Iowa football: Predicting final Big Ten west standings
By Ryan Sikes
If the Iowa football team has aspirations of going back to Indianapolis, they will need to take care of business against Purdue at Kinnick Stadium.
Lovie Smith will be entering year four in his tenure as the head coach for the Fighting Illini. He brings with him a 9-27 overall record in his first three seasons and a lot of uncertainty at the quarterback position. It appeared that M.J. Rivers was going to be handed the reigns at the quarterback position, but he shocked everyone in March when he announced he would be transferring.
That leaves the position open for true freshman Matt Robinson and Coran Taylor with Penn State graduate transfer Tommy Stevens visiting the school as well. Illinois gets their three wins over Akron, Eastern Michigan, and Rutgers in another disappointing season for Lovie Smith.
The Gophers will be in year three in the P.J. Fleck era with a mediocre 12-13 record in his first two seasons combined. They too will need to figure out their quarterback situation after starting the 2018 season with Zach Annexstad but redshirt freshman Tanner Morgan also saw a good amount of time. Both quarterbacks threw for over 1,200 yards, but they will need to make a decision on who starts this season.
The Gophers running game should be a strength this season as they will get Rodney Smith back and still have Mohamed Ibrahim who rushed for 1160 yards as a redshirt freshman last year. That being said, I don’t think the Gophers have enough weapons in their receiving corps or on defense. They get their five wins against South Dakota State, Georgia Southern, Illinois, Rutgers, and Maryland.
As previously noted, the Wildcats will be giving the reigns to T.J. Green at the quarterback position with the hope that they can win the Big Ten West again. Pat Fitzgerald’s team got a huge boost last season with the emergence of running back Isaiah Bowser who performed really well down the stretch and totaled 866 yards on the season.
The Wildcats defense will be lead by linebacker Paddy Fisher but they have a challenging schedule in 2019 with a trip to Stanford to kick off the season. Northwestern gets their six wins against UNLV, Michigan State, Indiana, UMASS, Minnesota, and Illinois.
One thing is for certain in 2019. The Purdue Boilermakers will not be starting their season 0-3 again like they did in 2018. However, they will likely turn to Elijah Sindelar as the starting quarterback with David Blough having graduated. The Boilermakers will also need to find a new starting running back as both D.J. Knox and Markell Jones are gone as well.
They still have one of the best playmakers in college football in Rondale Moore and will return senior tight end Brycen Hopkins who averaged 17.1 yards per catch last season. The Purdue offense will need to find a new go-to receiver as Isaac Zico and Terry Wright are both gone. The Boilermakers have a challenging schedule this season but I see them getting their six wins against Nevada, Vanderbilt, Minnesota, Illinois, Northwestern, and Indiana.