JonDMiller
Publisher/Founder
ESPN has been running a series of ‘Best ofs’, position by position, from the Big Ten. They’ve been including players from schools who did not play their college games in the Big Ten, so Miller & Deace decided to put together their own lists.
The duo had put together a podcast on 5/15, but there were technical issues and the recording will not be salvaged. So this week, we’ll just publish the players and work on fixing our recording issues for next week.
One final caveat; we only go back to 1980 on these lists. That covers the viewing life span of most of the folks who will be reading this item. That’s not to say that players who played prior to 1980 would not be worthy of an ‘All Time’ consideration, just that we didn’t see those players on the field and that makes for more challenging comparisons.
JON MILLER’S LIST
1) Drew Brees: The Big Ten’s All Time leader in passing yards (11,792) and touchdown passes (90)
2) Chuck Long: Though he played his college ball over 30 years ago, Long is still one of the standards for Big Ten passers. He’s Top Seven in both passing yards and touchdown passes from an era that was just beginning to embrace the forward pass. The league was still dominated by Michigan and Ohio State at the time of Long and Iowa’s ascendancy.
3) Troy Smith: The 2006 Heisman Trophy winner threw for 5,720 yards and 54 TD’s in his career and ran for 1,168 yards and 14 touchdowns. He’s the only true quarterback in Big Ten history to win the Heisman Trophy.
4) Russell Wilson: He played just one season in the Big Ten and it was one of the best for any quarterback who ever played the game. He set a single season NCAA record for passing efficiency at 191.8. His 33 touchdown passes in 2011 are third all-time in a single Big Ten season and he did that with just four interceptions. He averaged over 10 yards per passing attempt and a completion percentage of over 72%. It was a stunning season for Wilson.
5) Connor Cook: If you were going to look simply at statistics and success, Cook is a no brainer on this list. He was 34-5 as a starting quarterback, which has to rank among the best marks in league history. He threw for nearly 10,000 yards and his 71 touchdown passes ties Chuck Long for 4th best in league history for a career, to just 22 interceptions. He helped lead the Spartans to three consecutive Top 8 AP Finishes and a Rose Bowl win. There are few quarterbacks in league history to have the resume of individual and team success that Cook put together.
STEVE DEACE’S LIST
1) Drew Brees
2) Chuck Long: Deace said in our damaged recording Sunday night that he could be convinced to put Long at #1
3) Braxton Miller: During our conversation, Deace said that he’d be fine with Troy Smith on this list and in this spot. But there are just two players who have won the Big Ten’s Silver Football award twice; Archie Griffin, who won back to back Heisman’s for Ohio State, and Miller. Were it not for injury, he likely would have won a third and a Heisman and he’d be no worse than third on this list.
4) Russell Wilson: Neither of us knew the other’s picks prior to sending them in, so it was surprising to see that we both had Wilson at #4.
5) Jim Harbaugh: I gave Deace a little grief about this pick in our failed recording, as I could find a handful of quarterbacks who had better statistics than Harbaugh, including two or three Michigan quarterbacks. But he made a convincing debate related to Harbaugh’s gravitas, what he did when he did it. He owned all of the Michigan passing records when he left, he was third in the Heisman balloting in 1986 (though his stats are not amazing compared to today’s passing game), etc. Deace admitted that the five-spot was debatable and that he had no problem with Cook at five, or other selections.
What do you think of our list? How would your top five look? Let us know below, and next week, we’ll turn our attention to running backs and get our recording issue fixed
The duo had put together a podcast on 5/15, but there were technical issues and the recording will not be salvaged. So this week, we’ll just publish the players and work on fixing our recording issues for next week.
One final caveat; we only go back to 1980 on these lists. That covers the viewing life span of most of the folks who will be reading this item. That’s not to say that players who played prior to 1980 would not be worthy of an ‘All Time’ consideration, just that we didn’t see those players on the field and that makes for more challenging comparisons.
JON MILLER’S LIST
1) Drew Brees: The Big Ten’s All Time leader in passing yards (11,792) and touchdown passes (90)
2) Chuck Long: Though he played his college ball over 30 years ago, Long is still one of the standards for Big Ten passers. He’s Top Seven in both passing yards and touchdown passes from an era that was just beginning to embrace the forward pass. The league was still dominated by Michigan and Ohio State at the time of Long and Iowa’s ascendancy.
3) Troy Smith: The 2006 Heisman Trophy winner threw for 5,720 yards and 54 TD’s in his career and ran for 1,168 yards and 14 touchdowns. He’s the only true quarterback in Big Ten history to win the Heisman Trophy.
4) Russell Wilson: He played just one season in the Big Ten and it was one of the best for any quarterback who ever played the game. He set a single season NCAA record for passing efficiency at 191.8. His 33 touchdown passes in 2011 are third all-time in a single Big Ten season and he did that with just four interceptions. He averaged over 10 yards per passing attempt and a completion percentage of over 72%. It was a stunning season for Wilson.
5) Connor Cook: If you were going to look simply at statistics and success, Cook is a no brainer on this list. He was 34-5 as a starting quarterback, which has to rank among the best marks in league history. He threw for nearly 10,000 yards and his 71 touchdown passes ties Chuck Long for 4th best in league history for a career, to just 22 interceptions. He helped lead the Spartans to three consecutive Top 8 AP Finishes and a Rose Bowl win. There are few quarterbacks in league history to have the resume of individual and team success that Cook put together.
STEVE DEACE’S LIST
1) Drew Brees
2) Chuck Long: Deace said in our damaged recording Sunday night that he could be convinced to put Long at #1
3) Braxton Miller: During our conversation, Deace said that he’d be fine with Troy Smith on this list and in this spot. But there are just two players who have won the Big Ten’s Silver Football award twice; Archie Griffin, who won back to back Heisman’s for Ohio State, and Miller. Were it not for injury, he likely would have won a third and a Heisman and he’d be no worse than third on this list.
4) Russell Wilson: Neither of us knew the other’s picks prior to sending them in, so it was surprising to see that we both had Wilson at #4.
5) Jim Harbaugh: I gave Deace a little grief about this pick in our failed recording, as I could find a handful of quarterbacks who had better statistics than Harbaugh, including two or three Michigan quarterbacks. But he made a convincing debate related to Harbaugh’s gravitas, what he did when he did it. He owned all of the Michigan passing records when he left, he was third in the Heisman balloting in 1986 (though his stats are not amazing compared to today’s passing game), etc. Deace admitted that the five-spot was debatable and that he had no problem with Cook at five, or other selections.
What do you think of our list? How would your top five look? Let us know below, and next week, we’ll turn our attention to running backs and get our recording issue fixed
I'm kidding. I can't remember if it was his Junior or Senior year at NC St. they had 2 or 3 Thursday night games on ESPN I remember thinking to myself this kid is good. When he ended up at Wisconsin I knew he would be good there.
