Welcome to a new episode of Land-Grant Holy Land’s I-70 podcast. On this show, we talk about all things Big Ten football and basketball. After every week of action, we will get you caught up on all the conference’s games and look ahead at the matchups, storylines, and players that you should be paying attention to in the next week. My name is Jordan Williams, and I am joined by my co-host Dante Morgan.

After a brief hiatus, the guys are back, but the football gods did not bless them with a heavy news cycle. Instead, the Big Ten has been relatively quiet the past few weeks. With multiple significant decisions still to be made, the conference has instead gone dark. There has yet to be any news on the search for the new commissioner, and there is still much to be decided on regarding the structure of the television deal, namely which games will be on which network this fall. We’re waiting for news on the new scheduling model and the permanent opponents for each team. 

In other news, Maryland hired former Michigan and Miami offensive coordinator Josh Gattis to the same role. Gattis will be tasked with creating a similar potent offense to what he had at Michigan. After failing at Miami, there are many questions on whether Gattis of Sherrone Moore should be credited for Michigan's success. In the NFL, the Bears have traded the number one pick to the Panthers for picks no. 9 and 61 in this year's draft, a first-round pick in 2024, and second-round pick in 2025, and wide receiver Dj Moore. While the Bears are building around former Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields, Jordan thinks this trade happened so the panthers could draft Field's successor at OSU, C.J. Stroud. 

In their last segment, Jordan makes his case for why it’s time for Northwestern to move on from head coach Pat Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald has been the head coach since 2006; he has a career record of 110-101, barely above a 50 percent winning percentage. Fitzgerald has led the wildcats to two Big Ten West Division titles, one if you remove the pandemic year. In his last three full-length seasons, Northwestern is 7-29, 3-24 in the Big Ten. Despite his lack of recent success, the boosters have paid for a new football facility on the lake and have committed $800 million for a new football stadium. Northwestern is not the easiest or most attractive job, but they are better than what has been accepted the past three full-length seasons. If Fitzgerald doesn’t turn it around this season, which is unlikely, Northwestern needs to be realistic and move on from the greatest linebacker in school history. 

Connect with us on Twitter:

Jordan: @JordanW330

Dante: @DanteM10216

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