Big Ten

Northwestern Defeats Purdue After Sindelar Throws Three Interceptions

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The first Big Ten game of the season happened on Thursday night, when Northwestern traveled about two and a half hours south to face Big Ten West foes Purdue. The game was close fought, but the Wildcats would be the one to come out with the victory. That doesn’t mean that the result was clear-cut, though. Between both teams, four quarterbacks received playing time, and Purdue had both some highs and some lows over the course of the game.

How did Northwestern steal the road win?

Clayton Thorson is the man at Northwestern. That wasn’t clear heading into the game, but Thorson started and had the most passing attempts, with 26. He also managed to complete 58% of his passes, and threw for 172 yards. Despite Thorson starting, however, T.J. Green entered the game off the bench at one point and had the only touchdown.

That touchdown didn’t come via Green’s arm, however. A one yard run gave him the score, and Green’s yard total came to 63. Not quite the numbers that Thorson, who was the undisputed number one before his injury at the end of last year, was able to put up. Then again, Green had less attempts to work with. He only threw 11 passes compared to Thorson’s 26.

The position players were the stars of the game, though. Three of Northwestern’s touchdowns came from the running backs, and on the Purdue side, Rondale Moore was a standout. Moore is a true freshman, and despite having a slow start where he had a couple of drops, he had his first big reception in the first quarter and didn’t look back. Moore wasn’t just a threat in the passing game, either.

He only had two rushes, but one of them was a 76 yard touchdown that brought the crowd to their feet near the end of the first quarter. That’s not to say that Moore wasn’t one of the top players in the receiving game, though. His eleven catches led the game, as did his 109 yards and one receiving touchdown.

Purdue was within grasp of the win, but in the end, it was their quarterback performance that gave Northwestern the win. Elijah Sindelar played more of the snaps rather than David Blough, but had three first half interceptions compared to his one touchdown. His QBR was only 28.0, compared to 58.1 from Blough. That, combined with the pair of touchdowns on the ground from Northwestern running back Jeremy Larkin, gave the Wildcats the win.

“We’ve got to figure out what gives us the best chance to win. I think both guys will respond and be ready to go,” said Purdue head coach Jeff Brohm, on the subject of who will be the starting quarterback. He decided against making an immediate decision in reaction to the result, claiming that the call hadn’t been made yet.

Sindelar had one of the quotes that sums up the situation the best. “At the end of the day, this is Purdue football and if we win, then we both win. Regardless of if he’s in the game or I’m in the game, like if I get pulled out, that’s my chance to be a leader and a captain and show the guys that I am a teammate and I am going to be there at the end of the day to help him. It’s not about jealousy.”

Big Ten: Purdue vs Northwestern Preview & Prediction

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Before conference play begins for some of the bigger names in the Big Ten, Northwestern and Purdue will kick things off with an 8:00 PM night game that should be an interesting matchup. These schools are only divided by roughly two and a half hours, and their game on August 30th will take place long before any of the scheduled conference games this year.

Who has the edge in this battle of neighbors?

It’s somewhat hard to judge Northwestern without knowing who will start at quarterback. Clayton Thorson overperformed last year and threw for 2,844 yards, as well as 15 touchdowns, but was injured just as the season was coming to a close. As such, he’s not the guaranteed started on day one despite being the most talented quarterback on the roster.

Either Thorson or T.J. Green will be the starter, but unless Green has made big improvements during this offseason, Thorson is the better player by a decent margin. Green doesn’t have as much experience entering the season, and he hasn’t even received playing time as a backup. Last season, he only played in one game and had five passing yards total.

The two could end up evenly matched at the QB position regardless of who wins the Northwestern job. Purdue has their own quarterback battle, between redshirt senior David Blough and redshirt junior Elijah Sindelar. Both have had their moments, and both received enough time in the spotlight last year to throw for more than 1,000 yards. Sindelar, though, just about doubled Blough’s production.

Purdue could even use each quarterback in different situations. “We know what coach Brohm is thinking, the plays he wants to call and how he wants it to be different if I’m in, if Elijah’s in,” Blough said recently, praising head coach Jeff Brohm’s communication skills.

Brohm hasn’t just gotten the most out of the quarterbacks that he inherited upon joining Purdue. His tenure has also improved the defense, which became one of the top 25 scoring defenses in the country last year after previously ranking closer to the bottom in defensive scoring.

