Big Ten Football: The 10 Most Surprisingly Disappointing Players in the Big Ten

The Big Ten Conference as a whole has struggled this season. Right now only two teams from the conference are ranked in the BCS Top 25—Nebraska at 14 and Michigan at 20—and the conference will not fill their eight bowl tie-ins.

In fact with one week remaining the conference needs Purdue to beat Indiana and Michigan State—one of the preseason favorites to win the conference—to beat Minnesota to even fill seven of their eight spots. In other words, it is possible that the Big Ten could fail to fill three of their bowl spots.

That is largely due to the success of the conference's two bowl ineligible teams that have combined to go 12-2 in conference play, making it harder for the other teams to find wins.

One of the main reasons the conference has struggled so much this season is that some of its returning stars have regressed and some of its highest rated recruits have never developed.

Here is a look at ten of the many Big Ten players that have been surprisingly disappointing in 2012.

*Stats come from the Big Ten Conference website.

Denard Robinson, Michigan

Denard Robinson is having the best season of any player following him on this list. Robinson will likely earn, at least, a spot on the Big Ten's Honorable Mention All-Conference list. However, he was supposed to be a Heisman candidate and lead Michigan to a Big Ten title.

The Big Ten title is still in play, as Michigan has to beat Ohio State, which is possible. But then the Wolverines would need Iowa to upset Nebraska, and that doesn't seem likely. Even if that did happen, Michigan would still need to beat Wisconsin in the title game.

Even if Michigan did catch some breaks and win the conference crown, it would likely be behind their new QB Devin Gardner. He has taken the helm for Michigan after Robinson's nerve injury in his right elbow against Nebraska.

The injury isn't the only set back for Robinson.

Robinson has combined to complete just 30-of-61 passes with one TD and six interceptions in the three games against ranked opponents. Not coincidentally, those are the three games Michigan has lost this season. Overall, Robinson has completed 53.6 percent of his passes for 9 TDs and 9 INTs.

While Robinson is again piling up big rushing numbers—116 yards a game and 1,044 on the season—he did not have success on the ground against ranked teams. Against Alabama Robinson had 26 yards on ten carries. Against Notre Dame he had 90 yards on 26 carries, and before the injury against Nebraska he had 46 yards on ten carries. In those three games, he rushed for just one TD.  

William Gholston, Michigan State

As with Denard Robinson, William Gholston's inclusion on this list has more to do with expectations coming into the season, than poor play on the field.

The 6'7'' junior came into the season with the expectations of being a First-Team All-Big Ten performer and a possible first-round draft pick in the 2013 NFL Draft. But those two achievements are looking less and less likely with each passing week, and his stock seems to be dropping.

Gholston does have 46 tackles, 10 tackles for loss and 8 passes defended. But it's the 2.5 sacks that have Gholston on this list.

The Michigan State defense has been solid for Mark Dantonio, and some of the credit belongs to Gholston. However, for the Spartans to have had a successful season, the defense needed to create more turnovers and give their lackluster offense more short fields.

The Spartans are ninth in the Big Ten in sacks and 10th in takeaways, rankings that should be higher with a player like Gholston attacking the opposing QBs.

Nathan Scheelhaase, Illinois

Murphy's Law has been in full effect for Illinois and Nathan Scheelhaase. Scheelhaase got hurt in the first game of the season and missed the next two games against Arizona State and Charleston Southern. But Illinois and Scheelhaase cannot blame their horrible season on a high ankle sprain.

Illinois is 2-9 and 0-7 in Big Ten play, and their highly-touted junior QB is a big reason why. 

As a freshman and sophomore, Scheelhaase led the Fighting Illini to back-to-back 7-6 finishes. The result was Ron Zook being fired and Tim Beckman replacing him.

With Scheelhaase at QB and what was supposed to be a solid defense, Illinois hoped to be able to take advantage of Ohio State and Penn State being ineligible to win the Leaders Division and challenge Wisconsin for a spot in the Big Ten title game.

Instead, the defense has been shredded on a weekly basis and Scheelhaase has been more of a no-threat than a dual-threat QB. He has scored only eight TDs—four passing and four rushing. More surprisingly, he is averaging only 2.4 yards a carry and an incredibly low 5.5 yards a completion.

Jake Stoneburner, Ohio State

When Urban Meyer was hired by Ohio State, everyone who had seen the 2011 Buckeyes knew Braxton Miller would explode onto the national scene. Most of those same people expected Jake Stoneburner, an athletic tight end, to benefit greatly from the coaching change.

Aaron Hernandez—a versatile tight end coached by Meyer at Florida—comparisons started immediately after people learned Stoneburner would be playing for Meyer.

However, none of that has happened. Stoneburner started the season at tight end and moved to the slot. Other than his big TD catch against Penn State, Stoneburner has been just another slot receiver in Ohio State's rotation.

Stoneburner is third on the team in receptions, with 15, and yards, with 260, to go with his four TD catches, but those numbers are nowhere near what Buckeye fans expected.

James Vandenberg, Iowa

James Vandenberg was supposed to be the best pure passer in the Big Ten this season, following the graduation of Kirk Cousins and Russell Wilson. Unfortunately for Iowa, that has not been the case.

