Big Ten Media Days - Big Legends Questions

As the fun kicks off, what are the questions for each Big Ten team?

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- 2012 Big Ten Media Days
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LEGENDS

Iowa
Has Iowa gone stale? The Hawkeyes have been fine over the last few years with a couple of trips to the Insight Bowl, but the 2009 Orange Bowl-winning season is getting further and further in the rearview mirror and the program is now seemingly a bit behind compared to Michigan, Michigan State and Nebraska in the Legends division. Iowa is on a three-game winning streak over Wolverines and it has a favorable enough schedule to put up a nice season, but is the talent in place to be in the hunt for the Big Ten title? The lines are iffy, the running back situation is a major question mark and the passing game might not be explosive. However, Iowa should be favored in every game but the road trips to Michigan State and Michigan, so as long as there aren’t any chokes and as long as the wins come against Purdue and Nebraska at home, the record might be a lot better than the talent.

Michigan
What’s missing to keep Michigan from being national title-good? Beat Alabama and Michigan will be national title-good right now. It’s only Brady Hoke’s second year in Ann Arbor, and even though no one seems interested in giving Rich Rodriguez any of the credit for amassing the talent in place that led the way to last year’s 11-2 Sugar Bowl-winning season, there’s room for improvement. What’s missing is another round of top recruiting classes, and Hoke isn’t having any problems getting the top-shelf prospects to come in. Michigan was always able to get good players, but Hoke is getting lots and lots of speed and he needs to get the right players to do things his way. For example, as much as he might love Denard Robinson, Hoke wants more of a drop-back passer to go along with smallish speed backs who can rip off yards in chunks. But all of that is for down the road and taking the long view approach to what Michigan is going to be. For now, the punting has to be better, the passing game could use a little more pop and the D line needs some retooling. Overall the issues are minor and Michigan will be one of the favorites to win the Big Ten title, but to beat Alabama and be in the mix for the whole ball of wax there can’t be any mistakes.

Michigan State
Shhhhhhhh. Is Michigan State a national title sleeper pick? Absolutely, but it all depends on how fast Andrew Maxwell and the passing game can come together. Running back Le’Veon Bell is about to have a humongous season banging away behind a terrific offensive line, and the defense that finished first in the Big Ten and sixth in the nation is going to be a brick wall even without anchor Jerel Worthy in the middle. The problem is the passing attack that lost all the top targets and steady quarterback Kirk Cousins, but Maxwell is fine and there’s plenty of speed at receiver. The other key will be to avoid the annual Someone Forgot To Tell Michigan State To Get Off The Bus performance like last season’s losses to Notre Dame and Nebraska and the Iowa clunker of two years ago. All of the focus will be on the back-to-back road games at Michigan and Wisconsin, but getting through home landmines against Boise State, Notre Dame, Ohio State and Nebraska won’t be easy. However, with this D and this running game, there’s no one on the slate the Spartans can’t beat.

Minnesota
How far is Minnesota from going bowling again? The Gophers always seemed like they were this close to turning the corner in the Glen Mason era, but a few high-profile collapses and the unfortunate Tim Brewster experience set the groundwork for an awful last few seasons with the program losing 23 of its last 31 games. Jerry Kill is a terrific head coach who has been a success on every stop, but he needs more time for his young offensive line to mature before he starts getting the results he’s hoping for. Step One is to win the games against the lightweights. No BCS conference team should have lost to New Mexico State and North Dakota State last season, but if the Gophers had been able to make those two-foot putts then they would’ve ended up a respectable 5-7 and the storyline would be about how the needle is pointed up. To beat the mediocre teams on the schedule, and to potentially pull off a few upsets, quarterback MarQueis Gray has to use all of his phenomenal tools and become the type of playmaker to carry the team on his back. The lines should be stronger and there’s experience in the defensive back seven, but the program is still a long way off from making any real noise in the Legends. However, that doesn’t mean that there can’t be a 13th game at the end of this year.

Nebraska
Why doesn’t Nebraska have a third offensive weapon? Considering they had to take a slew of big shots as everyone’s novelty, Welcome To The Big Ten game, and with the creepiness and emotional toll taken from being the team that had to play Penn State after that, a 9-4 season and a Capital One Bowl appearance wasn’t all that bad. However, when quarterback Taylor Martinez and running back Rex Burkhead weren’t awesome, then the offense didn’t have any other ideas. There’s no passing game for an attack that struggled to put up points late in the year and there wasn’t exactly a working rotation of backs to take the pressure off. The receiving corps – for Nebraska – isn’t bad and should be far more effective. The tight ends are excellent and Kenny Bell is a fast No. 1 wideout who can hit the deep ball. But the season completely and totally revolves around keeping Martinez healthy, even though he has been banged around a bit in his first two seasons, and pray for Burkhead to stay effective despite taking a pounding. The Huskers will be good, but the balance and talent won’t be there to be great.

Northwestern
Can the Wildcats ever get into the backfield? Pass rush was a problem and concern going into last season, and it turned out to be worse than the coaching staff could’ve ever imagined. Head coach Pat Fitzgerald was one of the greatest linebackers in college football history and he knows defense, but he can’t seem to get anything out of a pass rush that generated just 17 sacks and a paltry 59 tackles or loss for a D that was the second-worst in the Big Ten. New tackles, led by Chance Carter, should be more active in the interior, while Tyler Scott and Deonte Gibson are promising ends who can get off the ball in a hurry. Will that mean more hits on the quarterback? Finally? Being more disruptive is a must for NU to be a surprise challenge for the Legends title.

- 2012 Big Ten Media Days
The Big Questions - Leaders    
The Big Predictions, Player of the Year & More