Indiana Football: Hoosiers making moves in early Big Ten Power Rankings

Minnesota was probably the biggest surprise in the whole Big Ten last year and country. They were right in the conversation of a playoff berth before they fell to Iowa and Wisconsin late in the year. They did prove they were for real though as they took down Auburn in their bowl game last year. The Golden Gophers do return their quarterback Tanner Morgan for his Junior year. He was great last year and if he can duplicate that success this year they will be a force once again.

Penn State went 11-2 last year but seemed like the team that wasn’t quite as good as their record would indicate. They got dominated by Michigan for the last three-quarters of their game but slipped by with that win and just barely got by Indiana. But then again they did find a way to win most of their games and played Ohio State better then anyone else did last year besides Clemson. They do return quarterback Sean Clifford, but they will need to get a little more consistency from their offense to become a top-tier team.

Michigan is still trying to get over the Ohio State hump, but they consistently beat the teams below them so they stay near the top. They will have a new quarterback this year, but it will most likely be Dylan McCaffrey and he has gotten a decent amount of playing time the last two years. If he can come in a be the talent they think he will be the Wolverines offense could be really good this year. They still return a lot of the offensive side and didn’t lose much defensively. Could this be the year they actually get over the hump?

Never doubt the Badgers. They just keep winning. Wisconsin lost all-everything back Jonathan Taylor off last year’s team, but they are still very good. They just seem to be able to plug in the next back and they keep chugging along. The badgers play great defense on top of that and are extremely tough to beat at home. As long as they can avoid the letdown that has plagued them throughout the years they are definitely the favorite to win the West.

Until someone can knock them off they are going to stay at the top of these rankings. They return superstar quarterback Justin Fields but did lose JK Dobbins out of the backfield. The Buckeyes did lose a lot of last year’s team but they are still loaded. We get to learn real quick how good they will be when they head out west to play Oregon on September 12th. If they can get by that game with a win they could be well on their way to another playoff berth. They still do have to get through Penn State and Michigan but that hasn’t been a problem lately for them.