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Each week I will bring you the B1G Dawg/Pussycat of the week from the Big 10. This could be a player, coach, or school who had an outstanding performance, a great recruiting week, or just an amazing week in general. Opposite of that will be the pussycat of the week. This will be the player, coach, or school who failed to get the job done from the prior week. The only rule is it must be an event that has happened inside the B1G (including the teams joining in 2024) from the previous week.
B1G Awards for the week of December 4th to December 10th, 2023
The Dawg or should I say dawgs of the week come from 3 different Big 10 schools this week. All 3 individuals took home a national award recognizing them for their outstanding years. The Pussycats of the week are the Fans of a team Rumored to be joining the B1G and the CFP committee.
The B1G Dawg of the week Is Marvin Harrison JR, Tory Taylor, and Phil Parker
Biletnikoff: Marvin Harrison Jr (Ohio State)
Established in 1994 by the Tallahassee Quarterback Club Foundation Inc., the Biletnikoff is awarded to the best wide receiver in college football. This year’s award winner was Marvin Harrison Jr from The Ohio State University. The 6’4”, 205lbs junior wide receiver totalled 1211 yards, and 14 touchdowns on 67 receptions in 12 games. In the season Jr had 8 100-yard receiving games, and at least 1 touchdown in 10 games.
Marvin Harrison is picked to be the first wide receiver taken in the 2024 NFL draft. Marvin joins some elite company in winning this award, some of the past winners include Calvin Johnson (Georgia Tech 2006), Amari Cooper (Alabama 2014), and Ja’Marr Chase (LSU 2019) to just name a few. Harrison is the first wide receiver to win the award since Braylon Edwards from Michigan did it in 2004.
Ray Guy: Tory Taylor (Iowa)
The Ray Guy Award is handed out annually to the most outstanding punter in college football. This year's winner is Tory Taylor the 6’4” senior from the University of Iowa, he is also the 1st Hawkeye to win the award. Taylor is the 2nd straight Australia Native to win this award, and the 2nd straight Big 10 winner with last year's winner being Adam Korsak from Rutgers. Taylor also won the Big 10 punter of the year, is a 1st team All-American, and was a 3-time Big 10 special team player of the week.
This year Taylor had 86 punts for an average of 47.9 yards, his long being 67 years and he landed 30 punts inside the 20-yard line along with 27 being called for a fair catch. Taylor's 86 punts for 4119 yards was a school record and led the nation. Taylor was a big part of the reason why Iowa's defense was able to do what it did. Taylor made up for Iowa’s inability to move the ball on offense and flip the field for the defense to take over.
Frank Broyles: Phil Parker (Iowa)
The Frank Broyles was first awarded in 1996 and is handed out each year to the top assistant coach in college football. This year's award winner was Phil Parker Defensive Coordinator from the University of Iowa. This is the first time Parker has won the award but was a semi-finalist in 2022. The last B1G assistant to win the award was Josh Gattis when he was at Michigan in 2021.
In 13 games last season, Parker's defense only allowed 15 touchdowns and held opponents to 13.2 points per game. Iowa defense would rank 4th in FBS with that 13.2 points per game average, and 5th in yards per game only allowing teams to average 274.2. Iowa made it to Indy for the second time in 3 years because of the defense Parker Engineered, making up for one worst offense in FBS history. To put it into perspective Iowa Ranked 130th in FBS for points per game (16.6) and 133rd for total yards per game (240.2).
The two biggest questions left to ask about Parkers are 1. How good would his defense look if he had a functioning offense to go with it? 2. How long before a big-time program comes calling? If you're one of the 4 teams coming to join the B1G next year he is 100% worth a look, Hint Washington.
The B1G Pussycat of the week are FSU fans and the CFP committee.
Let’s start here first, Florida State fans have a right to be mad that they were an undefeated Power 5 team and got screwed. The only problem was that the minute their starting quarterback went down, they decided to live in fantasy land, instead of the real world, by believing they still had a chance to get in. FSU's offense went from looking dominant to looking average at best, and unfortunately, that’s not what the networks, I mean Playoff Committee were looking for.
FSU fans need to realize that everything changed once Jordan Travis went down, anything they accomplished before his injury no longer applied. Unfortunately for FSU Travis getting hurt so late in the year didn’t give them time to build a new body of work to show what they are without the star QB. To make it simple FSU would be 12–14-point underdogs against any of the 3 teams that are in. Fans need to understand life is not fair, you didn’t get in because without Travis you're not one of the best four teams in the country, you're just not.
FSU fans being mad at Alabama or Texas for getting in with 1 loss is asinine. The team they should be asking how they got in is the team whose coach missed 6 games on suspension and are currently involved in 2 NCAA investigation.
The best way to put it is like this 1. FSU got screwed 2. The Committee’s job is to put the best 4 teams in. & 3. The Committee still didn’t put the best 4 teams in. All 3 statements are very different, but can all be true. Yes, the Committee screwed FSU, but it was eventually going to happen when an undefeated team was left out. When you invite 5 people over but only have 4 seats at the table someone is going to get screwed.
What the Committee did the weeks right after Travis went down is where the problem is, they knew like most of the world FSU was not getting in. When their backup went 13/23 vs UNA and then 12-25 vs Florida, Florida State should have dropped then, but no, let's keep them 4 going into the ACC title game. Then let's use that bad offensive performance against a top-25 team as the reason why we changed our minds.
The Committee refused to do the right thing drop them to 5, and say it the way it is, Jordan Travis is gone, and because of that, this is where we think you rank. No, Not this Committee, they decided to play make-believe for two weeks and act like FSU losing their QB didn’t matter when all along it did.
The Committee then tries to hide behind the argument that it’s the four best teams, not the four most deserving ones. Only one problem they still did put the 4 best teams in, if you put Georgia up against any of the 3 teams not named Alabama, they're favored by at least 3.5 points. There could be an argument made that even Ohio State would be favored against Michigan (neutral field) and Washington. If the NCAA Committee truly wanted to be transparent those selection meetings would have taken place live for everyone to watch instead of behind closed doors.
The good news is this will be the last year people will be arguing about who the top four teams are with the new 12-team playoff. The bad news now we will be arguing about who should take the last 2 to 3 spots in the playoff.
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