ESPN Early Big 10 Predictions for 2015

cloverleaf · Jan 27, 2015

Not much of a surprise here as ESPN is projecting Ohio State will win the East Division and Wisconsin champs of the West during 2015. Ohio State returns a solid base from last season's national championship team plus a strong 2015 recruiting class. Wisconsin has a new coach in Paul Chryst but keeping defensive coordinator Dave Aranda was a plus. I'm not sold on Chryst but second pick Nebraska also has a new coach.

ESPN Predictions with 2014 conference record:

EAST DIVISION
1. Ohio State (8-0)
2. Michigan State (7-1)
3. Penn State (2-6)
4. Michigan (3-5)
5. Rutgers (3-5)
6. Maryland (4-4)
7. Indiana (1-7

WEST DIVISON
1. Wisconsin (7-1)
2. Nebraska (5-3)
3. Minnesota (5-3)
4. Iowa (4-4)
5. Illinois (3-5)
6. Northwestern (3-5)
7. Purdue (1-7)

Only two teams from the East with winning conference records, while the West had three teams. Ohio State should be the big favorite to win the Big Ten Championship this year.

Welcome any comments..............

CoachCB · Jan 27, 2015

Urban Meyer is just laughing his ass off at that schedule!

cloverleaf · Jan 27, 2015

Coach, one of the most difficult games for Meyer this season may be the April 18 Spring Game. Take a look at OSU schedule for 2015.

9/7 @ Virginia Tech (only loss last year)
9/12 Hawaii
9/19 Northern Illinois
9/26 Western Michigan
10/3 @ Indiana
10/10 Maryland
10/17 Penn State
10/24 @ Rutgers
10/31 Open Date
11/7 Minnesota
11/14 @ Illinois
11/21 Michigan State
11/28 @ Michigan

I see only one loss on the schedule and it sure ain't one of those five toughass road games.

CoachCB · Jan 28, 2015

CL, you might be right! That spring game will be difficult!

Honestly, the only team w/ a shot is Michigan State. Penn State might give them a quarter of good football. Michigan will roll over by the end of the first OSU touchdown. What a joke of a conference!

GoSooners · Jan 28, 2015

Meyer and Ohio State pretty much have everything going for them in 2015, but things will get much tougher going forward. I have a lot of confidence that Harbaugh will have Michigan playing "Stanford like" football in a couple of years. And Franklin at PSU is killing it in recruiting compared to what they've done in the last few years. Franklin has already brought in 13 ESPN top 300 players in two years of recruiting vs O'Brien bringing in 3 in his two years at Penn St. They should be pretty formidable starting in 2016. But probably won't be a pushover this year.

CoachCB · Jan 28, 2015

GoSooners said:
Meyer and Ohio State pretty much have everything going for them in 2015, but things will get much tougher going forward. I have a lot of confidence that Harbaugh will have Michigan playing "Stanford like" football in a couple of years. And Franklin at PSU is killing it in recruiting compared to what they've done in the last few years. Franklin has already brought in 13 ESPN top 300 players in two years of recruiting vs O'Brien bringing in 3 in his two years at Penn St. They should be pretty formidable starting in 2016. But probably won't be a pushover this year.

To be fair, O'Brien was under heavy, heavy NCAA sanctions. But I agree w/ you, Franklin has done well and hopefully he can catch Meyer.

GoSooners · Jan 28, 2015

CoachCB said:
To be fair, O'Brien was under heavy, heavy NCAA sanctions. But I agree w/ you, Franklin has done well and hopefully he can catch Meyer.

This is true, but Franklin has still done a good job recruiting considering Penn State still has an ick factor that isn't going away anytime soon. The only book that is still out on Franklin is whether he can win when he's expected to win as compared to the much lower expectations at Vandy.

CoachCB · Jan 28, 2015

GoSooners said:
This is true, but Franklin has still done a good job recruiting considering Penn State still has an ick factor that isn't going away anytime soon. The only book that is still out on Franklin is whether he can win when he's expected to win as compared to the much lower expectations at Vandy.

