Blue By Ninety - Dillion Gabriel BEST QB in the B1G? Best Players by Position Group - Offense | Big Ten Coast 2 Coast

Episode Date: July 30, 2024

Justin and Tanner give their thoughts on the best players at each position in the new-look Big Ten. Spoiler" Oregon, Ohio State, and Michigan dominate the conversation.

Welcome to Big Ten Coast to Coast brought to you by Blue by 90. I am Justin joined by Tanner today. We're talking all around the Big Ten here. As the title says, we're going coast to coast because that's what the conference does. So we're going to break it down. We're sitting here on July 29th. We're about a week away, if not less than, until football teams start to report to camp. The NFL reported to camp this past week. I believe most college programs are reporting to camp this week. So very exciting. It's almost football season. We can smell it in the air. And we've got a whole new conference here. I was just thinking about it before we get into anything that we're on the docket. I was thinking about it last night.

It's insane that Michigan has USC, Oregon, Washington on their conference slate this year. Last night I was kind of thinking about it. It's crazy. Week four, Michigan has USC and it's like,

all right, the Big Ten conference has started. Like, holy shit. What a start to the first season of this new Big Ten. Yeah, man. I mean, I think back to when I was eight and kind of the first year I really, like, cared about football. And it was 2003, you know, Michigan beats Ohio State in a game and goes to the Rose Bowl

and plays USC I was like okay Michigan USC like I knew I kind of knew at that time in my my life that yeah they play in the Rose Bowl pretty often and now we're gonna be seeing them in the big house uh late September uh for the Big Ten opener the other thing I will say Justin and some folks don't like when we talk about the video game for college football but that's okay that's okay um I was I was doing my Western Michigan offensive coordinator dynasty uh in between feeding diapers all that stuff and I was looking at the the the CFP bracket because I was trying to figure out like I was you know I was 12 and 1 trying to figure out where I might be if I was able to get in there and I can't remember exactly what kind of prompted it but I was looking at it and

i was like oh what michigan's ranked super high but they're the fifth seed i'm like are they not going to be the highest rated champion well then i realized that usc was the one seed so i was like it took me a second to be like oh okay usc is not in the pac-12 the pac-12 hardly exists anymore right and we've got this super conference of 18 teams well i i am i still am excited for the pac-12 championship though that's gonna be electric uh washington state oregon state it could be like six and six versus five and seven i love that they're just like no this is our conference you're not taking this from us the the like fuck it mentality of Oregon state and Washington state is unbelievable.

I absolutely love it. They had a media days, like a holiday and express lobby. I don't know, man. I, we talked about it a lot last year, but I still feel really bad for,

for those fans to be kind of just kicked to the curb and taken out of like the, you know, power five. And, you know, those teams haven't always been historically competing for national championships, but man, with this 12 team playoff, like they could have had a shot. And so I don't know, I would love to

see them get in the big 12, man. I think it would be only right for them to stay in the, you know, the big, the big conferences. And I think eventually we'll get to a point where we're probably going to see a lot of schools split off and do their own thing. But for the time being, man, get them in the big 12, you know, why not? You've already got a bunch of like mountainous area teams in the Rockies. So why not get the Pacific Northwest involved? But yeah, it's kind of surreal to look at this conference. You know, I've got my Dodgers hat on just, you know, showing some love to the West Coast. And, you know, we go all the way from Los Angeles to Piscataway. You know, I mean, we're literally the West coast. And, you know, we go all the way from Los Angeles to, uh, Piscataway, you know, I mean,

we're literally coast to coast. Most people do put LA and Piscataway, New Jersey on like the same plane. Yeah. So those are two of the, two of the, you know, top cities in America right there. Absolutely. So, all right. Well, what are we talking about today? about today what do you got for us tanner yeah so i know that the um kind of the pre-season all conference stuff has started to kind of flow out from different publications and i thought what we could do is do kind of like uh some sort of superlatives you know senior superlatives when you're in high school we'll

just do it for the big 10 conference we're gonna Can you give me – like use that in a sentence. What's the definition of a superlative? No, I cannot. But I think it's like when you see it, you know. You know it when you see it. Okay, I like that. Yes. We're just going to go position by position.

