It's two weeks down and 10 to go in the college football regular season, and in the Big Ten, some of the conference's biggest non-league games will be played in the coming week.
So before the Buckeyes head to Norman to take on the Sooners and Michigan State clashes with Notre Dame, let's get to this week's Big Ten Q&A. This week, we'll tackle the league's most disappointing team, Ohio State's plan for overcoming Oklahoma, Michigan State's standing the Big Ten and where Jabrill Peppers ranks overall in the conference.
As always, you can send your questions each week to me on Twitter @BenAxelrod.
Let's get started.
Question 1
Two weeks into the season, and there aren't as many obvious answers to this question as you'd think. In fact, if anything, it's been a promising start for the Big Ten in 2016, which currently lays claim to a 21-6 record.
At this point, all but one team in the conference has earned at least one win, with nine of the league's 14 teams remaining undefeated through two weeks. The only issue is that the one team that still remains winless in 2016 just so happens to be a Northwestern squad that entered this season with no shortage of expectations for the current campaign.
Yet as we sit just a little more than a week away from the start of Big Ten play, the Wildcats find themselves 0-2 on the year, with losses to Western Michigan and FCS opponent Illinois State to their credit. With such an abysmal start, last season's 10-2 regular-season record is beginning to look like an aberration in Evanston, as a third losing season in four years could very well be on its way.
To a degree, Northwestern's slow start most comes as a surprise when taking into consideration that head coach Pat Fitzgerald claimed this would be his most talented Wildcats squad yet—a claim he backed up with the presence of All-American linebacker Anthony Walker Jr. and running back Justin Jackson. Factor in a year of expected growth from sophomore quarterback Clayton Thorson, and it's not hard to see why expectations in Evanston were arguably as high as they've ever been in Fitzgerald's 11-year tenure entering 2016.
But two weeks in, all of those high hopes now appear to have been for naught.
It's not too late for Northwestern to make good on what's still a lot of season left to be played. But with the rest of the league off to a hot start and the Big Ten West wide open, the Wildcats have some catching up to do.
Question 2
Growing up in Columbus, this is something that always fascinated me. Because every time Ohio State played Michigan, despite the game being at the end of the Buckeyes' schedule, former head coach Jim Tressel always seemed to have something saved for the Wolverines from a game-planning standpoint.
With Ohio State's trip to Oklahoma coming in the third week of the season, the circumstances are a little bit different. And in actuality, I don't really expect head coach Urban Meyer to have anything saved up for the Sooners, either.
While neither Bowling Green nor Tulsa presented much of a challenge to the Buckeyes from a talent standpoint in the first two weeks of the season, Meyer couldn't necessarily afford to hold anything back with such a young team taking the field. The good news is Ohio State's experimenting, to this point, appears to have paid off, with the result being the first fully fledged version of Meyer's spread offense in Columbus.
While Ezekiel Elliott and Carlos Hyde before him thrived as workhorse running backs, Meyer's offense appears to be at its best with a distributor like J.T. Barrett moving the ball to a variation of players who possess different skill sets. Through the first two weeks of the 2016 campaign, that's what we've seen from Ohio State, with Curtis Samuel making the most of his H-back role, running back Mike Weber possessing a power presence and a number of different receivers flashing potential in two short weeks.
On the defensive side of the ball, the Buckeyes have been even better, with Ohio State having yet to allow a touchdown to an opposing offense in the first two weeks of the current campaign.
Against Oklahoma, success won't come as easily, but I believe the Buckeyes have the blueprint they need in place. Now, it's just a matter of executing against what may be the most talented team Ohio State sees on its schedule until the end of November.
Question 3
While I do find Michigan State's standing in the Big Ten to be fascinating given its place as the defending Big Ten champion, I don't think recruiting is what will define where the Spartans fit into the conference hierarchy.
After all, while Michigan State has dominated Michigan on the field for the better part of the past decade, the Wolverines have often found themselves with more highly touted recruiting classes.
That shouldn't change in the coming years, either. As long as Jim Harbaugh is in Ann Arbor, Michigan will likely be contending with the likes of Alabama and Ohio State for the nation's top-ranked class.
That's just fine by the Spartans—if you haven't noticed by now, head coach Mark Dantonio's found his own recipe for success on the recruiting trail, and there's no need to deviate from it just yet. And when it comes to where MSU is viewed in relation to its Big Ten East rivals, all that matters is the product the Spartans put on the field each Saturday.
That's relevant not just later in the season, when Michigan State will host both the Wolverines and Buckeyes in East Lansing, but this week as well, with Dantonio's squad preparing for a prime-time matchup with Notre Dame. Lose to the Fighting Irish, and there's a good chance the Spartans will become a relative afterthought in their conference, so long as their rivals keep building on the early momentum they've found in 2016.
Knock off Notre Dame, however, and there will be no shortage of attention paid to the Big Ten East showdowns still to come. At this point, Michigan State controls its own destiny, regardless of what its rivals are up to.
Question 4
I'm sure this answer will upset Ohio State fans—especially those inclined to tweet at him whenever Malik Hooker does anything—but I have no idea where this idea that Peppers is overrated ever came from.
I mean, have you seen the guy play? I don't care what the advanced stats say about his ability in coverage or that he's yet to record an interception in his college career. The dude is a certified freak and capable of making his team better on offense, defense and special teams.
Simply put, I don't think there's another player in college football quite like Peppers, and his uniqueness alone mitigates any shortcomings he may have. Plus, with his new role as an outside linebacker in Don Brown's defensive scheme, he's being asked to drop into coverage less, which allows him to play closer to the line of scrimmage, where he makes most of his plays.
Peppers is yet to play offense in 2016, but don't worry, that day will soon come.
Regardless of what team you root for—even if it happens to be the Buckeyes—enjoy Peppers playing on Saturdays while you can. He won't be doing so for much longer.
Ben Axelrod is Bleacher Report's Big Ten lead writer. You can follow him on Twitter @BenAxelrod.
Unless noted otherwise, all quotes were obtained firsthand. Recruiting and class ratings courtesy of 247Sports' composite rankings.
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