The Big Ten's most irreplaceable players
You could make a good case for David Molk as well. He is the straw that stirs the offensive line drink. The team was not the same last year after he was injured.
with Rocko Khoury as the backup Center. Last season, Moosman had to move to Center and the entire right side of the OL had to be juggled, so three different positons on the OL were affected when Molk went down.
This season, I think we would be in better shape if, God forbid, Molk were to get injured again, as we would probably only need to insert Khoury in for Molk and the rest of the OL would remain intact.
Its a lot more difficult than people realize to play center, and an in season shift is a tremendous expectation even from a lineman as good as moosman was. Not to mention, the center is the QB of the O line, and that takes experience both in working together and recognizing blitz packages.
Stanzi as Iowa's irreplaceable player seems like a really lazy pick. He was injured for a few games last year; remarkably, Iowa didn't collapse like Oregon without Dixon. While Stanzi is steady, it seems that he throws at least one pick-six per game. Not that I know much about Iowa's squad, but there has to be a position with a bigger drop-off from starter to backup than QB.
This is an excellent point. 'Replaceable' is probably the FIRST word I'd use to describe a guy whose backup can go into Columbus and force overtime by throwing for 233 yards and 2 touchdowns.
Agreed...while the back-up was terrible in the Northwestern game by the OSU game he was playing great and is probably a better pure passer than Stanzi. Clayborn is much more indispensible to the Hawkeyes, he makes turns them from a respectable defense to an elite defense.
While Tolzien is a decent QB for Wisconsin, I don't see how he would be more irreplaceable than Clay. Without Clay in the backfield, Wisconson is just a middle of the road Big Ten team IMO.
He's a quote machine. Who else in the B10 could give us gems like "Everybody steals..." Like the commercial says, Priceless.
Nobody in the conference is as irreplaceable as Terrelle Pryor. He's like what Chad Henne was to Michigan in 2006. They have basically nobody behind him.
This is probably true, yet I recall a ton of Buckeye fans calling for Bauserman following the Purdue loss.