Junior linebacker Markus Bailey returns after some big performances last year, to man them middle of the linebacker group. They also have a clear-cut leader in their secondary, redshirt senior safety Jacob Thieneman. Just like the rest of the Purdue defense, Thieneman had a big improvement last year and finished with 73 tackles compared to 14 from 2016, in addition to two interceptions.

Northwestern’s defense, on the other hand, will have more of an advantage in the trenches and will look for sacks. They bring back reliable pass rushers Joe Gaziano and Samdup Miller, which should give them an advantage over Purdue in the pass rushing department.

Going back to the battle in the trenches, though, you have to consider that Purdue has more running back depth than a Northwestern team that lost top rusher Justin Jackson and may not have a replacement that’s as good. So who pulls out the win in the end? Both teams are around the same level, but it looks like Purdue could win the coaching battle and they also have less uncertainty about their quarterback situation.

They also play at home. It won’t be an easy game by any means, but their home crowd should give them enough energy to boost them to the victory.

Prediction: Purdue defeats Northwestern 31-24

Penn State: Herbstreit Favors Nittany Lions In Preseason Predictions

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The Penn State football team has a decent amount of hype going into the 2018 season, and not all of it is coming from the fans of the Nittany Lions. ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit, who is notably a former Ohio State quarterback, was high on PSU when making his preseason predictions. He backed them several times over other teams who are higher in the polls, multiple times in his picks.

It started with picking Trace McSorley for the Heisman trophy. “He’s the Baker Mayfield of this year as far as intangibles, what he means to this team, attitude, how he plays with a chip on his shoulder,” said Herbstreit, drawing a comparison to this year’s number one draft pick. While the two have different playing styles, anyone that’s followed McSorley’s career knows that it’s accurate in that both players are the type who can provide a spark to their team.

Herbstreit elaborated on the attitude that Penn State could have this season, saying that the team could play with an added chip on their shoulder as a response to much of their success over the past couple of years being attributed to Saquon Barkley. With Barkley gone, Penn State has taken a hit in the rankings and even some of their own fans enter the season with less confidence than they had last year.

While he picked Alabama to defeat Clemson in yet another national championship game between two of the dominant teams of the 2010s, Herbstreit did pick Penn State to make the College Football Playoff. “I’m going to go Alabama and Clemson… And then I’m going to go Penn State and Washington.”

According to the AP Poll, Penn State is currently the tenth best team in the country. They narrowly edged out Michigan State and Notre Dame to make the top ten, but they sit below Auburn and Miami. Will Penn State make the playoff this season? We’ll see. But at least one well known member of the media has faith that they will.

Wisconsin Football: How Do The Bagders Stack Up vs WKU?

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College football is coming. It’s less than two weeks before the start of the season, and the Wisconsin Badgers are one of the teams that will begin play on August 31st. Wisconsin is the favorite in the Big Ten West division and is the fourth ranked team in the AP poll right now, one spot above early conference favorites Ohio State.

But how does Wisconsin match up with the first opponent on the schedule?

The Western Kentucky Hilltoppers are the first team on the schedule for Wisconsin. The Hilltoppers aren’t exactly a team from a glamorous conference, or one that fans of big time conferences will be familiar with. They went 4-4 in Conference USA last year, with a 6-7 overall record when everything was said and done.

The season didn’t end on a good note for them either, as they lost 27-17 to Georgia State in the Cure Bowl. Their starting quarterback, Mike White, was good enough to get drafted in the fifth round by the Dallas Cowboys earlier this year. While that’s good for White and while it raises the profile of the program a bit, it’s not optimal for WKU.

They lost a player that threw for 4,177 yards last year along with 26 touchdowns, and the second most experienced quarterback from last season is fifth year senior Drew Eckels, who only attempted eleven passes during all of last year. According to head coach Mike Sanford, though, all of the quarterbacks on the team fit the system well.

But it’s not just the Badgers defense that could give WKU trouble. The Hilltoppers allowed an average of 2.1 rushing touchdowns per game, in stark contrast to Wisconsin’s 0.5 average. Jonathan Taylor rushed for nearly 2,000 yards last year, and is expected to improve on his performances from 2017 after picking up more experience as a college player.

Most power five teams struggle to contain Taylor, so it wouldn’t be a risky bet to guess than Wisconsin could finish with more than the two rushing touchdowns that WKU’s opponents averaged last season. Especially after their leading tackler, Joel Iyiegbuniwe, was taken 115th overall in the 2018 NFL Draft. Senior Masai Whyte will have to step up to replace him, but Whyte’s 63 tackles last season don’t come close to Iyiegbuniwe’s 117.

