Big Ten Football: Cornhuskers see Big Ten West hopes slip away
Week 11 of the 2023 college football season is in the books, and it helped determine quite a bit in the race for the Big Ten Championship Game.
The most significant result was in Happy Valley, as Penn State’s offense faltered against Michigan in a 24-15 loss. Following the loss, James Franklin fired offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich and now will search for his sixth offensive coordinator in his tenure at Penn State. Franklin will be entering year 11 with the Nittany Lions next fall.
Northwestern pulled off a surprising win with a big 24-7 win over Wisconsin to improve to 5-5 on the season. David Braun continues to do a fantastic job in Evanston.
Elsewhere, Ohio State dominated Michigan State 38-3, Iowa shutout Rutgers 22-0, and Purdue had a huge day offensively against Minnesota in a 49-30 win.
Illinois and Indiana had one of the most entertaining games of the year, with the Illini defeating the Hoosiers 48-45 in overtime with quarterback Joe Paddock throwing for over 500 yards. There was also, of course, the Cornhuskers falling to Maryland 13-10 on a last-minute field goal by the Terrapins.
HOME | HOME SCORE | AWAY | AWAY SCORE |
38 | 3 | ||
Nebraska Cornhuskers | 10 | 13 | |
7 | 24 | ||
30 | 49 | ||
Penn State Nittany Lions | 15 | 24 | |
22 | 0 | ||
Illinois Fighting Illini | 48 | 45 |
With the scores out of the way, here is how the Big Ten standings look after week 11, which players took home the conference’s weekly awards, how ESPN’s FPI views each program in the conference, how the conference’s quarterbacks stack up in terms of QBR and look ahead to the schedule for Week 11.
Big Ten Standings
Big Ten East Standings
TEAM | CONFERENCE RECORD | OVERALL RECORD |
Michigan Wolverines | 7-0 | 10-0 |
Ohio State Buckeyes | 7-0 | 10-0 |
Penn State Nittany Lions | 5-2 | 8-2 |
Rutgers Scarlet Knights | 3-4 | 6-4 |
Maryland Terrapins | 3-4 | 6-4 |
Indiana Hoosiers | 1-6 | 3-7 |
Michigan State Spartans | 3-4 | 3-7 |
Big Ten West Standings
TEAM | CONFERENCE RECORD | OVERALL RECORD |
Iowa Hawkeyes | 5-2 | 8-2 |
Nebraska Cornhuskers | 3-4 | 5-5 |
Minnesota Golden Gophers | 3-4 | 5-5 |
Wisconsin Badgers | 3-4 | 5-5 |
Illinois Fighting Illini | 3-4 | 5-5 |
Northwestern Wildcats | 3-4 | 5-5 |
Purdue Boilermakers | 2-5 | 3-7 |
Week 11 Big Ten Awards
Offensive Player of the Week: QB John Paddock, Illinois Fighting Illini
After leading Illinois to a last-minute victory over Minnesota in Week ten, Paddock was phenomenal against the Indiana Hoosiers, completing 24-of-36 passing attempts for 507 yards and four touchdowns.
Defensive Player of the Week: DB Tarheeb Still, Maryland Terrapins
Still had seven tackles in the game for the Terrapins but also had two touchdowns in the Terrapins’ win over the Huskers.
Special Teams Player of the Week: K Jack Howes, Maryland Terrapins
Howes made both field goal opportunities that he had in the fourth quarter against the Cornhuskers on Saturday, making a kick from 35 yards out to tie the game and then 24 yards out to eventually win the game.
Freshman of the Week: DB Dillon Thieneman, Purdue Boilermakers
The freshman defensive back has been phenomenal throughout his first season with the Boilermakers and that continued against Minnesota with nine tackles, leading all defenders in the game.
Big Ten FPI Rankings
TEAM | RECORD | FPI | RANK | WIN CONF. % | WIN DIV. % |
Michigan Wolverines | 10-0 | 27.8 | 1 | 53.0% | 57.9% |
Ohio State Buckeyes | 10-0 | 27.2 | 2 | 39.5% | 42.1% |
Penn State Nittany Lions | 8-2 | 24.5 | 5 | 0.0% | 0.0% |
Iowa Hawkeyes | 8-2 | 7.4 | 33 | 7.1% | 13.6% |
Maryland Terrapins | 6-4 | 6.3 | 38 | 0.0% | 0.0% |
Wisconsin Badgers | 5-5 | 5.6 | 41 | 0.1% | 2.3% |
Rutgers Scarlet Knights | 6-4 | 3.4 | 48 | 0.0% | 0.0% |
Minnesota Golden Gophers | 5-5 | 0.4 | 60 | 0.0% | 0.0% |
Nebraska Cornhuskers | 5-5 | 0.4 | 61 | 0.1% | 3.0% |
Illinois Fighting Illini | 5-5 | 0.1 | 64 | 0.1% | 1.6% |
Purdue Boilermakers | 3-7 | 0.0 | 65 | 0.0% | 0.0% |
Northwestern Wildcats | 5-5 | -1.0 | 74 | 0.0% | 0.0% |
Indiana Hoosiers | 3-7 | -2.5 | 78 | 0.0% | 0.0% |
Michigan State Spartans | 3-7 | -2.6 | 79 | 0.0% | 0.1% |
Season QBR Update
RANK | PLAYER | TEAM | QBR |
1 | J.J. McCarthy | Michigan Wolverines | 92.6 |
2 | Kyle McCord | Ohio State Buckeyes | 84.9 |
3 | Taulia Tagovailoa | Taulia Tagovailoa | 72.4 |
4 | Drew Allar | Penn State Nittany Lions | 72.2 |
5 | Brendan Sorsby | Indiana Hoosiers | 62.5 |
6 | Luke Altmyer | Illinois Fighting Illini | 57.0 |
7 | Athan Kaliakmanis | Minnesota Golden Gophers | 56.3 |
8 | Gavin Wimsatt | Rutgers Scarlet Knights | 55.8 |
9 | Tanner Mordecai | Wisconsin Badgers | 54.7 |
10 | Ben Bryant | Northwestern Wildcats | 51.0 |
11 | Hudson Card | Purdue Boilermakers | 47.8 |
12 | Noah Kim | Michigan State Spartans | 41.9 |
13 | Heinrich Haarberg | Nebraska Cornhuskers | 39.4 |
Week 12 Look Ahead
AWAY TEAM | HOME TEAM | KICKOFF TIME (CT) | TV |
Maryland Terrapins | Michigan Wolverines | 11:00 a.m. | FOX |
Rutgers Scarlet Knights | Penn State Nittany Lions | 11:00 a.m. | FS1 |
Michigan State Spartans | Indiana Hoosiers | 11:00 a.m. | BTN |
Purdue Boilermakers | Northwestern Wildcats | 11:00 a.m. | BTN |
Illinois Fighting Illini | Iowa Hawkeyes | 2:30 p.m. | FS1 |
Wisconsin Badgers | Northwestern Wildcats | 3:00 p.m. | BTN |
Minnesota Golden Gophers | Ohio State Buckeyes | 6:30 p.m. | NBC |
Nebraska Cornhuskers | Wisconsin Badgers | 6:30 p.m. | NBC |
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