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The Clutch-est Final Scoring Drive with YOUR Big Ten School

We pick who we want marching our offenses to victory, who would YOU want for YOUR school?

By now, dozens of you have probably seen this prompt going around College Football Twitter

Just like last week and many times before that, we here at OTE welcome any opportunity to turn someone else’s idea in hashtag content, especially in this time of absolutely zero new sports results and as we approach the end of Pandemic Spring Break Week 2.

Who’s Your Final Drive Team?

Jesse Collins — Nebraska Cornhuskers

  • QB - Adrian Martinez (probably)
  • RB - Ameer Abdullah
  • TE - I’m cheating and saying Niles Paul
  • WR - JD Spielman, Jordan Westerkamp, and Kenny Bell.

Ed. note: In case you forgot, Kenny Bell is this guy:

Targeting

Why Adrian Martinez? 20 years has been rough. Joe Ganz maybe? But Martinez has the best late game credentials. No love for T-Magic? Did he put one late game drive together?

Andrew K — Michigan State Spartans:

  • QB - Connor Cook
  • RB - Le’Veon Bell
  • TE - Kellen Davis
  • WR - Charles Rogers, Aaron Burbridge, BJ Cunningham

This was a really interesting exercise, helped distract me from keeping our asshole dog away from our new adoptee. For MSU’s QB, you could make arguments for Smoker, Stanton, Cousins or Cook.

TE wasn’t an easy call either, but more because MSU didn’t have a clear superstar there, just a decent number of pretty good dudes - Davis, Gantt, Sims, Price.

The only other RB I’d really consider is TJ Duckett, who’s part in this range and part out of it. Ringer got big numbers but needed super high volume. Langford brought home the most hardware, but if this is for one drive and I need to score, I’ll take the guy who’s maybe the best receiving back anywhere in the conference for the past 20 years AND probably the best yard-wringer in Bell.

WR, I think Rogers and Cunningham are no-doubters; the third guy could be Burbridge, Tony Lippett, Devin Thomas, maybe even Blair White. MSU’s been up and down over the last 20 years but it hasn’t been because of a shortage of great offensive skill guys

Andrew K — also Michigan Wolverines

  • QB - Chad Henne
  • RB - Mike Hart
  • TE - Jake Butt
  • WR - Braylon Edwards, Mario Manningham, Jeremy Gallon

Andrew K — also Penn State Nittany Lions

Andrew K - sorta Ohio State Buckeyes

  • QB - Troy Smith (hesitant)

Stewmonkey13 — Iowa Hawkeyes

  • QB - Drew Tate
  • RB - Shonn Greene
  • TE - Dallas Clark
  • WR - Marvin McNutt, Eddie Hinkle, Darrel Johnson-Koulianis

Boilerman31 — Purdue Boilermakers

  • QB - Drew Brees
  • RB - Kory Sheets
  • TE - Dustin Keller
  • WR - Rondal Moore, Taylor Stubblefield, John Standeford

MNWlidcat — Northwestern Wildcats

  • QB - Dan Persa
  • RB - Justin Jackson the Ball Carrier
  • SB - Drake Dunsmore
  • WR - Jeremy Ebert, Austin Carr, Sam Simmons

DJ Carver — Maryland Terrapins

  • QB - Shaun Hill
  • RB - Anthony McFarland
  • TE - Vernon Davis
  • WR - Stefon Diggs, Torrey Smith, DJ Moore (super close with Heyward-Bey)

Candystripes — Indiana Hoosiers

  • QB - Antwaan Randel-El
  • RB - Tevin Coleman
  • TE - Ted Bolser
  • WR - James Hardy, Cody Latimer, Tandon Doss

You could easily swap a few names around at receiver and still assemble a quality crew.

MC ClapYoHandz — Wisconsin Badgers

  • QB - Russell Wilson
  • RB - Melvin Gordon
  • TE - Travis Beckum
  • WR - Lee Evans, Jared Abbrederis, Quintez Cephus

The debate on this is rough. There’s like 5 arguments at RB and, surprisingly, TE. I was very close to picking James White. He got a respect “1A” nod for a bit his senior year when it was clear young Melvin Gordon(?) was breaking out. But he’s probably the most versatile, him or Ball.

These guys somehow all played for Wisconsin at the same time

Thumpasaurus — Illinois Fighting Illini

  • QB - Nathan Scheelhaase
  • RB - Rashard Mendenhall
  • TE - Michael Ho’omanawanui
  • WR - Brandon Lloyd, Arrelious Benn, Mike Dudek

I don’t think there’s any debate for Illinois at any position other than QB. I choose Nate over Juice and Kittner because Rashard is better with an option QB, but Nate made more sound decisions with the ball

WhiteSpeedReceiver — Minnesota Golden Gophers

  • QB - Tanner Morgan
  • RB - Laurence Maroney
  • TE - Maxx Williams
  • WR - Rashod Bateman, Erick Decker, Tyler Johnson

87townie - Penn State Nittany Lions

  • QB - Trace McSorley
  • RB - Saquon Barkely
  • TE - Mike Gesicki
  • WR - Chris Godwin, Saeed Blacknall

I’m going with a real team: QB: McSorley, RB: Barkley, WR: Chris Godwin and Saeed Blacknall, TE: Mike Gesicki. That offense, holy hell. If we’d only had an O-Line worth a damn.


Who do you want on your all-last-20-years team when you’re down 5 and have to go 80 yards with 3 minutes left? Let us know in the comments.

Poll

If I had MY ideal last-20-years team for the final drive, I’d feel ________________________.

This poll is closed

  • 52%
    supremely confident
    (119 votes)
  • 29%
    optimistic
    (66 votes)
  • 6%
    still nervous
    (14 votes)
  • 6%
    still as if defeat is surely coming
    (15 votes)
  • 5%
    still drunk
    (13 votes)
227 votes total Vote Now