Week 4 Football Release

BIG TEN FOOTBALL RELEASE - WEEK 4 | STANDINGS | MEDIA GUIDE

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• Week 4 of the 2023 Big Ten season features nine games, highlighted by five conference matchups. Purdue will host divisional foe Wisconsin on Friday, while Michigan, Michigan State, Northwestern and Penn State welcome Rutgers, Maryland, Minnesota and Iowa, respectively. The complete schedule appears to the right.

• Four Big Ten teams appear in the AP Poll this week. Michigan leads the conference at No. 2, followed by No. 6 Ohio State, No. 7 Penn State and No. 24 Iowa. Maryland and Wisconsin are both receiving votes.

• Six Big Ten teams remain undefeated on the season, as Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State and Rutgers are all 3-0.

• Ohio State and Penn State currently rank among the top 20 nationally in both scoring offense and scoring defense. The Buckeyes rank second nationally in scoring defense, allowing an average of 6.7 points per game, while ranking No. 20 in scoring offense (40.3 points per game). The Nittany Lions rank No. 13 nationally in scoring defense (11.7 points per game), while ranking 14th in scoring offense (43.7 points per game).

• Four additional Big Ten teams rank in the top 25 in terms of scoring defense: Michigan (1st, 5.3 points per game), Rutgers (7th, 10.0 points per game), Iowa (18th, 12.3 points per game) and Maryland (21st, 13.3 points per game).

• The Nittany Lions are set to hold their 15th full-stadium Penn State White Out on Saturday against Iowa. The tradition stretches back to a student section White Out in 2004. Penn State’s first full-stadium White Out was against Notre Dame in 2007. Penn State meets Iowa for the 32nd time in the series. Penn State holds a 17-14 advantage in the series. However, the teams are tied 11-11 as Big Ten foes.

• Ohio State’s Marvin Harrison Jr. hauled in the 100th reception of his career in Saturday’s 63-10 victory against Western Kentucky. He entered the game with 97 career catches and finished with five catches for 126 yards and one touchdown. His 75-yard touchdown reception was the longest of his career, surpassing a 71-yard catch against Youngstown State last week. Additionally, junior running back TreVeyon Henderson became the 28th Buckeye to join the Ohio State career 2,000-yard rushing club after rushing for 88 on Saturday.

• Wisconsin’s Hunter Wohler led the Badgers defensively last weekend, picking off two passes in a 35-14 win over Georgia Southern. The junior made a team-high 10 tackles, including a sack, to become the first Badger to pick off two passes in a game since John Torchio vs. Purdue on Oct. 22, 2022. Wohler is just the second player in the country and first in the Big Ten this season to record two interceptions and a sack in the same game.

• Michigan is building on an 18-game home winning streak dating back to 2021. It is the longest home winning streak under Harbaugh and the program’s best since a 21-game streak from 1998-2001 under coach Lloyd Carr. This weekend against Rutgers, the Wolverines have a chance to build on a 14-game Big Ten win streak, the program’s longest since a 16-game conference streak spanning 1996-98.

• Rutgers running back Kyle Monangai rushed for 143 yards and a career-high three touchdowns on 16 carries (8.9 yards per carry) in the Scarlet Knights’ 35-16 win against Virginia Tech, marking the first time a Scarlet Knight topped 100 rushing yards in consecutive games since 2016. The junior ripped off a 55-yard touchdown in a one-score game in the fourth quarter, his longest career carry and longest by a Scarlet Knight since 2020.

• The 2023 campaign will feature 99 All-Big Ten honorees (first-, second-, third-team or honorable mention) selected by either the coaches or the media last season, with Ohio State leading the way with 16 all-conference returnees. The East Division welcomes back 56 all-conference players, while the West returns 43. Illinois is the only West team with double-digit all-conference returnees with 10, while each team has at least one All-Big Ten performer returning.

• The Big Ten finished last season with three teams ranked in the AP Top 25, tying for the third-most of any conference. All three teams finished in the Top 10, marking the second straight year that the conference had three top 10 teams at the end of the season. The 2023 AP Preseason Poll also featured five Big Ten teams in No. 2 Michigan, No. 3 Ohio State, No. 7 Penn State, No. 19 Wisconsin, and No. 25 Iowa, while Illinois and Minnesota are both receiving votes.

• Last season, the Big Ten posted the fifth-highest single-season attendance total in conference history with 6,333,196 fans attending home games. Excluding 2020, this marked the ninth consecutive season and 10th time in 11 seasons that more than six million fans have attended Big Ten home football games.

• This season’s Playoff Semifinals will take place Monday, January 1, 2024, at the Allstate Sugar Bowl and the Rose Bowl. Houston will host the College Football Playoff National Championship on Monday, January 8, 2024, at NRG Stadium. The College Football Playoff matches the No. 1 ranked team vs. No. 4, and No. 2 vs. No. 3 in semifinal games that rotate annually among six bowl games – the Goodyear Cotton Bowl, Vrbo Fiesta Bowl, Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, Capital One Orange Bowl, Allstate Sugar Bowl and Rose Bowl Game.