This is still a rebuilding phase for the Hilltoppers and their tepid running game, which had no gains of more than 20 yards last season, might be the nail in the coffin for their chances of making it a competitive game.

They’ll show up with their best effort, but Wisconsin is more talented in every area and it’s going to be hard for Western Kentucky to even score on a Badgers defense that has redshirt seniors Ryan Connelly and T.J. Edwards at inside linebacker as well as redshirt senior D’Cota Dixon at free safety.

Even if they do find a way, it will be hard to prevent Jonathan Taylor from running wild and boosting his Heisman chances during the first game of the season.

Prediction: Wisconsin Bagders 48 – 6 WKU Hilltoppers

Michigan Football: Quarterback Jeff George Jr. Will Transfer To Pittsburgh

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Michigan quarterback Jeff George Jr. already has one transfer under his belt, but it looks like he didn’t find what he was looking for with the Wolverines. George, who is of course the son of 13 year NFL veteran Jeff George, joined Michigan leading up to this season after previously being a contender for the Illinois starting quarterback job. He’ll leave the team, though, without taking a single snap in a game.

George spent the last three seasons with Illinois, registering the most playing time during the 2017 season. Illinois had a carousel of quarterbacks last year, but George won playing time regardless and threw for 1,273 yards and seven touchdowns. Not bad for a team that went 0-9 within the Big Ten conference and didn’t exactly provide much support for its quarterbacks.

If George had stayed with the Illini, he would likely be the starting quarterback this year. Instead, he made the move to Michigan over the summer despite not having much chance to start. It looks like George hasn’t given up on his football career, though. According to The Wolverine Lounge, he’ll head to Pittsburgh as a graduate transfer.

Pitt’s likely starter, Kenny Pickett, is a sophomore who is much less experienced. He featured in four games last season, making 66 pass attempts with a 59% completion percentage. He’s competing with another transfer, former USC and Arkansas quarterback Ricky Town. The addition of George should make the QB competition more competitive than it already is, as George showed a good amount of potential while playing with Illinois.

Back in Ann Arbor, it seems that Shea Patterson has won the job. The case of the Ole Miss transfer should be one of the more intriguing ones in the country, as Patterson may be the first true star quarterback that Jim Harbaugh has had since taking over as head coach of the Wolverines.

The fact that Michigan and Pitt both have quarterback battles featuring transfers just goes to show how much they impact the game nowadays.

Ohio State Football: What Are The Buckeyes’ Expectations In 2018?

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Ohio State comes into the season as the betting favorite to win the Big Ten, but things aren’t that simple. The school is stuck in a complex situation, and the fate of head coach Urban Meyer will be determined in the coming days after a meeting of the Ohio State Board of Trustees. Supposedly, suspension is the most likely outcome.

For the team itself, that outcome isn’t as bad as Meyer being fired outright. Still, it would be hard to claim that entering the season with a different head coach in charge isn’t something that will negatively effect the players. Especially when the pressure is already tremendous this year, with the Buckeyes starting out in the top five of the AP Poll.

What is expected of Ohio State entering this season?

Every team that begins the season in the top ten, let alone the top five, believes that they can win the championship. Only four teams will have the chance to play for a title, however, and Ohio State starts off as the last team out. But championships aren’t decided by preseason predictions, and making the playoffs is definitely the expectation for the team that is the favorite to win one of the toughest conferences in college football.

It’s true that Ohio State doesn’t have an experienced quarterback this year. They’ll have to pick between redshirt sophomore Dwayne Haskins Jr. and redshirt freshman Tate Martell, and it looks like Haskins will be the one to come away with the starting job. While neither player has significant playing time, Ohio State doesn’t necessarily need to win with just their quarterback carrying the team.

They have a loaded backfield with J.K. Dobbins and Mike Weber returning, forming one of the best one-two punches in the nation. Dobbins had 1,403 yards as a freshman, and an average of 7.2 yards per rush. Dobbins isn’t the most physically intimidating of football players, but while defenders may assume that he’ll be an easy tackle, his strengths lie in his speed and his movement.

Dobbins’ 2017 highlight reel was filled with outside runs and cuts to the outside, with the freshman displaying how light on his feet he is. He also uses his low center of gravity better than many would expect, meaning it’s not a given that he’ll go down on first contact. He’ll surely have more than seven touchdowns in 2018, and his impact will be combined with that of Mike Weber, who rushed for 10 touchdowns last season.

