Big Ten Football Q&A: Who Would Win a Conference Battle Royal?
Welcome to the Big Ten Q&A, a new weekly feature aimed at interacting with you, the reader, so that we can all help the offseason move along a little faster.
The format is simple: You ask the questions, and I'll do my best to provide the answers. Each Thursday this offseason I'll take your inquiries for the next day's mailbag, which you can send my way on Twitter at @BenAxelrod.
Feel free to keep the questions light-hearted, interesting or pick my brain about the upcoming season so that you can shove my surely wrong prediction back in my face later this year. There will only be room for so much space in each mailbag to answer so many questions, so do your best to make your question stand out.
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
Without further adieu, let's get this thing started. In today's Q&A, we'll tackle the always popular recruiting rankings, the league's surprise team to watch, the preseason conference player of the year front-runner and who would win a Big Ten battle royal?
My original plan was to actually make a complete, 14-coach tournament to respond to this question with, but that could lead to a lot of uncomfortable conversations with some of the coaches I cover and quite frankly, would take too much time.
So in the spirit of WrestleMania season, I'm changing this question to "Who would win a Big Ten coaches battle royal?" And let's be honest, much like Larry Bird in the 1986 three-point contest, everybody else would be playing for second place.
After all, who can even come close to matching the grittiness of Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh, who once suffered a broken hand during his NFL career for punching then-broadcaster Jim Kelly? Harbaugh's epic sideline temper tantrums also display the type of contorting ability that would make him a tough catch for any other head coach to throw over the top rope.
Add in that Harbaugh has already been an advocate of bringing Ann Arbor a WrestleMania, and it's tough to disagree that he'd be the odds-on-favorite in a 14-coach Big Ten battle royal. Minnesota coach Tracy Claeys might be a good value bet due to his weight, but if Harbaugh could find some allies to help get him over the top rope, the Wolverines could then quickly dissolve his short-lived friendships.
Another strong candidate would be Michigan State's Mark Dantonio, who probably wants this battle royal to actually happen now that it's been written about, and he's been counted out. But as Harbaugh's friend Ric Flair says, to be the man, you have to beat the man—and right now, that man is Harbaugh.
Let me answer your question with a question: Are we sure Ohio State had the best class in the Big Ten this year?
Every major recruiting service would tell you it did, with the 247Sports composite rankings slotting the Buckeyes' 2016 class fourth in the nation. Scout.com is placing Ohio State's latest haul second, and Rivals.com is ranking it third.
But regardless of where the Buckeyes find themselves on each service's rankings list, the common thread is that rival Michigan isn't usually far behind. The 247 composite ranks the Wolverines' 2016 class fifth, Scout says sixth and Rivals measures Michigan in at fourth.
At that point, there isn't really much of a difference, especially when considering the makeup of each team's recruiting class is based more on the program's needs than anything else. It'd be tough to argue both Ohio State and Michigan didn't accomplish that, and personally, I'd favor the Wolverines when it came to the top end of their class—Rashan Gary, Ben Bredeson, Brandon Peters and Kareem Walker—but take the Buckeyes when it came to the quality of their depth.
After that, everybody in the conference was playing for third during this past recruiting cycle, although I do find both Penn State's and Nebraska's classes intriguing. Anytime you can add the nation's top running back, as the Nittany Lions did with Miles Sanders, it's something worth keeping an eye on, and it was telling to me that head coach Mike Riley was able to secure a top-25 class despite accumulating just a 5-7 record in his first season in Lincoln.
The disappointment of the group to me was Michigan State, which appeared poised to land a top-10 class before ultimately finishing with the nation's No. 22 haul. That, however, is still good for the highest-ranking class of Dantonio's career in East Lansing, which is a little crazy to think about when you consider what he's already accomplished with less highly touted talent.
But in the end, the Big Ten's 2016 recruiting rankings came down to Ohio State, Michigan and everybody else. Which was more impressive between the Buckeyes' and Wolverines' classes is likely a matter of preference—and even then, you're probably splitting hairs.
