Mother Nature could wreak havoc on college football this upcoming weekend, but the majority of the news has been focused on an impending hurricane barring down on Florida.

A look out West and things are just as dangerous and deadly, as wildfires are raging in California, Oregon and Washington. That could present a big problem for the Minnesota Gophers game on Saturday night with the Oregon State Beavers and Nebraska’s visit to the Oregon Ducks.

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune cites sources within the Pac-12 saying that the game time may be moved or the game moved all together.

While the fire isn’t the problem, it is the air quality in the Eugene area that is. Oregon has already had to move practice closer to the Pacific Coast and the air in Eugene appears to be a major issue.

The smoke in Eugene, where an air protection agency listed the air quality as “hazardous,” prompted Oregon to move its Tuesday practice to Florence, near the Pacific coast.

The good news is that the smoke cleared enough a day later for the Ducks to return to practice in Eugene. But, there is reason to believe the game could still be an issue as smoke is expected to return.

The smoke is supposed to return at some point. But we just don’t know when. … There are too many variables for us to look that far ahead of time.”

Yes, that means we won’t know about the status of Nebraska-Oregon until Saturday itself.

Meanwhile, things don’t look as precarious for the Gophers matchup, but that doesn’t mean change would be out of the question.

“Based upon the information provided by the air protection agency and the expert health and safety advice of the respective University medical professionals, a decision will be made on whether or not to adjust game times and/or dates with the safety of student-athletes and fans as a priority,” Andrew Walker, the Pac-12’s vice president of public affairs, wrote in an e-mail to the (Portland) Oregonian.

Once again, it appears things are going to be in a wait-and-see mode in Corvallis as well.

It hasn’t affected Minnesota all that much, as they are more worried about playing at game that would kick at 9pm in Minneapolis if it were being played at home.

Head coach P.J. Fleck has talked this week about making sure players are staying up later as the week goes on to adjust their bodies. That’s especially important as practices are taking place first thing in the morning this season.

Either way, both of these programs are dealing with a lot of uncertainty right now and that may be the biggest hurdle to get over when prepping for Week 2.

We’re back…after a long offseason, the staff is finally back to watching football, crunching numbers and giving you our opinions on all things Big Ten football.

It also means our weekly staff Power Poll is back as well.

This season we’ve got five staff members voting every week. That includes the following names:

Andy Coppens – @AndyOnFootball

Phil Harrison – @PhilHarrisonCFB

Philip Rossmann-Reich – @RiseNU

Dave Fitzgerald – @BuckeyeFitzy

Zach Worthington – @Worthyton

Normally the opening week of the season provides little in the way of knowledge, but that certainly wasn’t the case in 2017. Dare we say the first week of action for the Big Ten was highly entertaining?

You can say that, and we did over at the #B1GRewind Show.

But, how did all of that excitement shake out when it came time to vote? Let’s take a look at the official poll for Week 1:

Let’s just say things were a bit wackier than usual, huh?

Takeaways:

• Only three teams lost this week, yet it was a winner, Illinois, coming up dead last and it wasn’t even close. The Illini’s unimpressive three-point win was also our winner for “Disappointment of the Week” on the #B1GRewind show…so perhaps their last place finish in the power poll this week was really warranted. It also appears that hanging tough with ranked teams meant a lot to our voters.
• While the rest of the college football world is in love with Ohio State…our staff is much more in love with the Nittany Lions…well not “much more” but they won out with three first place votes and OSU falling outside the top two in one voters mind.
• It appears there is going to be an interesting battle for the middle of the pack over the next few weeks. Michigan State was No. 7 in this poll, but had just a three-point lead on No. 10 Nebraska. Let’s just say the next few weeks should shake out the middle a bit more.
• Speaking of close fights…the battle between Michigan and Wisconsin for the third spot should be an interesting one indeed. Can Wisconsin’s offense keep up the high-scoring and keep UW ahead or will Michigan’s exciting youth movement grow up fast enough to challenge for the top of the East division and thus our poll as well?

At Big Ten media days on Tuesday, Minnesota Gophers head coach P.J. Fleck opened up the day by announcing that the personality of this team was that of running back Rodney Smith.

However, Fleck left that statement wide open to interpretation. What is that personality and why is it Rodney Smith? I mean, he is one of the best returning running backs in the Big Ten, so having him be the focal point of the team on the field is just smart.

