Finding The New John L [BTB Pre-Season Awards]

by Kevin HD on Jun 26, 2008 8:44 AM EDT in Football

The BTB Season Preview Awards (think of them as the Pre-Season Dundies) have been formulated and compiled by LTP. The ballots of your two BSD authors are below, and check in with the Definitive Northwestern Blog later in the day for the conference wide results.

Coach of the Year

Mike - Kirk Ferentz - He's been laying low the past three years and he's on the hot seat to get it turned around. No Michigan or Ohio State on the schedule and they get Wisconsin and Penn State at home. Ten wins is possible, and if that happens he's a lock.

Kevin - Pat Fitzgerald - Four line 'em up, knock 'em down OOC games, then into the softer side of the Big Ten. A couple of upsets early in the league and your 2007 tenth place finisher will get the buzz it needs to give Fitz a chance at this award.

Most Likely To Strike Heisman Pose

Mike - Chris Wells - In a league short on offensive superstars he's the best offensive player on the best team.

Kevin - Chris Wells - Mike's comment, "Best Player, Best Team", should really be the official slogan of this award.

Last Year's Illini Will Be This Year's

Mike - Iowa - See above.

Kevin - I'm having a hard time with this question, Iowa, Michigan State and Northwestern all have a chance at vast improvement, but I don't see anyone from the bottom rung of the Big Ten getting to a BCS game. I dodge.

Upset game of the year (include non-conference)

Mike - Michigan over Ohio State - The Buckeyes don't wait until their bowl game to get shredded by the spread this year.

Kevin - Utah over Michigan - Not predicting anything, but I think early in the season Michigan will be ripe for one of these.

Name You'll Know In December That No One Knows In June

Mike - Stephfon Green - Sorry, I don't know any unknown players on other teams.

Kevin - Evan Royster - What Mike said.

Most Likely To John McLaren (aka lose it in postgame rant)

Why isn't this named after the other John, L. Smith? The guy slapped himself at a press conference. In fact, let's all take two seconds out of our day to appreciate it, this is best taken in if you watch it over and over again:

Mike - Mark Dantonio - After the Michigan game. The dude is almost as off the wall as John L. Smith was.

Kevin - Tim Brewster - No body can say the things he said without being a little crazy, and a little crazy combined with a couple of really bad seasons is the formula for exactly the kind of golden entertainment we are talking about here.

Highest NFL Draft Pick in 2009: Chris Wells

(This question actually came with an answer in it, neither of us have a different answer so we're just going to leave it the way it is.)

The Must See Game of the Year that is not Ohio State - Michigan

Mike - Penn State at Ohio State - Just cause.

Kevin - Penn State at Wisconsin - Night game with the winner having a good shot at a BCS bid.

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Comments

Is that a Dundie?

And, if so, can I get the Fine Work Award?

"I found a liquid cure for my landlocked blues"

by Hawkeye State on Jun 26, 2008 11:13 AM EDT 0 recs

JoePa's

going to win coach of the year in his last year on the sidelines. As much for lifetime achievement as for this year’s 9-3 record.

by spakajewia on Jun 26, 2008 11:27 AM EDT 0 recs

if it becomes clear he's out in '08

then i think you are right, he’ll get every vote.

by the way, the LTP comp picks are up:
http://www.laketheposts.com/2008/06/big-ten-bloggers-fearless-predictions.html

Black Shoe Diaries

by Kevin HD on Jun 26, 2008 11:41 AM EDT 0 recs

I like the Big Ten for the most part

But it’s things like “biggest game that isn’t Michigan-Ohio State” that annoy the crap out of me. I hate the way that is considered the biggest game in the Big Ten no matter what. Sure, every conference has their big rivalry games, but the biggest games of the year are the games that have the best teams. I think the Big Ten does a poor job of promoting itself as a whole conference the way the SEC does. I don’t expect Michigan to be that good this year so why would that be the biggest game of the year?

by speedomike on Jun 26, 2008 2:26 PM EDT 0 recs

here, here

by spakajewia on Jun 26, 2008 2:27 PM EDT up 0 recs

i agree

that promoting the whole league would be awesome, but could you seriously promote more than 2 teams other than michigan or ohio state year-in-year-out?

