Conference Review: BIG 10

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With college football in full swing, we’ll be bringing you a review of the “Big Five” conferences each and every week. These recaps will feature sections for “Premier Conference Performer,” “Rising Players,” “Falling Players,” and a special Freshman spotlight. These weekly reviews will keep you up-to-date on all the happenings in devy leagues and allow you to keep tabs on future dynasty league assets. By the time the NFL Draft rolls around, you won’t see too many strangers.

Premier Conference Performers

Melvin Gordon RB, Wisconsin
19 Carries for 128 yards and two touchdowns

Gordon continues his amazing season. This was sort of a ho-hum day for Gordon, which is amazing because this would probably be considered a career best day for most college running backs. Nothing new on Gordon this week, if you haven’t already though, check out my player profile on him.

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Rising

JT Barrett QB, Ohio State
15 of 25 for 128 passing yards and two touchdowns. Seven carries for 38 yards

These aren’t the stats were used to seeing from Barrett, but regardless of what it says on the score sheet, the freshman has that Ohio State offense rolling. He’s battling through a leg injury, so this is a good opportunity to see how he does when he has to stay in the pocket more.

Corey Clement RB, Wisconsin
14 carries for 131 yards and two touchdowns

There he is! Clement finally looked like the promising freshman back he was last year. With a powerful burst and deceptive speed, Clement will be the feature back for Wisconsin next season. That means open running lanes, inflated stats and probably ending in a second or third round draft selection. 2016 is a long way off, but there’s reason’s to get excited in Madison, even with Melvin Gordon departing.

Devin Smith WR, Ohio State
Three catches for 72 yards and a touchdown

Smith is the ultimate boom/bust receiver. He doesn’t make a lot of catches, but when he does, it’s almost always a big play. We now have four years of college play to assess him as a prospect, and I’m still not sure we have the whole picture. For his career, Smith has scored on 24% of his catches, a pretty astounding rate for a player with over 100 career catches. Seven of his 16 receptions this year have gone for touchdowns, color me impressed. I’ve passively tracked Smith since his impressive freshman season, but I threw in the towel after his underwhelming volume on a super explosive 2013 offense.  Either way, this is someone to keep an eye on throughout the draft process this year, the talent is there, I have no doubt.

Falling

Christian Hackenberg QB, Penn State
18 of 42 for 177 yards with one touchdown and one interception

Another ugly game for Hackenberg resulting in an ugly loss for Penn St. It’s mindboggling, a night and day difference from last year. I’ve given him the benefit of the doubt prior to this game, figuring sooner or later he would pull it together, but it’s simply not happening. You have to wonder how much Bill O’Brien propped up Hackenberg’s talent last year. While I still consider his ceiling very high, I’m going to have to see some results very soon to believe Hackenberg will ever come to fruition.

Ameer Abdullah RB, Nebraska
6 carries for 1 yard

He was struggling before the injury, but he tends to warm up and make a bigger impact as the game goes on. Abdullah got caught up with a MCL sprain, a big gasp was made by many. Not only is this a major scare for his dynasty/fantasy value, but you really don’t want to see a talented guy like this get hurt in his senior season. Luckily the reports are very optimistic, and it appears there will be no lingering long-term effects. Regardless of injury, I see Abdullah going in the third round range of the draft, and it will be very interesting to see him evaluated throughout the draft process.

Keep An Eye On

Justin Jackson RB, Northwestern
24 carries for 98 yards and a touchdown

This was Jackson’s fourth straight week with 22+ touches and it’s become increasingly clear that the freshman is well on his way to being a featured part of Northwestern’s offense for the next two or three seasons. Jackson is a smaller back, but he has been extremely impressive. Rare to see a freshman run for 1,000 yards, Jackson is just 274 away after this weekend.

Akeel Lynch RB, Penn State
21 carries for 51 yards

The stat line is horrible, and should be concerning, but I’m excited. Penn State has struggled offensively the entire season, scoring over 26 points only once. The offensive line is horrible, the Quarterback is horrible and especially the running game has been horrible. The promise in all this is that they’ve finally handed the reins over to Lynch, if his natural athleticism and skill can create a few big plays, I think you’re looking at one of the better running back prospects in the conference in 2015.

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