Welcome to the fourth edition of our look at the race for the Big Ten All-Conference team. I’ll be doing this every 2 weeks to provide an evolving snapshot in part to see how dramatically things change over the course of the season. We’re somehow almost halfway through the season already. If you missed the week 6 picks you can check them out here.
Below are my picks and a quick recap of the decisions at each position. In order to provide the stat breakdowns I used some shorthand abbreviations. Any use of “yards” includes combined non-sack passing/rushing/receiving yards. Similarly TDs are combined passing/rushing/receiving/return touchdowns. Acronyms that might not be completely clear are: Yards per Attempt (YPA), Big-Time Throw Rate (BTT Rate), Turnover-Worthy Play Rate (TWP Rate), MTF (Missed Tackles Forced), YPC (Yards per Carry), Y/RR (Yards per Route Run), Stops (tackles on unsuccessful plays by the offense).
*Player was also on the week 4 all-conference team (not necessarily on same 1st, 2nd, or 3rd team)
Quarterback
1st Team: Fernando Mendoza* (Indiana)- 1,880 yds, 9.6 YPA, 21 TD, 2 INT, 3.6% BTT Rate, 1.4% TWP Rate
2nd Team: Julian Sayin (Ohio St)- 1,889 yds, 9.6 YPA, 19 TD, 3 INT, 5.0% BTT Rate, 1.4% TWP Rate
3rd Team: Jayden Maiava* (USC)- 2,251 yds, 10.2 YPA, 15 TD, 4 INT, 7.0% BTT Rate, 3,4% TWP Rate
This is the first time that USC’s Jayden Maiava hasn’t been the #1 QB here as his turnover numbers have slowly crept back up towards where they were the last few years while USC’s schedule has gotten harder even if he still leads the way in yards per attempt. I moved Julian Sayin into the 2nd team spot as he has just continued to put up stellar numbers and is completing a ridiculous 80% of his passes.
There was an argument for Oregon’s Dante Moore to leapfrog Maiava or maybe even Sayin. The way he folded down the stretch against Indiana made me give him a loss on the tiebreaker but it’s a pretty clear top 4 after Demond’s performance against Michigan and I could see them ending up in any order by the time we get to the end of the season.
Running Back
1st Team: Jonah Coleman* (Washington)- 852 yds, 13 TD, 29 MTF, 5.1 YPC; Emmett Johnson* (Nebraska)- 880 yds, 8 TD, 44 MTF, 6.0 YPC
2nd Team: Antwan Raymond* (Rutgers)- 743 yds, 10 TD, 44 MTF, 5.1 YPC; Justice Haynes* (Michigan)- 736 yds, 8 TD, 27 MTF, 7.4 YPC
3rd Team: Kaytron Allen* (Penn State)- 645 yds, 9 TD, 34 MTF, 6.2 YPC; Bo Jackson (Ohio St)- 547 yds, 3 TD, 15 MTF, 6.4 YPC
This is still almost entirely the same group that we’ve had since week 2 except injuries have started to become a factor. Justice Haynes drops from 1st team to 2nd team since he missed 75% of the action that has happened since the last update. USC’s Waymond Jordan fell all the way out after being knocked out for the season against Michigan. There’s a strong argument for him to still keep the last 3rd team spot and on a pure numbers standpoint he likely deserves it. But I opted to go with Ohio State’s true freshman Jackson who has been fantastic and would’ve overtaken Jordan with one more week’s extra production so made the move now.
Wide Receiver
1st Team: Makai Lemon* (USC)- 769 yds, 7 TD, 3.6 Y/RR; Omar Cooper Jr.* (Indiana)- 655 yds, 8 TD, 3.2 Y/RR; Hank Beatty* (Illinois)- 642 yds, 4 TD, 3.7 Y/RR
2nd Team: Jeremiah Smith* (Ohio St)- 622 yds, 8 TD, 3.1 Y/RR; Carnell Tate* (Ohio St)- 587 yds, 6 TD, 3.2 Y/RR; Elijah Sarrat* (Indiana)- 603 yds, 9 TD, 3.0 Y/RR
3rd Team: Ian Strong* (Rutgers)- 543 yds, 2 TD, 2.3 Y/RR; Denzel Boston* (Washington)- 515 yds, 7 TD, 2.2 Y/RR; Griffin Wilde* (Northwestern)- 516 yds, 4 TD, 2.9 Y/RR
Not only did all 9 players wind up back on one of the teams from the last edition but they’re also all back on the same team. There’s a pretty clearly entrenched hierarchy in the Big Ten at WR and it’s going to take an injury or someone completely going crazy to mix things up. I could easily see one of the Ohio State tandem getting onto the 1st team (I’m sure Smith will in real life because of his reputation) but if they continue to split the targets then it might keep them both on 2nd team. Things are just stable here until further notice.
