Northwestern 3-5 (1-4)

Last Saturday, Coach Pat Fitzgerald was relieved to finally get his first B1G Ten victory over Kevin Wilson’s struggling Hoosiers. It was an offensive shootout, as the Wildcats put up 59 points in Bloomington to edge Indiana’s 38.

A lot of the credit deserves to go to senior tight end Drake Dunsmore, who was named B1G Ten offensive player of the week for recording seven receptions for over 100 yards to go along with four touchdowns – yes, four.

“He’s a special young man,” said Fitzgerald. “Very, very proud of him.  [He] made some great plays on Saturday.”

Fitzgerald also hinted that he thinks Dunsmore can play on the next level as he finishes up his career at NU.

“I don’t think this will be his last year playing football,” noted Fitzgerald.

However, although last week’s offensive performance was quite impressive, it’s worth mentioning that IU has one of the worst defenses in the country, let alone the B1G Ten.

Facing Nebraska on Saturday will be no easy task for the Wildcats.

Coach Fitzgerald noted that it starts up front with the Cornhuskers versatile defensive line, and it continues with their secondary, as they do a fine job all around.

“I’ve been impressed with them the whole season,” said Fitzgerald.  “[They are] very well coached, fundamentally very sound.”

However, Fitzgerald knows his defense is a different story, with the lack of the experience that they have on that side of the ball.

“We’re a little bit young in some areas and we’ve just got to continue coaching those guys and get better,” said Fitzgerald.

Overall, the popular Northwestern coach knows that they just need to be more consistent in that phase of the game. That will be the key to their success. Although a win against top ranked Nebraska will be tough, if they cannot hold standout running back Rex Burkhead relatively in check, it will be even tougher.

Fitzgerald isn’t giving up, however.

“We got a lot of work to do, we’ve got a month left in the season, and we’re going to grind the heck out of it.”

Michigan 7-1 (3-1) #17 AP/Coaches

Coming off the team’s homecoming victory over rival Purdue, although nice, coach Brady Hoke noted that it was far from perfect.

“We had way too many mistakes,” Hoke said.  “We can’t give the ball back to the opposing team.”

This will be especially true going into Saturday, as the Wolverines travel to Iowa City to take on the Hawkeyes.

“This is going to be a tough test for us,” said Hoke.

To win on the road is hard in any league, but the B1G especially, is no cakewalk, as this year it has proven to be one of the more competitive conferences in the country.

“It obviously is an important part of it, going into hostile environments and seeing what kind of poise and composure that your team plays with,” said Hoke. “You know that in this league you’re going to get punched in the mouth and better be able to punch back and keep playing with great endurance.”

Michigan, despite its high-powered offense, will look to rely on its defense Saturday against Iowa.

Particularly to slow down the young, yet efficient quarterback, James Vandenberg.  Vandenberg is second in the conference in passing yards with 1918, to go along with 17 scores to just four INT’s.

“He certainly doesn’t play like a young quarterback,” noted Hoke.  “He has shown great poise, I think he’s a tremendous quarterback.”

Although on paper Michigan seems like the better team, anything can happen on any given day, particularly away from home.  If Michigan wants to win in IC, they will need to contain Vandenberg, as well as his star wide-out, Marvin McNutt.

Nebraska 7-1 (3-1) #9 AP/Coaches

Although the defense played a huge role in the conference win against Michigan State last week, Nebraska will continue to rely on its workhouse running back Rex Burkhead Saturday when they take on Northwestern.

The star running back had three scores in Memorial Stadium last week to boost his season total to 12.  Burkhead continues to be the motor that makes Nebraska run offensively as nears in on 1,000 yards for the season.

However, although Northwestern’s defense has struggled as of late, coach Bo Pelini isn’t counting out their versatile quarterback Dan Persa.

“A mobile quarterback just adds a whole other element to what you have to prepare for,” noted Pelini. “I think this weeks a good example, Persa is a heck of a player, a person who puts a lot of stress on you so it just adds to the challenge that you’re faced with.”

“Anytime that teams are multiple and balanced, it creates a little more issues for you,” Pelini went on to say.

Nebraska is trying to stay in the B1G race as they close in on the last month of the season, hoping to finish strong.

“It’s a good league, you’re going to be tested every week.  There’s a lot of challenges, a lot of challenges that lie ahead.”

