Order is Restored. Ohio St., Michigan St. Move Up in Week 6 Big Ten Power Rankings.
Saturday Blitz Week 6 Big Ten Power Rankings
Well, after waiting for a little longer than we might have liked, Darrell Hazell’s Purdue Boilermakers are finally producing results. And it’s in a shocking way. The team has shown clear, significant improvement each week since the bad loss to Central Michigan, and it finally showed in the best way against Illinois.
The switch to Austin Appleby at quarterback looks like a huge plus for this team, as he was highly efficient Saturday. Appleby went 15 of 20 for more than 200 yards, 2 touchdowns, and 0 interceptions. That’s exactly what Hazell wants to run his Jim Tressel-style offense, and it lead to a 38-point win on Saturday. If the Boilermakers keep this up, then our expectations for them might go up as well. We thought there would be improvement this year for the team, but this is significant improvement.
Looking down the road, it looks like Purdue took a little bit too long to get going to be able to go bowling, but anything is possible. Still, with Michigan State up next on the schedule, road games against Nebraska, Wisconsin, and Indiana, and Wisconsin and Northwestern still on the slate, it’s hard to see any way this team surpasses 4 or 5 wins without pulling off some major upsets. But the improvement is at least finally showing.
And who knows? Maybe this team will pull off a couple of shockers to move up this list.