ESPN spring recap of Big 10 F'ball teams

[Thump]

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/s...t&lid=tab2pos2

Please feel free to merge if need be, wasn't quite sure where to put this.

[Dryden]

Gee, after about 18 months they finally got someone other than Hooley to write a Big-10 piece?

Now I will actually bother reading this since I won't hear it rehashed on 1460 for the next two weeks.

[crazybuckfan40]

After reading that here are my thoughts.

PSU 2006 == Iowa 2005

- Iowa had a great year in 2004 and they were talking big time season in 05, but they lost most of thier D-line, but yet still thought their young secondary combined with great lb's would still let the D be elite. Well that was obviously not the case, and just like Iowa in 05 PSU has good receivers, but the QB is not goign to have time to throw to them. Then throw in that PSU has a first year QB that isnt extremely mobile especially not like Tate and you could have a disaster in Happy valley much like Iowa last year. To make it even more parallel, they season will both follow top 10 finishes in recruiting and the fans thinking they are the best thing since slice bread.

- Basanez is finally gone after what seemed like 15 yrs.

- Michigan better pray that Henne doesnt go down.

- Iowa should be good, but Albert Young an AA.

- MSU still doesnt have a D, but will be pretty explosive on O.

- Minny will probably be a passing team this year, can you believe it.

- James Hardy should be first team All-Big Ten.

- Will Illinois win a conference game? Me thinks not, even though they have Indiana at home.

- Wisky is going to struggle under first year head coach. Will Alvarez come out of retirement if the team struggles, for a couple years, or fire his buddy as he is the AD.

- I wonder if Mark May will call Purdue the preseason big ten champs again since they miss us and scUM.

[BB73]

cbf40, I had the same thought about Purdue's schedule. I think it'll get mentioned less this year.

And you'd think they could spell Champaign correctly in a Big 10 preview.

But I did like this crack:

QB John Stocco is back, but his receiving corps is as barren as a keg on a late Saturday night in Madison

[jlb1705]

- I wonder if Mark May will call Purdue the preseason big ten champs again since they miss us and scUM.

Is missing scUM really that big a deal? You gotta figure they're gonna lose to Ohio State, ND, and whatever bowl game they back into this season. That leaves two more losses up for grabs in their other seven conference games. Not to mention, if you take away Indiana game (because they have no chance no matter how bad LLLLLoyd gets - they're INDIANA), that leaves a 2/6 (1/3) odds that LLLLLoyd will cough up a game to your team just out of dumb luck. Why wouldn't Purdue want to play scUM?

[Bucklion]

Wow, Illinois has all their starters back! And they'll probably be 2-1 (for the 231st straight year) going into conference play! Yeah!

Big wooptie-ball sac. If you have 22 horrible guys back, they are going to be...slightly better than horrible. Will that improve their record? Probably, to 1-7, instead of 0-8.

[Bucklion]

Originally Posted by jlb1705

Is missing scUM really that big a deal? You gotta figure they're gonna lose to Ohio State, ND, and whatever bowl game they back into this season. That leaves two more losses up for grabs in their other seven conference games. Not to mention, if you take away Indiana game (because they have no chance no matter how bad LLLLLoyd gets - they're INDIANA), that leaves a 2/6 (1/3) odds that LLLLLoyd will cough up a game to your team just out of dumb luck. Why wouldn't Purdue want to play scUM?

Depends...if Michigan is fighting for a bowl, and they are playing up there, the refs will make sure LLLLoyd wins it

[jlb1705]

Originally Posted by Bucklion

Big wooptie-ball sac.