Big 10 cellar ... who do you have?

H

homerHAWKeye777

Well-Known Member
I'm currently split between Illinois and Minnesota. Both teams are arguably more talented than Indiana ... however, the fact that Minny basically features an "all new" D and the fact that Illinois starts a RS FR QB and has gotten gutted by injuries and attrition leads me to believe that they're each a bit more likely to end up in the cellar.

Besides, as strange as it sounds, I actually think that Bill Lynch is a better coach than either Zook or Brewster.

If I was forced to guess ... my guess for the 2010 Big 10 cellar dwellar would probably be the Illini.
 
As much as I despise all things illannoy, I think Indiana will be the most epic of this year's B10 FB fails.
My bottom three are:
9. illannoy
10. Minnesota
11. Indiana

I won't speculate as to conference and overall records. But I will proffer that by only by the breadth of a human hair will these three be separated. :cool:
 
homerHAWKeye777 said:
I'm currently split between Illinois and Minnesota. Both teams are arguably more talented than Indiana ... however, the fact that Minny basically features an "all new" D and the fact that Illinois starts a RS FR QB and has gotten gutted by injuries and attrition leads me to believe that they're each a bit more likely to end up in the cellar.

Besides, as strange as it sounds, I actually think that Bill Lynch is a better coach than either Zook or Brewster.

If I was forced to guess ... my guess for the 2010 Big 10 cellar dwellar would probably be the Illini.
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I don't think that's strange at all. Lynch is a VERY good coach who's stuck at a school where you just aren't going to elevate above 8 wins, and even that won't be consistent. But I really like him as a coach, just like I really liked Hoepp when he was there.

Now, back to the original question. I think Minnesota finishes last. Their defense just isn't good (and Theret is suspended, I think? He's one of their best defenders), and replacing Decker is asking a lot. Weber I think will have a pretty decent year, since this is his 2nd year in the system. But he's not going to have a game-breaking WR.

And Illinois will surprise (I mean that relatively). Scheelhause has some talent, and he's got a couple backs to take pressure off of him in Ford/LeShoure. I also think that Jarrod Fayson finally lives up to the hype and gives them the gamebreaker on the outside that even Benn wasn't (Fayson has much better speed). Their defense will be pretty bad, but will benefit from getting Martez Wilson back. Good enough to finish 10th, at any rate.
 
I think it's going to end up being the Illini. I think the injuries and departures they have had are going to be the last nail in the coffin for Zook. I could actually see them promoting Pelini to head coach. It's just something I could see Guenther doing.
 
Oh dude, Lynch is a perfectly fine coach. Hell, compared to those other two boners, he's freaking Vince Lombardi wearing Bear Bryant's hat & Eddie Robinson's... uh... belt? Anyway, that's not an outlandish thing to say at all.

My cellar I guess would look like this:
9. Michigan
10. MINNESOTA TRY GOPHERS GO TREMENDOUS!!
11. The Fightin' Zookers (which sadly will likely mean he's done. Unless the state can't afford his buyout, in which case hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahaha).
 
Honestly I don't think either Zook or Brewster could coach himself out of a paper bag. That said it will be a sad day when the end of the season comes and neither of them have jobs. I'd bet they're both living in someone's cellar at the end of the season.
 
burky247 said:
I think it's going to end up being the Illini. I think the injuries and departures they have had are going to be the last nail in the coffin for Zook. I could actually see them promoting Pelini to head coach. It's just something I could see Guenther doing.
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Do you mean Petrino?
 
tm3308 said:
And Illinois will surprise (I mean that relatively). Scheelhause has some talent, and he's got a couple backs to take pressure off of him in Ford/LeShoure. I also think that Jarrod Fayson finally lives up to the hype and gives them the gamebreaker on the outside that even Benn wasn't (Fayson has much better speed). Their defense will be pretty bad, but will benefit from getting Martez Wilson back. Good enough to finish 10th, at any rate.
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I agree that Scheelhaase has talent ... however, he's also a newbie leading a pretty sophisticated O. Furthermore, it's an O that leans pretty heavily upon TEs ... and the Illini are grossly lacking when it comes to experience at TE. The Illini's Jenkins and Fayson certainly have talent ... however, your production is only going to be so good when you have a newbie passing to you.

Lastly, the Illini OL had to replace 3 starters ... and they don't have nearly the reputation when it comes to developing O-linemen that we have. While the Illini have some quality RBs ... their RBs are also now working within a newer system. If you watched their top RB last year, he was a guy who broke most of his big runs to the outside. Against decent run Ds ... he's not going to have a whole lot of success with the interior run. Thus, this then pretty much only leaves runs to the outside again. That can make things easier on Ds because they can then use the sideline as an extra defender.