So, curious as to why Smith was the one singled out by Fleck at the podium during his initial press conference, we went to his teammates to find the answer. They all seemed to have one common answer — happy.

Well that and plenty more..Check out the answers from Smith himself and his teammates. All that

and more from the highlights of Day 2 at Big Ten media days.

Day one of the Big Ten media days provided little in the way of drama or intrigue. Considering what was to follow on day two, perhaps that was a good thing.

Many wondered what P.J. Fleck, the human ball of energy, would bring to the table. Fewer wondered just how quirky Jim Harbaugh would be. Let’s just say both lived up to the billing and made for an early morning of intrigue.

Fleck spoke a mile-a-minute and delivered his brand of culture, but he also gave us some good working insight to his team. That includes a look at whom he sees representing the personality of his first team.

That name is a familiar one — running back Rodney Smith.

“When you look at who we brought, I’m very proud of these three student-athletes,” Fleck said. “Rodney Smith you all know is our running back. He’s kind of the personality of our football team. Huge smile, ton of energy, very charismatic. I think you’ll enjoy spending time with him. By the way, he’s a pretty phenomenal running back as well.”

It’s a good place to start for a team, as Smith was fourth in the Big Ten in rushing with 1,158 yards and 16 touchdowns last season alone. Fleck seems to know he needs to build from the run game up on offense, and having Smith certainly helps matters.

The head coach also gave us a good idea on how he will go about getting people interested in Gophers football again — reality television.

That’s because Fleck will be the start of an upcoming ESPN 4-part mini-series documenting his first year at the helm of the Gophers program.

“I think it’s every head coach’s job and responsibility to bring attention to their institution,” said Fleck.

“That’s not self-promoting, but I think every head football coach in America is self-promoting at some point. We’re all selling ourselves and showing what we’re like and recruiting our cultures and developing our cultures. You’re the front porch of the institution.

You’re not the most important thing on campus, but you’re the front porch of nationally what everybody sees.”

Fleck just hopes the attention and show is less like The Kardashians and more about Minnesota Gophers football. Considering the sales job he did at media days, that shouldn’t be a problem.

As for Harbaugh, it all started with his walk up to the podium in full sideline gear.

Harbaugh gonna Harbaugh… pic.twitter.com/Fju0WCMqgb

— Andrew Coppens (@TheCoppensShow) July 25, 2017

It ended with Harbaugh managing to work in mentions of orange construction cones on the side of the road, 600-year serving stadiums and the old sleep deprivation patterns of medical residents and pilots.

As for the orange cones reference, that was all about Rashan Gary and the hype surrounding him coming out of high school and in to his second year at Michigan.

He’s had a lot of hype,” said Harbaugh. “He’s had a lot of adulation. And there’s some people that that’s what they live for. They live for approval of others and to be recognized as a hyped-up player.

“And then there’s other people that they see that hype or that adulation and they go by it like it’s an orange cone on the side of the road. There’s some people that are just aspiring for greater things than just the adulation of somebody. And I think Rashan is that type of guy. You’d really like him. He really doesn’t care too much about that.”

One of the biggest topics of media days has been that of the changes to fall camp. Gone are two-a-days and in place is an expanded camp schedule of five weeks for the 2017 season.

Apparently one of Harbaugh’s biggest concerns has been the sleep deprivation of his players…or something like that.

“It (doing away with two-a-day practices) just makes all the sense in the world,” said Harbaugh. “There’s really nobody having three-a-days anymore or two-a-days anymore.

“Residents in hospitals don’t do sleep deprivation anymore. Pilots have to sleep ten hours, I think, before each flight. It’s just everybody is doing it that way. Even the military doesn’t have sleep deprivation and three-a-days, et cetera. So I’m all for it.”

Yep, football players undergo the same strains as life-saving doctors and those in charge of keeping planes from dropping out of the sky.

Hyperbole aside, Harbaugh is in the vast majority of coaches who are glad to see two-a-days banned.

Today’s college athlete is working out year-round and hardly out of game shape, which was the point of two-a-days to begin with.

No doubt the changes will be good for the athletes involved.

No doubt Fleck and Harbaugh stole the show on day two of Big Ten media days so far.