B1G Dawg & Pussycat of the week: Ohio State Buckeyes

'Ohio Stadium at Sunset' Photo Credit: Photographer via Flickr

Each week I will bring you the 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.

Awards for the week of October 16th to October 22nd, 2023

This week’s award winners both come from the top of the Big 10 West. The two teams looked to be on a collision course at the end of the season for the second straight year, but now it's looking more like the game might mean nothing. One team is making national headlines for beating the top 10 team the other for allegedly deciding to run a sign-stealing ring out of opposing team stadiums.

The Dawg of the week is The Ohio State Buckeyes for picking up their 2nd top-ten win of the season

Number 3, Ohio State welcomed in Number 7, Penn State to Columbus for a showdown of top 10 teams. The Buckeyes would lean on their defense led by Defensive Coordinator Jim Knowles in their 20-12 win. The win gives OSU their second top-10 win of the 2023 season after beating Notre Dame 17-14 back on September 23.

The Ohio State Buckeyes were able to hold the Nittany Lions offense down all afternoon. Penn State was a mind-numbing 1 of 16 on 3rd down conversions and 1 of 3 on 4th down. Penn State's only 3rd down conversion came with less than a minute left in the game. The only touchdown conceded by the Buckeyes came with .29 seconds left in the game.

The Buckeyes defense in the game only allowed Penn State a total of 240 yards of offense. On the ground, the Nittany Lions had 49 total yards that came on 26 rushing attempts for an average of 1.9 yards per attempt. In the air, Drew Allar went 18 of 42 and had 1 TD with no interceptions. The Buckeyes were able to sack Allar 4 times in the contest, spoiling the homecoming for the Medina Ohio native.

The Ohio State offense was nothing to write home about, but they still were able to put up enough points to get the win. Starting quarterback Kyle McCord went 22/35 for 286 yards and 1 touchdown. The real story in the game was Marvin Harrison Jr., who made big catch after big catch. Harrison Jr. is arguably the best play in the country, and he showed why on Saturday afternoon. Harrison Jr in the game was targeted 16 times catching 11 of them for 162 yards and one TD. The biggest difference between the two offenses was Marvin stepped up when the Buckeyes needed him most, and no one did the same for the Nittany Lions.

This win gives OSU one of, if not the best resume in college football having two wins versus the top 10 teams in the country. With all the news coming out of TTUN, this could very well could go down as the de-facto Big 10 title game because no one from the East is beating one of these 2 teams. Ohio State with the win might have just sealed themselves another Big 10 conference championship and trip to the college football playoffs.

The Pussycat of the week is the Michigan Wolverines for 'just another NCAA investigation'.

In what seemed to be one of the most anticipated football years for the Wolverines, has turned into nothing more than a sideshow. In a year where fans should be talking about a national title run. they are instead left to try and figure out 'just another NCAA investigation'. The NCAA has had its sights set on Michigan's head coach, Jim Harbaugh, and this time they just might have gotten him.

On Thursday afternoon as fans were getting ready for Saturday’s backyard brawl, news broke that Michigan was being investigated again. The problem for Michigan fans was this wasn’t a cheeseburger' this time. Michigan is being accused of using a network of people to travel to the opposing team’s stadiums and videotape the sidelines in hopes of stealing signs.

While being able to study signs through the game film is allowed, it's not allowed for you to send individuals to opposing team games to take notes or videotape. Unfortunately for Michigan, that’s exactly what they're being accused of. Michigan football analyst, Connor Stalions, looks to be the man who holds the key to finding out just what Michigan has done and is the key target in the NCAA investigation. On Friday, Stalions was suspended with pay as he seemingly tried to delete certain pages linked to him off the internet, making the situation look even worse if that’s even possible.

Michigan head coach, Jim Harbaugh, would issue a statement claiming he did not have knowledge of, or direct any member of his staff to participate in an off-campus scouting assignment. Michigan fans have hope that he is telling the truth, the problem even if Jim is being honest it still doesn’t let him off the hook. As the head of the Michigan football program if any of the allegations are proven true it ultimately falls back on him, right or wrong, that is how it works.

Michigan fans are now left in a waiting game to do nothing, but listen to the allegations, and wait for the evidence to be made public. What Michigan did, or didn’t do at this point, is unknown, but to say it doesn’t look good would be the understatement of the year. I guess you can say some people are born and that some people 'steal to get there'.