B1G Dawg/Pussycat of the week: Ohio State football

Ohio Stadium Credit Dan Keck 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 September 11th to the 17th, 2023:

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The Dawg of the Week is the Ohio State football offense:

After the 1st quarter of play and being up 7-3 on the Hilltoppers of Western Kentucky, the Ohio State football offense decided to come alive. They put on a show in the 2nd quarter by putting up a mere 35 points. The Buckeyes ended up beating Western Kentucky to the tune of 63-10 and many believe OSU had the best performance out of any team in week 3.

Buckeyes QB, Kyle McCord showed his ability for the second straight game to lead this juggernaut going 19/23 for 318 yards, and 3 TDs with no interceptions. Marvin Harrison Jr. was McCord’s go-to receiver on the day, targeting JR 7 times, with 5 completions for 126 yards and 1 TD.

OSU would finish the game with 562 total yards, 358 in the air, and 204 on the ground. After a slow start for the Buckeyes, it now looks like Day has the train moving and the next stop is a matchup with #9, Notre Dame, led by Sam Hartman. If OSU goes on the road and pulls off the win, look for them to move up the polls just as fast as they went down.

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The Pussycat of the Week is Michigan State

A week that started off with Michigan State being the talk of the sports world for all the wrong reasons, got even worse for Spartan fans after being drilled at home by the Washington Huskies.

The Huskies led by MSU killer, Michael Penix Jr. walked into Spartan Stadium and made the hometown team look like a JV high school football program. Penix, who seems to always have career games vs. MSU showed this game would be no different going 27/35 for 473 yards and 4 touchdowns. Washington was able to put up a measly 713 yards of total offense, the most ever given up in one game in MSU history.

Michigan State's offense looked terrible on the day, Big 10 offensive player of the week, Noah Kim, was 12/31 for 136 yards, no touchdowns, and an interception. State's run game was just as bad finishing with a total of 53 yards. Running back, Nathan Cater, who came in leading the Big 10 in rushing had a total of 48 yards on 17 carries.

By halftime, Michigan State fans had had enough and headed for the nearest exit with MSU down 35-0. In the Fourth quarter with MSU down 41-0, they were finally able to break the shutout when backup quarterback Houser ran in for a TD.

Michigan State has one of the biggest tests coming very soon, and it's not on the football field. If they are going to be competitive in the new Big 10 their choice for the next head coach must be a grand slam hire. This could be the single biggest coaching hire in MSU sports history and with a wrong move, the Spartans could be the Big 10 version of Vanderbilt.