Big Ten winners and losers: Jim Harbaugh takes his biggest 'L' at Michigan

The second week of the Big Ten season continued to invite intrigue both on and off the field. The unexpected headlines surfaced before the games were played and then continued into the weekend.

We take a look at the conference’s winners and losers from the past seven days:

Winners

Mel Tucker

In the wake of a disconcerting loss to Rutgers, Mel Tucker was asked if the honeymoon phase of his Michigan State football tenure was over.

The question is whether it ever really began.

The guy was up against it from the very beginning as he inherited a broken program with a depleted roster a month before a global pandemic began to disrupt the country. Not much was expected from the Spartans in 2020 and the defeat to the Scarlet Knights in the season opener affirmed the low expectations. Another bad result seemed certain entering Michigan State’s game against rival Michigan. The Spartans were 24.5-point underdogs against a program that had more talented players, a more accomplished coach and more optimism about its future. It didn’t matter. Tucker’s team outplayed the Wolverines from beginning to end — diagnosing their weaknesses and exploiting them before prevailing 27-24 in a shocking upset.

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The amount of capital Tucker earned from beating Michigan in Year 1 of his tenure is impossible to quantify. But it is indeed enormous because it gives Tucker the momentum he wasn’t been able to create during the barren offseason, when COVID-19 paralyzed the Spartans. The bounce that could materialize for Michigan State on the recruiting trail should bolster the program for the foreseeable future. Tucker can now sell the state’s best prospects on the idea that Michigan State already has gained the edge over Michigan in the eighth month of his regime.

For Tucker, the honeymoon is just getting started.

Northwestern

The best head coaches are introspective types who self-evaluate and recognize their organization’s deepest flaws. Pat Fitzgerald is one of them. This past offseason, he saw a team that underperformed in 2019 because of a feckless offense and deficient quarterback play. So, he replaced his play-caller with Mike Bajakian and recruited a grad transfer from Indiana, Peyton Ramsey, to run the new system. The result is a 2-0 record.

After Northwestern dropped 43 points on Maryland in the opener, the Wildcats did just enough to outlast Iowa in a one-point road victory on Saturday. But Fitzgerald knows that with the staunch defense his team boasts it doesn’t have to blow the doors off the opponent; the offense merely has to be efficient enough not to be a liability.

Last year, Northwestern finished near the bottom of the Football Bowl Subdivision in scoring. This season, it’s ranked 38th. The improvement is why the Wildcats are one victory from matching their win total in 2019 despite playing 10 fewer games.

With a favorable schedule, there is little doubt the Wildcats will surpass that benchmark. And now it seems possible Northwestern could compete for the West division title, too.

Justin Fields

Earlier this year, when the season was in doubt, there was thought Justin Fields could opt out and focus on the draft.

But instead he lobbied the Big Ten to play so he and the Buckeyes could chase a national championship.

Fields’ efforts were not in vain, and everything he could have hoped for is still on the table after Ohio State defeated Penn State, 38-25, Saturday in State College.

After brushing aside the team that posed the greatest threat to its supremacy, Ohio State has a clear path to the Big Ten title game. Fields, meanwhile, looks like Heisman Trophy material. He has completed 87.3% of his pass attempts, thrown for 594 yards and contributed seven touchdowns.

Losers

Jim Harbaugh

The championship trophy case at Michigan has remained empty since Jim Harbaugh’s tenure began six years ago. Now, the Wolverines have also lost custody of the Paul Bunyan Trophy after suffering the most shocking setback since Harbaugh’s arrival. The 27-24 defeat to Michigan State has left Michigan and its fan base reeling, creating the kind of unrest that hasn’t been seen since the Rich Rodriguez and Brady Hoke regimes.

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If the message boards are any indication, the tide of sentiment has turned against Harbaugh following the disastrous performance against a Spartans team that so many believed was outmatched.

To lose to an in-state rival is one thing.

But to lose to an in-state rival you’re favored to beat by more than three touchdowns is another one entirely.

For so long, Harbaugh was given the benefit of the doubt because he was Harbaugh. But patience has been exhausted in Ann Arbor. The fans want results. They want championships. They want to beat their rivals. None of that is happening in Year 6 of the Harbaugh era, which is already off to a bad start and could meet a bitter end.

Nebraska

Nebraska is the Big Ten version of the friend who always overreacts, who always has bad ideas, who always is dismissed by the rest of his clique because nothing he does is sensible. Never was that more apparent than this week when the Cornhuskers unsuccessfully tried to arrange a game with Chattanooga after its showdown with Wisconsin was canceled because of an outbreak of COVID-19 cases within the Badgers’ program.

What were they thinking? The Big Ten instituted a conference-only schedule back in July and stuck to it when the league reinstated the season in September. It was never going to allow exceptions.

The Cornhuskers didn’t seem to care. They wanted to defy the Big Ten once more after they threw a fit when the Big Ten’s initially postponed football indefinitely and threatened to play anyway.

They didn’t succeed then. And they didn’t succeed now. They just keep taking L’s on and off the field, losing clout and respect along the way.

PJ Fleck

Minnesota became the Big Ten’s feel-good story of last season as it finished with its highest ranking in the AP poll since 1962.

Its coach, P.J. Fleck, rode the wave of positive publicity as the Gophers went 11-2.

But some wondered whether Minnesota had staying power after it gained a foothold in the polls last year.

The skepticism appears justified after Minnesota has fallen to 0-2 following a resounding defeat to Michigan and a curious loss to a Maryland team it was favored to beat by 18 points.

While Minnesota’s depth on the offensive line and special teams has been impinged, it is the defense that has been atrocious. The Gophers are surrendering 8.66 yards per rush — the highest average in the FBS.

Running backs are racing through the Gophers’ front seven like they’re on jet skis while the Minnesota defenders trailing them look they’re in…ahem…rowboats.

If Fleck can somehow turn this around, he’ll be celebrated and rightfully so.

But the enthusiasm he and his Gophers generated in 2019 has quickly disappeared. And once again Minnesota has retreated from the Big Ten spotlight like a skiff that ran ashore a deserted island.

Contact Rainer Sabin at rsabin@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @RainerSabin. Read more on the Michigan Wolverines, Michigan State Spartans and sign up for our Big Ten newsletter.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Big Ten winners, losers: Michigan's Jim Harbaugh takes his biggest 'L'