After putting two teams in the College Football Playoff last season, the Big Ten enters 2023 with promising prospects to contend on the national stage again.

Two-time defending conference champion Michigan and archrival Ohio State are No. 2 and 3 in the preseason AP poll, and Penn State is No. 7. Closer to home, Illinois hopes to build on its first winning season in 11 years, while Northwestern looks to rebound from a 1-11 campaign and a turbulent offseason.

Here’s a team-by-team preview of the 2023 season.

By most measures, the 2022 season was a good one for the Illinois football team.

The Illini finished 8-5 in coach Bret Bielema’s second year after 10 straight losing seasons, placed second in the Big Ten West, played in a bowl game for the first time since 2019 and had four NFL draft picks.

Losing four of the final five games, including the ReliaQuest Bowl against Mississippi State, left a sour taste.

Receiver Isaiah Williams said this is the most confident team he’s been on in his five years at Illinois.

“But we also have a chip on our shoulder,” he said. “We had a good season last year, but we left a lot of wins out there.”

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Indiana coach Tom Allen knows the story all too well.

He has used six different quarterbacks and seven have taken game-day snaps over the past two seasons. Predictably, Indiana went 6-18 during that span.

This season, Allen wants and needs to change the script. So as Brendan Sorsby battles newcomer Tayven Jackson for the starting job and Dexter Williams II recovers from offseason knee surgery, Allen is searching for other solutions.

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New Iowa quarterback Cade McNamara wants complete command of the offense, right down to how the Hawkeyes break a huddle.

“I definitely want to start every play with a good break,” he said. “If we’re not in sync, it looks a little sloppy. If we have a clean break, it just gets the play started off right.”

McNamara has yet to take a snap for the No. 25 Hawkeyes in a game, but the Michigan transfer is the key to reviving one of the nation’s worst offenses. Iowa won eight games despite being 129th in total offense, 123rd in rushing and 122nd in passing and scoring.

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When Maryland coach Michael Locksley said at a Big Ten media day that the Terrapins are ready to compete for a conference title, it was an indication of how far the program has come.

It may have also been a sign of urgency.

It would be a shocker if the Terps win the Big Ten this season — they didn’t receive a single vote for the preseason AP Top 25 — but Maryland does have a luxury that doesn’t come around every year: Quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa is entering his fourth season as a starter. After going 7-6 and then 8-5 the past two seasons, it’s no surprise the Terrapins feel they’re capable of more.

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Michigan might have its best team in nine years under Jim Harbaugh as the second-ranked Wolverines aim for their first national title since 1997.

J.J. McCarthy returns as the staring quarterback along with All-America running back Blake Corum and perhaps one of the best offensive lines in college football. The defense is experienced with several returning starters, including All-Big Ten linebackers Junior Colson and Michael Barrett, and standout cornerback Will Johnson.

As successful as the last two seasons were — finally beating Ohio State and winning a school-record 25 games — each ended in humbling fashion in the College Football Playoff semifinals. Michigan gave up 51 points in a loss to TCU last season and was routed by Georgia a year earlier.

“If we get there, we just got to get over the hump,” Corum said. “For me, I have high standards so yeah, it’s win or bust.”

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Mel Tucker is among the highest-paid coaches in college football, cashing in on a surprising season two years ago at Michigan State.

The school is hoping to get a better return on its investment this season.

The Spartans were 5-7 in 2022, losing their last two games to fall short of being bowl-eligible, and a melee in the Michigan Stadium tunnel marred the entire year.

“Oftentimes you have to get kicked in the face before you can be great,” Tucker said. “We have a chip on our shoulder. No one was happy with the way the season unfolded, especially there the last couple games. It was very disappointing. We’re just hungry.”

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For the first time in five years, Minnesota’s starting quarterback is different than the previous season opener. The good news for the Gophers is the guy they call the “Greek Rifle” got a head start.

Athan Kaliakmanis started five games in 2022 for program stalwart Tanner Morgan, a switch that was equal parts injury fill-in and on-the-job training.

The native of Antioch, Illinois, has three years of eligibility left following a redshirt freshman season with mixed results. After a daunting debut as a starter in a 45-17 defeat at Penn State, Kaliakmanis finished well against rival Wisconsin by going 19 for 29 for 319 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions for the program’s highest passing output since 2019.

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Make no mistake, Matt Rhule wants to win and win often in his first season at Nebraska.

The Cornhuskers new coach also understands where the team sits in 2023, and he’s taken the program down to the studs with the hope of building it back into the respected national brand it was a generation ago.

“When I think about Nebraska, I just think about that helmet,” Rhule said of the Huskers’ classic white and red headgear. “It’s iconic to me, and it is across college football.”

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David Braun had no idea just how much his life would change when Pat Fitzgerald hired him to be Northwestern’s defensive coordinator in January.

Steadying a program rocked by a hazing scandal wasn’t part of his job description. It is now.

Braun finds himself leading a Big Ten team as the interim coach after Fitzgerald got fired last month with the program embroiled in a hazing and abuse scandal.

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James Franklin has plenty of reasons to be optimistic entering his 10th season at Penn State.

He knows the Nittany Lions have depth across the board, experience to match and a certain swagger that follows an 11-win season capped by a Rose Bowl win. Nearly everyone is back who contributed last year, and Franklin has seen even more soon-to-be contributors rise this offseason.

“Are we excited about it? Yes. Do we still have a lot of work to do and a lot of questions to answer? Yes,” Franklin said. “Do I think we are arguably in the best conference in college football and specifically the best division? I think we are part of that argument. I think it’s hard to say that we’re not.”

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Hudson Card thinks he can become Purdue’s new ace. Those inside the program are firm believers, too.

First-year coach Ryan Walters raves about Card’s mobility, receivers like Card’s arm strength and accuracy, and now, after just a few months on campus, the Boilermakers are going all-in on the former Texas star emerging as the next big thing at the “Cradle of Quarterbacks.”

“I think that was part of the reason that made me want to come here — they produce quarterbacks who go to the league,” Card said. “That’s something I want to end up eventually doing. It’s really cool to be a part of that, and, hopefully, I can carry on the tradition.”

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No. 3 Ohio State’s yet-to-be-named starting quarterback could hardly be in a better position to become a college football star.

Either Kyle McCord or Devin Brown will get the full focus of quarterback whisperer Ryan Day and be surrounded by a flashy array of offensive weapons.

The new QB will be throwing to perhaps the best receiving corps in college football — All-American Marvin Harrison Jr. is already projected to be a first-round NFL draft pick — and have two seasoned and finally healthy running backs, TreVeyon Henderson and Miyan Williams.

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Greg Schiano has been trying to close the gap Rutgers faces in the Big Ten Conference since returning for a second stint as the football coach late in 2019.

A better-than-expected first season and Texas A&M out of the postseason because of a COVID-19 outbreak allowed Rutgers into the Gator Bowl in 2020 with a 5-7 record, the tiebreaker was the team’s academic performance.

That’s the highlight so far. Schiano and Rutgers are still lagging behind in a brutal conference that will be more competitive next year with the addition of Pac-12 programs.

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No. 19 Wisconsin’s uncharacteristic recent struggles have led to a dramatic makeover.

The Badgers have a new coach and offense as the team attempts to bounce back from a 7-6 season and win the Big Ten West in the conference’s last year of divisional competition.

“The pressure’s really on for this team as a whole to start producing,” offensive tackle Jack Nelson said. “We’re excited for that.”

Read more here.

Originally Published: Aug 21, 2023 at 6:00 am