Their defense returns Jordan Fuller, who had the second most tackles on the team with 62. Junior defensive end Nick Bosa is also being hyped up for good reason. The Buckeyes lost defensive line talent to the NFL, but that means that Bosa will have more time on the field in addition to a larger role.

Bosa has shown himself to have a good sweep move to get outside of the offensive tackle, and that combined with his pure athleticism should help him improve on his 8.5 sacks from last year.

It all doesn’t mean that the team won’t be without its challenges. Ohio State won’t start any senior linebackers this season, and that could negatively impact the organization of their defense. But that’s something that should work itself out over the course of the season, as a leader emerges.

That leader may just be outside linebacker Malik Harrison. “Malik is a playmaker that’s got a lot of people looking at him,” said linebackers coach Bill Davis, back in the spring. He also spoke about some of the other members of that unit. “It’s exciting to watch them take their leadership role. We talk about leadership being more about actions than words, and I think that’s kind of what they’re trying to do.”

Perhaps the biggest question mark is Dwayne Haskins Jr. The redshirt sophomore had some playing time as the backup to J.T. Barrett, but wasn’t a starter last season. He threw for 120 yards and two touchdowns in the spring game earlier this year, but there’s always risk involved with introducing a new quarterback that hasn’t played as a starter in the past. He flashed his deep arm in the spring game and made some precision strikes downfield to decently covered receivers, but it’s hard to judge a player fully from his performance in a scrimmage.

Overall, Ohio State has playmakers on both sides of the ball and whether or not they make the playoffs should be determined by if they slip up in a select group of games against other elite teams. Namely, their games on the road against Penn State and Michigan State and their home game against archrivals Michigan. They also face a top 20 team during nonconference play in TCU, and that presents an interesting challenge.

The Urban Meyer scandal may just be the difference between the Buckeyes coming away with the Big Ten title, and not even playing for it. Looking at this forum surrounding Meyer’s odds on keeping his job, it looks like he won’t be fired. Even if Meyer only receives a suspension, it’s something negative that will hang over the season. And it’s the reason why few will be surprised if the playoffs come around and the Buckeyes are on the outside looking in. The Big Ten will likely have a playoff team, but there’s a reason why Wisconsin is trending up and Ohio State is trending down.

Season Prediction: 11-2, Rose Bowl winners

Ohio State Football: Training Camp Insights From Ryan Day

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Off the field, the Ohio State football team has been surrounded in drama. On the field, however, progress is being made in the preparation for this season, which will begin in less than two weeks. At least, that’s what acting head coach Ryan Day’s latest training camp update would indicate.

While a head coach isn’t going to tell everyone the weaknesses of their team going into the season, it’s still interesting to see what the staff have said about their players at this point in the offseason. The update goes through all of the team’s position groups, starting with the one that everyone pays the most attention to, quarterback.

“In our entire room, we have zero collegiate starts,” Day began, referencing the graduation of multi-year starter J.T. Barrett. Replacing Barrett, of course, won’t be an easy task considering the fact that he threw for just short of 9,500 yards across his four year career with the Buckeyes.

“That being said, Dwayne Haskins and Tate Martell have been putting in work on and off the field to get themselves prepared for an excellent season. They have both been taking the majority of reps in practice… We can see improvement in each of the QBs on a daily basis.”

Haskins, who was the backup to J.T. Barrett last season, received some game time but has zero starts. He’s believed to be the favorite for the starting job, and was the number seven pro-style quarterback coming out of high school in the 2016 class. The younger Tate Martell, on the other hand, was the second ranked dual threat QB in the class of 2017.

The quarterback competition isn’t the only one going on right now. “Thayer Munford and Josh Alabi have been competing for the starting left tackle spot while Brady Taylor, Michael Jordan, and Josh Myers have all been taking snaps at center,” Day wrote.

There’s some more interesting position battles in the secondary. “Damon Arnette and Kendall Sheffield are poised to continue the tradition of great Buckeye CB play… [Safety] Jordan Fuller in particular has established himself as a leader and as a playmaker on our defense. There has been excellent competition to determine who will be the starter opposite Fuller, between Isaiah Pryor and Jahsen Wint. Brendon White and Amir Riep are fueling the competition by showing up on film and making plays.”

