Big Ten Media Day opened yesterday with the media selecting Ohio State as the preseason favorite. No real surprise there but as an added bonus, they picked Beanie Wells as the Big Ten’s preseason offensive player of the year and James Laurinaitis as the preseason defensive player of the year.
What I didn’t realize is that if the Buckeyes do win the Big Ten Championship, they will be the first team in the history of the division to do it three years in a row.
Media representitives gathered for the event picked Wisconsin as number two and Illinois as number three. For the first time since they started tracking these things, Michigan wasn’t picked in the top three.
I haven’t had a chance to go through the coaches opening interviews yet but from what I see so far, i haven’t missed much. Unfortunately, since I haven’t made the leap to full-time blogging (I’m still looking for a sponsor), I’m not actually in Chicago and my media day reports will need to be second hand. I’ll have more over the weekend.
Michigan Coach Rich Rodriguez got a little heat about Justin Boren’s defection to the Buckeyes. According to the Toledo Blade, Rodriguez said that Boren’s comment about a loss of family values at Michigan was what hit him the hardest. When asked, Michigan players at the event played it off but face it, just the defection had to be a pretty hard blow.
While the Michigan players did their best to shrug it off, the Blade reported that Kirk Herbstreet pointed out the impact of it coming from a “legacy” player. I don’t think I realized that Boren’s dad played for Bo…wow.
Kirk Herbstreet per the Toledo Blade:
“[Boren] was a legacy guy and when he makes comments like [that], that’s like getting kicked square in the shorts when you’re Rich Rodriguez,” ESPN analyst and former OSU quarterback Kirk Herbstreit said Thursday. “With all the other things that are happening, when you get that comment from a legacy guy, a guy whose dad started three or four years for Bo, all of a sudden everybody’s tentacles go up a little bit.
“But I’m a little concerned right now for Rich. There’s a lot of negative things adding up. They need to start the season and win some games to get some positive stuff going, some mojo going, because it’s not good right now.”
I’ll give Rodriguez that. He definitely needs to get some positive stuff going up there. Not that I’m looking for it or anything — actually, fanning the flames is probably more like it.
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