draftageddon 2018

This is the final round of this year's All Big Ten roundtablish preview. It's short and you don't need to read it and we might have skipped it altogether except it's bumping the Offensive Tackles preview off the front page. You're welcome.

Previously:

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KICKER

Ace: Get healthy soon, Rafael Gaglianone’s back.

Seth: Just because we can't escape them this year. Dude's going to break every record because he got a season's worth of kicking into the season he got medshirted.

Ace: …if he gets healthy.

Ace: Otherwise, it’s Quinn Nordin or OSU’s Sean Neurnberger, I think?

Seth: Nope, there's another guy from the Big Ten West. Purdue has twitter legend who transferred from Baylor and was really good last year.

80 Yard Field Goal @SportsCenter @espn @NFL @BleacherReport @CBSSports #SCtop10 @ESPNCFB @FOXSports @YahooSports pic.twitter.com/uXoUuUdtio
— Spencer Evans (@Spencer_J_Evans) September 7, 2016

Ace: That is a long field goal.

Seth: Evans missed three long ones last year and that was it I think. Brohm doesn't kick field goals unless he has to.

Ace: lmao I had my laptop hooked to my speakers and my brother’s dog fell off the couch when I hit play. (She does this not infrequently.)

BiSB: Miguel Recinos was 11/13 for Iowa. And Iowa will kick them some field goals.

Seth: Anyway WILD THING is going to be the best kicker in the country or terrible and there's nothing in between.

BiSB: Yep, he's #1 with a bullet.

Ace: Northwestern had a freshman who went 13/15.

Seth: Charlie Kuhbander. Does he punt too? That's a great punter name.

No offense to banders/benders.

Ace: None taken. I would’ve happily been a punter.

Speaking of which,

[AFTER THE JUMP]

Now It's Draftageddon: Defensive Back

Seth •

The penultimate post of our annual Draft the Big Ten/all-conference four-deep series that had no draft. This episode it has no Brian either, since he's in season preview mode.

Previously:

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CORNERBACKS

Ace:

Those CBs up in Ann Arbor are something else pic.twitter.com/PfYzEbUnT9
— PFF College (@PFF_College) August 26, 2018

We done?

BiSB: But... uh...Yeah, we're done here.

Seth: By the way I did the Northwestern scouting and I do not think we need to worry about a Gaz from the Nobody Watches it Division.

Ace: Here’s another featuring the now-fourth cornerback.

The returning B1G leaders in YAC allowed pic.twitter.com/Xflske57CB
— PFF College (@PFF_College) August 25, 2018

Seth: There are no hoodies left at Wisconsin.

BiSB: The existence of Ojemudia (NTO) on that list does not give me great comfort.

Seth: Iowa cornerback Josh Jackson is in the NFL. Manny Rugamba transferred.

Ace: Did not expect him to the the first guy named after M’s guys.

BiSB: Do we even need to discuss Long and Hill? As in, is there a debate with them as #1 and #2 in some order?

Seth: I mean, is there anything but GOOD AT CORNERBACK that is in those numbers?

Ace: Arguably the best pair of corners in the country, Hill looks marginally better at the moment at playing the ball, both almost never get cleanly beat, uh… Thomas/Watson would probably be a top-three B1G corner pairing? Is that crazy to say?

Seth: Um, top four.

Ace: Fair.

BiSB: Long has a certain Nick Lidstrom thing where he is just always in the right spot.

You wanted ball. You do not get ball. [Patrick Barron]

Ace: STILL. I like how you invoked The Perfect Human.

Seth: Brian isn't here because he's in preview week mode but he would want us to mention Hill should play nickel.

Ace: I suspect we’ll see him slide inside a decent amount, especially against spread-y teams with a good slot.

Seth: GIPHY is picking for Brian.

/giphy what do we do about slot fades

Ace: Giphy had no idea how to handle that.

BiSB: Looks like Giphy likes Rutgers' nickel package?

slackbot: I think you mean Rutger

[After THE JUMP: slackbot thinks that a lot.]

Draftageddon This Ain't: Linebackers

Seth •

We continue with our extended but not drafty All-B1G tour of the conference.

Previously:

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BiSB: /blows the Draftageddon Horn

Ace: Where’d everyone go?

Seth: Should we do a vote whether to include Reschke?

BiSB: Only if it's unanimous.

Ace: The thing about Reschke is he’s not even that good aside from the racism.

BiSB: (We reserve the right to keep voting until it is unanimous)

Seth: What I gathered from spring practice is it's not Reschke's that good, so much as their other SAM options in spring were very bad.

Ace: HOWEVER, we should be discussing doom squirrels. Why are we not discussing the doom squirrels?

BiSB: Well, in the spirit of The Gaz, we should probably start with the leading returning tackler. Who in this case is... oh. Oh no.

Say it for me, Slackbot.

slackbot: I think you mean Rutger

BiSB: Sigh. Yes.

Ace: MGoBlog is Devin Bush, and the gentleman wearing #1 for Purdue is our readers’ expectations for this post.

Seth: Devin Bush ain't a squirrel anymore since Herbert got to him.

A post shared by Devin Bush Il (@dbush_10) on Aug 20, 2018 at 9:49am PDT

More like a radioactive mutant badger with a surly attitude.

BiSB: Maybe that bulk will hurt his speed and athleticism?

Devin Bush 1, Tackling Donut 0 pic.twitter.com/z557B4hml7
— Dave Revsine (@BTNDaveRevsine) August 14, 2018

Ace: That donut has a family.

*had

Seth: TIL Bush's hits are an entire octave higher than Noah Furbush's.

Ace: Here he is chasing down an Air Force quarterback from behind on a delayed blitz.

BiSB: Are we concerned that his production tapered slightly as the year progressed? It seems like it was mostly teams adjusting to focus on the Doom Squirrel, but still.

Ace: The competition both got more difficult and started gameplanning to stay away from him. I’m not too concerned. When he had plays to make he was still quite effective.

Seth: The canonical Bush is still that screen against Purdue where the guy's about to trundle for YAAAARDs and this blue blip suddenly appears going 1.8x faster than anyone else in the frame.

BiSB: And as a Michigan fan, if the plan to limit Devin Bush is the Minnesota "leave the other little linebacker unblocked and see what happens" approach, I'm good.

Ace: Speaking of.

Does He count here?

Brian: Yes.

Ace: Oh good.

The Mathlete: I have Bush as the third most productive linebacker returning in the conference, even with a drop off at the end of the year.

Seth: Shouldn't we do HSPs separately?

BiSB: In 2018, I'm not sure we can distinguish cleanly between the two.

Brian: They're linebackers. They're just modern. Michigan's is just a little more extreme than the OSU/MSU walkout versions.

Seth: The thing I'm excited for this year is the next iteration of Don Brown's 3-3-5. Sending Furbush in as Bush's lead blocker surprised Florida but once it was on film teams were prepared for it. But they've got some more versatile weapons ready. Like Singleton, Uche, McGrone. Imagine if you're waiting for one guy to come in front of Devin Bush, and then that guy is ALSO Devin Bush.

Brian: Yeah this isn't what the post is though? There are probably other linebackers in the league

Seth: You got MGoBloggers talking about Devin Bush, really what did you expect?

Brian: Adherence to the stated topic.

[After the JUMP: Other linebackers in the league, probably]