Another Injury For An Illini Defensive Back
On Thursday the Illini found out that they were going to be without starting safety Supo Sanni this season thanks to a torn achilles, and now Ron Zook’s secondary has taken another hit. On Saturday it was announced that starting cornerback Terry Hawthorne has a stress fracture in his right foot.
Hawthorne had a screw inserted into the fifth metatarsal of the foot and is going to miss three to six weeks, which means he’s going to miss at least the first two games of the Illinois season against Missouri and Southern Illinois. It’s possible he won’t be ready to play until the conference opener.
“He had [the injury] as a junior in high school, and he didn’t practice for a week,” said Ron Zook. “He’s such a tough kid, he doesn’t complain about anything. It bothered him a little bit during camp, but he never said anything, so he kept going.
“You love him because he doesn’t ever complain, but if he would have said anything, maybe we would have been able to get away with just giving him a few days off. But he’ll be fine and we’ll be fine.”
Hawthorne started five games as a true freshman for Illinois last season, making 27 tackles, breaking up five passes and picking off one pass.
I Know A Way You Can Score Free Tickets To Ohio State’s Opener
This man offers you the opportunity of a lifetime, ladies
Are you a girl? Do you like Ohio State Buckeyes football?
You do!?
Well how would you like to get four tickets to the Buckeyes’ opener next Thursday for the low low price of free?* Well then I’ve got good news for you, ladies.
If you have a bikini and are “at least an 8″ on the worldwide hotness scale of 1-10, then all you have to do is wash this dude’s Hummer in your bikini and the tickets are yours!
Oh, and he’ll be taping it. You know, just to show the boys at the next poker game. He’s not some creepy old man or anything, he even included a picture just to prove it.
He’s just some pervy young dude with tickets and a Hummer.
*May cost you your dignity
Purdue’s Caleb TerBush Academically Ineligible
I consider Purdue to be a bit of a darkhorse in the Big Ten this season. I don’t expect them to win the conference or anything, but I do get the feeling that they could have a pretty good season and surprise quite a few people though. A big reason for this is Robert Marve.
Marve will finally be able to play for the Boilermakers after transferring from Miami last year, and though he had his troubles in Miami — both on the field and off of it — I’m still somewhat of a believer in the kid who was named Florida’s Mr. Football in 2006. Danny Hope is too, though at this point, he has to be. Especially with the latest news that one of Marve’s backups at quarterback has been ruled academically ineligible to play in 2010.
Illini Safety Supo Sanni Has a Torn Achilles
If Ron Zook is going to keep his job in Champaign following the 2010 season, then the Illini are going to have to have a pretty big rebound from the last two seasons. For that to happen, the defense in particular is going to need to actually figure out how to stop an opposing offense from time to time.
A task that should be helped by the return of Martez Wilson, who came to Champaign with a lot of hype, but hasn’t been on the field enough to justify any of it.
Unfortunately, the task of improving on defense just got a bit harder as the Illini just lost a defensive starter for the 2010 season. Starting safety Supo Sanni — which is very fun to say by the way – suffered a torn achilles during practice on Wednesday, and the junior’s season is over.
“I feel bad for him, but he’ll be all right,” said Zook.
Not sure if the same can be said for Illinois. For now the plan is to have Travon Bellamy start with Trulon Henry at the safety positions, and Justin Green was recently moved from running back to cornerback and Zook says “he’s looked really good” there.
The team also plans on trying out receiver Steve Hull at safety as well.
Barry Alvarez: Wisconsin And Iowa To Be Split
While we still don’t know what the Big Ten divisions will look like, we’re starting to get quite a few clues over the last few days. First there’s all the talk from Jim Delany, Jim Tressel and Dave Brandon trying to soften the blow of the inevitable news that Michigan and Ohio State are going to be split.
Now Wisconsin AD, and former head coach, Barry Alvarez is letting us all in on another secret: Wisconsin and Iowa aren’t going to be in the same division either. Alvarez confirmed the news to the Wisconsin State Journal. He also went on to say that the conference is going to move to a nine-game schedule, but not before 2015.
“We’ve had our meetings,” said Alvarez. “We have a pretty good idea of what’s going down.”
There have been rumors that Ohio State had been in talks with the Pac-10 bound Colorado Buffaloes about adding the Buffs to the 2011 schedule, with some reports saying that cash-strapped Colorado would be getting $2 million for their one-time appearance in Columbus.
Well, they were half right.
Colorado is coming to Columbus next season, but they’ll “only” be getting $1.4 million to do so.
Ohio State AD Gene Smith confirmed on Tuesday that the Buckeyes will host Colorado on September 24th, a week after the team travels to Miami to take on the Hurricanes, and one week before the beginning of Big Ten play. The $1.4 million is also twice what Ohio State normally pays whichever MAC team they feel like destroying, though given Colorado’s play the last few years, I don’t think the result will look that much different.
