Wisconsin quarterback Alex Hornibrook (AP).

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Five reasons No. 4 Wisconsin (12-0, 9-0) will beat No. 8 Ohio State (10-2, 8-1) on Saturday in the Big Ten Championship in Indianapolis.

By Bill Landis, cleveland.com

• TV time, channel for Ohio State vs. Wisconsin

• Ohio State-Wisconsin outrageous predictions

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1. The death of "Noodle Arm": This part apology, part giving credit where is due, part projecting into the future.

Maybe it was the way the ball came out of Alex Hornibrook’s left hand, but I watched the Wisconsin quarterback throw some passes before Ohio State’s game in Madison last year and thought to myself: “Well, that guy can’t throw.”

He had a noodle arm. It was weak.

And that’s harsh. Hornibrook was a freshman then, and his arm strength wasn’t the best.

Well, it’s good now. Noodle Arm, if he ever actually existed, is dead. Now Wisconsin has a quarterback who certainly has what it takes to beat Ohio State in Saturday’s Big Ten Championship.

“I think the most underrated player on their team is the quarterback,” Buckeyes cornerbacks coach Kerry Coombs said this week.

Yeah, but people have concerns about his arm strength.

“I don’t,” Coombs said, calling Hornibrook a future NFL guy this week.

Hornibrook is 14th in the country in passer rating (179.8). That’s second-best among the quarterbacks Ohio State has faced this year, trailing only Oklahoma’s Baker Mayfield. Hornibrook will throw interceptions. He’s got 13 of them this year. But he’s also got the arm to make all of the throws, and I didn’t think he had that last year.

Remember last week when tight ends and running backs were running free against Ohio State, and Michigan quarterback John O’Korn kept missing them? Yeah, Hornibrook is a much better passer than O’Korn, and he’s a threat. The defense has to be sharp this week

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via GIPHY

Hornibrook hasn’t been without his critics this year. That interception number is high, and he can look quite uncomfortable against a good pass rush. With Wisconsin looking to take a big step as a program, maybe there are Badgers fans who are nervous about the true sophomore on this stage.

“I would definitely describe him as calm and confident, even when things aren’t going his way,” Wisconsin left tackle Michael Dieter said. “He’s definitely had some moments this year where I know fans were down on him, he maybe didn’t have his best game, and he didn’t waver. He’s always made big plays in big games when we needed him too.”

Outside of Madison, it’s likely that many don’t even know who Hornibrook is.

Let’s face it, Wisconsin might be the least captivating unbeaten team ever, especially at this point of the season. People know, or assume that the Badgers just got here by running the ball behind some typical massive Wisconsin offensive lineman. Those people would be mostly right.

But this team has a quarterback too, perhaps one ready for a coming out party on Saturday.

Think back to Ohio State’s first Big Ten Championship appearance in 2013, when an overlooked Michigan State team with an unheralded quarterback named Connor Cook shocked the Buckeyes. That game put Cook on the map, made him a national name for two more seasons and then an NFL Draft pick.

That kind of jump could be on the table for Hornibrook this week.

That would be a long way from Noodle Arm.

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2. This stat: Courtesy of ESPN Stats & Info

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Ohio State is 38-0 under Urban Meyer when converting 50% of its 3rd downs (6-0 in 2017).



Wisconsin hasn’t allowed an opponent to convert 50% of its 3rd downs in any game all season. — Jason Starrett (@starrettjason) November 29, 2017

Wisconsin has the No. 7 third-down defense in the country, holding teams to a 28.9 percent conversion rate.

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Wisconsin defensive tackle Olive Sagapolu (AP).

3. Some beef in the middle helps with that: Part of what makes Ohio State so good on third down (No. 4 in the country, 49.7 percent) is the ability to run inside with either running back -- Mike Weber or J.K. Dobbins -- and quarterback J.T. Barrett.

Wisconsin makes it a little harder to run inside with nose tackle Olive Sagapolu. That's 346 pounds of man eating up space in the middle of the defensive line.

“He’s a big dude,” Buckeyes left tackle Jamarco Jones said. “He’s one of the things we’ve been emphasizing in practice this week. But I have full confidence in us as a unit. He’s definitely one of the key players that we’ve been looking at.”

Jones, though, likely won’t see much of Sagapolu.

The task of moving the big man will fall on center Billy Price, and guards Michael Jordan and Demetrius Knox. That’s a good thing for Ohio State, considering Price is their best offensive lineman. But the Buckeyes haven’t seen many players like Sagapolu.

He’s not the best player on Wisconsin’s defense, far from the first name you’ll hear on Saturday night. But he’s a load, and he can wreck Ohio State’s running plans.

“He’s a great nose tackle,” Jones said. “He does the job he’s supposed to do. He just takes up a lot of space. He two-gaps, and he’s a load to handle.”



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4. 2014 memories: Ohio State and Wisconsin haven't met in the Big Ten Championship since 2014, when the Buckeyes hung 59 points on the Badgers in a shutout win that sent OSU on a magical three-game journey to a national championship.

Many of the names and faces have changed since then, but there are a few holdovers.

Troy Fumagalli is a first-team All-Big Ten tight end this year, one of the best in the country at his position. Back in 2014 he was a redshirt freshman walk-on who played in every game that year, but was far from the player he is now.

Fumagalli, though, remembers the dismantling of Wisconsin that took place the last time these two teams played in Indianapolis. Bet he’s not the only one.

“It’s something I keep in the back of my mind,” he said. “It’s just a little motivational tool I keep in the back of my mind. A lot of the focus is about this week and this year -- it’s one more game -- and beating Ohio State this week.”

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5. An ill-advised tweet: Antonio Williams had been a Wisconsin commit for nearly a year when he fired off a tweet that changed the course of his recruitment. After the Badgers' 2015 Big Ten opener, a 10-6 loss to Iowa, Williams tweeted this:

“We will not be elite until Stave leaves.”

That was a reference to former Wisconsin quarterback Joel Stave. Needless to say that didn’t go over well with Williams’ future teammates in Madison. He decommitted from Wisconsin the next month, and then committed to Ohio State a few days later.

Had Williams stuck with Wisconsin, there’s no saying what a three-star prospect from New Jersey named Jonathan Taylor would have decided to do. Taylor very well could have still signed with the Badgers in 2017, knowing that he’d probably be behind Williams. But without anyone in front if him, Tayor has flourished.

The Big Ten Freshman of the Year is third in the country with 1,806 rushing yards as a true freshman. Williams is buried on the Ohio State depth chart behind Weber and Dobbins, and would be behind Demario McCall is McCall was healthy. It seems Wisconsin got the better part of that deal.

“I think Antonio's had some injuries, but we're glad he's a Buckeye and he has a nice future,” Urban Meyer said this week.

This isn’t to rag on Williams. He’s a sophomore and can maybe have a different role down the road.

It’s to point out Ohio State’s hand in putting Wisconsin in the position of having one of the most productive running backs in the country, and an opportunity to wonder what if for Williams.