Bad start for Big Ten

Big-game history, bowl mark doesn't help cause, either

CHAMPAIGN – Squinting in from Big 12, SEC and Pac-10 country, our critics see Big Ten football on the ropes again.

You see, no matter how we pound our chests within the "footprint," and however great the promotional value of the Big Ten Network, outside observers consider Jim Delany's conference overrated.

This is based in part on Ohio State's unravelings against Florida and LSU in the last two national championship games, not to mention Michigan's five bowl losses since 2001 (plus Appalachian State) and the conference's five-game losing streak in the Rose Bowl. When the two bellwethers don't produce, it diminishes the league as a whole.

Illinois hasn't helped with lopsided Sugar and Rose failures and four straight losses to Missouri in St. Louis. Yes, last season's 11th win against the Buckeyes in 23 games was cause for celebration in Illini Nation but, elsewhere, these Buckeye setbacks only serve to substantiate feelings beyond the Midwest that the Big Ten is milquetoast.

History is building. In the eight previous seasons of the 21st century, the Big Ten bowl audit shows 10-12 vs. the SEC, 5-7 against the Big 12, 3-8 in meetings with the Pac-10 and 2-3 vs. the ACC. That's a 20-30 record that computes to 40 percent.

Now, with BCS teams scheduling as many pushovers as the public will allow, clouds already are forming around the Great Lakes.

Losses by Michigan (to Utah) and Michigan State (at Cal), coupled with Illinois' 52-42 setback in St. Louis, put the conference at 1-3 in "the games that matter." And that one win was reluctantly credited to Northwestern for defeating a weak Syracuse team coming off a 2-10 season.

Matter of fact

The "games that matter" theme will be continued with the knowledge that Northwestern, as an example, lost to Duke last season and New Hampshire in 2006 in "games that don't matter." Yes, embarrassments are always just around the corner. And Northwestern could lose to Duke again Saturday or SIU a week later. But for the purposes of this treatise, there are only 11 remaining games by which the conference can improve its image.

Two fall into that category Saturday, Bowling Green coming off an upset of Pittsburgh to host shaky Minnesota, and Oregon State's 0-1 Beavers invading Penn State.

Later on, we'll see Michigan, Michigan State and Purdue taking on Notre Dame. Wisconsin will risk a Sept. 13 trip to Fresno State, which just shut down Rutgers 24-7. Iowa has mid-September dates with Iowa State and Pittsburgh. There are also Purdue-Oregon and Penn State-Syracuse.

And, of course, Ohio State at USC on Sept. 13. All other nonconference games fade by comparison. This is a January bowl shootout in autumn. Buckeyes coach Jim Tressel met the press Tuesday and handled all manner of questions about the availability of Beanie Wells, not whether he'll play against Ohio this week but whether he'll be ready for the Trojans.

"We're going day by day" was Tressel's careful answer. "If he practices Wednesday and Thursday, he'll play this week. If not, we'll run the position by committee."

So Wells, who hurt his foot in Saturday's shutout of Youngstown State, probably will be ready when it counts. And the result of that Sept. 13 game in Los Angeles will have more to do with Big Ten prestige than anything this month.

Gaining experience

Back to Illinois, which let a grand opportunity slip away in its loss. An inside observer offered the opinion that "playing Missouri was like summer 7-on-7" in which linemen aren't pertinent. Illinois couldn't apply pressure with a four-man rush and Tom Sims, line coach, said it was "futile to blitz Chase Daniel because he's so good on the pre-snap read and in getting rid of the ball quickly and accurately."

So Illinois sought to counter Mizzou's awesome attack with five defensive backs and an end (Will Davis) at tackle ... and the Tigers caught the UI defense off balance with an explosive ground attack that complemented Daniel's aerial artistry.

For coach Ron Zook, who accepted "100 percent of the blame," the Illini allowed themselves to become too concerned with special improvisations when they should have lined up and played solid base defense. Sims noted it wasn't a case of the Illini getting knocked off the ball, but rather not fulfilling their assignments and tackling poorly.

"You have to tackle, you have to stop the run first," said Zook, his voice rising. "Missouri rushed for 226 yards. Whether you're coaching college or the NFL, you have to stop the run. This was otherwise an identical game to last year. They had a kickoff return this year and a punt return last year. But we didn't tackle Saturday, and we let them run on us. When we get in these big games, and there'll be more of them, we need to line up and take it to them."

Though some observers felt Missouri outschemed Illinois with a spread attack that resembled touch football, Zook said the game wasn't about Missouri's spread or any special schemes. It was, instead, about Missouri dictating terms. It was also about Missouri starting 13 seniors and taking advantage of a distinct edge in experience.

Loren Tate writes for The News-Gazette. He can be reached at ltate@news-gazette.com.

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