Big Ten football officially started yesterday when Indiana began their fall practices. In case you're wondering: no, no one wrote about Indiana starting fall practice on any medium so we're not really sure it really happened. Iowa and Ohio State begin practice today; MSU, Minnesota, Nebraska and Purdue begin tomorrow; and Illinois, Michigan, Northwestern, PSU and Wisconsin wait until Monday. Here's a list of things to watch for over the weekend:
- Will an Iowa have a real horizontal time under Greg Davis?"
LET'S HAVE A REAL HORIZONTAL TIME LET'S HAVE A REAL HORIZONTAL TIME LET'S HAVE A REAL HORIZONTAL TIME
- Will Braxton Miller throw a pass without saying to himself "Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh shit. Fuck it I'M GOING DEEP"?
- Will Michigan State players make it back in time from their "business trip" in Madison?
- Will Minnesota stop staring at the Floyd of Rosedale long enough to actually practice for more than 3 minutes?
- Will Taylor Martinez continue to "impress" the Nebraska media with his "progression"? LOL.
- Will Purdue get their QB situation figured out or will they continue to utilize a system that has NEVER WORKED FOR ANYBODY?
A visual representation of what's wrong with Purdue's QB system.
We hope to bring you answers to a few of these questions by Monday. On to the links.
Team Links:
- Although he has left Penn State and is now wearing an Illini jersey, enrolled in classes at Illinois and has been seen walking around the Illinois campus, Tim Beckman cannot absolutely confirm that Ryan Nowicki has officially transferred to Illinois.
- A Lion Eye continues its countdown with offensive lineman Tyler Sands.
- The Criminal Quarry breaks down the Hoosiers week 3 opponent: Ball State.
- Marc Morehouse has more on the Twitter ban at Iowa and other schools.
- BHGP continues counting down the top 25 wins of the Ferentz era with IIowa vs. Penn State in 2002. (Iowa won, as usual)
- Michigan DE Frank Clark has waived his "laptop hearing" according to CBS. I wasn't aware "laptop hearings" were actual things.
- MGoBlog breaks down the numbers for Michigan in 2012. It's not just recruiting...it's basically a breakdown of the entire team.
- The Only Colors has 5 storylines for the Spartans in fall camp.
- Chris Petersen considers Michigan State as the Broncos' most challenging opponent of the 2012 season. In other news, water is wet.
- FBT asks whether former cornerback Brock Vereen will succeed at safety.
- A collection of Tweets and the transcript from Jerry Kill's fall camp press conference.
- Nebraska hopes to get tight end Kyler Reed back to full form after an injury plagued 2011.
- 5 storylines for the Huskers in fall camp.
- Nothing in this post has anything to do with football but whenever there's an update from Bring Your Champions, They're Our Meat you have to read it.
- Lake the Posts looks at the fresh blood (recruits) for the 2012 season.
- Ohio State RB Bri'onte Dunn has "pleaded innocent" to his disorderly conduct charge. I wasn't aware "pleading innocent" was a thing. I always thought it was "not guilty." Some great headlines from CBS Sports.
- 11 Warriors with a roundtable on Ohio State football.
- BSD looks at Nebraska as a school and as a football team.
- Purdue picks up a new recruit in Austin Logan.
- Hammer & Railes profiles kicker Thomas Meadows.
- Montee Ball will miss the first part of fall camp.
- Adam Rittenberg names Jared Abbrederis as the 21st best player in the Big Ten.
- Montee ball denies ever being in a fight a week before his unprovoked assault. Sounds like some people (TMZ...if you actually want to call them people) are trying to turn "unprovoked attack" into "retaliation."
Conference Links:
- ESPN's Big Ten Thursday mailbag.
- The BTN Tour shows have been moved around and here's the new schedule. Iowa kicks off the series on August 9th at 9PM CT.
- ESPN's Big Ten blog ranks the conference's best linebackers. Gerald Hodges comes in at #1.
- Rounds 5 and 6 of the Big Ten writers' 2012 Mock Draft. Lots of kickers taken.
- ESPN's B1G Blog is looking at the "signage" for every Big Ten team. Here's what they've got so far: Iowa, Indiana and Illinois. We cannot confirm that Illinois' new motto is ONE although all football personnel are definitely wearing bracelets that say ONE on them.
- The latest Big Ten Q&A with Adam Jacobi.
Finally, LOL at this guy and his video:
This might be my favorite thing ever. This guy has no idea what he's talking about: youtube.com/watch?v=_u-Yjq…
— Smart Football (@smartfootball) August 3, 2012