BDS 2014 All Big Ten Football Teams

By -
I have compiled what I believe is the first and second team All-B1G team. This is admittedly highly subjective, as I combined stats with what I saw in the game action that I watched them in. I attempted to take the whole body of work into play, but gave more weight to how they played at the end of the season. Italics means that the player was the best of his position group.



First TeamOffenseSecond Team
J.T Barrett, OSUQuarterbackConnor Cook, MSU
Tevin Coleman, IndianaRunning BackAmeer Abdullah, Nebraska
Melvin Gordon, WisconsinRunning BackDavid Cobb, Minnesota
Tony Lippett, MSUReceiverKenny Bell, Nebraska
Stefon Diggs, MarylandReceiverLeontre Carroo, Rutgers
Tommy Olsen, MinnesotaCenterJack Allen, MSU
Kyle Costigan, WisconsinGuardPat Elflein, OSU
Zack Epping, MinnesotaGuardTravis Jackson, MSU
Jack Conklin, MSUTackleTaylor Decker, OSU
Brandon Sherff, IowaTackleRob Havenstein, Wisconsin
Maxx Williams, MinnesotaTight EndDan Vitale, Northwestern
Brad Craddock, MarylandKickerSam Ficken, PSU



First TeamDefenseSecond Team
Joey Bosa, OSUDEMarcus Rush, MSU
Randy Gregory, NebraskaDEShilique Calhoun, MSU
Michael Bennett, OSUDLMaliek Collins, Nebraska
Anthony Zettel, PSUDLAndre Monroe, Maryland
Mike Hull, PSULinebackerDarron Lee, OSU
Jake Ryan, MichiganLinebackerQuinton Alston, Iowa
Derek Landisch, WisconsinLinebackerDamien Wilson, Minnesota
William Likely, MarylandDefensive BackDoran Grant, OSU
Trae Waynes, MSUDefensive BackEric Murray, Minnesota
Michael Caputo, WisconsinDefensive BackKurtis Drummond, MSU
Briean Boddy-Calhoun, MinnDefensive BackAdrian Amos, PSU
Peter Mortell, MinnesotaPunterJustin DuVernois, Illinois

Click the jump to see honorable mention (there are players that I believe still deserve recognition but didn't make the first or second team and offensive and defensive MVP.


Honorable Mention (Alphabetical order)
HM QB: None (whomp whomp)
HM RB: Ezekiel Elliot, OSU; Jeremy Langford, MSU
HM WR: Danny Anthrop, Purdue; Mike Dudek, Illinois; DaeSean Hamilton, PSU; Devin Smith, OSU; Michael Thomas, OSU; Shane Wynn, Indiana
HM TE: Jake Butt, Michigan; Jeff Heuerman, OSU; Jesse James, PSU; Josiah Price, MSU
HM OL: Austin Blythe, Iowa; Josh Campion, Minn; Jake Cotton, Nebraska; Dan Feeney, Indianal Robert Kugler, Purdue; Alex Lewis, Nebraska; Tyler Marz, Wisconsin; Collin Rahig, Indiana; Brandon Vitabile, Northwestern

HM DL: Deion Barnes, PSU; Brennen Beyer, Michigan; Cameron Botticelli, Minnesota; Theiren Cockran, Minnesota; Ryan Glasgow, Michigan; Darius Hamilton, Rutgers; Austin Johnson, PSU; Drew Ott, Iowa; Louis Tinca-Pasat, Iowa
HM LB: Chi Chi Ariguzo, Northwestern; Vince Biegel, Wisconsin; Ed Davis, MSU; Taiwan Jones, MSU; Yannick Ngakoue, Maryland; Joshua Perry, OSU; Marcus Trotter, Wisconsin; Nyeem Wartman, PSU
HM DB: Ibraheim Campbell, Northestern; Darius Hillary, Wisconsin; Jordan Lewis, Michigan; Jordan Lucas, PSU; Josh Mitchell, Nebraska; Frankie Williams, Purdue

Offensive MVP: Melvin Gordon (Runner Up: JT Barrett; Tevin Coleman, Brandon Sherff)

What Melvin Gordon did leading up the the B1G Championship game was about as impressive as it gets in the modern age of football. Wisconsin's OL is good, but not great; Gordon made them look amazing at times. Without a great QB to help him out, he still put up great numbers.

JT Barrett's Freshman campaign can't be disregarded. The amount of confidence he gained from going into East Lansing and playing lights out transformed him from a game manager to someone that could take over games. A different player than the one we saw early against VT, by seasons end, he was even proving some of his "weaknesses" (arm strength) weren't to be primary concerns any longer.

Tevin Coleman had an amazing season, especially considering the QB situation at Indiana. His performance against OSU was great, and looks even better in light of conference title game (an albeit completely different looking OSU Defense). He was Indiana's offense for much of the year, and teams still weren't able to hold him down.

