Ruminations on Week 6

Another week...another brutal Wisconsin loss that I don't want to talk about. It's a good thing that plenty of other things happened this week for me to discuss. Here are my ruminations on Week 6 of Big Ten play:

1) Quarterbacks, Quarterbacks, Quarterbacks. Where to start with these guys this week? The Juice got loose, Terrelle became a man, and Darryl Clark did what he does. Even Brian Hoyer made some plays on Saturday. On the opposite end, Curtis Painter found his way to the bench in the second half against Penn State and Allan Evridge tried his hardest to get there. Tell me who predicted that both Todd Boeckman and Curtis Painter, the most experience/hyped QB's in the league would both be on the bench during Week 6 games?

2) Timmay! has a W. The Minnesota Golden Gophers have their first conference win of the Tim Brewster era after scraping past Indiana on Saturday. Brewster has himself a stud in Eric Decker and the defense is much improved under the Ted Roof (see what I did there? under the roof? yep, been saving that one). Granted, Indiana has regressed faster than Michael Richard's stand-up career, but a win is a win is a win. And for Timmay!, it's a first in the Big Ten.

3) Tiller is different on his way out. If you Joey T wasn't retiring this year and he still had recruits, high school coaches, etc. to please, do you think Curtis Painter gets benched in the second half last week? Do you think Tiller even talks about benching him the week before even though he didn't? I sure don't. I know from some good sources that Tiller and Kyle Orton had some major differences is style during Orton's senior year (Orton thought they were too conservative and was vocal about it...real vocal). Yet Orton never saw the bench, even though Tiller could barely stand him by the end of the season and Purdue's season had spiraled downward. If Tiller was retiring do you think Orton sees the bench? I'd bet on yes.

4) Alright, let's talk about it. Props to Ohio State this week, and especially Terrelle Pryor and Beanie Wells. Those two are a potent combination that rival any combo in the nation. But this rumination isn't about them, it's about my Badgers. This defeat was bad, but not as bad as last week. They were competitive, even Beanie came out and said he had never been hit so consistently hard on every play throughout a game, and they gave the UW faithful a great, albeit disappointing, show on Saturday night. I can live with losses like this....oh who am I kidding? That sucked. It leaves the Badgers staring at 0-2 in the Big Ten with arguably the league's best team coming next week. The biggest challenge of the season for the coaches could be to keep this team motivated...clips from last year's PSU debacle should help.