Big Ten Roundtable of Bloggers: Week Nine

By Adam Kiefaber

Every week this season a fellow Big Ten blogging site will host the Big Ten Bloggers’ roundtable of questions.

This week Black Shoe Diaries, which is a Penn State blog, will be the host of the seventh Big Ten roundtable of the season. Buckeye Lane will play host next week when Wisconsin visits Ohio State (September 29th through the November 3rd).

Go to Black Shoe Diaries’ questions to find links of what other Big Ten Bloggers are saying.

1) Pretend for a moment you’re the little Japanese guy on Heroes. You can close your eyes, clench your fists, crap your pants and go back in time. If you could go back and change one play for your team this season, what would it be?

WOW! I have never seen the show, but now I want to. Actually on second thought I don’t want to. That sounds like one of those horrible reoccurring dreams I had when I was a child.

Honestly, there isn’t a play I would want go back in time to change. I might want to tell Ohio State quarterback Todd Boeckman to be careful in that Michigan State game, since the Buckeyes had let the Spartans back in the game. On the other hand, he may have learned something there.

I don’t want to come off as an arrogant Buckeye fan, but like the average football coach Herm Edwards used to say, “you play to win ….

2) We’re now two-thirds of the way through the season. Everyone likes to debate who will be the Big Ten Coach of the Year. I want to know which Big Ten coach is a complete moron that should be demoted back to fullbacks coach on a team that runs the spread offense?

That’s is tough question. Ron Zook could easy be mistaken for an idiot, but his team has overachieved and is 5-3.

The Big Ten Worst Coach of the Year award has to go to Kirk Ferentz

Almost every offseason, ESPN and other national media outlets say that he is one of the best suited coaches to make the jump to the NFL.

Iowa has an overall record of 3-5 and is 1-4 in Big Ten play.

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife. But the Bible doesn’t say anything about your rival. Which current Big Ten player do you most wish played for your team?

Maybe it is my morals, but I don’t covet any other Big Ten player. However, I would like the Buckeyes to have Illinois’ wide receiver Arrelious Benn.

It is always nice to have a proven true freshman WR. Through eight games, he has 38 receptions for 459 yards. He also has rushed for 109 yards on 23 carries.

Bonus Question

It’s probably too early to start thinking about next year. Well, unless you’re Minnesota in which case you’ve been thinking about next year for a month or so already. Assess your team’s future. Was this year your chance to make a run or is this just a rebuilding year with greater expectations in 2008? Or do you plan to suck in 2008 just as much as you suck now?

In June I wrote a piece on which 2007-2008 Buckeyes would be drafted in the NFL Draft. Many of the key players are junior on this current roster.

This season was supposed to be a rebuilding year, but right now all of the fans’ hopes are on this season and a possible BCS National Championship.

Granted OSU has a tough stretch the rest of the season, even if OSU loses a couple, I still don’t think I would be able to call ‘07 a rebuilding year.

However, you have to think the Buckeyes will be even stronger next year.

OSU will lose senior offensive tackle Kirk Barton, who will be drafted in the 2008 NFL Draft. I’m worried which juniors will leave - cornerback Malcolm Jenkins, linebacker James Laurinaitis, offensive tackle Alex Boone and defensive end Vernon Gholston will all have tough decisions to make after the Bowl season.