Tight End
1st Team: Kenyon Sadiq* (Oregon)- 305 yds, 5 TD, 2.0 Y/RR
2nd Team: Lake McRee* (USC)- 302 yds, 2 TD, 1.8 Y/RR
3rd Team: Luke Lindenmeyer (Nebraska)- 248 yds, 2 TD, 1.3 Y/RR
Everyone in the country has declared Sadiq the best tight end in the country since the preseason despite his numbers not being the best in the Big Ten let alone the nation. He finally had his breakout receiving game this week against Rutgers with a pair of TDs and the edge on scores puts him into the 1st team for the first time. That slides McRee into the 2nd team spot. I opted to leapfrog Lindenmeyer over Wisconsin’s Lance Mason on the 3rd team as they have comparable receiving totals but PFF likes Lindenmeyer’s blocking better.
Offensive Line
1st Team: LT JC Davis (Illinois)*; LG Beau Stephens* (Iowa); C Logan Jones* (Iowa); RG- Kade Pieper* (Iowa); RT Gennings Dunker* (Iowa)
2nd Team: LT Carter Smith (Indiana); LG Emmanuel Pregnon (Oregon); C Matt Gulbin* (Michigan State); RG- Kwabena Asomoah* (Rutgers); RT Kahlil Benson* (Indiana)
3rd Team: LT Austin Siereveld (Ohio State); LG Vega Ioane* (Penn State); C Jackson Carsello* (Northwestern); RG Evan Beerntsen* (Northwestern); RT Alan Herron (Maryland)
Once again, I’m pretty up front with the offensive line that I just go off of PFF grades because there’s no way for me to scout the OL and the stats from other sources for individual linemen are even sketchier. My criteria were that I pick the highest graded player at each line spot who has played the majority of their snaps at that position.
Iowa continues to be rated as the best offensive line in the conference. In the week 4 edition they had the entire 1st team. Their left tackle fell out of the top 3 completely to ruin that hegemony but they maintain 1st team status at all the other spots. Washington has slid out of the OL section completely as well as Carver Willis has gotten leapfrogged during his injury absence (hopefully he’s back this weekend) and Drew Azzopardi slid to 4th this week after the Huskies got beat up by Michigan a bit.
Defensive Tackle
1st Team: Kayden McDonald* (Ohio St)- 22 tackles, 7 pressures, 2 sacks, 15 stops; Mario Landino (Indiana)- 9 tackles, 18 pressures, 6 sacks, 8 stops
2nd Team: Gary Smith III* (UCLA)- 24 tackles, 4 pressure, 1 sack, 16 stops; Bear Alexander (Oregon)- 24 tackles, 6 pressures, 1 sack, 19 stops
3rd Team: Cam Rice* (Maryland)- 20 tackles, 17 pressures, 2 sack, 11 stops; Alex VanSumeren (Michigan State)- 29 tackles, 5 pressures, 1 sack, 16 stops
There’s slightly more stability here than there has been in past editions but only just. Indiana sees a DT flip flop at the top once again as for the second straight edition they have a DT who moves from off the list entirely to 1st team thanks to a standout performance. Marion Landino has now asserted himself as the best interior pass rusher in the conference so far. Ohio State’s Kayden McDonald has been the more all-around consistent performer even if he isn’t quite as effective as a pass rusher. Oregon’s Bear Alexander is unfortunately finally putting it all together after transferring in from USC while MSU’s Alex VanSumeren also appears for the first time.
Edge Rusher
1st Team: Anthony Smith (Minnesota)- 10 tackles, 28 pressures, 9 sacks, 12 stops; Caden Curry* (Ohio State)- 27 tackles, 26 pressures, 7 sacks, 20 stops
2nd Team: Teitum Tuioti* (Oregon)- 17 tackles, 10 pressures, 4 sacks, 16 stops; Derrick Moore (Michigan)- 14 tackles, 20 pressures, 6 sacks, 9 stops
3rd Team: Zahir Mathis* (Maryland)- 21 tackles, 21 pressures, 5 sacks, 15 stops; Michael Kilbane (Northwestern)- 15 tackles, 23 pressures, 4 sacks, 14 stops
I’ve been holding off on including Anthony Smith because up until recently the stats outside of just pure pressures were lacking. But after a dominant effort against Nebraska he has a lead of 2 on the rest of the conference in both sacks and pressures so I have to put him at the top despite his lack of run game help. Caden Curry of Ohio State stays next to him on the 1st team. There are another two newcomers with Oregon’s Derrick Moore and Northwestern’s Michael Kilbane, both of who have graded out as excellent run defenders while putting up comparable pass rush stats to the next group on the list.
