Michigan St., Ohio St., Nebraska Still Top Big Ten Power Rankings Week 7
Saturday Blitz Big Ten Power Rankings Week 7
The Iowa Hawkeyes are finally gaining respect back after a bad loss to Iowa State that never should have happened. Since then, they’ve beaten Pittsburgh, Purdue, and Indiana. None of them are great wins, but they’re respectable wins, and we can now say that this team is at least a middle of the pack Big Ten team. Perhaps it’ll be better in the near future.
Against Indiana, the Hawkeyes finally showed that they can play a little offense. That’s something that has been missing so far this season, and if they keep that up, they could move up these rankings quickly. The defense is still fine, giving up less than 20 points a game. So going forward, 30 points should be a goal for the offense because that would be enough for them to win every game. If they can do that, they’ll move up this list.
But just like Rutgers, we’re about to find out for sure how good this 5-1 record really is. A trip to Maryland is a good first test, and that’s followed by Northwestern and Minnesota. Then they close the season against Wisconsin and Nebraska, so there are still plenty of teams capable of giving them trouble this year. And there are also plenty of chances for the Hawkeyes. This team was blessed with the easiest Big Ten schedule, and it needs to take advantage of that.
Until it beats somebody legitimate, though, we’re not going to put it in the top half of the Big Ten.