Iowa's OL was uncharacteristically mediocre in many ways, except for Sherff. Sherff displayed why he is likely to be a top 10 pick in the upcoming draft, and Iowa was essentially able to run offense because of him and how much opposing defenses had to fear him.

Defensive MVP: Mike Hull (Runner Up: Joey Bosa, Anthony Zettel, Derek Landisch)

Mike Hull had a ton of help from his DL, which I think was the best position group in all the B1G. But he made plays, a ton of plays. He flew all over the field, was good in pass drops, was a part of almost every play when his unit was on the field, and set the tone for the conferences best defense.

Joey Bosa took another step, and it should be scary to teams that he still has another year. While the OSU DL experienced extreme highs and confusing lows, Bosa was always consistent. Even when his direct impact was minimized (MSU), he opened a lot up for the rest of OSU defense.

I said the PSU was the best position group in the B1G, and Zettel was the best player on that unit. His feel for the game, when to drop off blocks, get his hands up, and make plays was uncharacteristic for a college player. His ability to make a big impact both inside and occasionally outside puts him in this position.

Landisch was the best LB on the Badgers team and was forced to be even better with only a decent DL in front of him. Wisconsin was a much better defense with him on the field, and with the way the Badger defense played in the regular season, Landisch gets a lot of that credit.


 Sanity Check
I tried to perform a sanity check on my numbers, here's what I found (1st team = 3 points; 2nd team = 2 points; HM = 1 point)



TeamFirst TeamSecond TeamHMTotalWeighted
Illinois01123
Indiana10346
Iowa11247
Maryland310411
Michigan10457
Michigan State3541223
Minnesota4331021
Nebraska133712
Northwestern01345
Ohio State3461323
Penn State2261016
Purdue00333
Rutgers01123
Wisconsin414918

Conclusions
I feel like I was fairly accurate. I saw more of the East so that explains a little bit. Rutgers didn't get nearly the love they should have and I may need to reevaluate that a little bit. PSU got a lot of love, but it was almost all on defense (Jesse James was a good pass catching threat, but I almost left him off because of his blocking which was very poor). I was surprised with Minnesota, and while Wisconsin was still high, them not being the highest doesn't feel right for obvious reasons. But compared to the B1G standings, this measures out pretty well.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Football Fundamentals: Twins Passing Concepts

By -
Image
In this post we will look at some of the standard route concepts run from a twins alignment. Obviously, these can be paired with other routes (some I'll show including a RB), but this is to get the fundamental understanding of the routes. I'll try to explain the concept briefly, as well as provide names for what you'll hear the concept called elsewhere at times (these things get lots of names, some people use the same names but have different meanings too, so it can get confusing). If a number is visible near the end of a route, that is the nominal yardage the route will be run to. For more information on specific routes, we took a look at the  route tree earlier . In this article I will not discuss routes that utilize rub concepts close to the LOS (such as a switch concept). I will have a later article dedicated to rub routes from a Twins set. Many of these are similar to the TE-Flanker Concepts discussed earlier.
Read more

Football Fundamentals: The Tite Front Defense

By -
Image
The defense du jour against modern spread attacks is what is commonly known as the “Tite” front. Over the past couple years, you’ve seen Big 12 teams run it increasingly often, and SEC and other teams start to incorporate variants of the look more often as well as they begin to deal with an increasing number of spread formations. But what exactly is the “Tite” front? Like any front, say, a 4-3 Under, it isn’t necessarily any one thing. You can have single-high, two-high, or even three-high safeties. You can attach your overhangs differently. And with Tite, it may even mean different box numbers. And of course, there are multiple techniques that can be employed along the way. This post is a primer to the Tite front. At the end, I’ll link some of the better articles that get into greater depth for those interested, but for now, we need to understand the basics, so that we can understand how to attack it.
Read more

Football Fundamentals: 2x2 and Mirrored Passing Concepts

By -
Image
We are going to continue our look at various passing concepts, this time with 2x2 and mirrored passing concepts. In this post we are going to trim out the concepts that are designed to attack the middle of the field and put those into a separate post. 2x2 concepts allow an offense to attack a defense based on post-snap looks and coverages via a simple read of the safety. Completely mirrored concepts, when the same concept is run on the both sides of the formation (such as all-hitches), is something of which I'm not a huge fan, but there are advantages to it. You look at something like all-hitches, which overloads underneath zones, and you see a viable option in the short passing game against zone heavy teams; similarly, completely mirrored concepts can allow you to pick on certain defenders or to a certain side of the field based on defensive look. We'll also look at "base" concepts, which see the outside receivers run the same route, and a third receiver work the mid
Read more