See if Ohio St., Michigan St. are Back on Top in Week 5 Big Ten Power Rankings
Saturday Blitz Big Ten Power Rankings Week 5
8. Minnesota Golden Gophers, 4-1 (1-0), Defeated Michigan Wolverines 30-14 Last Saturday
Jerry Kill’s Minnesota Golden Gophers are on a roll right now despite the terrible loss they had to TCU more than two weeks ago. A big win at Michigan now has this team 4-1, and they’re doing it the way you’d expect them to: by running the football down everybody’s throat and playing tough defense.
The rushing attack is averaging 230 yards per game right now, and the defense is only giving up 19 points a game. The only reason this team is so far down on our Big Ten Power Rankings is that you can’t ignore the blowout loss. TCU is good but shouldn’t be good enough to do that. At the same time, there are no significant quality wins on the schedule. You can’t classify Michigan as one with the way the Wolverines are playing right now.
Still, Kill’s team looks like it’ll be able to improve off of last season, and with Northwestern, Purdue, Illinois, and Iowa coming up as the next four games, this team could make it to 8-1. But then it has Ohio State, Nebraska, and Wisconsin, so it’ll have to pick up an upset somewhere to reach 9 or 10 wins.