Expectations for Vandenberg started to rise back in 2009 when, as a freshman filling for the injured Ricky Stanzi, he nearly led Iowa to a win at Ohio State. As a sophomore, Vandenberg once again backed-up Stanzi. 

As a junior last season, Vanderberg threw for over 3,000 yards and 25 TDs. As a senior, he hasn't come close to matching his success. 

Vandenberg didn't throw a TD until Week 3 and didn't have a two-TD game until last week against Michigan. He also hasn't had a game in which he has thrown for over 300 yards this season.

Overall, he has only thrown for 2,157 yards and 7 TDs with 6 INTs. The Hawkeyes have already lost seven games, meaning Friday against Nebraska will be the last time Vandenberg will don a Hawkeye uniform.

Brett Maher, Nebraska

In Nebraska's first season in the Big Ten, their kicker, Brett Maher, won the inaugural Eddleman-Fields Punter of the Year Award and the inaugural Bakken-Andersen Kicker of the Year Award.

Needless to say, the Cornhuskers two-way kicker had quite a year in 2011. As a result, he was picked to repeat as the winner of both awards. But Maher's 2012 season hasn't gone as smoothly as his 2011 season.

Maher has been perfect on his 50 PATs, while leading all Big Ten kickers in scoring with 98 points. However, the senior kicker has missed six field goal attempts and is 16-of-22 on the season. Maher also has the longest field goal by any Big Ten kicker in 2012; he booted  a 54-yarder against UCLA.

Unfortunately for Maher, Northwestern kicker Jeff Budzien has only missed one kick and could possibly unseat Maher as the conference's best kicker.

Likewise, after leading the conference in punting average last season with a 44.5 yards per punt average, Maher has dropped to fifth in the conference this season. His average has dipped to 41.6 yards per punt, while Michigan's Will Hagerup and Michigan State's Mike Sadler have upped their averages over 43 yards a punt. 

Fitzgerald Toussaint, Michigan

Fitzgerald Toussaint finished the 2011 season, his sophomore season, on a tear. He rushed for 818 yards in conference play, which was good for fourth. That stretch helped him eclipse the 1,000-yard mark and bring high expectations for his junior season.

Sadly for Michigan and Toussaint, his season likely ended last Saturday with a leg injury against Iowa. However, even before his injury, he was not having the All-Big Ten season many expected him to have.

Toussaint is second on the team in rushing, behind Denard Robinson, but only rushed for 514 yards and 5 TDs in 10 games. If you compare his numbers in conference play last season to his numbers this season, Toussaint rushed for just half as many yards a game as he did last season as a starter.

Curtis Grant, Ohio State

Curtis Grant was supposed to be the answer for Ohio State at middle linebacker. He beat out returning starter Storm Klein in the spring and was garnering praise from the coaching staff entering the season.

Surprisingly for Grant, his time on the field only lasted a few games. Grant started in Ohio State's base defense against Miami (OH) and Central Florida. After he struggled, Grant started to rotate with Klein in the following two games against Cal and UAB.

Then Klein—who had missed fall camp due a suspension—replaced Grant completely against Michigan State and Nebraska.

When Klein and another starter, Etienne Sabino, got injured before the Indiana game, Ohio State coaches didn't go back to Grant, instead they moved senior fullback Zach Boren to middle linebacker.

Grant—a highly-rated prospect out of Virginia—is young and there is still a lot of hope that he can come along and help the Buckeyes the next two seasons, but his eight tackles this season are clearly not what the Buckeyes had hoped for.

MarQueis Gray, Minnesota

Minnesota didn't have high expectations for their season this year, but QB/WR MarQueis Gray was supposed to be their standout. The once highly-rated high school QB has never panned out for the Golden Gophers, leaving Jerry Kill looking for a star to carry them back to relevance. 

Gray has missed two games due to a sprained ankle and has been limited in other games due to his ankle. But nonetheless he just hasn't had the season he was supposed to have.

As a sophomore, Gray was second on the team in receptions and receiving yards, while also backing up Adam Weber at QB. 

Last season Gray became the QB of the Golden Gophers and led the team in rushing and passing. The junior rushed for 966 yards and six TDs while throwing for nearly 1,500 yards and eight more scores.

Those numbers were supposed to increase, but instead Gray has only managed 327 yards on the ground, 464 passing and 121 receiving. Combined he has been responsible for 10 TDs—5 rushing and 5 passing—in another disappointing year for Minnesota.

Kyle Prater, Northwestern

Kyle Prater is another former high school All-American that hasn't panned out, yet. 

Prater redshirted the 2010 season at USC. He battled injuries in 2011 and only had one catch for six yards. He then transferred to Northwestern for this season.

Prater was supposed to be one of the key targets for QBs Kain Colter and Trevor Siemian, but instead Prater has only caught eight passes for 41 yards and no TDs. He hasn't had a multiple catch game since Week 2 against Vanderbilt when he hauled in three passes for 24 yards.

Prater, a redshirt sophomore, still has two years to reach the level of play he was expected to reach after being named the No. 3 player in the 2010 high school class by Rivals. But so far in his career, he has been surprisingly disappointing.