Linebacker
1st Team: Daniel Wingate* (Maryland)- 52 tackles, 6 pressures, 2 TFL, 27 stops, 1 INT; Mani Powell* (Purdue)- 36 tackles, 9 pressures, 2 TFL, 28 stops
2nd Team: Isaiah Jones (Indiana)- 28 tackles, 11 pressures, 5 sacks, 24 stops; Arvell Reese* (Ohio St)- 35 tackles, 19 pressures, 7 sacks, 23 stops
3rd Team: Devon Williams (Minnesota)- 54 tackles, 8 pressures, 22 stops; Maverick Baranowski (Minnesota)- 48 tackles, 4 pressures, 21 stops
More chaos at the linebacker spot as the only consistency comes near the top where Daniel Wingate and Mani Powell are miles ahead of the competition in stops which is one of my favorite measures for linebacker play. The second team is made up of the best pass rushing linebackers in Jones from Indiana and Reese from Ohio State who each have 5+ sacks so far. And the 3rd team goes to Minnesota who have a rock solid linebacking duo who are putting up very comparable numbers and are right up there as the best two of any team in the conference with Ohio State.
Cornerback
1st Team: Jyaire Hill* (Michigan)- 53.6% comp, 6.4 Y/REC, 0 INT, 5 PBU; Rodrick Pleasant* (UCLA)- 39.5% comp, 8.5 Y/REC, 0 INT, 7 PBU; Brandon Finney Jr. (Oregon)- 16.7% comp, 9.3 Y/REC, 1 INT, 2 PBU
2nd Team: Jamare Glasker* (Maryland)- 36.4% comp, 10.9 Y/REC, 2 INT, 2 PBU; Jadon Canady (Oregon)- 45% comp, 6.3 Y/REC, 0 INT, 2 PBU; TJ Hall* (Iowa)- 39.5% comp, 10.6 Y/REC, 0 INT, 6 PBU
3rd Team: John Nestor* (Minnesota)- 55.3% comp, 8.3 Y/REC, 3 INT, 4 PBU; D’Angelo Ponds* (Indiana)- 55.6% comp, 7.7 Y/REC, 1 INT, 2 PBU; Zach Lutmer (Iowa)- 50% comp, 9.1 Y/REC, 1 INT, 3 PBU
There were some small shakeups here mostly due to the Oregon duo who both moved into the rankings after the Ducks completely shut down what had been a very good Rutgers passing game. Two of the three members on each of the teams were repeats from the last edition with the other newbie coming from Iowa’s Zach Lutmer in what was a close competition for essentially the 9th spot overall. There might be a little bit of movement from here on out but I think that probably 6-7 of these will be consistent the rest of the way and have separated from the pack a little bit.
Safety
1st Team: Bishop Fitzgerald* (USC)- 42 tackles, 10 stops, 5 INT, 2 PBU; Caleb Downs* (Ohio State)- 38 tackles, 2 TFL, 19 stops, 1 INT
2nd Team: Alex McLaughlin* (Washington)- 54 tackles, 19 stops, 2 INT, 2 PBU; Amare Ferrell (Indiana)- 21 tackles, 10 stops, 3 INT, 4 PBU
3rd Team: Jalen Huskey* (Maryland)- 31 tackles, 13 stops, 2 INT; Louis Moore (Indiana)- 48 tackles, 15 stops, 4 INT, 2 PBU
The safety position continues to be loaded in the B1G so this is one of the more tightly contested positions. Bishop Fitzgerald stays at the #1 spot with his conference-leading 5 interceptions but Caleb Downs ascends next to him due mostly to his shutdown coverage numbers (not listed in the summary above). Washington’s Alex McLaughlin continues to earn a spot as he’s #1 among the major contenders in total tackles with the lowest missed tackle rate plus a pair of picks. Indiana gets both of their safety duo back on the list this time after they were essentially 7th and 8th for me last week to barely miss the list.
Team Standings
3 points for 1st team, 2 points for 2nd team, 1 point for 3rd team (last edition rank in parentheses)
- Indiana- 21 points (3)
- Ohio State- 19 points (5)
- Iowa- 15 points (4)
- Oregon- 14 points (9)
- USC- 9 points (1)
- Maryland- 9 points (2)
- Michigan- 7 points (10)
- Washington- 6 points (7)
- Illinois- 6 points (8)
- Minnesota- 6 points (16)
- Rutgers- 5 points (13)
- UCLA- 5 points (14)
- Northwestern- 4 points (12)
- Nebraska- 4 points (11)
- Michigan State- 3 points (15)
- Purdue- 3 points (18)
- Penn State- 2 points (6)
- Wisconsin- 0 points (17)