Every Saturday during the football season, BTN.com senior writer Tom Dienhart offers his Snap Reactions to every Big Ten game. See his thoughts from the Big Ten’s three early Week 5 games in this post. Among his thoughts: Is it time to put Matt McGloin in the conversation for Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year?

Kain Colter had a day to remember in Northwestern’s Big Ten opener against Indiana on Saturday. The junior ran for a career-high four touchdowns, to go along with 161 rushing yards and 131 receiving yards – both game highs – as the Wildcats improved to 5-0 with a 44-29 victory. Colter’s scores came on runs of eight, eight, 15 and 22 yards. Watch all four scoring scampers now.

Kain Colter ran for 161 yards and four touchdowns, and Northwestern set a school record with 704 yards of total offense in a 44-29 victory over Indiana on Saturday in both teams’ Big Ten Conference opener. Colter also finished with 131 yards receiving. Trevor Siemian threw for 308 yards, and Venric Mark ran for 138 and a touchdown on a day when the Wildcats (5-0) had to hang on after they appeared to be on their way to an easy win.

Northwestern’s offense looked sharp in the third quarter, scoring 17 points, and the Wildcats now lead 37-21. Northwestern threw for 126 yards and ran for 132 yards in the quarter. The Wildcats’ four big plays, including Trevor Siemian’s 36-yard pass to Tony Jones, sparked the offense in the quarter.

Northwestern scored 13 points in the quarter, and the Wildcats now lead 20-0. Northwestern threw for 119 yards and ran for 80 yards in the quarter. The Wildcats expanded their lead to 10-0 thanks to a 12-play, 61-yard drive that ended when Jeff Budzien kicked a 44-yard field goal.

Thanks to a mean rushing attack, Northwestern leads 7-0 at the end of the first quarter. The Wildcats rushed for 80 yards in the quarter. The Wildcats struck first when Kain Colter took a quarterback draw all the way for an eight-yard touchdown run, the final play of a six-play, 80-yard drive.

Big Ten Field Pass on BTN2Go is fast becoming a must-watch event each week, and we’re doing it again on Saturday. BTN Field Pass is when BTN turns on a BTN TV camera one hour before kickoff at a selected Big Ten football game, and it let’s you see the home team’s football stadium and all that goes on before the game starts live on the Internet. This week’s featured stadium: Northwestern’s Ryan Field.

Earlier this week I helped take a look at who might land in the 2012 Big Ten Football Championship game. Well, the road to that big game starts Saturday as Big Ten teams put a rocky non-conference run behind them and focus on pounding on each other. In this post, I take a close look at all six games, and then I’m headed to East Lansing to cover Ohio State and Michigan State on Saturday.

Conference play is here – and not a moment too soon. I don’t say that for the reasons you might think (though I’m certainly not complaining about not having to discuss which game this weekend is most important for the Big Ten’s national reputation).

Every week, BTN.com’s Brent Yarina (@BTNBrentYarina) and Tom Dienhart (@BTNTomDienhart) offer their predictions for each Big Ten football game. We also provide a poll for all of the games so fans can vote for their winners.

Another Saturday looms. And, I have questions. Here are my most pressing queries for the 11 teams in action entering Week 5, the first week of conference play.