Big Ten quarterbacks proving more elusive than ever
A revolution is well under way in Big Ten football, and it has nothing to do with Leaders or Legends.
The league is engulfed in an unprecedented era of athletic quarterbacks and example 1-A will be in town tonight when Denard Robinson leads Michigan into Ryan Field to take on Northwestern (6 p.m., BTN).
“I think every year, more and more athletic quarterbacks are playing,” said NU quarterback Dan Persa, another player who fits the trend. “I'm not as athletic as those guys, but I consider myself a dual-threat. I definitely see the transition a little bit.”
If any proof is needed, just check the current list of Big Ten leading rushers: Four of the top nine are quarterbacks. The group includes Robinson (No. 1 at 120 yards per game), Nebraska's Taylor Martinez, Minnesota's MarQueis Gray and Northwestern's Kain Colter, who started the first three games in place of the recovering Persa.
At the same time, Wisconsin's Russell Wilson is scrambling like Fran Tarkenton and currently ranks No. 2 on SI.com's Heisman Watch behind Stanford's Andrew Luck.
“There's no question you have to account for the quarterback,” NU coach Pat Fitzgerald said. “On defense, you're supposed to be able to outnumber the offense, 11 on 10. When that quarterback's involved, it makes you play 11-on-11 football and there's no room for error.”
Another sensation is Illinois' Nathan Scheelhaase, who has the surprising Illini sitting at 5-0 for the first time in 50 years. The Kansas City native doesn't rank among the current Big Ten rushing leaders, but last year he ran for 868 yards, the fifth-best total among quarterbacks in conference history.
“I think it spices up the game, but the biggest thing is just staying healthy throughout the year,” Persa said. “A lot of us last year didn't last play the whole year — I didn't, Denard didn't, Taylor Martinez didn't. So I think the biggest thing is just keeping yourself healthy.”
If the familiar image of a Big Ten quarterback is a tall, lumbering drop-back passer, it's for good reason.
Go back about 10 years — actually, how about 2003, because that's when the archives at bigten.org stop — and the leading passers were Michigan State's Jeff Smoker, Michigan's John Navarre, Purdue's Kyle Orton and Wisconsin's Jim Sorgi. All four played in the NFL, but athleticism wasn't a dominant characteristic.
Did all this happen in response to complaints that the Big Ten can't match the speed of teams in the SEC? Was it by design or just a happy accident?
Well, some of this was clearly by accident. Robinson was recruited to run Rich Rodriguez's spread offense, then decided to stick around for Brady Hoke's pro-style sets, which have so far strongly resembled the spread.
Wilson is playing for Wisconsin only because he transferred from North Carolina State after his former coach didn't like the idea of Wilson missing spring practice to play minor-league baseball in the Rockies' system. Under NCAA rules, Wilson became eligible immediately because he received his degree and enrolled in a graduate program at Wisconsin.
This group of multifaceted quarterbacks does seem to be part of an emerging national trend, illustrated by guys like Tim Tebow and Cam Newton. It's now acceptable, perhaps even stylish, to start a quarterback that might be the most athletic player on the field.
Until Robinson came along, the dominant rushing quarterback in Big Ten history, and the only one to run for 1,000 yards in a season, was Indiana's Antwaan Randle-El in 2000. Robinson broke that record by more than 400 yards last year.
The movement in the Big Ten seemed to take hold with Illinois' Juice Williams and Ohio State's Terrell Pryor, who both ran for 700-some yards in a season.
Nine of the top 10 single-game rushing performances by Big Ten quarterbacks have happened since 2000, and seven of the 10 belong to Robinson or Randle-El. The only old-timer in the group is Purdue's Gary Danielson, who ran for 213 yards against Washington in 1972. Look it up if you have doubts.
Career-wise, Pryor and Williams still rank well behind option-era all-stars such as Ohio State's Cornelius Greene and Rex Kern, Michigan's Rick Leach and Minnesota's Rickey Foggie on the QB rushing chart — all good athletes, but limited passers.
The dilemma facing Big Ten coaches these days is either keep up with the trend toward athletic quarterbacks, or risk chasing one from behind.