Note: This story was written by DI staff writer Wes Anderson

CHICAGO–While attending Big Ten Media Day (a misnomer given the event’s two-day length) in downtown Chicago is a welcome privilege of writing for the Daily Illini (read: an opportunity to hoard free stuff that will inevitably find the bottom of a garbage can soon after), that doesn’t mean the day’s activities don’t often stray towards the monotonous.

The steady progression of coaches waxing poetic about the unfaltering greatness of their team, their university, and their undying optimism for 2008 (contrary to what the coaches may say, every team cannot win the Big Ten in one year) can leave a reporter drowning in sports clichés.

Lucky for us, though, the fraternity of Big Ten coaches is full of personalities. Here now, a look at the more attention-grabbing moments from today’s round of head coach pressers:

- All was jovial for Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema’s press conference until a rather vindictive reporter took his best shot at the Badgers’ somewhat shaky non-conference matchups:

Q: Your out-of-conference schedule includes Akron, Marshall, Fresno State and Cal Poly. Isn’t this below what’s to be expected of a program that’s been to 13 bowl games in the last 13 years and that is a perennial contender for the conference championship?

Bielema: Do you want to answer your question, or can I?

Read the rest of this entry »

CHICAGO–Just a couple of quick things from the Hyatt Regency that haven’t been mentioned yet in today’s blog coverage:

Conference Announces Preseason Awards
The media (DI staffers included) that was polled by the conference has chosen its preseason favorites to win the Big Ten. And the results are:

1. Ohio State Buckeyes

2. Wisconsin Badgers

3. Illinois Fighting Illini

Also, the preseason player of the year awards were given out today. The Buckeyes swept those just like the top spot in the preseason poll with tailback Chris “Beanie” Wells taking the offensive honors and linebacker James Laurinaitis defended his title as the defensive preseason player of the year.

Your 2008 Big Ten Preseason Defensive Player of the Year Read the rest of this entry »

College football, much like the NFL and other pro leagues, has proven to be a copycat league over the years. If something works well on either side of the ball, other teams quickly take it up and start using that strategy. Starting with George Halas’ man in motion with the T formation in the 1920’s and cutting midriffs on jerseys in the eighties (Thanks Doug Flutie) to the present-day practice of taping offensive linemen’s jerseys to their pads (nothing to grab here), everyone in football wants to gain an edge with the newest wrinkle set on by an innovative coach.

One big example that has lately swept both the nation and the Midwest is the spread offense. The spread offense is usually centered in three or four receiver sets with the quarterback five yards behind center, or in the shotgun, and is designed to spread the defense wider to force them to cover more area of the field. This type of offense is being used at just about every level—from Pop Warner football and high school to the New England Patriots of the NFL—and almost everyone adds their own wrinkles to the offense with option packages (see Illinois and new Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez) or an all-out ariel attack (see former Hawaii and new SMU coach June Jones and Texas Tech’s Mike Leach). I apologize for some of the cheesy music in those videos, but they do a good job of showcasing the spread.The Big Ten has a pioneer in the spread offense in outgoing Purdue coach Joe Tiller. Tiller was the first coach in the Big Ten to spread out his receivers and throw the ball a majority of the time in the former run-happy Big Ten. Tiller brought his spread offense from Wyoming to the Midwest and now eight of the 11 teams in the Big Team run the spread offense or a variation of it as their primary offensive formation. Wisconsin, Iowa and Penn State are the three schools that don’t.

So, being that the spread offense is the talk of the town (maybe I’m exaggerating a bit), it was a big topic of discussion in Thursday’s coaches press conferences. Here’s some of the tidbits from Big Ten coaches.

Illini Coach Ron Zook: When I first became a head coach, one thing most of my experience was on the defensive side of the football, and the one thing I wanted to do is I wanted to run an offense that I hated to see the most as a defensive football coach. Any time they spread out you’ve got to be able…to stop the run, and the more field that you have to cover sometimes the harder that it is, and I think once again it gives people an opportunity that maybe we’re — personnel-wise you may not be quite as good as others it maybe levels the field a little bit, and plus I think it’s a front offense. Read the rest of this entry »

The following was written by DI Senior Writer Daniel Johnson

CHICAGO–One of the last people to see Illinois’ loss to USC at the Rose Bowl was ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit. The former Ohio State quarterback was announcing the game for the network and was in Pasadena and Los Angeles for the week leading up to the game.

Herbstreit was also at Big Ten Media Days getting a glimpse of both coaches and players. The Daily Illini spoke with him on Thursday morning about Illinois and the Big Ten.

Daily Illini: Since you last saw Illinois at the Rose Bowl, what has changed most for the team in your eyes?

Kirk Herbstreit: I think it’s the experience of that game that has changed them the most. It’s funny, people are saying, ‘Well, Illinois got killed,’ and I’m like, ‘If you really go back and study that game, USC was on their way to blowing out Illinois, but they started to make some stops. All of the sudden (Rashard) Mendenhall gets loose on a couple of plays, then they get the ball back and they just start driving up and down the field at will, and they’re inside the 10-yard line. If they score that touchdown (instead of Jacob Willis fumbling,) it’s a seven-point game. But (Willis) fumbles going, SC on the next series fumbles themselves, but Joe McKnight being Joe McKnight picks it up and goes 75 yards and it’s pretty much over.
But I think what’s going to change the team is that experience of that is only going to strengthen them when they go to play Chase Daniel in Missouri. They’re not going to be like, ‘Wow, this is a big game,’ they’re going to be like, ‘Let’s go do this.’ The natural maturation of the program is kind of on the incline.”

DI: When you look at Illinois playing Missouri last year versus this year, what do you think is the different between the mindset of the players?

Herbstreit: I think there’s nothing more important to this team, a frustrated and young team, than focus on the next year, after having a great year, in its first game. If you’re playing a 1-AA team or a MAC (Conference) opponent, it doesn’t grab the players’ attention, but when you play Missouri and they’ve got Chase Daniel and they’re going to be a preseason top 5, top 7 team. It’s easy for (strength and conditioning coach Lou Hernandez) and Coach Zook to have the team ready for (Missouri,) because they know it’s coming.DI: With Rich Rodriguez coming to Michigan and changing the culture there from their traditional pro-style offense to a spread, what’s the difference going be in Ann Arbor?

Herbstreit: I think it’s bigger to the fans, guys like me and you are so used to seeing Elvis Grbac, John Navarre, Todd Collins; close your eyes and you envision a 6′4″ or 6′5″ just lumbering on the scramble, like a Tom Brady. I think for the casual fan it’s going to be like ‘wow, that’s weird,’ but the players will be fine, players adjust. But, it’s going to take some time, you don’t go from a power-running game to spreading them out and throwing. They did it some in the bowl game, but they had (Chad Henne) that started 40-some games. Now, you’re going to have a quarterback not prepared, I think this year’s going to be a tough year, they’re going to have to find a quarterback to run that system. They’ll adjust, but the spread is the kind of way of life now in college football, not just in Michigan, it’s every where.

Read the rest of this entry »

CHICAGO–So Big Ten football season is starting, and the DI has you covered with full coverage of the Big Ten Media Days right here on the DI Sports Blog!

Ron Zook started the day off as the first coach to speak and we have an audio wrap on his press conference below.Enjoy and look for more today and tomorrow.

The story can be found here at Dailyillini.com with the full audio wrap-up.