Around the Empire: October 3, 2023

This weekend, I finally honored the sole “requirement” of OTE writers by not watching a single B1G game. Ms. OhioOtter and I celebrated our one-year anniversary with a belated wedding reception! We ate too much food and drank too much whiskey, and I also entirely avoided watching a second of the blowout Illini loss in the Cannon game. It was a wonderful weekend.

All that said, I had a lot to catch up on at the AtE desk this week. Here’s what you might have missed and what I completely ignored from around the Big Ten this weekend.

From Off Tackle Empire:

• Stop by for GoForThree’s snark and the rest of our laments in Sunday Morning Coming Down.

• There are a whole lot of hot seats going around the conference these days. BoilerUp89 provides an update on which of the highest-paid public employees in their respective states might get canned next. Not that we wish unemployment on anyone.

• Dead Read analyzes the charts and determines that the West is pretty awful in this week’s Stock Report.

• Something is rotten in the State of Hoosier. It’s the offense. Buff Komodo breaks down the Indiana loss to September Maryland and the firing of Walt Bell.

• MNWildcat breaks the B1G coaches into tiers by physique in this week’s mailbag. Please send us questions so we can think about something besides Bert’s belly.

• The triumphant return of GTom and the Off Beat Empire column! I enjoyed the Stranger Things routine from Purdue.

• Don’t forget to get your choices in for Survivor and for the ATS picks games. Everyone, please thank Green 96 and Ziowa09 for running those!

• And give my historical deep-dive into the Purdue Cannon a read! Click through for the football folklore, stick around for the archival research about stolen artillery pieces.

Basketball season approaches!

• OTE continues its basketball preview series with Nebrasketball! If you’ve missed the other team previews, take a look at Minnesota and Ohio State.

Beyond the Empire:

• Corn Nation on Memorial Stadium (West)’s proposed $450 million renovation.

• The Only Colors with the news of Mel Tucker’s official firing letter. It’s ... surprisingly explicit?

• The Iowa faithful have spoken. It’s not Ferentz the Younger’s fault. The Elder Ferentz is the cause of the Hawkeyes’ offensive woes, according to Black Heart Gold Pants.

• On the Banks takes a look at Rutgers and their bowl aspirations ahead of the Scarlet Knights’ trip to Madison.

• Hey, we know that writer! Misdreavous79 at Black Shoe Diaries takes stock of Drew Allar’s progression in his first year as a starter.

• Coach Jim KhakiPants talks about Kalel Mullings and his impact on the Michigan run game. And also talks about arrows going through snow, or some shit.

Have a good week, all. It’s almost Saturday.