We're not going to be super in-depth. We're not going to do right guard, center, left guard. We're going to go O-line. But that's what we kind of wanted to do. Yeah, just give our thoughts. We're probably going to be super in-depth you know we're not going to do right guard center left guard we're yeah we're going to go o-line but that's what we kind of wanted to do yeah just give our thoughts we're probably gonna be wrong um there's a lot of new teams we'll be wrong a lot of my knowledge at this point is like looking through the rosters on college football 25 just trying to get a feel um you know looking at pro football focus and trying to figure out who's going to be who but until the games start to you know get played it's it's really tough to know is somebody who hasn't followed the pac-12 like i do the big 10 uh the old big 10 so um but there's a lot of newcomers a lot of big time players that are in this conference um you know it is the home

of the reigning national champions if you did forget and this is still a michigan focused podcast youtube channel well i mean it's kind of like Ohio's Tate from Barstool was all riled up for a good two months leading up to the NCAA football game. Very good job by him. I fell into it a couple times, but I got my views and my likes and my retweets. He knew what he was doing. I know

what he was doing, too. He was very worried because Michigan was the first team to choose when you opened up the game, right? But a lot of people forgot that Michigan did win the national championship, and that's why they're getting a lot of love.

And so we will be national champions, reigning national champs, for at least another few weeks until the season starts. Oh, I mean, even then. I guess through the season, yeah. Yeah, another few weeks until the season starts oh i mean even then i guess through the season yeah yeah till january whatever the season ends in mid-january this year so all right but get us going here all right so let's start it off quarterback of the year i i mean i think this one is a little bit easy it's it's um probably predictable i mean the kid was has been a stud his entire career, previous two schools. I'm going to go with Dylan Gabriel at Oregon. I just think with the weapons they have,

and we'll talk about some of those guys as we get to some of the different position groups, but I just think that he's going to put up a ton of yards. He's a dual threat kind of guy. I was a really big fan of him at Oklahoma. Um, you know, I think that he's a guy that's going to be able to really give Oregon a chance to win a national championship. I mean, that's a team that a lot of people are talking about. They're going to be top five in the AP poll. Like that's a very dangerous team. And, you know, the one thing I will say about Oregon that I'm interested to see is how Dan Lanning kind of handles this. I mean, he's going to have a lot of big games. I mean, the Buckeyes come there,

he's got to come to the big house. Right? And that's kind of been the one thing with him in his Oregon program. They haven't won a ton of big games per se, but I do think with the, you know, I mean, I know Bo Nix was a first round pick weirdly, but I do think that Gabriel is a step up at quarterback. And I think that they're going to be really dangerous. So I'm going with Gabriel, but Jess, I want to know what you think. And you know, there's a couple other guys we probably talk about. Yeah. I mean, having a step up from Bo Nix at the college level is actually really impressive for Dan Lanning and Oregon, even considering that they have unlimited NIL and all that stuff.

I mean, that definitely has a play and a part in that for sure. The one thing when we're talking about quarterbacks in the Big Ten, though, that I wanted to talk about was, was like there are a lot of unknowns in the big 10 at quarterback there really aren't any for sures right like there are no there are zero sure things in in the big 10 from top to bottom and that's pretty crazy to me i don't know you all of a sudden you have 18 teams and it's like you would think that somebody would would be a sure thing. But you start with with Dylan Gabriel. I think he's probably as close to a sure thing as possible, but still in a new in a new team with a new team in a new offense. Right. So you just don't fully know how that's going to how that's going to work out. And then you have Will Howard at Ohio State. You know, I have my reservations. I'm biased, of course, to being a Michigan guy, but I still think Kyle McCord is a better option than Will Howard.

That's just my take. But you don't know what he's going to be like. Aiden Childs at Michigan State, I think he could be like a firecracker for them where – He's going to be fun. Yeah. Like he's going to be fun, but I don't know if he's quite ready. I don't know if that roster is quite ready to be, you know,

the necessary talent around him to be in this conversation. I do think he's a really, you know, elite talent. I mean, he was a big-time recruit. I liked what I saw from him in, you know, spots at Oregon State. But, again, I mean, he was a big time recruit. I liked what I saw from him and, and, you know, spots at Oregon state, but with, again, I mean, where's the ball going? Is that offensive line going to hold up? I, like you said, firecracker for sure is how I would kind of describe him. But yeah, I mean, then drew a lot, right? Like, yeah, last year, a lot of hype,

you know, I mean the West Virginia game, I was like, Oh, maybe this kid's for real. And then he just kind of started to struggle, you know, it was right around like seven yards in the tent like it wasn't impressive a lot of people are like talking about him like he is one of those sure things like he's gonna come back and be a top quarterback in the nation and i just i don't know if i believe that i think he's shown flashes for sure i think that he has been okay but am i I ready to say, yeah, he's going to be, you know, just because he's a highly rated QB coming out of high school, doesn't like, he did not make them go last year, Tanner. He did not. It was their run game that did end up making them go. And really

throughout the year, their defense carried them. They, their, their offense did not make them go one bit. So yeah, I don't know i i think that um i i struggle this to sit there and say all right is drew lr going to be like a guy that's the number you know i was just doing some research before they had him at number two in in the big 10 and uh it from a 247 article i just don't know if't know if I'm willing to say that. And then, you know, you go down the list. You've got Miller Moss out at USC. You've got Will Rogers at Washington, which I think, you know,

he's a good QB. I think, again, they just had so much turnover. It's going to be a miracle if they can put it together. You know, one person I am very, very intrigued on is how Dylan Raiola steps in at Nebraska. You know, I think we, I don't want to talk too much about our boys down in Nebraska again because we did it the other day.

I'll give them some props. I mean, I think there's a chance after, what year are we in of Matt Rule? This is year two. Just year two. Okay, I couldn't remember if it was year two or year three. So we in of Matt rule? This is year two, just year two. Okay. I couldn't remember if it was year two or year three. So year two of Matt rule, it feels like they got something going there. Right. I don't know if they're going to be too like, all right, are we

in the top of the big 10 yet, but probably, you know, upper third, something like that. And then having a talent like Dylan Ryola come in and command it, and he's going to be a true freshman, right? So I think it's going to be interesting to see how he comes into the fold. Does he make a splash right away, or are they still going to be like a fluttering team? Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of, like you said, unproven guys. I mean, sitting here in Ann Arbor, we don't really know. I mean, there's three guys that are really kind of being talked about

to be the starting quarterback with Alex Orji, Davis Warren, and Jack Tuttle. And then you also got Jaden Denigle in there. You got the freshman Jaden Davis. Like, you don't really know what it's going to look like. So, you know, the story of the Big Ten is kind of similar to the story of Michigan, right? Like, you just don't know what that quarterback position is going to give you. So I'm going to take the guy that I'm most confident in and being able to come in, throw the ball, make big plays with his legs.

To your point on Will Howard, like I, and we'll talk about the running backs coming up, but I'm really curious what the Chip Kelly offense is going to look like. It feels like that's, it feels like they're kind of building to like like, what Will Howard did at Kansas State. Just, like, run the ball, like, quarterback power stuff, like, do some options. I don't know, man.

Like, and we could talk about that with receivers too because you think about Emeka Ibuka, right, and, like, you know, where's the ball coming from. So, but, yeah, I'm going with Dylan Gabriel on this one. Just feels pretty easy and maybe you might hear his name later on. I don't know. i think um well one one person that we haven't even mentioned yet which is kind of funny based on some other things is kade mcnamara at iowa um i mean i i don't know you you're looking at that offense now it's a new offense you don't you don't have brian ferentz anymore i don't know who knows could he make a splash in year is this year five now this is six year sixth year um you know if

it's either now or never bud you know i i don't know i mean they're they're talking again down in iowa just like they were this time last year that it's going to be new you know keep doubting us they're saying Cade McNamara hasn't been healthy since he's been in in Iowa um and so I I don't know we'll we'll see I'm I'm not ready at all to jump on the Cade McNamara is going to have a breakout season train um especially I haven't looked at their schedule um but I can't imagine it's an easier schedule than what they've had in the West for last year, the year before, the year before, the year before, which they basically just stumbled into

the Big Ten Championship multiple times against Michigan in the past three years. Yeah, they do have Ohio State in early October, but otherwise it is pretty manageable. The two Pac-12 teams they get are Washington and UCLA. So manageable, that defense. I mean, we'll talk about some of those guys probably here as we get on the defensive side of the ball. But, yeah, going to be very interesting.

So I think we're both agreeance on Gabriel here. I'm actually going to go – I'm going to go Raiola. I'm going to go Raiola. Yeah, I think that's a hot take for sure um but i think that like i i really do think that they've they've been looking for something like him for a while now they've been looking for somebody i know that they've had they had good you know qbs under scott frost like adrian martinez all that stuff but i i don't know i think that they i've seen some flashes i it is a little i'm not gonna go as far as as like he is jj mccarthy but it's jj-esque in the fact that like big talent coming out to a team that is like

getting solidified right and there's no doubt that Nebraska has had talent right and it's just like the most the biggest series of misfortunate events that have happened to them over the past five years and so I don't know I could see I I wouldn't be shocked if Nebraska comes out with Dylan Raiola he has a great year and they end up like 8-4, 9-3, and it's like, holy shit, Dylan Raiola as a sophomore all of a sudden has Nebraska climbing into the top. He's a true freshman. I'm saying the year after.

Oh, yeah, okay, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What's their schedule look like this year too, by the way? I think if you're looking at that it's almost like you have to grade that one on like a coach of the year scale right because like you know if cheryl moore goes 11 and one you're probably not going to win the award but if kurt signetti down at iu goes nine and three they're probably he's probably getting that award right so maybe if you grade it on that scale um i think it's going to be extremely interesting for them o-line has

plagued them for quite a while So I'm going to be very curious to see I mean, they've got a lot of experience along the O-line So if they can keep him upright I do like some of their skill position players I mean, they've got Colorado at Nebraska They've got to go to the shoe If they lose that game against Colorado, I'll be pissed

They cannot lose that game They're so much more talented They were better last year And Jeff Sims just turned it over however many times Since Colorado, I'll be pissed. They cannot lose that game. No. They're so much more talented. They were better last year, and Jeff Sims just turned it over however many times. So that was really the big issue for them last year. All right, so Dylan Gabriel for me, Dylan Raiola for you. A little shock. You don't like that pick?

What? It's crazy. I mean, he's a true freshman. I mean, true freshman quarterbacks typically are not that good. But I like the boldness of it. We'll see. We'll see how it goes. All right, running back of the year.

I'll say this. This is my last thing before we go into running backs. I think Dylan Gabriel, as good as he is, I think he's going to have a tough time against some Big Ten defenses this year. Oh, I certainly agree. I think that he has not played against the Big Ten defense, and I think you have to go up against Michigan. You have to go up against Ohio State, and I think that it's going to be like, and there are going to be a couple oh shit moments for Dylan Gabriel this year. I'll say that. Well, some of those guys that are going to

cause those oh shit moments will probably be discussed here in the next 10 to 20 minutes. So running back of the year, this is the one, because I think there are two guys that you probably could just go either way because of the team that they play for, all the hype. But I wonder, and we talked about this before the show, if you take Trevion Henderson, Quinshawn Judkins, who's going to get the majority of the snaps? Who's going to get the majority of the carries? Are they going to cannibalize each other's stats?

And is that going to allow for somebody like Katron Allen or Nick Singleton at Penn State to come into play? Donovan Edwards at Michigan. You've got Darius Taylor at Minnesota, had a hell of a freshman year, a guy that I still secretly hope transfers to Michigan next season, Detroit kid. Rumors of it happening last year, rumors of him potentially decommitting to sign with Michigan that have not happened, but I think he's a stud. So I'm curious what your thoughts are on, again, and Will Howard too, right?

Like you have a lot of guys that can carry the ball in that offense. And again, it seems like that's what they want to do. I'm just wondering if, are you going to have two guys that got, you know, 700 yards, 800 yards, you know, which combined would be not bad and you got a quarterback who runs for 600 or whatever. Like, what does that look like for Ohio state this year? And is that going to, you know, allow one of those guys to win an award like this at the end of the season?

Yeah, I um i could see what ohio state does this year similar to what they did similar to what michigan did this past year with quorum and edwards um now quorum swallowed up every single touchdown right there was there was no balance there um and definitely towards the end of the year except for in the natty it was was the Blake Corum show, right? But I think, you know, as much of a star as Donovan Edwards was, and he's a five-star guy, you know, it definitely felt like it was Blake Corum one

and Donovan Edwards two this whole time until Blake graduated, right right Blake was that guy for Ohio State it truly is like 1A 1B and I'm not even sure which one is 1A you got Travy on there who has been good for them when he's been healthy really really good and now he struggled with his health this past year for sure. But then Judkins was a stud down at Ole Miss. And so I don't know. Is there enough ball to go around with that? I think it's like one of those things where Donovan could never really get going except for a couple runs because he never got the ball enough.

So I don't know. I'll be interested to, to, to see what they, they, they do there. I, you know, a lot of people are talking about Kyle Monongai at Rutgers though. Damn you. Sorry. Is that, is that, I was going to, I was going to go hot take. And because, so my thing with, with Ohio state was again, just the splits of the carries, um, Judkins as well as a freshman was incredible, but his yards for carry dropped like 1.4 from 22 to 23 right like he had the same amount of rushing yards or no same amount of carry excuse me but about 400 ish rushing yards less last year so i don't know if that was an

offensive line issue i'm not super in tune with old miss i mean i know they like to you know have fun throw it around um so i'm gonna be very interested to see how that dynamic works between those two running backs. I mean, it's a good problem to have, right? But I actually, I think I'm going to go with my non guy because he had almost 1300 yards rushing last year. I think that, you know, they've got Ethan Kalikmanis from Minnesota coming in as the quarterback there at Rutgers. But I really do like what Shiano's been building. You know, I think he's a building you know i think he's a you know he's an interesting cat i don't i'll say this about shiano and rutgers if they were in the big 10 west they would have been to the big 10 championship game by now i truly believe that 100 they would have won the west

like a couple years with with him there um i think because they were better than most west teams they've got three automatic l's on the schedule right and then you're fighting with michigan state and maryland and iu and it's like what and with recruiting like it's just hard man like to come in and do what he's done i'm really impressed um so yeah i i agree with you i think when i'm guys is is a is a good pick what do you think about uh Jordan James yeah I mean that again that offense for them is just you know I think they're just explosive so yeah there could be a scenario where he's got a few games where he goes for a buck 5200 at the end of the season he's got 1500 yards um I was impressed with watching him last year in the Pac-12 championship but um yeah I don't know man that's a that's a that's a good one too I definitely again there's so many guys that like watching him last year in the Pac-12 championship. But, yeah, I don't know, man.

That's a good one too. Again, there's so many guys that it's almost hard to be aware of all of them because there's 18 freaking teams in the conference now. I think Jordan James might win it off his name alone. That's a great name. Great name. He's toasted me in some college football, like online. Any time someone uses Oregon, it's like, oh, yeah. I'm just getting smoked by this dude.

You still have Chesma Lucy up at Wisconsin, too. You know, I think that they've taken a little bit of a step back. We'll see how they go. But, I mean, you can never count out a Wisconsin running back from the Big Ten of the Year conversation here. I mean, I know, again, we're going to be biased here but the donovan and kalel one two i think people are discounting it's up there i i think that you know a lot of people were and it's just maybe ohio state fans and michigan state fans that are trashing on donovan edwards his stat line last year. But I think that, you know, I'm not going to say Kalel Mullings is going to be the

running back of the year. I think a lot of people are going to be surprised at that. Kalel Mullings isn't just like a fourth and one guy. He's more than that. So I think you can play in the NFL. Yeah, I do too. And I think Donovan Edwards, we've said this on our regular podcast too. Again, very biased here. There's no doubt about that. I think he has a breakout year simply because he's going to be able to get into a rhythm for the first time in his entire career at Michigan. Yeah.

So I'm excited to see that. I mean, when you talked about, you know, not being the guy when Blake was here, but when Blake went out in 22, I mean, he was the guy right against Ohio State 225. I guess for Purdue, man, he had that 27 yard touchdown run right at the start of the second half. I mean, like, I still don't understand like what happened to his vision because the cuts he made and the way he read the field in that touchdown against Purdue was first-round level. So if he gets to that 2022 Donovan Edwards and he's fully healthy, that's a 1,500-yard rusher.

I agree with you. I think here's what I'll see differently about Donovan Edwards this year, and that is that he's going to be aggressive I think that it was like he was too hesitant didn't know like didn't feel comfortable with just with just pounding at the line but like as soon as you you saw as soon as he hit the hole hard every time he was getting places and I think he's going to surprise people that he's not just some flashy fast running back he's gonna he's gonna surprise people that he's not just some flashy fast running back he's gonna he's gonna be an inside the the tackles runner too um so there's yeah he's

in 2022 and then last last year in the national championship like he had two massive runs first one he got a little stuck in traffic but the second one was an incredible cutback to find the lane and then he's gone right because he got that breakaway speed. So I definitely could see Donovan getting in there, but I'm not ready to make that pick. If we're coming off 2022 Donovan coming into this year and Blake's gone, then yeah, I'm picking Donovan Edwards because what I saw that year was really impressive. I mean, the Penn State game as well, he went for over, I think, almost 200 yards, had a couple of big touchdown runs. So yeah, I'm excited to see that. I did have one that I didn't mention to you that I wanted to bring up here,

Justin, fullback of the year. Oh. I mean, our guy's got to have it wrapped up, right? That's why I put it in here. It's Max Bredesen. It is Max Bredesen. There really isn't anybody else that has a shot. I don't think anybody has a fullback.

I did text him and ask him to come on this pod and he said no. That does bring him down a couple notches. I always like Davis Warren more anyway. Exactly. I like Davis better too. Somebody clip that and send it to him, please. He called us foxhole guys.

He did. He did. You want to get to the receiver? I know we wanted this to be a little shorter. Now we're at 26 minutes because we're talking football and we could talk it all night long. But, you know, receiver of the year, I would love to know your thoughts. Because, again, I think there's a guy at Ohio State that certainly could be up for this award. Emeka Ibuka had a great sophomore year last year, you know, plagued by some injuries, was not as good.

Also doesn't help when you don't have one of the best young quarterbacks in all football throwing you the ball and CJ Stroud. So I think you could say Igbuka's, you know, poised for a bounce back year, but I think I'm going to go Oregon again. I'm gonna go Tez Johnson. I was just going to say, I think I feel like I'm going to go Tez Johnson or Evan Stewart, possibly at Oregon. I don't know. Listen, there's no doubt in my mind. Nick Bucca is one of the top wide receivers in the country. He possibly could be the best wide receiver in the country, right?

There's a chance at that. But I do think, you know, I'd be shocked if Ohio State's it I don't know does do they take a step back right with Will Howard or do they take a step forward I don't know in the passing game I'm not fully sold so without knowing exactly you know let alone who's throwing in the ball I think we all assume it's Will Howard but I've seen a lot of people wanting Devin Brown in there already it's only july and so you know depending on how that goes that's that i think is the is the question for me um for a bucca um but yeah you got zachariah branch at usc um you know you you've got a lot going on here and i even you know you look at Jeremiah Smith coming in, right. For as a true freshman for the Buckeyes too. Like that, that is a man amongst boys as an 18 year old.

It's kind of ridiculous. It's also kind of unfair. I really don't appreciate what Ohio state does in the receiving room. Cause we can talk about the trash we want and you know, it's all in good fun, but that But what they do with receivers is, you talk about position U, they might at this point in time be wide receiver U is the one. It used to be LSU with DBU and you could talk about other, USC was QBU when I was growing up, they had a run of first rounders.

But I think when you look at Ohio State, what they do with receivers, it's probably the most impressive position group in America. So I would give them their flowers on that. I mean, because you – I'm not going to name them all, but you can go back and back. Even before Ryan Day got there, I mean, they just always pumped out good receivers. So, yeah, he's going to be not fun to deal with.

But that's a future us problem because i don't know it's true freshman you know he'll probably make a lot of plays um but i think that's probably a sophomore junior where you're like oh my god dude just please leave the big 10 go to the nfl get paid and leave us the hell alone exactly exactly all right what position are we going to next we're going to tight end of the year and i think there's only one option for us. And I don't even think it's close because I think he's going to win the Mackey. I agree. I definitely agree.

It's Colston Loveland. 100%. So, I mean, to be honest, like, I don't even think you have to do research. No. In this. I mean, do you want to talk about colson for a second uh stud uh first rounder um it really again depends on who's going to get him the ball right but i think that he's the guy that's so talented and he's going to you know create mismatches in the offense that's going to give him uh the opportunity to make some plays and um yeah i just you know it depends on who the quarterback

is but he's going to be the safety blanket he's going to get a lot of receptions he's going to run a lot of crossers underneath routes but he can also blow the top of the defense we've seen him do that a few times in his career so yeah i i just he's the total package it's so cool to see him come from when he committed a few years ago being a three-star out of um is he from idaho or montana one of those states idaho that's right um to see him come from where he was and you know that's one of those things with michigan that they do a really good job of and for those that are kind of newer to the big 10 like i hope that's not just a jim harbaugh thing i hope that's a michigan thing and sharon moore continues that you'll notice, and another guy that we'll talk about here

in a couple of sections, they go and find guys who are not five stars, but they play like five stars, right? And they fall through the cracks and rivals and on three and two, four, seven do not get out to Idaho very much. And he maybe doesn't go to the seven on seven camps, but he's a freak. You saw it as a freshman. You could tell like this kid's going to be legit. Last year, big time leap. I expect another leap this year. And I think he's a first. You saw it as a freshman. You could tell, like, this kid's going to be legit. Last year, big-time leap.

I expect another leap this year, and I think he's a first-rounder in 2025. Yep. And I think there are a couple – I mean, Oregon's got Terrence Ferguson. Iowa's got Luke Lachey. Luke Lachey, I mean, talk about tight end U is Iowa versus Michigan, I think, in the past at least decade. They've got us beat too, honestly. Like if we're talking NFL production, I mean, Kittle, Hawkinson, Laporta,

Eric Hall got drafted. We split him. He's like the 97 national championship. He's split. Still love Eric Hall. Shout out to him for getting drafted after his back injury. But, yeah, Iowa's up there too with Ohio State. Like, tight end U, man, like, they are legit.

They've always, always been legit when it comes to tight ends. And I think Lachey is another guy in a long line of really good tight ends to come out of there. I don't know if he's quite at the level of Laporta, Hawkinson, and Kittle. And Noah Fant too. I mean, he's been really good, Omaha kid. But, yeah, Lachey, I think, is really good, man. He just seems like a smooth athlete.

I just like his game. Yeah, the one thing, too, I'll say, this is one time that we are going to talk about MSU in this, is Jack Velling for MSU. Very good tight end. Very good ball player. I think that's going to be one of their bright spots. I have to imagine that Childs to Velling is going to happen a lot.

And then Tyler Warren at Penn State, I think he's solid. I think that Penn State also always uses their tight ends really well too. Going back to Colston Loveland to wrap it up here for this position group though, a couple things one his his development from when he came onto campus to now is similar this is for the Michigan fans out there the pictures are similar to Moe Wagner when he stepped on campus to when he like left for the NBA where it's like okay this kid has to be 14 years old right when that's what the picture looks like when they step on campus.

Then it's like, all right, well, he's 26. What happened overnight? So, yeah, the development U, I'm going to give that to Michigan. And then for Colston, I think, honestly, you mentioned, like, who's getting him the ball is going to be a big thing. I definitely agree with you. But I also think that Michigan having question marks at the quarterback position this year, that almost works to Colston's advantage

because we're just going to dump it off down low all the time. Like if we, if you know, if Michigan doesn't have somebody that can throw it deep consistently or throw it to the second level, they're going to use Colston even more in little outs, little crossing routes, different things like that. Yep. No, a hundred percent. Like I said, he's going to be kind of the safety valve. Like, Hey, where's, where's 18. Let me get him the ball. And I think, yeah, I think he's going to have a big year and, you know, I mean, tight ends typically don't need super gaudy stats to win the Mackey. I think he's gonna put up you know pretty big stats i mean he probably would have won it last year if a guy named brock bowers um wasn't around

so did he win it last year he got hurt i'm i might be tripping there um i don't know dollars yeah okay okay even with being hurt okay yeah that guy is absolutely freak um but yeah really excited to watch colson this year man i. I mean, it's going to be probably one of our, you know, definitely one of our biggest weapons on offense. And, you know, again, I think he's a first rounder. I think this team has, Michigan has a lot of, a lot of first round talent. So, all right, we'll move it on to offensive lineman of the year. I think, I hate to say it. I think I'm to have to go with the Buckeye. I think I'm going to go with Donovan Jackson.

I think I like what I see from him. I think, you know, last year's issues against Jalen Hurrell notwithstanding. But I think that he's poised for a big year, and I think he's going to be an early NFL draft pick. I mean, he's dominant, you know, former five-star. So I'm probably going to have to go with him. I mean, you could look at Michigan, Josh Preeb coming over from Northwestern. He was all-conference with the Wildcats. Which on Preeb, too, I definitely – I saw somebody tweet about this the other day, but I think it was the MGO blog guys, actually.

They were talking about his film at Northwestern, the rest of Northwestern's offensive line was so poor. Um, and so for him to, to stand out, even with all that going on, pretty impressive. I do think that he could be somebody, and again, we're biased here, obviously, but, um, he could be somebody that, that works himself into the NFL with a good year, uh, this year at Michigan. Yeah. somebody that works himself into the NFL with a good year this year at Michigan. Yeah, I mean, you've got other guys like Josh Connerly at Oregon,

who we all thought was coming to Michigan. A lot of crystal balls for him to come to Ann Arbor, and he did not. Would be sure nice to have him on this offensive line, but he's going to be a big-time lineman this year. Oregon's O-line is really good. I mean, you've got Ajani Cornelius as well, a transfer from the FCS. So there's a lot of talent there. I mean, you look at Riley Malman at Wisconsin.

I mean, are you shocked to hear about Wisconsin on something like this? Yeah, right. I mean – I think – I do want to talk about Ohio State, though, again, because I think that the want to talk about Ohio state though, again, because I think that, um, you know, the offensive line was something, I'm not saying it was missing last year. Um, but it wasn't their strong suit, which I think over the past decade when they were really good, you know, everyone talks about the quarterback and the wide receivers, but the reality is what

made them go as a great offensive line and where Kyle McCord, I think he struggled because their offensive line struggled a bit. Do you see Ohio State's offensive line taking a big step? I think so, unfortunately, as a Michigan podcast here, because I do think Josh Simmons is going to have a good year. I think he was better than I thought he would be last year, and I think that he's going to have a good year. I think he was better than I thought he would be last year, and I think that he's going to have a good year. Now, the center is interesting.

Seth McLaughlin coming in from Bama, right? Some issues with just snapping the ball. Otherwise, I mean, I think if you played him at guard, he'd be all Big Ten, second team. With being at a center, though, I don't know. I mean, it's very interesting with them, because they're really kind of retooling and almost overhauling what they do because they've done it at a really high level for a very long time i mean since ryan day got there they i mean from

duane haskins to fields to stroud they're just swinging the rock but throwing 40 touchdowns a year to like eight interceptions or less and now they they're like trying to mimic Michigan in a way. So it's going to be interesting, right? Michigan starts beating them and then all of a sudden they feel like they've got to do exactly what Michigan's doing. And I may be thinking about NFL draft projections a little bit too much too, right? It's kind of hard to be like offensive lineman of the year because, you know, they're so part of a cohesive unit and like you've got to be in tune with the other four guys on the line.

I mean, I just think Jackson's got a load of and like, you got to be in tune with the other four guys on the line. I mean, I just think Jackson's got a load of talent and, you know, I think it's going to be tapped this year, but I can see, I can see some of those other guys we mentioned too, you know? So yeah,

I don't really have a great answer on if they're going to take a big step forward. I think it all depends on what they want to do schematically. And if, you know, if Chip Kelly's coming in and wants to run, you know, power and, and a lot of options stuff with the quarterback, like,

I don't know. I mean, are they, are those the guys that you recruit to do that? I don't know, but can you coach that? Yeah, you can, but are they going to do that? Who knows? Yeah. Interesting. Well, I think, okay, so here's what I'm going to call an audible here. And why don't we end it here for all? And we'll just do the offensive side of the ball. Cause we went a little long here and my wife's not mad at me. Yeah. You have like a, you have like a four day old that you probably should get back to.

She's eight years, eight days old now. Eight days old. She is, you know, very strong kicks me in my chest as I'm holding her. I'm like, I'm preventing you from falling. I don't think you should

drop kick me off my chest. So yeah, that would be great to get back to them. We talk in football. We're excited. We're about a month away here from... I mean, we're only three or four weeks from week zero. We're getting real close and we just get

excited. We're excitable guys when we talk about football. Once we just get excited we're excitable guys we talk about football what can you what can you once we get talking we can't stop so we literally cannot shut up we that's actually a fact i've been told that a lot of times the funny thing is too that we talked football by ourselves off the pod before we started recording for like 20 minutes before this so um it's this isn't just like we're doing a show just to do a show. It's because we love it. So we'll be back with you guys later this week with the defensive side of the ball

and the awards around the Big Ten. But this is the Big Ten Coast to Coast podcast. I'm Justin Rowe with Tanner Wooten, and we appreciate you guys.