The positive report from training camp comes at a time when many are doubting the Buckeyes, because of the ongoing investigation involving Urban Meyer. Still, they take a very talented roster into the season, whether or not Meyer makes it to their first game in September.

Big Ten: Michigan vs Notre Dame Is A Game To Look Forward To

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There’s been plenty of complaints in recent years about the quality of non-conference matchups in college football. Some teams schedule cupcakes and head into conference play undefeated every year. Others risk their records against tough opponents, but do it at neutral sites.

Well, fans of the more traditional home and home method of playing non-conference games will be happy with the return of the Michigan and Notre Dame rivalry, which will be played during week one. Michigan has perhaps the most to lose of any Big Ten team in week one, and that’s part of what makes the latest iteration of this rivalry game so interesting.

If the Wolverines pull off the win in South Bend, many will assume that it’s just because of another Notre Dame disappointment. The Fighting Irish are the higher rated team in both the AP Poll and the Coaches Poll, with Michigan being unranked in the former. But their recent history of underwhelming seasons under Brian Kelly means that they’ve been devalued as a quality win.

This will become very relevant in the playoff conversation, if Michigan is still contending at that point in the season. On the other hand, however, a loss to Notre Dame would do more than just start the season off on the wrong foot. Head coach Jim Harbaugh has had a grace period with the Wolverines, but that’s coming to a close soon and fans expect results. If the team starts 0-1, you can expect a negative atmosphere to follow the team into the coming weeks.

You can also expect fans and media to ask how Michigan will beat Ohio State and Penn State if they can’t beat Notre Dame. Things are largely similar on the Notre Dame side. As the eleventh ranked team in the country, losing to an unranked rival would be an embarrassment. Even if that rival is a dark horse to contend for the Big Ten this year.

It’s not just the pressure surrounding the game that makes this matchup great, though. The keys to the game lie in opposing areas for each team. Notre Dame senior Brandon Wimbush has some hype going into the season, and could be a surprise contender for the Heisman Trophy. But Michigan’s defense is once again one of the better ones in the conference, and possibly the country as a whole.

They bring back Rashan Gary and Chase Winovich, both of whom are feared pass rushers. Additionally, Michigan’s secondary had the lowest passing yards per game average of any team in the country. That’s a very impressive stat, considering Michigan beat out a number of teams that have reputations for defense and were more successful overall, such as Wisconsin, Alabama, and Clemson.

Notre Dame lost both Quenton Nelson and Mike McGlinchey to the NFL Draft. Can they protect Wimbush long enough for him to get his throws off? Will Wimbush even be able to throw on a defense that allowed less passing yards per game than anyone in the country?

If the Michigan defense holds strong as they did in many games last year, the improved offense should have a chance to shine. Shea Patterson will likely enter the season as a starter, and will have a chance to show a national audience why he was compared to Texas A&M Heisman winner Johnny Manziel. He’ll have the help of sophomore receiver Donovan Peoples-Jones, the number one receiver recruit in the 2017 class and a player expected to step up his performances this year.

All of it makes for an exciting game where both teams will have to play to their strengths. It will all happen on week one, and will perhaps make for a better kickoff to the season than Washington and Auburn, who play in this year’s iteration of the Chick-fil-A Kickoff game.

Iowa Football: Can Nate Stanley Do What Others Couldn’t?

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It seems like Iowa is always a factor in the Big Ten, whether they’re in contention to win it or not. Even if Iowa themselves aren’t one of the contenders to win, Kinnick Stadium has gained a fearsome reputation among visiting teams. As Ohio State learned last season, back when they were ranked number six in the country, anyone can fall victim to the upset when playing away at Iowa.

Still, Iowa needs more than just a home field advantage to get back to the conference title game, which they lost after going 8-0 during conference play during the 2015 season. A good quarterback is absolutely essential to that goal, and they might just have that on hand with Nate Stanley. Stanley managed to take the starting job as a sophomore, and put up good numbers.

Despite being new to the role, his 2,432 yards came in at number seven in the conference. That’s not bad, considering that some of the names just above him in the rankings are much more well-known: Alex Hornibrook, Brian Lewerke, and J.T. Barrett. Of course, Barrett has graduated by now, and another name from the list, Tanner Lee, can be removed because of the NFL Draft.

In Stanley’s junior season, he should be expected to step up and perform like one of the conference’s best four or five quarterbacks. More accurately, he needs to perform like a top five quarterback for Iowa to sneak past their rivals in Wisconsin and make it back to a Big Ten title game. The Wisconsin team this year is just too good for Iowa to get by otherwise.

