Big 10 Latest: Irish to 2-0 In-Conference
Big 10 Latest: Irish to 2-0 In-Conference
Notre Dame, Michigan, and Wisconsin all pulled off wins in Big 10 action this weekend.
Two of these games were quite close, while Notre Dame produced an impressive win over Michigan State.
After a close early victory over Michigan and a loss to Walsh, followed by victories over Texas A&M and Purdue, the Fighting Irish are starting to his their stride. They beat Michigan State in emphatic fashion, 50-12.
"We definitely fixed a lot of there areas we’ve had issues with the past couple of weeks," said Notre Dame Head Coach Justin Hickey. "Against Texas A&M and Purdue our scoring zone conversion rate was an issue—only converted four out of 20 trips into Purdue’s 22 in the first half last week. Our ball security, decision-making, and execution in that area was much improved this week."
Hickey said this was his team's most complete performance so far.
"We were executing well in all parts of the field," said Hickey. "We still a couple of momentary defensive lapses that found us under good pressure by MSU, but even in those moments we were able to recover well."
No. 8 Jack Waterhouse has been very good this year and he scored three tries—he's played in three matches and has a hat trick in each one. Senior Colly Urdan put in a massive shift at lock, while wings Owen Portelli and Will Linke have been very effective.
UND had Andrew Lafrankie at lock earlier in the season but he suited up at his more natural position of openside flanker this week. As sophomore he is the team captain and continues to lead and play well. Also in the forwards hooker Matt Wiliams has been outstanding.
Next up for UND is Ohio State.
The Buckeyes, for their part, are struggling to find victories and were pipped 25-22 by Michigan this past weekend. For the Wolverines this was an important showing.
Michigan's defensive effort was impressive and with fullback Ty West kicking superbly, they were able to play a lot in Ohio State's end. Junior transfer Nate Cumming showcased a high work rate at flanker and also scored a crucial early try when he toed ahead a loose ball and chased it down to score.
Captain Luke Zana powered through multiple defenders to score a try, while Flyhalf Jack Regan set up Regan Plank for a try in the corner to stake Michigan to a lead at halftime.
Plank was also excellent in the air, contested balls well, and was strong in open-field tackles.
Center Jack Cummings kept on stripped OSU of possession and he also broke through on multiple occasions when he had the bal.
For Michigan, this was a huge win.
And another close one as Wisconsin beat Illinois 54-47.
Defense was not the order of the day.
Wisconsin's captain and hooker, Oliver Held, leads by example, and lock Joel Sawatzky gets a lot of tough work done. But the Badgers have also shown themselves to be very explosive. Their 54 points scored is actually right on their average after four games.
Latest standings:
| Big 10 | |||||||
| East | W | L | T | PA | PA | PD | Pts |
| Notre Dame | 2 | 0 | 0 | 74 | 32 | 42 | 8 |
| Michigan | 1 | 1 | 0 | 45 | 46 | -1 | 4 |
| Ohio State | 0 | 1 | 0 | 22 | 25 | -3 | 0 |
| Michigan State | 0 | 1 | 0 | 12 | 50 | -38 | 0 |
| West | W | L | T | PA | PA | PD | Pts |
| Indiana | 1 | 0 | 0 | 51 | 11 | 40 | 4 |
| Wisconsin | 1 | 0 | 0 | 54 | 47 | 7 | 4 |
| Illinois | 1 | 2 | 0 | 91 | 51 | 40 | 4 |
| Purdue | 0 | 1 | 0 | 23 | 33 | -10 | 0 |
