Big Ten Power Rankings Week 8: Purdue and Maryland Rise, Northwestern Falls
Saturday Blitz Big Ten Power Rankings Week 8
The Fighting Illini didn’t play last weekend, and that might be the best thing that could have happened to them. This is a team that is just, well, bad. And it might be Tim Beckman’s last stand. At 3-4. a blowout loss to Washington and a loss to Purdue are simply too much to overcome, and they right now clearly look like the worst team in the conference.
WIth absolutely no defense or rushing attack to speak of, Wes Lunt was supposed to be the leader of this team at quarterback. Now, with him down, the team is in even bigger trouble than before. At some point the lack of defense that has hung over the Fighting Illini was bound to catch up with Beckman, and now it appears that could do him in. The rest of the schedule doesn’t look any nicer.
Minnesota and Ohio State are up next, likely knocking this team to 3-6 on the year. That means that if they want to get to a bowl game, they have to run the table against Iowa, Penn State, and Northwestern, which is not impossible but going to be very difficult.
We are not sure we believe in Illinois, which is why we have them at the bottom of the Big Ten.