Penn State is as close as I can guess at this point, not because they are overwhelmingly good, but that the rest are overwhelmingly meh. Penn State hasn’t been a consistent top 15 team since 1998. Since then it is one in every 3 years they crack the top 20. The SEC has 4-5 teams consistently in the top 20 in Florida (post-Zook), LSU, Georgia, and Tennessee with occasional Auburn, or team of the year. With the Big10, I see OSU, UM, and then occasionally PSU and UW. The Big10 is lucky to get a team of the year (generally Purdue or Iowa) to the point of being ranked. There’s not much of a comparison.

by formerlyanonymous on Jun 26, 2008 4:28 PM EDT up 0 recs

All fair points

I have a take home final that I’m avoiding like the plague right now so I’ll gladly take part in some college football talk.

All good points about the SEC’s current supremacy over the Big 10 right now. So, yeah, clearly they’re at an advantage when it comes to promoting their conference. But I still maintain that the Big 10 could do a better job of promoting itself outside of Mich and OSU. It just speaks to the conference as a whole. The SEC is exciting, fast, and forward-thinking. Its commissioner is clamoring for a playoff. The Big Ten was the Big 2 forever and doesn’t seem to want to get beyond that. It’s commissioner opposes a playoff. The OSU-Michigan game is always big, but how can it be considered the biggest game of the year right now when absolutely no one expects Michigan to be very good?

by speedomike on Jun 26, 2008 5:14 PM EDT up 0 recs

I'm also

interested to see how many people would have put UM-OSU as their top game this year anyways (for any reason other than it is THE game). I mean it has its obvious subplots of guy hired to restore Michigan as a real national power as compared one by name and cream puff schedule only. Does anyone see this as a real chance for Michigan to upset OSU? I doubt it. No offense, but I’d rank the UM/PSU game as a more competitive game than most. I’m not claiming Michigan will win by any stretch (I’m a UM homer), but I feel that the situation of the PSU coaching staff, the new UM coaching staff, the new quarterbacks’ experiences, there are a lot of questions at this point no one knows the answer to. Honestly, trying to look at it objectively, Utah at Michigan is my most intriguing Big10 related game. No one knows anything about Michigan. If they come out and look well, that changes my outlook on the rest of the season. If they don’t, which is my gut feeling, I have to rehash everything again. If they come out Notre Dame ‘07, fuck it, what do I care about the rest of the college football season, hopefully the other 10 teams don’t screw each other over (something they all tend to do).

by formerlyanonymous on Jun 26, 2008 6:07 PM EDT up 0 recs

agree

I don’t know that anyone, even the OSU and UM blogs, would mention that as the game that interests them the most. OSU has USC to worry about, and UM is a lot more interested in how the team starts than how they finish (as shown by formerly below). I don’t think LTP meant anything by it except to agree with much of what you guys are saying now.

The problem with the B10’s thinking is that they maintain that it is a zero sum game. They think that if they don’t promote the hell out of the OSU-UM game, and instead spend equal time on all the ‘rivalry games’, well then the cash cow they’ve been milking for 60 years now will somehow disappear, or at least not bring in as much money.

What they fail to realize, and this is very typical of B10 thinking in my opinion, is that you can have your cake and eat it too. The OSU-Um game can be huge, but so can the Wiscy-PSU, MSU-UM, Ill-OSU games.

The hang-up on the osu-um game is probably my biggest problem with the big ten.

Black Shoe Diaries

by Kevin HD on Jun 26, 2008 6:55 PM EDT up 0 recs

Yep

And we’re already hearing things about how RichRod doesn’t get what the game means and how that’s going to be his downfall. I think RichRod is slime but I honestly think he could be good for the Big 10 because he brings and outsider’s POV. Now, seriously I need to work on this final.

by speedomike on Jun 26, 2008 7:10 PM EDT up 0 recs

What the hell

I’ll give my votes..

Coach-I get this feeling JoePa’s gonna get that
Heisman-Wells. Duh. And NOT Laurinitus
This year’s Illinois-I’m gonna say no one. Illinois went from 2-10 to the Rose Bowl. Minnesotat was the only team that had a record that bad last year.
Upset-Northwestern over Duke. I kid, I kid. I was thinking ND over Michigan but that may not be that big of an upset. How about Ball State over Indiana?
Name in Decemeber-Derek Moye
McLaren (love the Mariners reference)-The more I read about Tim Brewster he seems capable of something like that.
Highest draft pick-Probably Wells. The real question is how many Ohio State guys will be drafted before anyone from any other Big Ten school?
Must See TV-Wisconsin-Ohio State

by speedomike on Jun 26, 2008 2:46 PM EDT 0 recs