Big Ten Media Days, Part 1

The Big Ten's media day festivities is a two-day affair.  The first day consists of a rotation of press conferences with each of the 11 coaches, plus Jim Delany.  We only get 15 minutes with each coach, but Delany gives us an hour.  On day two, we get a chance to talk to all the coaches and players assembled one-on-one (or one-on-some).  That's a different column.

Day one started with a video reviewing the officiating points of emphasis.  One of the new rules this year is that the horse collar tackle is illegal.  However, it's only a penalty if the player is brought down immediately with the tackle.  They showed an example where a defender caught the guy behind with the horse collar, but it took him a few steps to get him down.  That is not supposed to be a penalty.  I think that's an odd line to draw.

And, as usual, there is an emphasis on unsportsmanlike conduct.  In short, just about any individual celebration of a play is going to get flagged.  Anything remotely choreographed will get flagged.  Any goose-stepping, flying leap, or other gyrations into the end zone will get flagged.  It won't be long before bands get flagged for playing the fight song.  Some probably should.

The top three teams predicted by the media are Ohio St, Wisconsin and Illinois.  The preseason offensive player of the year is OSU RB Beanie Wells, and on defense, it's Buckeye LB James Laurinaitis.

Generally, everyone in the media agrees that it's OSU and everyone else fighting for second.  Penn St, Michigan, Michigan St and even Purdue are teams mentioned as possible runners up.  Iowa and Northwestern are considered dangerous as well.  Indiana and Minnesota bring up the rear, but neither is truly horrible.

Here are some of the highlights from each coach:

<li>Illinois coach Ron Zook spoke first.  Like everyone (except Purdue's Joe Tiller), he's excited to be here.  That's because he hasn't lost yet.  He is focused, as are his players, on making sure that last year wasn't a fluke.  He thinks his defense could be very good, but his team still has questions.  For example, who will replace Mendenhall and Leman?

He was asked about the biggest difference between playing Missouri this year and playing them last year.  Zook said that last year, the coaches were still trying to teach the team how to win.  This year, they know they can.

<li>Northwestern's Pat Fitzgerald was next.  He spoke about how there were some positives last year, but that they were not satisfied with a six-win season.  He compared it to how things were 13 years ago when he came to NU as a player.  Back then, "if we would have had six wins, we would have had a parade down Central Street, shut it down and had a purple party here in Chicago. Things are changed and I'm excited about that."

There are a lot of new faces around Fitzgerald.  He has new coordinators on both sides of the ball, and a new boss in AD Jim Phillips, who Fitzgerald called "a great role model for sleep deprivation."  But QB CJ Bacher and RB Tyrell Sutton are back, so NU figures to score a lot of points.

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