The Big Ten figured to have some tough matchups on its hands this bowl season, but the conference got off to a nice 3-0 start this bowl season thanks to wins by Northwestern, Minnesota, and Rutgers. Rutgers held on to bring home the Pinstripe Bowl victory on Thursday night with a win against the Miami Hurricanes of the ACC to improve the conference to 3-0 as the games begin to get a bit more challenging and interesting.
Things got off to a good start for the Big Ten when Northwestern won a defensive battle against Utah in the Las Vegas Bowl. The Wildcats were the underdog against the Utes but embraced the role one last time this season to end David Braun’s coach-of-the-year worthy season with a bowl win few could have envisioned before the season got started.
Minnesota took advantage of their opportunity to play in a bowl game after being granted an exception to play in a bowl game despite a 5-7 regular season record, thanks to there not being enough teams to fill bowl slots. Minnesota topped Bowling Green in the Quick Lane Bowl in Detroit to improve the Big Ten to 2-0.
On Thursday night, Rutgers used special teams to score a go-ahead touchdown on a blocked punt and took a 31`-17 lead on Miami in the fourth quarter before having to hold on to a victory thanks to some incredibly poor clock management at the end of the game by the Hurricanes. Rutgers ended the year with a winning record and a victory over Miami. What more could Greg Schiano have asked for?
The Big Ten is the only conference without a bowl loss so far this season, and the Big Ten is 1-0 against both the ACC and Pac-12. But things are about to step up in level of difficulty the rest of the way,
Ohio State will play the first of three New Years Six bowl games involving a Big Ten team on Friday night when they take on the Missouri Tigers in the Cotton…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/big-ten-starts-3-0-130304150.html
Author : Nittany Lions Wire
Publish date : 2023-12-29 13:03:04
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