minnesota (6-3 and 4-2), coached by former Kaneland High School and Northern Illinois University product, P.J. Fleck. Now in his eighth season with the Gophers, Fleck is seeking to move Minnesota into the upper echelon of the Big Ten.
Fleck has put together a solid run at Minnesota and is 56-37 overall in his eight seasons at the school. The only sticking point being his 33-34 record in the Big Ten. However, the Gophers have gone to five bowl games with Fleck calling the shots and come away a winner each time.
The SEC, Big Ten, and the MAC are each listed as FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision) conferences. It is a different world when it comes to winning and losing.
In the MAC, the Toledo Rockets are the only team with so many as six victories at this point. Thanks to a 29-28 victory over Eastern Michigan last Saturday, Toledo moved its record to 6-3.
Now let us take a look at the Big Ten and SEC, with regard to team victories.
In the Big Ten there are seven teams headed up by undefeated Oregon and Indiana, each 9-0, to lead the way with six or more victories. Over in the SEC, while no team is undefeated, there are nine teams with six or more victories.
While it’s true that the Big Ten, with 18 members and the SEC with 16, have a greater membership number than the MAC, which has 12 teams, you can see the disparity in terms of gridiron success as the season moves along.
The transfer portal is the term bandied about when talking about college players moving from one program to another. Upset with the coach, not getting the playing time or just unhappy, we quickly see a player seeking greener pastures. What we are starting to see is that it’s a two-way street.
If a player is unable to produce to the general satisfaction of the coach, you are starting to see coaches going to the transfer portals in search of a better fit for the program. It will be interesting to see how all this shakes out in the coming years for sure.
The Indiana Hoosiers are ranked No. 8 in the latest poll. Rare country for the Hoosiers, who have long been viewed as the Big Ten’s top basketball school. A ranking that no individual could imagine prior to the start of the season.
Indiana will play host to Michigan, Saturday, Nov. 9 at 2:30 p.m., in what could be viewed as another test of just how real Indiana is. Following the game with Michigan, the Hoosiers will be off a week before traveling to Ohio State Saturday, Nov. 23, then close out the regular season against Purdue. At this point let’s wait and see before we take on what awaits the Hoosiers in 2024. Far too many have predicted the team’s demise and been proven wrong.