Big Ten Roundtable of Bloggers: Week Ten - WRAP

By Adam Kiefaber

The week is finally here!

Wisconsin week - and -

it is Buckeye Lane’s turn to host the Big Ten Roundtable of Bloggers.

Let’s see how the fellow blogger answered my questions -

There’s the list of the bloggers that got their answers in by the deadline:

Lake The Posts
Black Shoe Diaries
Off the Tracks
The Hoosier Report
The Buckeye Blog
The Nittany Line

1) With the Big Ten season about to be wrapped up, it is a little easier to predict what Bowl games are possible for your school. Tell me what Bowl games would interest you as a fan. Where do you want to go? More importantly, who do you want to play?

Go see what the The Buckeye Blog says about Ohio State, “I can’t believe we are on the home stretch of the Big Ten season already. As for the Buckeyes, we are all looking to New Orleans for the BCS National Championship game. Anything else at this point would be a letdown. As for a matchup? Anybody got a coin for me to flip?”

Black Shoe Diaries (PSU blog) wants to play an SEC team in the Capital One or Outback bowls. However, BSD thinks that PSU won’t make it to the Capital One, and maybe an Alamo Bowl against a Big 12 team will take place. The Nittany Line wants an SEC team as well in the Outback bowl. Lake The Posts (Northwestern blog) wants any Bowl except for a trip to the Motor City. Off the Tracks (Purdue blog) wants to visit the Alamo. The Hooiser Report will take anything since their team hasn’t been to a bowl game in 14 years.

2) In honor of Black Shoe Diaries’ question about the Big Ten Moron Coach of the Year Award. Tell me who is the most disappointing player in the Big Ten this season. Also, tell me who is the most disappointing on your team.

Black Shoe Diaries says, “Aw shucks. Nice to know BSD is leaving a legacy of suck with the Big Ten Bloggers. I am thoroughly unimpressed with Juice Williams. He was supposed to be the next Troy Smith or Vince Young this year. So far he blows.” On PSU he nominates the obvious choice in Austin Scott.

The Nittany Line picks a player from their team - “Most disappointing player in the Big Ten is on Penn State. Without a doubt, it has to be Justin King. This guy was the shutdown corner that teams dream about last year and has become totally unfocused and sloppy.”

LTP says Curtis Painter and he is disappointed in Corey Wooten (and rest of D-line) on NW. Off the Tracks says the entire Minnesota defense and on his team - the Purdue defensive line. The Hooiser Report isn’t impressed with Michigan’s freshman QB Ryan Mallet. The Buckeye Blog goes with a different Michigan QB (Chad Henne - view at your own risk - bad language)

3) Ohio State is rumored to be building a giant buckeye nut outside the football stadium. This will lead to the new tradition of “rubbing the nut.” I’m sure Michigan fans will use that against us. I know it is pretty late to start new traditions in the Big Ten, but pitch me a new tradition idea for your school.

“You serious, Clark? A big nut? The nut-head with arms and legs isn’t enough? IU already has “The Rock” for pregame rubbing purposes. It may sound trite, but I would prefer to add winning games and filling the stadium as IU traditions before adding anything else.” - The Hoosier Report

Off the Tracks on new traditions, “This was actually a discussion on the Purdue football message boards not too long ago. I would love to see us come up with some kind of flashy nickname for Ross-Ade Stadium and get into the tradition of everyone wearing black for a game. I’d love to nickname the place the Depot, the Rail Yard, or the End of the Line. I am a huge fan of the train theme because of its uniqueness. One that I love, but not many people know about is that we put the hat of every team we beat on the cowcatcher of the Boilermaker special during football season. I think we could build this one up more as well by symbolically doing it at midfield after home games.”

Unlike the Cubbies, LTP wants NW to have more night games. BSD wants PSU to sing the fight song after games. The Buckeye Blog likes how coach Tressel added the fight song after games and thought I was joking about the nut. I seriously heard this from a credible source.

BONUS ROUND

- You are a big-fight promoter - Talk up your team’s mascot and how/why they could kick the living crap out of any opposing team’s mascot - inspired by Oregon’s mascot

Lake The Posts says, “We’d kick the heck out of the skunk at Wisconsin, we’d eat Chief Illiniwek if he were still here, but I’d hate to meet Purdue Pete or Sparty in a dark alley.”

BSD- “Are you kidding me? The Nittany Lion doesn’t kick the crap out of other mascots. He kills them.” Great video on his site Black Shoe Diaries

Off the Tracks likes Pete’s chances since he carries a giant hammer.

- Now you’re an agent - Convince me that you have the top 2008 NFL Draft pick on your team -

LTP says that junior DT John Gill is the best NFL prospect on NW. BSD says it’s Dan Conner on PSU.

Overall, no one thinks they have a #1 NFL prospect. Either the Big Ten Bloggers are getting bitter or they just can’t lie.

I’ll go for the latter.

Thanks for all who participated - sorry if I didn’t get your answers in time -