GS, agree. Franklin has made a quick climb...but the fact is he's caught people off guard (most of his SEC upset wins were against traditional powers that were down: UF, Tennessee). I think he's a very good coach. I expect him to regularly give Meyer a run for his money (depending on how long Meyer stays there).

cloverleaf · Jan 29, 2015

What Franklin accomplished at Vanderbilt was unreal. Amazing in the SEC!

Saying that...I just don't think he's a good fit at Penn State.

Down the road I predict his accomplishments will be at another school.

EveryGamblersDream · Jan 30, 2015

GoSooners said:
Meyer and Ohio State pretty much have everything going for them in 2015, but things will get much tougher going forward. I have a lot of confidence that Harbaugh will have Michigan playing "Stanford like" football in a couple of years. And Franklin at PSU is killing it in recruiting compared to what they've done in the last few years. Franklin has already brought in 13 ESPN top 300 players in two years of recruiting vs O'Brien bringing in 3 in his two years at Penn St. They should be pretty formidable starting in 2016. But probably won't be a pushover this year.

I think people might be surprised at how Michigan plays. They won't play Stanford like football in my opinion. I could see them playing more explosively as he will have better athletes to work with. I could see it being more like his days with San Diego.

GoSooners · Jan 30, 2015

EveryGamblersDream said:
I think people might be surprised at how Michigan plays. They won't play Stanford like football in my opinion. I could see them playing more explosively as he will have better athletes to work with. I could see it being more like his days with San Diego.

You could be right, but I still feel that Harbaugh is the real OC and Drevno will be primarily responsible for fixing the offensive line issues. He did a phenomenal job at USC last year working with a very young OL. By the way, Drevno has always been about the run game. So I still lean for Michigan to be a run first team. But in their case it's still all about the personnel they have on hand in this first season. I guarantee you that Meyer has met his match with Harbaugh coming into the league. He could have UM wanting to spend more time with the family again in a couple of years...wink wink

RunLeeRun · Feb 1, 2015

Michigan isn't exactly killing it on the recruiting trail, somewhere like 9 recruits, 3 added since Harbaugh was hired. Coaching transition classes are often tough (see Florida, Wisconsin defections, etc), but not always. You couple this with some of the recent bombs of top-end Michigan recruits. Lets just say I wouldn't expect any miracles coming from Ann Arbor in the next couple of years.

BigdaddyQH · Feb 2, 2015

Harbaugh has a decent chance at Miochigan because his schtick will not wear off like it did in San Fran. Still, he will be very fortunate to win more than one game in the next 6 against Ohio State, and that will get him fired. If Meyer stays, Michigan will be way behind in the recruiting wars. They are already far behind Michigan State, as well as Ohio State.

GoSooners · Feb 2, 2015

I think you all are dead wrong about Harbaugh. By his third year he's going to be a terror in the Big 10. Keep in mind that he had even less talent to work with at Stanford. If he recruits a QB that is anywhere near the level of what he had with Andrew Luck, his success will come that much faster.

CoachCB · Feb 2, 2015

GoSooners said:
I think you all are dead wrong about Harbaugh. By his third year he's going to be a terror in the Big 10. Keep in mind that he had even less talent to work with at Stanford. If he recruits a QB that is anywhere near the level of what he had with Andrew Luck, his success will come that much faster.

Agree. He'll have top 10 recruiting classes starting next season. He came in too late this year to build a great class, but he'll be right up there starting in 2016. And you're right, if he can get a QB he'll have success immediately.

