Ohio State Wins Big Ten
I watched Ohio State pulverize Wisconsin last Saturday night at Lucas Oil for the 2014 Big Ten Football championship. It really wasn’t even close. The Buckeyes laid a 59 to zip butt whompin’ on the Badgers. They did it with their third string quarterback Cardale Jones under center and a defense that seemed to take everything the Badgers tried to do offensively as some kind of personal insult. Wisconsin’s Melvin Gordon, who was the nation’s leading collegiate rusher with 2336 yards on 309 carries for a 7.6 per carry average with 26 rushing touchdowns, was held to 76 yards on 26 carries for 2.9 yard average and no end zone visits. Buckeye sophomore runningback Ezekiel Elliott ripped the Badger defense for 220 yards on 20 totes including an 81 yard first quarter gallop for the first of his two touchdowns. State’s senior wideout Devin Smith had pro scouts drooling with a 4 reception, 137 yard and 3 touchdown performance. The Buckeyes gained 558 total yards compared to the Badgers 258 total yards. What is even more remarkable is that Ohio State did all this without the services of their record-setting freshman quarterback J.T. Barrett. Barrett broke his ankle in the last regular season game against Michigan. The defense was lead by sophomore defensive lineman Joey Bosa who scored a touchdown on a 4 yard fumble return with 36 seconds to go in the first half. Bosa admitted that the apparent suicide of teammate defensive tackle Kosta Karageorge strongly motivated the Buckeye defenders.
This Buckeye team is 12-1 for the 2014 season and 8-0 in Big Ten play. Head coach Urban Meyer has worked with Alex Smith and Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow in his head coaching career, so he has plenty of experience with offensive talent. Despite a 35-21 loss to Virginia Tech in the second weekend of the season, this team was ranked fifth in the AP poll and maybe his best Buckeye football squad yet. Wisconsin brought a 10-3 record to the game and was 7-1 in Big Ten play. They were ranked thirteenth in the nation despite that, and the Badgers were favored by 4 points. The Buckeyes will meet the number one ranked Alabama Crimson Tide in New Orleans on January 1 in the Allstate Sugar Bowl.
The “New” Big Ten
The Big Ten is really now the Big Fourteen. Divided into two divisions, the conference has an east and west. Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, Purdue, Indiana, Northwestern, Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota formed the Big Ten. It was first the Big Nine and was formed in 1896 as the first Division I athletic conference. The University of Chicago was an original member. From the start, the Big Ten was a Midwestern conference. Ohio State joined in 1914. University of Chicago dropped its inter-collegiate athletic program in 1946 and withdrew from the conference. Michigan State joined in 1950. From the 1950s on, the Big Ten Champion went to Pasadena on New Year’s Day to meet the Pac-8 champion for the Rose Bowl trophy. If the Big Ten champ had gone the year before, the runner-up went to the Rose Bowl. This was how Purdue went to the game the first time in 1967. Michigan State won the 1965 and 1966 Big Ten titles but since it went to the Rose Bowl in 1966 (and lost to UCLA) it wasn’t eligible to go to the 1967 game. Big Ten runner-up Purdue went instead. For many years the format stayed the same. In 1991, Penn State, an Eastern school and perennial football powerhouse joined the Big Ten. Nebraska joined in 2010 to balanced it out. Rutgers and Maryland joined in 2012 to make it the national “super” conference. Johns Hopkins University’s men’s lacrosse team is an affiliate member of the Big Ten.
So now the Big Ten has two 7 member conferences east and west which play each other a rotating basis. Only Purdue and Indiana are scheduled for football games every year. The Indiana-Kentucky rivalry will be maintained as well as the Purdue-Notre Dame rivalry.
Telvin Coleman
Indiana University junior runningback Telvin Coleman was second in the NCAA Division I in rushing yards gained with 2036 on 270 attempts with a 7.5 yards per carry average. His longest run from scrimmage was 90 yards and he rushed for 15 touchdowns. This effectively broke the school record for most yards in a season, set by Vaughn Dunbar in 1991.In a loss against Rutgers on November 15, he rushed for 307 yards, the second most in school history. He was a first team All Big 10 selection for the 2014 season.
Telvin Coleman is 21 years old and was born in Tinley Park, Illinois and went to high school in Oak Park where he was also a track and field star. He is in his junior year. He is 6 ft. 1 in. and 210 lbs. He chose to attend Indiana after considering scholarship offers from Minnesota, Georgia Tech, and Michigan State. Coleman’s career statistics are as follows: 3219 yards gained on 452 carries for a 7.1 per carry average and 28 rushing touchdowns. He has 54 pass receptions for 383 yards. He has returned 30 kickoffs for 690 yards and 23 yards per return average. He took one back to the house for a touchdown.
It’s probable that Telvin Coleman will waive his senior year eligibility and declare for the 2015 NFL College Draft. He would look pretty good going from the Cream and Crimson of IU to the Blue and White of the Colts, don’t you think?