Every week at IUSportCom, we will be taking a look around the B1G Leaders and Legends divisions and keeping you up to date with word from around the conference. Here we check out week four developments for the other members of Indiana’s Leaders division.

Wisconsin (3-0) #6 AP/#7 USA Today:

The Wisconsin Badgers head into this week’s game against South Dakota as the highest ranked team in the conference and without having played a difficult game yet this season. Head football coach Bret Bielema doesn’t see this as a problem though and praised his team’s ability to prepare every week.

“We’ve challenged kids to just go out there and play football and get better no matter the score,” he said. “And they’ve done that to this point.”

Wisconsin’s early success comes in spite of losing many starters from last year’s team. Bielema was complementary of his team’s ability to press forward.

“The offense has a four year starter at quarterback (senior North Carolina State transfer Russell Wilson) and even though we lost some good players we have some back.”

The only question mark for Bielema’s Badgers are his kicker and punter, who haven’t seen much time yet due to the success of the offense. Bielema though doesn’t necessarily see this as a bad thing.

“To me it’s not a bad thing because we’ve been very productive in the red zone,” he explained. “Our specialists are confident, they just haven’t really gotten to see the field.”

There are worse problems to have.

Illinois (3-0) #24 AP:

Coming off a big home win against the #22 Arizona State Sun Devils, the Illinois Fighting Illini enjoy a top-25 AP ranking for the first time this season.

“(Arizona State) is a good PAC-12 opponent and it was good to play and beat them,” coach Ron Zook said of his team’s victory over ASU. “It ‘s a real confidence builder for us, now we just need to be ready to play this week.”

They look to build on their momentum this week against Western Michigan.

“Their defense blitzes a lot and they play a hard 3-4 defense,” Zook said of WMU. “They’ve got a good quarterback, a wide receiver who averages 24 yards per punt return and they may be the most talented team in the MAC.”

Illinois though comes in boasting talent of their own, featuring a very strong defense and sophomore signal-caller Nathan Scheelhasse.

“We lost some good players on defense but it’s really come around and stepped up quickly,” he said of the defense. “Scheelhasse is another leader on this team, he can make people rise up around him because he’ll do whatever he can to win.”

If the Illini continue to enjoy solid play from Scheelhaase and the defense, they could be a dark horse in the race for the B1G crown.

Ohio State (2-1):

Ohio State suffered an ugly loss at the hands of Miami (FL) this past weekend, but head football coach Luke Fickell is eager to get right back on the field and put last week’s game in the past.

“The guys on the team really have a bad taste in their mouths,” he said. “But we’re ready to get after it Saturday and get back on the field.”

The Buckeyes certainly aren’t used to suffering blowout losses of any kind, and as a result this is new territory for Fickell’s new regime.

“Leadership is going to be key,” he said. “It’s about how you respond and it starts at the top with me and my staff.”

Part of the intrigue going into this week’s game with Colorado will have to do with uncertainty at the quarterback position after a lackluster performance by senior Joe Bauserman.

“We’re going to have a bit of a competition this week,” Fickell explained. “We want the best eleven players on the field and we’re going to put (Bauserman and freshman Braxton Miller) back in the mix.”

Whether it’s Miller or Bauserman under center for the Buckeyes, it’s clear that Ohio State football has plenty of work to do if it wants to maintain its spot at the top of the conference.

Penn State (2-1):

The Penn State Nittany Lions enjoyed a tough win against the Temple Owls this past weekend, but the primary story seems to be the health of the wizened program patriarch, Joe Paterno, who coached last week’s game from the press box.

“It’s tough (coaching from the press box),” Paterno said. “It really helps to have a staff that’s been with me for a lot of years, but I miss being on the sideline.”

Paterno is optimistic that he will be able to return to the field for this weekend’s game, but is hedging his bet, so to speak.

“I think we’ll be back,” he began with a slight chuckle. “But we’ll see.”

The Nittany Lions would no doubt like to see him again prowling the sideline when they take on Eastern Michigan, of whom Paterno was very complimentary.

“They have a pretty good tradition,” he began. “They played Michigan hard and ran the ball well. Overall they’re very good and we’ll have our hands full.”

Penn State has often had their hands full early this season, scoring an average of 12.5 points in their past two games. However their defense has stepped up, especially in last week’s win over Temple.

“The thing that pleased me last week is that we got some turnovers,” he said. “I think the defense is playing well right now.”

As a team known for hanging its hat on defensive play, those are welcome words.

Purdue (2-1):

The Purdue Boilermakers stumbled out of the gate as back-to-back nail biting finishes against middling teams left the Boilers with a 1-1 record. They left no room for doubt last week in their 59-0 defeat of Southeast Missouri State.

Coach Danny Hope found many positives to take forward, significantly improved play from the quarterback position.

“(Caleb) TerBush has gotten a lot better,” he said. “He played well Week One, improved in Week Two and got better again last week. We’re also excited to have Robert Marve back and get him on the field.”

Hope also said he was happy with how his team used the running game last weekend.

“We ran for almost 400 yards,” he said with some noticeable levity. “We had to run a lot last year out of necessity with the quarterback situation where it was, and we’ve just kind of picked up on that where we left off. It emerged from necessity, but we’re good at it and will feature the ground game.”

Purdue’s defense performed well in the blowout victory as well, and Hope gave a lot of credit to senior linebacker Joe Holland.

“(Holland) is our most experienced player,” he said. “He’s got something like 40 starts. He’s very good in space and in coverage and has gotten used to playing in the front seven. He’s a good leader on defense and represents the program well.

The all-around optimism Hope has regarding his team appears well-founded after a blowout victory and he’ll do all he can to retain that confidence against more talented opponents.