A team without a talented defensive line is a team that will never find defensive consistency. They will chase it like a shadow, never coming close to catching it. For those teams with a dominating defensive line, however, they will always have a shot at victory. The top of every conference will generally feature the best defensive lines…
The offensive line in football is like no other position group in sports. Five men working as one, where no weak links can be afforded. And to build an appropriately competent offensive line, a program needs both outstanding recruiting and stellar development. In the Big Ten West, however, the recruiting isn’t as easy to come by.
Putting these rankings together every year is never easy and it is never quick, but because I put so much care and effort into it, sometimes it works. That’s the kind of return on investment that anybody can live with. Today we begin our look at the offensive lines of the Big Ten, and if you’re not ranked in the top half of…
What the Big Ten West may lack in quarterbacks, it makes up for in receivers and tight ends. Each team returns something to give them hope, and for those teams breaking in new quarterbacks, there are receivers there to help him out. New offensive systems at Nebraska and Illinois will make things interesting as well.
After having three 1,000-yard receivers in each of the last three seasons, the Big Ten produced just one such receiver — D.J. Moore (Maryland 1,033) — in 2017. You know things are a bit thin when the top two returning receivers in terms of yardage are both from Nebraska. The East division returns just two receivers who…
It is does not appear to be a great year for running backs in the Big Ten West, outside of Madison, of course. The phrase of the day appears to be “running back by committee” around most of the division. In fact, there may only be two tailbacks in the division who could be considered workhorses. That’s not necessarily bad…
The Big Ten is a running backs’ league. Or at least it used to be. It may still be, but it’s an antiquated way of looking at offenses around the conference. Blood rivals Penn State and Rutgers are the only two teams in the East that do not return their starting running back. Some schools, like Ohio State and Michigan, return…
Welcome to the second half of the first part of my annual Big Ten ratings. We went over the quarterbacks in the B1G West yesterday, which means today we look at the East Division signal callers. Every single program in the Big Ten East should feel very good about their respective quarterback situations this season.
Welcome to summer. The time for college football speculation and previewing. Since 2011, I have done my annual Big Ten positional ratings in an effort to predict who would be playing in the Big Ten Championship Game. Basically, what I do is rank the position groups for each division from 1-7, and then tally up the scores…