Though a win over another BCS conference team always looks much better on the resume than Eastern Michigan. Also, in a random factoid that means nothing, should Nebraska be on Ohio State’s conference schedule next year the school can also stake claim to being the first University to take on both of the Big 12′s defectors.
So they’d have that going for them too, which is nice.
Signs Point Toward Split of Michigan and Ohio State
We’re all still awaiting the announcement of what the Big Ten divisions will look like next year when Nebraska makes the move over to the Big Ten, and while nobody knows for sure which direction the conference is going to go when aligning the divisions, there are some signs pointing towards what I think would be a huge mistake.
It’s sounding like Michigan and Ohio State are going to be split.
Michigan AD Dave Brandon was on WTKA in Ann Arbor on Friday and had quite a bit to say on the subject. First, when asked if he would put the two rivals in the same division if he were making the final call, he said no. He also went on to say that there was a “distinct possibility” that while the Michigan/OSU game would be played later in the season, it would no longer be the last game of the season.
Troy Woolfolk Suffered A Dislocated Ankle – UPDATE
And let me just say that a dislocated ankle does not sound pleasant at all.
Rumors began swirling on Tuesday afternoon that Troy Woolfolk had suffered some kind of ankle injury at practice, but nothing had been confirmed by the school until earlier this evening. That’s when Woolfolk’s injury was called a “lower body injury” in what had to be some kind of tribute to Michigan’s hockey team.
Woolfolk was admitted to a nearby hospital to treat this “lower body injury” and now we know exactly what part of his lower body was hurt, and how bad, thanks to his father.
Broadcasting The Big Ten Title Game Won’t Be Cheap
The Big Ten is trying to figure that out, and it seems as if there’s quite a bidding war starting for the game already. According to the Indiana Business Journal, whoever ends up with the rights is likely going to have to pay somewhere between $15 and $20 million to do so.
According to the report, ESPN/ABC and Fox are the frontrunners to land the broadcasting rights. I’ll take this chance to say PLEASE GOD NO DON’T LET IT BE FOX. ANYBODY BUT FOX.
Also in the mix are CBS, NBC and Turner Sports, though ESPN, Fox and CBS are the only networks the Big Ten has had contact with. The others are just reportedly interested.
If I had to bet, I’d say ESPN/ABC ends up with the game.
Blogpoll Preseason Ballot
Blog Ten Ballot – Week 1
| Rank | Team | Delta |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alabama Crimson Tide | – |
| 2 | Ohio St. Buckeyes | – |
| 3 | Boise St. Broncos | – |
| 4 | Nebraska Cornhuskers | – |
| 5 | Oregon Ducks | – |
| 6 | Oklahoma Sooners | – |
| 7 | Wisconsin Badgers | – |
| 8 | Texas Longhorns | – |
| 9 | TCU Horned Frogs | – |
| 10 | Pittsburgh Panthers | – |
| 11 | Virginia Tech Hokies | – |
| 12 | Florida Gators | – |
| 13 | Miami Hurricanes | – |
| 14 | Iowa Hawkeyes | – |
| 15 | Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets | – |
| 16 | North Carolina Tar Heels | – |
| 17 | LSU Tigers | – |
| 18 | Penn St. Nittany Lions | – |
| 19 | Oregon St. Beavers | – |
| 20 | Cincinnati Bearcats | – |
| 21 | Georgia Bulldogs | – |
| 22 | Auburn Tigers | – |
| 23 | BYU Cougars | – |
| 24 | West Virginia Mountaineers | – |
| 25 | Washington Huskies | – |
SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings »
Explanation of my ballot after the jump.
Tate Forcier Needs To Earn His Wings
Rich Rodriguez still hasn’t given any indication to who will be Michigan’s starting quarterback this season, but it seems there are hints out there if you’re looking for them. On Monday Rodriguez spent some time after practice discussing why some Wolverines have the wings on their helmets, and others don’t.
To sum up his answer, Rodriguez said that those without wings simply haven’t earned them yet.
Then there was this tweet from the Big Ten Network’s Brent Yarina on Friday. It’s a picture of Tate Forcier taking a break on the sidelines. Notice what’s not on his helmet?
Wings.
It’s been a week since Iowa running back Brandon Wegher left Iowa City and we still don’t know much more about the circumstances surrounding his leave from the team other than that they’re personal reasons. What exactly those personal reasons are, we don’t know.
What we do know is that Wegher isn’t with the Hawkeyes at the moment, and that the odds of him suiting up with his team for their season opener against Eastern Illinois on September 4th decrease which each day he’s absent. We also know that Kirk Ferentz spoke about Wegher on the Scott Van Pelt show on Friday, and that he’s hopeful Wegher will be back with the team soon enough.