When I first set out for questions, this was probably the most popular inquiry I got, with some followers offering their own suggestions for the Big Ten's surprise team in 2016.
To be honest, given the amount of tweeters who suggested my initial choice, I'm not sure if my pick would even qualify as a "stunner," but I'll give it to you nonetheless.
Looking at the landscape of the conference, any realistic pick to be this season's "Iowa" would have to come from the West, as at this point, it almost seems far-fetched that anyone but Ohio State, Michigan State or Michigan would win the East. In the West, the Hawkeyes are far from a lock to repeat—even with C.J. Beathard and Desmond King returning—and I don't think Wisconsin would be considered a surprise coming off a 10-3 campaign, which ended with a win over USC in the Holiday Bowl.
The Cornhuskers, however, have seemed to throw everybody off their scent with a 6-7 debut season under Riley, even after an impressive victory over UCLA in the Foster Farms Bowl to close the season. For as far off as the program seemed last season, many of Nebraska's shortcomings in 2015 were based on simply being unlucky, as written about by SBNation.com's Bill Connelly.
""The Huskers were closer in profile to a 7-5 team. But thanks to a 2-6 record in one-possession finishes, the Huskers crept below .500 for the third time since 1961," Connelly wrote following the Foster Farms Bowl. "Now, with most of 2015's contributors returning—quarterback Tommy Armstrong Jr., most skill position complements, and 11 of the top 13 tacklers—this 6-7 team feels more like one a step from Big Ten West contention (as the numbers were suggesting even before the game), not one that bottomed out under a coach who shouldn't have been hired in the first place."
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Nebraska's 2016 schedule isn't ideal—the Huskers will play Wisconsin, Ohio State and Iowa each on the road and will host Oregon in Lincoln in the third week of the season. But with the way Armstrong finally appeared to be clicking in Riley's pro-style system in the Foster Farms Bowl, Nebraska should at the very least be a tough out for each of those teams and could potentially still win the West with two conference losses on its resume.
After all, nothing about Iowa's outlook in 2015 said the Hawkeyes should be considered a serious threat to finish the season with a 12-0 record in the regular season after a 7-6 campaign in 2014. Given their schedule alone, it would admittedly be a surprise to see the Huskers make the jump from 6-7 to division winners this season, but based on the responses I've already received, I'm not alone in thinking that it's certainly possible.
This is the type of question I'd typically try to stay away from in this format. The reality is, I'm not big on predictions when it comes to games, or anything else for that matter. The worst case scenario is you can tell me I was wrong. Best case is I get to tell you, "I told you so."
What's the fun in that?
But player of the year/MVP races have always fascinated me, especially ones with no clear-cut front-runner. For the first time since 2012, that can be said about the Big Ten, after Braxton Miller ran the table in 2013, Melvin Gordon III took the award in 2014 and preseason favorite Ezekiel Elliott followed through last season.
This year, there seems to be no obvious front-runner for the award, although if forced to choose one, it'd be J.T. Barrett. The Ohio State quarterback could have very well won the award in 2014 and would have been one of the favorites heading into 2015 if not for the Buckeyes' quarterback competition between himself and Cardale Jones.
With him and Jones being shuffled in and out of the lineup, Barrett's numbers didn't return to their record-breaking form until the final two games of the season, when he led Ohio State to convincing wins over Michigan and Notre Dame. With Elliott no longer in Columbus, the load on Barrett's shoulders should only increase and could potentially give him the eye-popping, MVP-type numbers that coach Urban Meyer's offenses often produce for a quarterback.
Other potential Big Ten Player of the Year candidates include Michigan's Jabrill Peppers, Penn State's Saquon Barkley, Wisconsin's Corey Clement, Nebraska's Armstrong Jr. and Iowa's Beathard. Or perhaps a new breakout star will emerge—much like Barrett did in Columbus two years ago.
Ben Axelrod is Bleacher Report's Big Ten lead writer. You can follow him on Twitter @BenAxelrod. Unless noted otherwise, all quotes were obtained firsthand. All statistics courtesy of CFBStats.com. Recruiting rankings courtesy of 247Sports.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
