Welcome to a new episode of Land-Grant Holy Land’s I-70 podcast. On this show we talk 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.

We are a few weeks away from the 2022-2023 football season, so it is time to switch gears from talking season and dive in headfirst into real football content. What better way to start football season then ranking teams and picking games? In our season preview we rank the Big Ten into four tiers, the non-bowl tier, the low-bowl tier, the NY6 bowl tier and the contender’s tier. We also predict records and finishes for all fourteen teams leading to 168 games picked.

In this episode we discuss the three or four teams, depending on who you ask, that will make lower ranked bowl games. Jordan believes that Mike Locksley, an overall bad coach, will stumble into back-to-back bowl games on the shoulders of his talented quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa and his pass catchers Rakim Jarrett and Dontay Demus Jr. While Dante disagrees, they both agree that after a shocking 5-7 season the Fighting Illini will reach six wins and make it to a bowl game in the second year under Bret Bielema. There may be a ceiling to what Illinois can be in the Big Ten but behind Chase Brown and Josh McCray they will be a tough team to face.

While Maryland and Illinois may be happy about being placed in this tier the same cannot be said for the next two teams. After winning the Big Ten West and facing Michigan in the championship game Iowa takes a step back. Their defense will be good as always but with some losses on offense and without a change on the offensive staff this team should lose more games than last year. Penn State makes the final team in this tier. Their ceiling will remain limited with Sean Clifford as their starting quarterback. They should have a renewed James Franklin but losing Jahan Dotson, Jaquan Brisker, and Brent Pry will be tough to deal with. This team should be better in the future but with a tough schedule will not contend for the Big Ten East crown.

In their weekly pit stop Dante gives a shout out to the Pittsburgh Steelers kicker Chris Boswell new contract extension. Jordan expresses anger about the Deshaun Watson suspension and the overall process.

Connect with us on Twitter:

Jordan: @JordanW330

Dante: @DanteM10216

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices