NCAA Football

Big Ten Football Preview '07: Most Overrated

Posted Jul 31, 2007 12:29PM By Brian Cook (RSS feed)

Filed Under: Michigan Football, Ohio State Football, Penn State Football, Wisconsin Football, Big 10

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This is the sort of thing that leads to serious comment flaming complete with people calling other people "loosers!!!!" so if we could just clarify: it's not that any of these players are actually bad. They're just not as good as popularly acclaimed to be, either by rave-prone announcers or star-dazed recruitniks or awards-granting committees or All Big Ten teams. All of these players would start on most teams in the league and said teams would be happy to have them; they just aren't all that with bag of chips and salsa and guacamole and etc etc etc.

1. James Laurinaitis, LB, Ohio State
It's not that Laurinaitis is a bad player. He's not. He flows well sideline-to-sideline and if you don't get a blocker on him he will find you and tackle you. He's good on his zone drops, too. But what he is not is an all-conquering "animal" -- ha! -- that can destroy you by idly considering ways in which he would like your head to implode. Nor does he have hypno-toad eyes which force quarterbacks to throw the ball directly to him, copious evidence from last year be damned. But don't tell this to Brent Musberger, whose orgasmic rendition of the James Laurinaitis show in this year's Texas-Ohio State matchup established the middle linebacker as the country's best... for some reason. Never mind that Texas wasn't actually that good at running the ball last year or that Colt McCoy was still in freshman embryo mode and was reduced mostly to checkdowns and screens. By the time these facts became clear, it was too late: the legend of Laurinaitis was born.

Simply, if you get a hat on the guy he's done. Both Michigan and Florida eliminated him from their games just by blocking the guy and put up 39 and 41 points, respectively. He should improve this year, and I'd even put him on an All Big Ten second team behind true monster Dan Connor, but he is not the be all and end all of linebackers.
2. Derrick Williams, WR, Penn State
The nation's top recruit two years ago has morphed into a less frequently used version of Steve Breaston. You can argue he was handcuffed by the Penn State offensive line and the oft-comical stylings of quarterback Anthony Morelli, but the numbers are the numbers and they are ugly: Williams caught 40 balls for a paltry 440 yards and scored one -- one! -- touchdown. Eleven yards per reception and one touchdown does not a luminous star make, and Williams isn't one. Though he can occasionally juke you out of your shoes he hasn't found a comfort level with Morelli, doesn't run great routes, and hasn't been a threat after the catch, and hasn't gotten open deep. While not a total bust, he's rapidly moving towards being a disappointment. If it doesn't happen this year, how is it going to with a new, probably bad quarterback in 2008?


3. PJ Hill, RB, Wisconsin
Michigan fans can be relied upon to scoff at any fat Wisconsin tailback who runs up enormous yardage against everyone else on the schedule, as the Wolverines, for whatever reason, invariably spend a day stuffing which ever nimble-footed leviathan can't find creases in the line and can't accelerate outside the tackles. This perfectly describes PJ Hill, a freshman sensation with over 1500 yards, 54 of which came against Michigan. Hill tore through San Diego State, Northwestern, Minnesota, Purdue, and the like, well, Ron Dayne tearing through San Diego State, Northwestern, Minnesota, and Purdue. He even had a really good day against Penn State's #7 ranked rush defense, but I've made the case elsewhere that PSU wasn't actually very effective against anyone remotely good at running. When he came up against another actual defense in the bowl game he came to a screeching halt: Arkansas limited him to 36 yards on 19 carries.

More than anything else, Hill is a product of a hideously weak schedule -- no Ohio State, nonconference opponents Buffalo, SDSU, BGSU, and I-AA Western Illinois -- and will find the going much tougher this year.


4. Alex Mitchell, RG, Michigan
Mitchell's struggled with his weight since getting to Michigan -- actually, he's just plain struggled with it all the time since he showed up at 350 -- and is not an ideal fit for the new Hart-inspired zone running game, which places a premium on agility over brute force. Last year many of the pass-protection troubles that plagued the right side of the line were on him either because he miscommunicated with right tackle Rueben Riley or just plain got beat. If we wanted to talk about the Rose Bowl -- we do not -- we might point out that Mitchell was often at fault during USC's sack fiesta.

Mitchell is probably going to retain his starting job, and he was just a sophomore a year ago, but the world tends to think any senior offensive lineman at Michigan who's been around for three or more years is all-something or other, usually American, and we should probably nip this in the bud right now: if he's average, Michigan fans are okay with that.


5. Alex Boone, OT, Ohio State
Boone was all-everything out of high school, leapt into the starting lineup as a true freshman, and was part of the juggernaut Ohio State offense that shredded fools from sea to shining sea until it ran up against the Florida defense. So what's the problem? I dunno about you, but the only "southern speed" advantage I saw that day was Jarvis Moss screaming around the end over and over again. Boone was powerless to stop him. I wonder, given his previously stated predilection for vast quantities of alcohol, if Boone is back off the wagon? Or at least prone to blast through 30-packs of Natty Ice time and again given a 51-day layoff between games?
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While most people wrote Troy Smith off after the MNC game, I thought it was Boone's rep that took the biggest hit.

Tags: alex+boone, alex+mitchell, AlexBoone, AlexMitchell, big+ten+preview+07, BigTenPreview07, derrick+williams, DerrickWilliams, james+laurinaitis, JamesLaurinaitis, pj+hill, PjHill

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