Stock Up, Stock Down: Rutgers Winning The Big Ten West?

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Champions of the West (Rutgers)

STOCK UP

Drew Allar When He’s Blitzed

One of the first things that stuck out when watching Allar this season was how good he seemed to be when the other team blitzed. As it turns out, the numbers back up the eye test, with Allar making defenses pay for sending additional defenders. The PFF stats via Happy Valley Insiders’ Twitter show the damage Allar is doing:

• Not Blitzed: 43-of-63 (68.3%) for 441 yards, 2 TDs/0 INT
• Blitzed: 41-of-62 (66.1%) for 462 yards, 6 TDs/0 INT

There’s obviously so much that goes into a quarterback being successful against the blitz — both pre-snap and after the snap. But being calm and trusting your reads is paramount, which is what Allar has done to this point. He shows an incredible awareness and understanding of situations, and despite the big arm and youth, is just simply taking what the defense is giving him. The completion percentage and touchdowns are nice, but it’s the lack of turnovers that really jumps, especially given Allar’s relative inexperience.

Charles Huff

Label this under “Completely Not Surprised” but Charles Huff is a very good head football coach. After going 7-6 in 2021 and 9-4 in 2022, Huff continues to have his Marshall Thundering Herd trending in the right direction, as they knocked off Brent Pry and Virginia Tech 24-17 last Saturday to improve to 3-0 on the year.

Huff is already getting mentioned for the Michigan State job, and given his work in the SEC under Nick Saban, his name will pop up for SEC jobs once those become open too. While I hope the James Franklin departure isn’t in the immediate future, I have officially added Huff to my mock Head Coaching Hot Board 1.0 — despite the fact he had blocked me on Twitter a few years ago for asking him to recruit a fullback.

(He did unblock me thanks to the help from Coach Limegrover and my dad)

Manny Diaz

After a dominant defensive performance on Saturday, much of the talk this week has been about how much longer Manny Diaz will be at Penn State. The former Miami head man will be two years removed from his stint at the U, and with two (likely) strong seasons in Happy Valley under his belt, could Diaz get another shot at a Power Five head coaching gig?

Possibly, but two things hurt Diaz:

1. He’s a defensive, not offensive, coordinator.
2. He’s not known as a particularly dynamic recruiter.

I think those two things will hinder him at a lot of Power Five programs, despite the success he’s been having at Penn State. I think it’s more likely that Diaz’s name pops up for schools like Louisiana Tech or Arkansas State than say a Boston College or Northwestern. Which is to say: unless he just really wants to be a head coach again right now, he’ll make more money at Penn State than he will at most non-Power Five schools.

STOCK DOWN

The Big Ten West

I know the Big Ten West has been bad for literally its entire existence, but this year might take the cake for the worst it’s ever been. I ask this with complete seriousness: is there a team in the Big Ten West that you are 100% sure would make a bowl game if they played in the Big Ten East? Like Iowa took care of business in the non-conference and its defense is likely good enough to at least make a bowl game, but are you comfortable putting your life on it? Same with Wisconsin, whose running game is probably strong enough to break six wins comfortably, but how confident would you really be?

It’s just honestly impressive that the division has been so bad for so long, and in its final season, it’s going out with an absolute banger of a time. A lot of the talk preseason was about if Maryland was in the West would they be the favorites to win the division, but we might have actually hit the level where the following is true: could Rutgers win the Big Ten West?

The Scarlet Knights have to go to Wisconsin on October 7 and to Iowa on November 11 so I am laying down the law right here: if Rutgers goes 2-0 against the Badgers and Hawkeyes, they get to be the Big Ten West champions. Do the right thing and enact this, @B1G!

Colorado

If the 42-6 beatdown wasn’t already bad enough, the Oregon Ducks’ social media team kept AAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL the receipts from before the game.

I can’t recall another program posting a video of the pregame shit talking from the players from the other school before. It’s a shame that Colorado and Oregon are going their separate ways conference-wise after this season because man would that be a fun in the years to come.

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By: Patrick Koerbler
Title: Stock Up, Stock Down: Rutgers Winning The Big Ten West?
Sourced From: www.blackshoediaries.com/2023/9/28/23893463/stock-up-stock-down-rutgers-winning-the-big-ten-west
Published Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2023 15:01:00 +0000

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