Big 10 Quarterbacks

College Football News profiled the Big 10's likely QB's for this fall and stirred up some intrigue.  The top ranked guy is -who else- Ohio State's Terrell Pryor.  No argument here.  Pryor threw for 1,300 yards as a freshman and 2,100 yards as a sophomore, so expect a powerful air attack at OSU this fall during Pryor's 3rd season.  CFN posits there is a lot of pressure is on Pryor.  I think that's not a big issue for a veteran--as long as nothing goes wrong early in the season.   The Buckeyes open with four consecutive home games : Marshall, Miami, Ohio and Eastern Michigan.  Only the Hurricanes are likely to make things even interesting, so Terrell isn't likely to pitch a complete game prior to the start of the Big 10 season on October 2 at Illinois.

CFN's #2 is Wisconsin's Scott Tolzien, a grad of Palatine's Fremd H.S.  Tolzien, a JR, blossomed last year, but I'm not sure he's all that just yet.  He did put up some outrageous numbers last year: 2,700 yards passing on 211 completions, a UW record.  Tolzien might have 200 completions by the time the Big 10 season starts; UW opens at UNLV, then comes home for San Jose State, Arizon State and mighty Austin Peay.  What that means for the Big 10 season is...not much.

CFN puts Sparty's Kirk Cousins in the third spot.  Nice numbers last year, but this is a big uncertaintly to me. MSU has 5 in a row at home to open (the second of the five is in Detroit), but not so bad competition: Western Michigan, Florida Atlantic (yea! Howard Schnellenger!), Notre Dame, Northern Colorado and then Wisconsin.  Cousins won't see a big defense between the opening game and game 5 vs the Badgers, so he can either put up hero numbers or get Sparty nation started to mumbling.

Iowa's Ricky Stanzi is at #4, and the description from CFN is right on.  He starts fires, then puts on the white hat and rides like the wind to try a heroic rescue.  Great fun to watch, Stanzi is, and the Hawks are always competitive.  Four of their first five at home: Eastern Illinois (nolo contendre), Iowa State (big!), @ AZ (tough!), home for Ball State (burp) and the conference opener vs Penn State.  No cakewalk for Ricky and the Hawkeyes.

Rated next is Indiana's Ben Chappell, and I think they put him this high just because he's a SR.  He's followed by Michigan's Tate Forcier, who's up this high because...I have no idea. I think that everyone wants to be the first to predict the renaissance of Michigan.  Even a broken clock is right twice a day (except a digital clock, which is just a broken clock, but I really like colloquial image of an analog clock, so back off, tough guy...).

Adam Webber from MN follows at #7, and the four year starter could have a huge year or be dead in the water after a month.  Biggest reason: everyone's favorite receiver, Eric Decker, now wears the colors of the Denver Broncos. MN opens away at Middle Tennessee State (no cakewalk here), comes home for 4 in a row:  South Dakota (they're no Middle Tennessee State, haha), USC (the Trojans will be out for blood), Northern Illinois (always tough, and the week after USC) and Northwestern to start the Big 10 season.

The rest of the field in the Big 10:  Purdue's Robert Marve (trying to restart his college career), Northwestern's Dan Persa, a JR (keep an eye on him, he's a keeper),  Kevin Newsome, a SO at Penn State (seems there's always a SO coming up at PSU) and Nathan Scheelhaase starts the post Juice Williams era at Illinois.

The state of Illinois (new license plate motto: "Fiscally and Morally Bankrupt") has the 2 guys with the most contradictory expectations, Persa at NU and Scheelhaase at Illinois.  Persa's predecessor, Mike Kafka,  first ran and then passed his way into the record books, a huge performance on New Year's Day at the Outback Bowl and now an NFL career starting in Philadelphia.   How's the new man follow that?

Meanwhile, down I-57 in Champaign, awaiting Nathan Scheelhaase is an indifferent Illini fan base, emotionally cauterized by the roller coaster years of Juice Williams.  Juice is a primo athlete, but he ain't no QB ("ain't no"... nice, eh?).  If Scheelhaase can use the assets that surround him (a lot of that is up to the coaches, sure, but they can't afford a whole new bout with talent myopia in Champaign), he can bring the Illinois students out of the bars and back to the stadium on game day.