Big Ten Football Roundup, Week 6: Michigan's Bryce Underwood Problem, Penn State's Identity Crisis, and Nebraska's Ranked-Win Drought
By Owain Jones
Week 5 produced a reminder that the Big Ten’s middle class might be considerably more dangerous than expected.
Wisconsin, Northwestern and Minnesota have all pulled off statement victories so far, putting the conference’s traditional powers on notice and suggesting there are very few comfortable Saturdays waiting on the schedule.
Meanwhile, Michigan and Penn State have been left reeling, searching for answers and, perhaps more concerningly, an identity.
The Big Ten suddenly looks far less predictable than it did a week ago. So, what did we learn?
What If Northwestern Is Actually Pretty Good?
COLLEGE FOOTBALL, WELCOME TO RYAN FIELD https://t.co/tZqZ1HrMKB
— Northwestern Football (@NUFBFamily) October 3, 2026
Northwestern couldn’t have scripted a better opening night at the new Ryan Field.
After 1,049 days away from Central Street, the Wildcats returned to their $870 million home, filled its 35,000 seats in an exhilarating atmosphere, and celebrated by beating Penn State 34-13. “Something that dreams are made of,” David Braun described afterwards.
But the new stadium wasn’t the most impressive part of the night. It was the dominant on-field performance.
The Wildcats piled up 506 yards of total offense, running for 413 yards, averaging 7.5 yards per carry, and having two different running backs clear 160 yards on the ground. Caleb Komolafe led the way with 188, Joseph Himon II added another 162, while a despondent Penn State side managed only 48 rushing yards in response.
This wasn’t a manufactured upset. It was a good old-fashioned beatdown. And perhaps we shouldn’t be quite as surprised as we were.
The Wildcats have quietly spent the last few weeks looking considerably better than we expected entering the season. They blew out Colorado 41-7, and went to No. 5 Indiana and pushed the defending national champions all the way in a close 29-23 defeat. All followed by the bulldozing of Penn State.
More interestingly, those performances have showcased Chip Kelly’s play calling and the versatility of the offense.
Aidan Chiles threw three touchdowns and ran for two more against Colorado, before throwing for 293 yards at Indiana, including 237 after halftime, as Northwestern threatened a comeback. But against Penn State, he didn’t need to do much at all.
Chiles attempted only 14 passes through four quarters, partly because the rushing attack was so controlling.
The quarterback remains the player capable of giving Kelly’s offense its highest ceiling, and Chiles’ start to the season has been excellent. He has completed 70.8% of his passes, averaged 10.1 yards per attempt and, perhaps most encouragingly, hasn’t thrown an interception despite the volatility earlier in his career.
But Northwestern no longer looks completely dependent on him creating everything. Kelly’s offense has already shown it can lean on Chiles’ playmaking, attack teams through the air or simply line up and run through an opponent when the matchup allows it. There is something exciting about an offense emerging as equally competent and adaptable.
We should also give the defense its share of the credit, too. Holding any Big Ten opponent to only 48 rushing yards is impressive, while Northwestern forced six punts and intercepted Rocco Becht twice. Penn State has its own problems, which we will get into, but Northwestern is beginning to look much less like a one-off.
Maybe we should all consider that Northwestern may actually be pretty good.
Braun is now 22-20 since unexpectedly taking over the program in 2023, with two bowl victories and three winning starts in four seasons. Admittedly, the Wildcats aren’t Big Ten contenders, and four games remain far too small a sample to declare that the program is reborn, but they have earned the right to be bullish.
Northwestern finally has its new home. More importantly, it might finally have an exciting, physical football team capable of making Ryan Field a difficult place for everyone else to visit.
Does Michigan Have a Bryce Underwood Problem?
There are big problems in Ann Arbor, and there is no protecting Bryce Underwood from criticism anymore.
Michigan’s sophomore quarterback completed only 10 of 21 passes for 101 yards and two interceptions in Saturday’s 20-14 loss to Minnesota, leading to another frustrating performance for an offense that managed only 180 yards of total offense and 11 first downs.
There is no doubt that the Wolverines have an Underwood problem. He is making poor decisions, forcing throws inaccurately, and too often looks uncomfortable when his first read isn’t open. For a quarterback with his recruiting and athletic profile, his ability to create outside of structure has been disappointingly limited.
Underwood has been outright bad, but Michigan isn’t exactly helping him.
The Wolverines ran for only 79 yards against Minnesota, while an offensive line that continues to struggle in protection and looks uncharacteristically un-Michigan gives Underwood little time to work through his progressions. There is also a clear lack of weapons. When JJ Buchanan and Andrew Marsh are covered, where exactly is he supposed to go with the football?
For a team with these expectations, that’s increasingly the problem for Michigan. Underwood isn’t playing well enough to merit a conversation about being a quality starter, but the program has built an incredibly lethargic offense around him.
Even the leadership appears to recognise something needs to change. Michigan used the bye week to discuss getting back towards a more downhill rushing attack after leaning into some of Jason Beck’s horizontal concepts, only for leaked messages from tight end Zack Marshall to offer a glimpse at the frustration and exasperation developing among the roster.
Marshall subsequently apologised for pointing fingers, and one frustrated player hardly provides a definitive diagnosis. But his complaints feel entirely connected to what we’re watching every Saturday.
Michigan has failed to score 20 points in four of five games in 2026 and is 0-2 in the Big Ten for the first time since 2014.
Underwood needs to be considerably better. There are no excuses. But if there are no excuses for Underwood, there aren’t any for those around him either. If nothing changes quickly, the uncomfortable conversation about Underwood potentially being benched will only get louder, along with the inevitable chatter about where he plays football next year.