When you look at Stanley’s game, accuracy stands out as an area to improve. It’s based off of a couple of things. The first is his completion percentage, which was only 55.8% last year. Good enough to get him in the top ten of the conference, but poor enough that he ended up at number nine in completion percentage rather than in the top five.

The second thing to look at is his throwing mechanics. Stanley has power in his arm, but strangely enough, doesn’t seem to generate as much velocity as some of the other top quarterbacks. His passes sometimes use more of a lobbing style, and while this is useful in some situations, it also gives defenders more time to get in position and break up or intercept the pass.

His short and medium accuracy, though, is better than his deep accuracy. It’s also worth considering his pocket presence. While Stanley is fully capable of rolling out, something that’s useful on play action passes, most of his throws come from within the pocket. Even when playing defenses such as Penn State and Ohio State, who broke through the offensive line on some occasions, Stanley played smart enough to not take unnecessary sacks.

Against the Buckeyes, for example, a couple of Stanley’s touchdowns were thrown with defenders all around him. Most notably, he had one of the best highlight reel plays of the game when he threw a touchdown while Sam Hubbard was still holding onto his leg. It wasn’t the only big play he made under pressure, in either the win over Ohio State or the close game with Penn State.

So what should Hawkeyes fans expect this year from Stanley? He probably won’t be the top quarterback in the conference, but he has the tools to be among the best when he makes some improvements entering his junior year. The difference between a first and second year starter can be huge depending on the player, and at least some of Stanley’s weak spots should show less this season.

Iowa isn’t the Big Ten school that most fans associate with quarterback play, but this year, their fans can rest knowing that their signal caller isn’t intimidated in the slightest by the tough defenses that Iowa will have to face in their hunt for the conference crown.

Michigan State Football: Spartans Have Their Leader With Lewerke

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In the past articles in the Big Ten quarterbacks series, we’ve talked about the competitions between returning veterans and the new arrivals gunning to take their spots. That’s not going to be the case here. Michigan State under Mark Dantonio is perhaps known for making something out of nothing, but they won’t have to do that this year. They have one of the best quarterbacks in the country, and that’s already been proven before the start of the season.

A look at Michigan State’s Brian Lewerke

Brian Lewerke was a 13 game starter during his sophomore year, and threw for 2,793 yards. He added 20 passing touchdowns and five rushing scores on top of that, compared to seven interceptions. Another thing that Michigan State is famous for is their running game. After all, this is the school that gave us Le’Veon Bell, only fairly recently. But Lewerke isn’t the type of quarterback that you usually see on a stereotypically run heavy team.

If the coaches need him to be, Lewerke can be an effective gunslinger. He threw 51 passes against Notre Dame and ended the game with 31 completions and two touchdowns to one interception. Against Northwestern and Penn State, he attempted 57 and 56 passes respectively.

Calling Lewerke a gunslinger just because he attempts a lot of passes would only be a surface level way of looking at it. A quarterback can rack up pass attempts and completions by throwing the ball into the flat over and over, or picking up short gains from slant routes early and often. Lewerke isn’t doing that.

Against Northwestern, he was willing to rifle the ball into coverage, even doing so a bit too much and nearly turning it over more times than his four touchdowns and one interception stat line would indicate. His deep accuracy also needed work in that game, and he missed several open receivers downfield after the receivers had beaten their defenders. Still, more times than not, Lewerke’s gunslinging play style worked out for the better.

In a tough division that’s part of a tough conference, dodging the pass rush is also a good skill for a quarterback to learn. While Lewerke is a pocket passer, he’s able to move around and prolong the pass rush while still finding targets down the field. You could make a strong case that his vision is his best trait, as this vision is just as good even when Lewerke is on the move.

A rough NFL comparison in terms of play style might be Russell Wilson, although at 6’3″ and 212 pounds, Lewerke is the QB with the larger frame. He’s also a bit more willing to use his legs as a regular part of his game plan, even if he’s not crossing the line of scrimmage with a scramble.

When his judgement improves in his junior year, Lewerke should have a better idea of when to gun the ball towards a covered area and when to hold onto it. That decision-making was dodgy at times this year, but it’s expected for a player in his first full season as the starter.

This year, though? MSU is out to capitalize on the off the field chaos happening in Columbus, and make it back to the conference title game. If they complete that feat, you can already be sure of which player will be at the forefront of the offense.