Around the Big Ten

[lineygoblue]

{roll} - only substitute colon for the brackets.

[lineygoblue]

You're welcome ...

:-)

[WM Wolverine]

Gutierrez couldn't dominate Div II after leaving M, I don't think he'd have done well in B1G.

[Hannibal]

Gutz never got over his mysterious injury. He was otherwise shaping up to be a pretty good one.

[WM Wolverine]

Gutz injury opened the door for Henne and Henne never did anything to give Gutz another chance.

[Cody_Russell]

Quietly DJ Durkin has assembled a good staff at Maryland.
Mike London, Scott Shafer, and Pete Lembo. They were all head coaches last season.
Walt Bell is a young up and coming offensive coordinator.

It's better than they were with Randy Edsall.

[Jeff Buchanan]

"Who's in charge here?"

I hope its chaos for DJD. Traitor!

Besides, last thing M needs is another program running a good version of ufm's (IU's/Kevin Wilson's or Minny's for that matter) spread.

[WM Wolverine]

Interesting to see how the mid Atlantic fares with all of Virginia, Virginia Tech, Maryland and Rutgers replacing their head coaches this offseason. There is tons of talent in that region and should be plenty to support two top 25 programs...

Like to see that Maryland was committed to spending to have excellent assistant/coordinators. Very underrated aspect of any head coach's success is his coordinators and assistants, the best can always recognize and find good ones that move on...

Having London on staff should help recruiting in Virginia for Durkin. Bronco Mendenhall (via BYU) is the new hire at Virginia while VT keeps Bud Foster at DC and stole Justin Fuente from Memphis...

[lineygoblue]

Sounds like one of Durkin's biggest problems will be to get the fan base excited about Maryland football again. He shouldn't have a lot of trouble establishing himself as a top recruiter on the east coast, and he is definitely assembling a good coaching staff. But, getting butts in the seats will probably take some time.

[Cody_Russell]

If Maryland starts competing... like not being blown out by Ohio State every time, winning around 8 games... I imagine their fan base will be supportive.
Since 2004, Maryland has had 3 good seasons (2006, 2008, and 2010).
A couple 7-5 regular seasons by Edsall, but nothing that good.

As a whole, Maryland football has been very middling in their history. Durkin should be able to accomplish that at least.
The problem will be competing in the tough B10 East.

[WM Wolverine]

^

Success for Maryland is different than it is for Michigan or Ohio State. 8-9 wins a year would be huge for them. It'll be difficult with PSU, VT and Virginia nearby but I think there is room for growth from them from where they've been as a program...

Not entirely sold on Penn State getting all the way back under Franklin to where they were but they have the resources to overcome his shortcomings.

[Cody_Russell]

PSU is hard to forecast.
Given their offensive changes, I would guess they will be better off going forward... even without Christian Hackenberg.
Franklin used a true duel QB / spread offense at Vanderbilt when he had success. Hackenberg was a perfect fit for Bill O'Brien and his more pro style offense.
Penn State is recruiting REALLY well too.

I don't think Franklin will be the elite guy some PSU fans expect, but he might be a Bo Pelini at Nebraska like coach.

[Jeff Buchanan]

B10 is 1-1 in bowl games with Nebs win over UCLA and IU's loss to Duke yesterday.

Duke and IU accounted for over 1200 yards of offense - not my kind of football - and lost in OT when an OT tying FG was ruled no good. The kick went over the top of the right upright and because it was that high (not within the height of the uprights) it wasn't reviewable. Another one of those seeming arbitrary NCAA football rules.

[WM Wolverine]

Indiana always finds a way to lose.

[Cody_Russell]

I thought that kick was good, but whatever... It's inevitable for IU to find a way to lose a game like that.
Wilson made a great call with 5 seconds left at the end of the 4th. IU lined up like they were doing a Hail Mary pass. Sudfeld quickly threw the ball to a WR on the sidelines to pick up 4 more yards to make the kick 56 instead of 60.
Damn IU kicker didn't get it done.