Penn State’s Identity Crisis
Things are unravelling in State College. Penn State is 0-2 in the Big Ten after defeats to Wisconsin and Northwestern, while the explosive offense that carried it through September has disappeared.
There were always questions over the ease of Penn State’s schedule, and that is coming back to bite the Nittany Lions in conference play.
Rocco Becht threw nine touchdowns without an interception across his first three games, but, respectfully, those games were against Marshall, Temple, and Buffalo.
In conference play, he has one touchdown, three interceptions, and is averaging only 5.1 yards per attempt. But making this entirely about the quarterback would ignore everything else going wrong.
Wisconsin provided the first warning for Matt Campbell as Penn State managed only 233 yards of offense and 13 offensive points, then Northwestern exposed the gaping holes in the run defense. Penn State was outrushed 413-48, meaning Becht ended up attempting 41 passes because the running game had disappeared while the defense was being physically dominated.
So, what exactly is this team supposed to be? And did the Nittany Lions really fire James Franklin for this?
That might be harsh; the writing was on the wall for Franklin for some time, but this could be a symptom of the program having to exhaust its list of preferred candidates before landing on Campbell.
Campbell described his offensive philosophy before the season as “players, formation, plays,” with the idea of finding your best players and building an offense around what they do well.
Five games in, it is difficult to say what Penn State’s identity is and which players it can consistently lean on.
The biggest issue, however, is that the Nittany Lions aren’t controlling the ground game on either side of the ball, while Becht all of a sudden looks like he is playing through something and may even have a case of the yips. It has been that bad.
Two conference defeats don’t mean Campbell has failed already, but five games in, this team still doesn’t have an identity and doesn’t appear particularly close to finding one.
Is Nebraska Finally Ready to Beat a Ranked Team?
It has been more than a decade since Nebraska beat a ranked opponent. The Cornhuskers have lost 31 consecutive games against teams ranked in the AP Poll at the time of kickoff, with their last victory coming against No. 22 Oregon in September 2016. Under Matt Rhule, Nebraska has added nine defeats to that streak, but five have been by just one score.
They have been getting close; is this the moment? Saturday might be Nebraska’s best opportunity to break that drought in 2026.
The Cornhuskers are 5-0 after beating Maryland 48-23 in Week 5 and, while the schedule demands some caution, they have at least earned the right for us to seriously debate whether they can beat seventh-ranked Indiana. Anthony Colandrea is a major reason why.
The Nebraska quarterback threw for 238 yards against Maryland and added another 108 on the ground, with Rhule making no secret of how important his mobility has become.
“We’re going to make people defend our quarterback,” Rhule said.
And that changes the math for a defense. Nebraska can use Colandrea on designed runs, zone reads and RPO concepts to manipulate box counts and force Indiana to account for another runner rather than concentrating on stopping the running backs.
Indiana remains the considerably bigger test. But the Hoosiers have hardly looked like world-beaters in 2026 despite the defending national champions having won 21 consecutive games, while Josh Hoover has thrown 15 touchdowns without an interception so far.
Nebraska is clearly progressing under Rhule, but after 31 consecutive ranked defeats, eventually that progress has to become a result.
For the first time in a while, it feels entirely reasonable to wonder whether Saturday could finally be it — if everything goes to plan, with a little luck and a sprinkling of stardust.
Purdue Finally Has a Conference Win!
It took 19 consecutive Big Ten defeats, but Purdue finally has a conference win again.
The Boilermakers beat Illinois 24-17 on Saturday to claim their first Big Ten victory since November 2023 and, more importantly for Barry Odom, finally offered some evidence that his rebuild can produce winning football.
Let’s get things straight: it wasn’t particularly dominant, and it certainly wasn’t pretty. But does that matter? Absolutely not. Both teams finished dead even with 345 yards of total offense; Illinois recorded 26 first downs to Purdue’s 19, and the Boilermakers managed only 90 yards on the ground. This wasn’t an emphatic win.
But after two years of finding increasingly painful ways to lose games, Purdue finally found a way to dig in and get over the line.
Quarterback Ryan Browne completed 18 of 27 passes for 255 yards and a touchdown without turning the ball over, while Purdue scored on all four trips into the red zone, and the defense produced a late interception and fourth-down stop to finish the job.
That defensive performance was particularly encouraging after allowing 139 points across the previous three games.
Defensive coordinator Kevin Kane simplified some of the responsibilities during the week in an attempt to eliminate mental errors and allow his players to play faster. Illinois still moved the football, but Purdue repeatedly prevented those drives from leading to touchdowns.
Nobody should mistake one win over a struggling Illinois team for proof that Purdue has suddenly fixed everything. The running game remains ineffective, and the defense still has plenty to prove.
But rebuilds have to start somewhere. This win gives Purdue something tangible to hold on to. For the first time under Odom, the Boilermakers have proof that this process can actually win a Big Ten football game.
Big Ten Football Roundup is published every week throughout the 2026 college football season, breaking down five of the biggest stories shaping the conference.
OWAIN JONES
COLLEGE FOOTBALL & NFL DRAFT ANALYST
OWAIN jones COVERS EVERYTHING college football & NFL DRAFT. COMING WITH PLENTY OF EXPERIENCE, OWAIN was PREVIOUSLY a writer for pfsn, and WAS THE NFL DRAFT EDITOR AT NINETY-NINE YARDS, WHERE HE CREATED DRAFT TALK. YOU CAN FOLLOW HIM ON TWITTER @OwainJonesCFB.