I agree that Minnesota has the potential to be pretty bad. However, they're at least returning a lot more experience on O. And, on the D side of the ball, they're not contending with guys in the secondary who have only been learning the D for a week. Besides, I think that Minny has a few good LBs ... and they have some quality guys on the DL too.
 
I'm taking a flyer and going w/ UM. They also have a coach that seems to have his head firmly supplanted up his butt, not to mention very, very questionable ethics. I also think they could very easily lose their 1st 2 games against UConn and ND, and at least 3 of their first 4 conference games against IU, MSU, IA and PSU. And don't forget IU played them very tough last season in Ann Arbor, so I could see UM losing their first 4 conference games, and the wheels completely fall off the cart. IU should also be good on offense, and defense should likely be UM's achilles. I just have a feeling UM could tank at any moment, and maybe they're the poster boy for head coaching leadership being reflected in players. Then again UM could somehow shock all of us and all DickRod's recruits could somehow morph into studs. Also, it's really, really tough to be as bad as the Zooker and Brewster, and you'd almost have to try to be as sad as those 2 meatheads. And I'll admit I'm conflicted on UM - part of me wants them to do well enough to keep DickRod around - not any more than 7-8 wins and of course a loss to IA, but just good enough to keep DickRod employed. The other part of me wants them to completely tank, just to shut some people up re the divisional alignment issue and UM being a "traditional power."
 
homerHAWKeye777 said:
I agree that Scheelhaase has talent ... however, he's also a newbie leading a pretty sophisticated O. Furthermore, it's an O that leans pretty heavily upon TEs ... and the Illini are grossly lacking when it comes to experience at TE.

Huh? I thought a big reason CJ Fed changed his mind was because Illinois DIDN'T use the tight end enough.
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hawkdrummer1 said:
homerHAWKeye777 said:
I agree that Scheelhaase has talent ... however, he's also a newbie leading a pretty sophisticated O. Furthermore, it's an O that leans pretty heavily upon TEs ... and the Illini are grossly lacking when it comes to experience at TE.

Huh? I thought a big reason CJ Fed changed his mind was because Illinois DIDN'T use the tight end enough.
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Illinois tight ends had a total of 3 receptions for 36 yards and no TD's... 2009 Year total.


Compare that to 45 receptions for 533 yards and 5 touchdowns for Hawkeye tight ends last year.

Illinois NEVER uses the tight end and CJ knew what he was doing when left the fighting zookers.
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hawkdrummer1 said:
homerHAWKeye777 said:
I agree that Scheelhaase has talent ... however, he's also a newbie leading a pretty sophisticated O. Furthermore, it's an O that leans pretty heavily upon TEs ... and the Illini are grossly lacking when it comes to experience at TE.

Huh? I thought a big reason CJ Fed changed his mind was because Illinois DIDN'T use the tight end enough.
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That was the case with their former offense. Petrino(got it right that time) uses the tight end quite a bit in his offense though.
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Illini, Minn then IU. Illini is garbage. I bet jason ford kicks himself in the rear everyday for going to Illinois. lol
 
9. Indiana (2-6)
10. Illinois (1-7)
11. Minnesota (1-7)

That said, I think IU gets to a bowl b/c of their embarrassing non-conference schedule.
 
hawkdrummer1 said:
homerHAWKeye777 said:
I agree that Scheelhaase has talent ... however, he's also a newbie leading a pretty sophisticated O. Furthermore, it's an O that leans pretty heavily upon TEs ... and the Illini are grossly lacking when it comes to experience at TE.
Click to expand...

Huh? I thought a big reason CJ Fed changed his mind was because Illinois DIDN'T use the tight end enough.
Click to expand...

CJ Fed changed his mind because the Illini program was simply embarrassing. CJ seemed to really like Zook ... but it really seemed rather apparent that Zook would be on his way out sooner rather than later.

Also, Zook and Co had told him that their prior OC really wanted to emphasize TEs more too ... however, they still used the Zooker's prior O and they actually ended up using their TEs LESS than usual in '09. Anyhow, I'm sure that when Zook told CJ that they'd be using the TE more under Petrino ... CJ probably felt that he'd heard that one before.

What is especially telling is that when CJ was at Illinois, it wasn't even on his agenda to speak to the Illini TEs. In contrast, when CJ visited Iowa, he spoke at length to Moeaki and Moeaki clearly explained to him how central the TEs were in Iowa's O.

CJ had been high on Iowa all along ... however, when he committed to Illinois, it was more of a knee-jerk reaction because he liked the coaches and his new buddy Whitmer had pulled the trigger there. However, as time passed, CJ decided that he wanted to play for a squad that would 1) win, 2) enjoy coaching continuity, and 3) feature its TEs.
 
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