Day two at Big Ten Media Days was all about the heavyweights, as three of the projected top four seeds in the East Division took the stage along with Big Ten West favorite Wisconsin. With a month to go before the league season begins on Wednesday, a trio of teams will be in action in Week 0, the sense of urgency was real as the conference looks to produce its first national title winner since the Ohio State in 2014.
The Buckeyes were among the programs under the spotlight Wednesday, and fifth-year coach Ryan Day addressed his program’s expectations head-on, noting that Ohio State’s aspirations are, as always, “to win the team in the north, win the Big Ten Championship, win. the National Championship.”
“Those are our goals,” he said, “and those things didn’t happen last year.”
To return to Big Ten supremacy, the Buckeyes will likely need to beat this team up north, but they face more obstacles than just Michigan. Among the challengers will be Penn State, Michigan State and the Badgers, each of whom were represented on Day 2 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
As the conference turns the page from talk season to the start of real football, here are the takeaways from the second part of Big Ten Media Days:
The scars of Ohio State
Day said he thinks his players have “a little bit of a scar … a little bit of a callus” after an 11-2 season that featured a Rose Bowl win but no Big Ten East title or college football playoff appearance. One of the program’s biggest moves this offseason to address 2021 deficiencies was the addition of defensive coordinator Jim Knowles from Oklahoma State to help improve a Buckeyes unit that ranked tied for 59th overall national last season in total defense.
If there was any doubt about the expectations of Knowles’ unit in 2022, Day cleared it up.
“New scheme, new coaches, all those things are new,” Day said. “I think having faced them in the spring and seeing what’s happened this summer and now in the preseason, it’s been exciting to watch them. There’s just an aggressiveness about them. But as far as expectations go, yeah, we expect a top 10 defense. That’s what we want. When we’ve played our best football, it’s because we’ve played really good defense, we’ve been balanced and we’ve played complementary football. Obviously we want to stop the run to start and then go from there. but we expect a top-ten defense.”
Manny Diaz is in shape at Penn State
The Buckeyes aren’t the only Big Ten East power with a new defensive coordinator after Penn State coach James Franklin assigned Manny Diaz to replace Brent Pry, who took the head coaching job at Virginia Tech. The Nittany Lions finished tied for sixth nationally in scoring defense last season, allowing just 17.3 points per game, leaving Diaz with some big shoes to fill after a three-year coaching run from miami
“He’s done it at a high level in a bunch of different places, but he’s also been a head coach,” Franklin told the Big Ten Network. “There’s value in those experiences from a leadership standpoint, from an overall perspective.”
Franklin said he called Diaz the day after he was fired in Miami and wasn’t sure if he would be interested in talking so soon about the Penn State gig, but that may be due, in part, to a pre-existing relationship between the two . .
“He’s a guy that we spent time with in the offseason with my previous defensive coordinators talking as well,” Franklin said. “That’s what we do in the offseason, you talk to other coaches who come from a similar philosophy and tree. That also helped because when you go out and hire someone who has a completely different philosophy, there’s going to be growth issues with that . . . He hit the ground running.”
Aidan O’Connell ready to be featured
Diaz’s first challenge at Penn State will include one of the league’s best quarterbacks as the Nittany Lions take on Purdue and an emerging star quarterback in Aidan O’Connell to start the 2022 season in a matchup Thursday at the night on September 1. Connell made the preseason All-Big Ten West team after throwing for 3,712 yards and 28 touchdowns last season.
Now, the sixth-year senior and former starter enters 2022 as the unquestioned starter for the Boilermakers after guiding Purdue to a 9-4 record and Music City Bowl victory last season.
“Aidan has done a great job,” Purdue coach Jeff Brohm said. “It’s a shame his coach didn’t put him in at the beginning of the year, but we were able to figure that out. He’s really earned his spot from day one. He continues to work hard every day. He’s become a great leader.”
Week 0 advantage for Illinois
Aside from the obvious Week 0 headliner between Nebraska and Northwestern Ireland, the only other Big Ten team in action on Aug. 27 is Illinois, which hosts Wyoming in a seeding game ready before playing Indiana the following Friday. The game was originally scheduled for Week 3, but was eligible for the Week 0 slot since Wyoming plays at Hawaii this season.
Teams making the trip to Hawaii may start the season earlier as a means of incentivizing the trip to such a distant location. In this case, that rule benefited the Illini even though they aren’t the ones playing in Hawaii, and Illinois coach Bret Bielema credited athletic director Josh Whitman with helping facilitate the change.
“You see a lot of improvement from players who have never played in a game from Week 1 to Week 2,” Bielema said. “So that’s why I was pushing … I thought if we could play a home game, get our feet under us and play a home game and get our feet under us in Week 0, that would be a huge benefit” .
The Lasting Impact of Kenneth Walker
A season after Wake Forest transfer Kenneth Walker emerged as a breakout college football star with 1,636 rushing yards and 18 touchdowns, Michigan State is looking for another transfer to help in the running game. The Spartans will bring 2020 Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Year Jarek Broussard from Colorado to once again position Michigan State as one of the biggest potential benefactors of the portal.
With former four-star running back Jalen Berger also transferring after averaging 4.6 yards per carry on 84 carries in two seasons at Wisconsin, it’s clear that Walker’s progression with the Spartans to a second-round pick round of the NFL Draft is buzzing with running backs looking for new running backs. houses
“We just tell a story,” Michigan State coach Mel Tucker said. “I’m not sure how many people knew about him nationally. He saw an opportunity to come to Michigan State and get better. His goal was to play in the National Football League and play against great competition.”
Rutgers in limbo
One of the pressing issues for Rutgers before the 2022 season is the status of linebacker Drew Singleton, who is awaiting a decision on a petition to allow him to play one more season. Singleton declared for the NFL Draft and hired an agent, but later opted to participate in the Scarlet Knights’ bowl game after receiving a late berth to the Gator Bowl.
Ultimately, he did not sign as a free agent, perhaps because of an ankle injury suffered in the bowl loss against Wake Forest. Had he not declared for the draft, Singleton would have been eligible for a sixth season due to the extra year of eligibility provided by COVID-19. However, as preseason camp approaches, the Scarlet Knights are still waiting to hear the status of a player who helped stabilize their defense with 54 tackles last season.
“We’re hoping that fresher minds will prevail,” Rutgers coach Greg Schiano said. “We have an appeal. I hope he can come back. He wants to get his graduate degree. I think he’s doing so many great things. He’s a kid from inner-city Newark who has overcome a lot. . The guy is trying to do the right thing. I hope we can do the right thing and get him back, but we’re waiting to hear.”
Wisconsin has a new look offensively
With Jim Leonhard as defensive coordinator and Bobby Engram as first-year offensive coordinator, Wisconsin now has former NFL veterans calling the shots on both sides of the ball. Engram comes to the Badgers after eight years with the Baltimore Ravens and is tasked with rejuvenating a Wisconsin unit that ranked 120th nationally last season in passing offense.
It’s his first stint in college football since coaching receivers for two seasons in Pittsburgh under current Wisconsin coach Paul Chryst. But Engram, who played 14 seasons in the NFL, has some Big Ten roots as a Penn State alum and former Nittany Lions star.
“I’m really excited for Bobby Engram to have the opportunity to be with us and to come back and train with him,” Chryst said. “I had the opportunity to coach a couple of years with Bobby, and just a lot of respect. I think one thing that I always feel is important when you add a coach is that you think about your players. That’s where I’m at. The most excited is for our players to be around Bobby. I think it’s a great opportunity for … the timing was right for both of them, but for Bobby to come in. I think with Bobby we’re a better team.”