Wednesday, September 22, 2004
Growing pains at QB are a Big Ten trend
By Jay Hansen
Gannett News Services
Ohio State fans lamenting their team's lack of offense are about to join good company.
Big Ten Conference play starts this week and outside of Purdue you'd be hard-pressed to find an offense in the league that's producing on a consistent basis. There is any number of reasons for this lack of offense, but the Big Ten's youth under center is generally viewed as the biggest culprit.
Six of the league's 11 schools have spent the first few weeks of the season breaking in new quarterbacks, a number that jumps to seven when you consider Illinois had to start a freshman last week in place of injured senior Jon Beutjer. Four of the teams with new quarterbacks - Ohio State, Iowa, Michigan State and Wisconsin - are the lowest-scoring Big Ten schools.
All-in-all, the early reviews suggest this year's Big Ten is a league that could be decided by defense.
"It wouldn't surprise me if the Big Ten had a number of games be low-scoring games," Purdue coach Joe Tiller said. "I'm talking about one or two touchdown games."
Tiller's avoided those so far. His quarterback - Kyle Orton - is the most experienced returning QB in the league and he's looked the part so far.
Orton leads the Big Ten is passing efficiency and has nine touchdown passes and no interceptions. He heads up the league's best offense, one that's putting up an average of 55 points per game.
"I couldn't imagine a quarterback around the country playing better than Kyle Orton has played this year," Illinois coach Ron Turner said. "I don't see really any weaknesses in him and what (Purdue's) doing. They're clicking on all cylinders."
But the Boilermakers might be the only ones.
From Columbus to Ann Arbor to Iowa City, the Big Ten's young quarterbacks have had a rough ride thus far.
At Iowa, sophomore Drew Tate led the Hawkeyes to a pair of season opening wins, only to travel with his team to Arizona State where Iowa was thumped 44-7. The Hawkeyes managed only six first downs in the game and scored their lone touchdown on a punt return in the fourth quarter.
"We're having a lot of problems offensively right now," Hawkeye coach Kirk Ferentz said. "I think (Tate's) doing a real good job. He's about where we thought he would be at this point. What we need to do is give him more support."
Tate is not the only youngster struggling. Michigan freshman Chad Henne was harassed and hounded by Notre Dame defenders in a 28-20 Wolverine loss, and has the third-worst pass-efficiency rating in the league. First-year Wisconsin starter John Stocco, who's completing just better than 50 percent of his passes, is the lowest rated Big Ten quarterback with an efficiency rating of 115.8.
The highest rated first-year starter is Minnesota's Bryan Cupito (2nd in the league at 183.9), although he has the conference's two leading rushers - Marion Barber III and Laurence Maroney - to lean on. Those backs are one reason Cupito is attempting just 18 passes per game, the fewest in the league.
Meanwhile, Ohio State quarterback Justin Zwick is in the middle of the pack as far as the league's quarterbacks go. He's fifth in the league in passing efficiency (127.8), fourth in yards per game (203.3) and fifth in total offense (197.7).
Zwick's four interceptions are third-worst in the league, but Ohio State coach Jim Tressel pointed out Tuesday that the sophomore did not turn the ball over last weekend at N.C. State.
"(Zwick) did a good job of keeping mistakes to a minimum," Tressel said of Ohio State's 22-14 win at N.C. State. "I'd like to think he'll get better and better."
That's what every coach of a young quarterback hopes. It's the waiting that's the hardest part.
"I think what you will see now that all these young quarterbacks have had the opportunity to play in three games, I think they'll show marked improvement," Michigan coach Lloyd Carr said. "But I don't think there's any question inexperience will lead to some exciting plays, if you will. I think that's the nature of being inexperienced.
"Experience is a great thing, but it's hard to get without suffering."
Coming in at QB
The Big Ten's top quarterbacks (minimum 2 games):