RunLeeRun · Feb 4, 2015

Here's my thinking about Michigan - Ohio State. Somebody tell me when was the last time they were both relevant simultaneously? Relevant can be a subjective term, but I mean playing, not even a national championship, but just a conference title head to head.....I think it's been a while, so forgive me if I'm not all in on Harbaugh just yet, at least while Meyer is still around.....I'd probably lean to Penn State being the "other" tradition power in the East. I'm far from an expert, but it seems Penn State is hitting that East Coast hard in recruiting, kind of getting away from the Michigan/Ohio St sphere. I don't mean to throw Michigan St aside in all this. I'll be interested to see now that they have to go more directly against 3 powers, how their "recruit to fit & develop" style will hold out. I'm all for it, I think it does and can work, but now they just lost a real good DC.

BigdaddyQH · Feb 4, 2015

Obviously some people in here really do not know pac 12 football. To say that Harbaugh has more talent at Michigan than he did at Stanford is a joke. The fact is that Harbaugh has had good runs wherever he has been but he has NEVER won anything. No NC's. No Superbowls. Show me some results. Until then, Harbaugh is just another good HC. He will get his share of wins, but most will be meaningless.

GoSooners · Feb 4, 2015

BigdaddyQH said:
Obviously some people in here really do not know pac 12 football. To say that Harbaugh has more talent at Michigan than he did at Stanford is a joke. The fact is that Harbaugh has had good runs wherever he has been but he has NEVER won anything. No NC's. No Superbowls. Show me some results. Until then, Harbaugh is just another good HC. He will get his share of wins, but most will be meaningless.

It's not a joke. Stanford has been able to beat both USC and Oregon on a fairly consistent basis and go to 3 BCS games with only 3 top 20 recruiting classes in the last 10 years. And only one of those classes were in the top 10. That's a fact, live with that...

RunLeeRun · Feb 4, 2015

GoSooners said:
It's not a joke. Stanford has been able to beat both USC and Oregon on a fairly consistent basis and go to 3 BCS games with only 3 top 20 recruiting classes in the last 10 years. And only one of those classes were in the top 10. That's a fact, live with that...

I do think Harbaugh is a hell of a coach. But if I may expand a little on my thinking. For all intents and purposes, Stanford has looked a lot like a stereotypical Big Ten team since Harbaugh took over there; play physical, run the ball. I think there was a bit of an "oddball" philosophy that stood out in the Pac-12 and made Stanford a tough opponent. Then you had that unique 3-4 defense, that is set up to defend a spread offense just a bit better in how it fits in the run game. Now, in the Big Ten, and even though you have a number of teams tending to spread offense, there are still plenty that put more emphasis on that old-school runing downhill. So, I think from that perspective Harbaugh fits in a little better and becomes less of a surprise/hamper in game-planning...if that makes sense....and that's not taking nothing away from him, because he quite possibly is the 2nd best coach now in the conference....we'll just have to wait and see.

GoSooners · Feb 4, 2015

RunLeeRun said:
I do think Harbaugh is a hell of a coach. But if I may expand a little on my thinking. For all intents and purposes, Stanford has looked a lot like a stereotypical Big Ten team since Harbaugh took over there; play physical, run the ball. I think there was a bit of an "oddball" philosophy that stood out in the Pac-12 and made Stanford a tough opponent. Then you had that unique 3-4 defense, that is set up to defend a spread offense just a bit better in how it fits in the run game. Now, in the Big Ten, and even though you have a number of teams tending to spread offense, there are still plenty that put more emphasis on that old-school runing downhill. So, I think from that perspective Harbaugh fits in a little better and becomes less of a surprise/hamper in game-planning...if that makes sense....and that's not taking nothing away from him, because he quite possibly is the 2nd best coach now in the conference....we'll just have to wait and see.

Run...I think in the end it's going to come down to the Jimmies and Joes more than the X's and O's. I always dismiss the first year of recruiting for coaches. I've heard them say that it is a very difficult time to recruit players, when they are trying to still evaluate the players they have on hand. The last thing a coach wants is to make some bad early choices and then have to live with those choices for the next 4 years. In the second year, the good coaches have it figured out where they need to go to fill the roster, and that's when they dive in head first. I'll be surprised if Harbaugh doesn't have a top 10-15 class next year.

ESPN Early Big 10 Predictions for 2015

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