Part 2: Ohio State, Purdue and Wisconsin.
Apromised, here's the second part of ZN's look at the conference's spring game circuit. Minnesota and Northwestern will hold their spring games April 25 and 26, respectively. I couldn't find any Indiana blogs that analyzed the spring game. Michigan sucks, and because of this suckage, were forced to hold their spring game at a high school, on April 12. So no soup for them. Enjoy...
Eleven Warriors had probably the most interesting take on the Ohio State spring game, going so far to say that Terrelle Pryor may not get the immediate playing time everyone expected in 2009. "22 year-old redshirt freshman Joe Bauserman stole the show in the 2008 Buckeye spring game, connecting with fellow soph Taurian Washington on two long scoring strikes (true, one was called back on a penalty, but you can’t take anything away from the throw and catch). Bauserman looked so good on the afternoon that the large contingent of fans that see Boeckman as nothing more than a big-game disaster-in-waiting have already begun placing orders for their #14 bobble-heads."
Heading down to Old Columbus Town, there's some even wondering if the incumbent starting quarterback is having the kind of spring practice he should. "Boeckman, leading the Scarlet against the hated Gray, turned in a head-scratching performance: 12 for 18, 145 yards and two picks. However, Boeckman was close to perfect completion percentage when he threw his second INT. So Becks' two interceptions were close to being his only two incompletions."
As for the Purdue spring game, BoiledSports had the story in their eye-witness account of the action. "Jaycen Taylor had one of the niftiest plays of the day. On a draw right, the hole sealed and he patiently picked another hole after avoiding getting collected in the scrum and broke the run for a touchdown... Justin Siller looked good at times at quarterback, but had an awful-looking interception that was returned for a touchdown. I was definitely more-impressed with Elliot as he seemed to throw a better ball and even scampered for a few nice gains when he needed to run. Panfil (another former quarterback) had a touchdown reception...he's been recently moved to receiver."
In a much more cynical evaluation of the Boilermakers' spring game, Off The Tracks didn't seem to take as much stock in Purdue's performance on the field, hinting that a I-AA school would be a tougher test. "I don’t think you can take too much from yesterday. Event eh good performances we did have came from guys who may barely play in the fall because of getting all the starters back. Playing Northern Colorado will tell us a lot more simply because we’ll have everyone back and we’ll be playing at game speed. Both sides of the ball are also handicapped a bit because in a spring game the have a very good idea about what is on the other side of the ball. At least when facing someone else, even a bad team like Northern Colorado, there is an element of surprise and reaction that isn’t there in a spring game."
And finally up to Madison, where Badgercentric offers its insight into a team with sky-high expectations. "Lots of reports raving about DeAndre Levy, not so much his play but his leadership. As unstable as the other defensive units are, we should be able to go six deep at linebacker this season without much dropoff... The running backs did nothing to make us think that this won't be our strongest position in 2008. Say all you want about the other three guys, who are good, but I'm still glad P.J. Hill is coming back as the starter. These are four guys who all bring something to the table and will test defenses in their own way. Looks like Johnny Clay did not disappoint in his first public appearance as a Badger."
*Check back with ZN next week for updates on Minnesota's and Northwestern's spring games, and if I can find something on Indiana's game--from a blogger, that is--I'll have it here. Also tomorrow, look for ZN's complete NFL draft analysis and projections.
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