The Five B1G Teams About to Make Life Harder for Oregon

After having looked at the twelve Big Ten teams that did not make my “Top Five” list, let’s look at the teams I think are about to make life harder for our Duckies. I have listed them here in order of degree of difficulty as I see it starting with least to most. Even Mr. FishDuck paused from his gaming fun at online casino Singapore to give me his thoughts about those teams in the conference who have risen in his “annoyance-index.”

MICHIGAN STATE

With the hiring of Pat Fitzgerald, it appears some degree of sanity may have returned to the administrative levels of “Little Brother” in East Lansing. The Spartans made two head-scratching coaching hires following the retirement of Mark Dantonio in 2019. Mel Tucker went 5-7 in his one season for Colorado so naturally MSU felt that was a good enough track record to double what the Buffs were paying Mel. Tucker had one good year and then, well we know how that all ended. Not pretty. Not well.

When the Pac-12 imploded, Sparty provided Jonathan Smith with a “Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free” card and then thanked him for his service just two years later with the ultimate golden parachute when they bought out his contract for a cool 30M. Well-played, Jonathan. When MSU hired Smith, it struck more as desperation, knee-jerk hire, than something thought-out.

One thing that is different with the Fitzgerald hire from the previous two is that there is consensus amongst the powers-to-be that this is the right person. For the moment at least, everyone is on the same page.

Is Fitzgerald the guy to return Sparty to some semblance of respectability? His 109 overall wins and 64 Big Ten Conference wins are both school records at Northwestern. Winning at Northwestern is not easy. So, there is that.

However, Fitzgerald does not come unencumbered. We all now how his career ended with the Wildcats.

The piece though that has gotten my attention is Fitzgerald’s hiring of LeVar Woods, the former Special Teams Co-Ordinator at Iowa. As referenced in my previous piece, Woods lettered three seasons at Iowa and returned to Iowa City to join the coaching staff after seven years in the NFL. He was a member of the coaching staff for the past 18 years and served as Special Teams coordinator since 2017. Folks in Iowa City were somewhat stunned by his departure.

Iowa stayed competitive by playing solid defense and having excellent special teams. Woods played a pivotal role in that.

So, what would cause him to make this somewhat unusual move? He must believe strongly in Fitzgerald. Maybe he knows something. At the very least look for Michigan State’s special teams to be much improved going forward.

OKAY, THE HATED HUSKIES

It is so hard giving the puppies their due or in any way acknowledging that their program might be trending upward. I know.

I like Jedd Fisch. He was a great hire for the Huskies. He did an excellent job stabilizing the program after the Kalen DeBoer departure. He has had decent recruiting classes. It looks like players like playing for him, at least as much as one can discern from the outside looking in. One note that I came across that may or may not be significant is that as of the Spring of 2025, his team complied a cumulative grade point average of 3.27, highest in program history. Is that important? Perhaps hard to say, but I found it interesting and impressive.

The resources are in-place in Seattle. The fan base is rabid, and the alumni are deep-pocketed, and they hate the Ducks. The Dogs will never go quietly in the night. Jim Lambright is not coming back from the grave.

If there is one small (Maybe medium) red flag it might be this. As of last report I have seen, his family (Wife and three daughters.) have chosen to remain in Tucson. Can that work? Is it a distraction? Does it say anything about Coach Fisch’s long-term situation? Stay tuned.

HAIL TO THE VICTORS

Kyle Whittingham. Need we say anything more than that?

Could it be that decorum has been re-installed in Big Blue’s athletic department?

I was never a fan of Jim Harbaugh. He just seemed like a guy from whom I would never have bought a used car. And then, guess what. Connor Stalions front and center on the sidelines. The other sidelines, it turns out. But wait. There’s more! Sherrone Moore in fact. Was anyone paying attention at all? Or did everyone just not care? Truth stranger than fiction, for sure.

I believe the folks in the Big House caught a gigantic break with Whittingham being willing to take this all on. My hunch is that conversation was something like, “Look, could you just give us five years and straighten all this out and then you can ride off into the sunset, or wherever?”

KW is a great coach and a better person. With the resources available to him, who knows what he might be able to do there in Ann Arbor. This is a big upgrade for Blue. Our football life has gotten harder, not easier.

USC

Hold me accountable here. My prediction? USC plays in the Big Ten Conference championship game, assuming there is one. Even bolder, perhaps, USC is my No. 2 pick to win it all if the Ducks stumble.

It just feels to me that USC is ready to return to dominance. There is so much talent being stockpiled. Gary Patterson could be great hire for them. I think the Chad Bowden (General Manager. Hired from Notre Dame) hire is a big get for Riley, and perhaps just the person he has needed help get USC back at the upper levels of college football.

On the recruiting trail, and most of you all know way more about this than I do, it appears that the Trojans are taking care of business much better when it comes to getting the in-state Blue Chippers to stay home. Help me out here as this is far from my area of expertise.

Perhaps this is a “gut-check” thing as much as any other info that I could present here. It feels like we are going to be hearing more, not less, from the Surfers down South. One more item here. USC is the only team in the Big Ten that gets two bye weeks in 2026. They have a bye after they play at Penn State, and they have bye after they host the Buckeyes.

I hope I am so far off the mark here that you all get to send me lots and lots of reminders about how wrong I got things. Really.

AND NOW, MY No. 1 PICK: PENN STATE

While it looked like Penn State was fumbling and stumbling all over themselves in their pursuit of a replacement for James Franklin, the football finally bounced their way when Matt Campbell was still available and accepted the offer to become the next head coach for the Lions.

Matt Campbell is the perfect fit for this program. I know there have been some on this site that have dismissed all the talk about Campbell. Let me share this.

Growing up in Iowa, I had an up close and personal view of Iowa State football. It’s hard to describe how moribund this program was and for how long. The Cyclones would occasionally rise up and perform above their paygrade for one or two games a season. But no one took them seriously.

Yes, Campbell’s 72-55/50-40 stats at ISU are far from being eye-popping numbers. You must put that in context though to truly appreciate what Campbell did in Ames. Very limited resources. Losing culture. Recruiting wasteland.

Campbell somehow managed to build a program that went head-to-head and toe-to-toe with all the biggies in the conference. And there was never a “smoke and mirrors” feel about his teams. They were legitimate.

There were numerous reports that Campbell had more than one opportunity to leave Iowa State and yet chose to stay, at least until the Penn State job came along. That says lot about who he is as a person. It also says lot if you look at the number of players following him to Penn State. Thirty-five I think was the last count I saw.

When Jamie Pollard, the ISU Athletic Director, was asked if Campbell was using the Penn State offer to get ISU to up the ante on his contract, his response was, “Absolutely not. That is not who Matt Campbell is. We can only be grateful for the number of years he chose to be here.”

As I said with Kyle Whittingham at Michigan, given the resources available at Penn State, I look for big things in Happy Valley and a much tougher opponent for OBD.

OKAY everyone. Your turn. Thanks for reading.

And a special “Thanks” and shout-out to Charles for all his does for us. I am working on a piece that acknowledges just that and hope to push it out soon.

GO DUCKS!!!

Don Marsh
Eugene, Oregon
Top Screenshot from ESPN Video

 

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