Ohio State & Penn State: The Two Man League?

Although there is more depth in The Big Ten Conference like Iowa, Michigan State, and Illinois, I think it still comes down to the "Big Two", Ohio State and Penn State. Why are we ruling out Iowa, Michigan State, and Illinois from consideration to win The Big Ten? Lets start with Iowa, shall we?

 Iowa lost star running back Shonne Greene, but they still have a great defense from last year that allowed only 13 points per game and 9.2 points per game in their wins. Why aren't they thrown into the mix? Their schedule is too hard. They play at Penn State, at Wisconsin, at Michigan State, at Ohio State, and they host Arizona and Michigan. So Iowa is out of consideration. What about Illinois?

Illinois' wide recievers are going to be great, especially with junior Arrellious Benne. They have star quarter back Juice Williams who has seen improvment every year he plays.

Why won't they win The Big Ten Conference? Juice was sacked more times than any other QB in the league last year. With a beat up offensive line and occasional "stupid" mistakes from Juice Williams, they are going to turn the ball over a good amount to good, explosive Big Ten offenses. Well, sometimes they are good and explosive. Not only that, but they play at Ohio State and Cincinatti, aginst Missouri, Penn State, Michigan State, and Fresno State. I am going to rule them out for considertion to win The Big Ten.

Now, how about Michigan State? Michigan State has to find something that they are really good at. I found them an average team last year. Their offense was above average last year, but with key losses in Javon Ringer and Brian Hoyer, it will be hard to bring back together the explosive offense they had. I really liked how they found ways to win like aginst Wisconsin and Iowa. Other teams could have thrown in the towel while MSU refused to. On defense, the line backer corp should be great starting with Greg Jones and Eric Gordon. DE Trevor Anderson, CB Chris Rucker, and FS Danny Fortener should make this defense complete.

I still don't think they will be able to compete with Ohio State or Penn State, where they both are going to have two explosive offenses and good defenses. I see Michigan State going far, but not far enough.

Why do I see Ohio State and Penn State being the "Big Two" and going at it for The Big Ten Title? Let's start with Penn State.

Penn State, the defending Big Ten Champions, are returning arguably the best RB and QB in The Big Ten, Darryll Clark and Evan Royster. They lost three superb recievers in Derrick Williams, Deon Butler, and Jordan Norwood, but they have replacments in Graham Zug, Bret Bracket, Chaz Powell, and Derek Moye. Though they do lose some star power, their defense should be studly. Put aside the loss of Aaron Maybin, they are stacked. With line backers Navorrow Bowmen, Sean Lee, defensive tackle Jared Odrick, and corner back A.J. Wallace and Knowledge Timmons, their D will be among the best in the country. While their safeties are promising, their pass defense could be a little iff-y, but I have confidence in it.

Ohio State may have the most explossive offense in The Big Ten Conference this year. With quarter back Terrelle Pryor who is now more experianced and a MUCH beter thrower, their passing game should go from one of the worst last year, to one of the best. Not to mention the recievers he will be throwing to in Dane Sanzenbacher, DiVier Posey, Lamaar Thomas, Taurian Washington, Ray Small, Jake Ballard, and freshman wide recievers like Duron Carter, their passing game could be #1 in the conference. Rushing-wise, they lose Beanie and Maurice Wells, but still have "Boom" Herron, Brandon Saine, and freshman Jamaal Berry, running the ball shouldn't be ard either.

Ohio State's defense should be good, although young. They still have Kurt Coleman and Anderson Russell at the safety spot, but with losses at Malcolm Jenkins, Donald Washington, James Laurinaitis, and Marcus Freeman, it appears the OSU defense is crippled. Not neccessarily. They have great strength at the D-line with Thaddeus Gibson, Cmaeron Heyward, Doug Worthington, and Dexter Larimore, they are strong there. At linebacker they wil have Austin Spitler, Ross Homan, Brian Rolle, Etienne Sabiano, and true-freshman Dorian Bell. At defensive back they have Andre Amos, Chimdi Chekwa, Kurt Coleman, Anderson Russell, Corey Brown, Devon Torrence, and Aaron Grant.

With that, it seems like it boils down to Penn State and Ohio State on November 7th. The winner of that game will almost certainly win The Big Ten Title. The defenses will prevail once again, but the true battle will be between sophomore QB Terrelle Pryor of Ohio State and senior QB Darryll Clark for Penn State. I give Clark the edge in the QB battle, but Ohio State the edge in the real game. Why?

I think Ohio State's offense may be a tad better with a better wide reciever corp and seemingly even quarter backs with Penn State. Ohio State's rushing game might be a little better than PSUs with Boom, Saine, and Berry. Penn State loses some key O-lineman. On the defensive side of the ball, never doubt the OSU defense. Period.

In the end, the other teams in the conference just can't compete with OSU and PSU. So, we will all see what happens November 7th, 2009, in Happy Valley when the Buckeyes and Nittany Lions clash!