Mike Goodman
Updated from Aug. 28
Ohio State has a shot at winning it all in college football this year. No, seriously. While we can hear the chuckles in Baton Rouge and Gainesville, whose LSU and Florida teams won the last two national titles at the Buckeyes' expense, Ohio State is loaded for 2008 and returns two of the best players in the country -- running back Chris Wells and linebacker James Laurinaitis. And with their ancient rival Michigan having a new coach and a heavy graduation toll, the Buckeyes are favored to win a record third straight conference title. |
| Ohio State linebacker James Laurinaitis |
ILLINOIS -- The Fighting Illini will look to build on a breakout season in 2007, when they went 9-4 overall, 6-2 in the conference, losing to USC in the Rose Bowl. The highlight of Illinois' season was an impressive victory over No. 1 Ohio State in Columbus. Juice Williams and receiver Aurelious Benn return, although Coach Ron Zook will have to replace running back Rashard Mendenhall, who left for the NFL after his junior year, and rebuild an offensive attack that rushed for 257 yards a game last year.
But Zook, known more for his recruiting skill than anything else, has another talented freshman class coming to Champaign-Urbana. Key players on defense are cornerback Vontae Davis and linebacker Martez Wilson.
Illinois gets Ohio State at home in a bid for a second straight upset, but the team faces tough conference road games at Penn State, Michigan and Wisconsin. Its opener this Saturday vs. No. 6 Missouri in St. Louis is no slouch, either.
INDIANA -- There's reason for optimism in Bloomington. The Hoosiers are coming off their first bowl appearance since 1993 and return veteran players on both sides of the ball. The nation's sack leader, Greg Middleton, is back upfront (although he was suspended for undisclosed reasons for the home opener Saturday vs. Western Kentucky, along with three other players, for undisclosed breaking team rules. On offense, although IU lost 6-foot-7 record-setting receiver James Hardy to the NFL, the man who got him the ball, junior quarterback Kellen Lewis, is back. There is a wrinkle, though. Lewis, also the team's leading rusher last season, recently returned from a suspension for violating team rules. (Lewis later admitted that he had been partying too much and missing classes.) Coach Bill Lynch this week announced that Lewis, who reminds many of the mercurial Hoosier quarterback Antwaan Randle-El, will start. He had been sharing snaps with sophomore Ben Chappell.
Another piece of good news that IU received recently was that Jerimy Finch will be eligible this season. A 6-1, 215-pound safety, Finch played for the Florida Gators in three games last season before breaking his leg after returning an interception against Tennessee. The Indianapolis native, who in his senior year at Warren Central in 2006 was named the No. 1 recruit in the state, transferred to IU and successfully appealed to the NCAA for eligibility this season on undisclosed hardship grounds. He should bring some instant credibility to a Hoosier secondary that also lost Tracy Porter, now in the NFL. The Hoosiers will play eight home games this season at Memorial Stadium, which is being expanded. Their Big Ten schedule does not include Ohio State and Michigan, stirring expectations that IU can improve on last season's 7-5 regular season record and go bowling two years in a row.
IOWA -- All's been mostly quiet this summer in Iowa City, and that's a good thing. A span of the past 17 months that saw 18 Hawkeye players arrested or cited on 23 charges, combined with a second-straight 6-6 finish, has raised the stakes on the nine-year tenure of Kirk Ferentz -- increasingly referred to as "the Big 10's highest-paid coach" (although an updated contract Friday for Ohio State's Jim Tressel will put him in the top spot next year).
While the temperature of Ferentz's seat is up for debate (this is, after all, a university that has employed two head coaches over 29 seasons), there's no question Ferentz needs to a) minimize the off-field embarrassments and b) return to consistently winning football. While this year's edition doesn't appear ready to remind fans of the 2002-05 era that posted a combined Big 10 mark of 25-7, Iowa does have reason to believe it should return to a bowl after a six-season streak of post-season appearances was snapped last year. The strength of recent Hawkeye squads has always been in the trenches, and both lines should be the team's strength.
Last year's offensive line was decimated by graduation and injuries, but that means solid depth returns for 2008. On defense, Mitch King and Matt Kroul anchor the interior line, while bookend sophomores Adrian Clayborn and Christian Ballard are drawing much praise in camp. Iowa also has a pretty manageable schedule: missing Ohio State and Michigan for the second straight year, while getting both Wisconsin and Penn State at home. A Sept. 20 trip to Pittsburgh, a preseason Top 25 team, should give Hawk fans a good measure of how high hopes should get.
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