Michigan State 6-2 (3-1) #15 AP/#16 Coaches

Coming off a toss loss vs. B1G rival, Nebraska, Michigan State will look to bounce back this week when they take on an inefficient Minnesota squad.

Coach Mark Dantonio noted that his team needs to clean up their play in some areas.  “We need to pick up the pieces a little bit and move forward,” said Dantonio

Those pieces that Dantonio is talking about are the ones that seem to hold Michigan State back a little bit during the course of a game, or the ‘big play,’ as some put it.  Dantonio notes how those plays rely on the coaching staff’s ability to prepare, as well as his players contribution on the field on every Saturday.

“The ability to not give up those plays comes from execution, comes from knowledge of the defense, and comes guys that have the ability to tackle in space,” said Dantonio.

It’s hard to imagine that any of those ‘pieces’ will need to be picked up this week when the Spartans welcome Minnesota to East Lansing. However, Dantonio has the utmost confidence in Minnesota head coach Jerry Kill.

“I think that Jerry Kill has been very successful at all different levels he’s coached in,” noted Dantonio. “He’s got a plan, he’ll stick to the plan; he’s been there before.”

“He’s been a successful coach I’ve got a lot of admiration for him,” Dantonio went on to say.

Iowa 5-2 (2-2)

With a surprising loss to Minnesota last Saturday, coach Kirk Ferentz noted that there really was no bright spot during his weekend, and that it always hurts to lose, no matter the opponent.

“It was a tough weekend for us, Minnesota really played a good game and we came up short in that fourth quarter,” said Ferentz.  “It was a disappointing loss, certainly.”

This loss came despite Iowa’s reluctant ability to pound the ball through the Minnesota defense as Marcus Coker ran for over 250 yards while adding two scores.  Not a bad day, I guess.

Bottom line, though – it’s a loss, and it hurts.

“What you do each week is what counts,” said Ferentz, as they are looking to move on to take on Michigan at home Saturday.

Coach Ferentz noted how well their defense has improved over the past few season, and looks to challenge them in Iowa City.

“They are playing a system now that is very, very different than what they did the past couple years,” said Ferentz.  “It looks like its pretty clear on the tape, they’ve got good players that understand what their roles are and they are able to fit those players into those roles, and they are doing a good job, coming up with good results.”

When talking about how the loss to Minnesota stung, Ferentz wanted to stray away from it, because it is indeed just another game, and Saturday is another day.

“It’s how you respond.”

In order to do a good job responding, quarterback James Vandenberg will need to have a better game to compliment his strong rushing attack. Vandenberg, although somewhat young, is absolutely capable of such a task, as he has proven numerous times this season.  Every quarterback has an off game every once in a while; the junior from Keokuk, Iowa will rebound on Saturday.

Minnesota 2-6 (1-3)

Finally! The state of Minnesota may rejoice…for now.  Coming off a huge upset win over Iowa this past weekend with a last second score from quarterback Marqueis Gray, Jerry Kill couldn’t be happier for his young men, and hopes that it will build some momentum.

“The big thing is that it’s good to get a win under our belt and hopefully that will help us gain a little confidence, but we still have a lot of work to do,” said Kill.

However, the joy may be short lived, as Michigan State is looking to bounce back after their deflating loss to Nebraska (sorry Jerry).

“When you put on the Michigan State film and watch them as a football team, then you go back not sleeping very well at night,” said Kill.

Michigan States defense has improved quite a bit over the past few seasons and has other coaches in the B1G talking about it. Kill noted that it all starts up front.

“Their defensive line is a dominating group of individuals,” said Kill, who envies what they do schematically.

“Their scheme is what we would like to be,” said Kill.  “They are gifted at what they do.”

With such physical strength and aggressiveness that the Spartans defensive line posseses, it will be no easy task for Kill’s guys up front to create holes in the running game.

“You’ve got to make sure you can get a body on a body and maintain the line of scrimmage,” said Kill.

It will be key for Minnesota to limit the penetration of the MSU D-line, if they can do that, they have a chance to create some holes for senior running back, Duane Bennett.  Bennett exploited the Iowa defense last week when he rushed 20 times for 101 yards, a 5.1 average.

Minnesota will need another strong performance from him on Saturday in East Lansing in order to keep up with the Spartans.