More Great Effort Going Into Previews

Another gem:

Who's the second-best team in the Big Ten? Ohio State is the prohibitive favorite in the Big Ten. Indeed, a case can be made that the Buckeyes are the biggest favorite in any league – and we're including USC in the Pac-10.

So, who's the second-best team in the league? Is it Wisconsin, which has a manageable schedule and looks to be strong except at quarterback and in the secondary? Is it Illinois, which should have a fast, aggressive defense, but also has a huge hole at tailback and questions about its passing game? Is it Penn State, whose offensive and defensive lines look strong but who has some issues elsewhere?

Our early bet is it will be Wisconsin. But another early bet is that there's no way the Big Ten is going to have two teams in the BCS.

What do you mean by "issues elsewhere"? Like how all of our starting WR's are back? Or how Royster has shown to be a great back, only to be matched in quality by a redshirt freshman in the Blue-White Game? Or how our probable starting QB averaged 8.3 ypc against A&M? Or how we've been recruiting the hell out of LBs the last couple of years and, even with the devastating loss of Sean Lee, will probably have one of the more solid cores in the Big Ten?

Listen, I know we have issues. The QB situation is more complicated because whoever starts can't simply be a role player like Clark was in the bowl game. Our secondary loses players and they weren't even that good last year. But can you at least make an attempt at an informative comment if you are going to, you know, publish the thing? Is anyone really better off by you simply reading down the 2007 Big Ten standings and then calling it a 'preview'?

Keeping Up The Good Work

In another effort to prove to everyone that the media is full of shit, NFL Draft Scouts has released the top (well, 750) prospects for the 2009 NFL Draft (H/T Boiled Sports, no, I do not read this website).

Who's number one? You guessed it, the most over-rated linebacker of all time, James "Soft Up The Middle" Laurinaitis. He is one of four linebackers in the top ten. Sean Lee come in at #6 overall. The other two LBs up at the top are both from USC.

There are only six 'skill' players in the top 25, which seems odd. The first offensive player on the list is all the way down at #9, Purdue QB Curtis Painter. The next Penn State player after Lee is #54 Derrick Williams.

The two things that really jump out are the number of Big Ten players in the top 50, although half of them appear to be from Ohio State.

Ohio State	5
Purdue	2
Wisconsin	2
Michigan	2
Penn State	1
Michigan State	1
Iowa	1

So not quite half, but that's still 10% of the top 50 on one team. LSU is also loaded on this list, which makes you wonder how much work they actually did. It's pretty easy to take the best players on the best teams and assume they are the better players. However, by most accounts OSU has a loaded roster so this might not be as much bullshit as I wish it was.

This is a terrible predictor and I'm not implying we make anything of it, but just the suggestion that we might have an OSU v LSU rematch makes me want to sick sharp objects into my eyes.