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Nick’s Question:

Can you do All-Big Ten teams but, like, not in a Draftageddon format?

Fine.

Surprise! He's on it. [Patrick Barron]

Offense

Unanimous selections in bold.

*Brian: it is a crime and a disaster to have two starting running backs

Defense

[Hit THE JUMP for extensive discussion.]

Brian: Huh, I didn't look beforehand and am surprised at the level of agreement

Ace: Same here. Shall we argue? Are there things to argue about, other than Adam leaving Jonathan Taylor off a team with Akrum Wadley?

Brian: What happens when you swap those guys? I think that's justifiable.

Ace: I dunno, Taylor was awesome in a way that I’m not sure Wadley is capable. That line was a mess for a while and he still piled up yards.

Brian: Not so much putting Hudson on there because Minnesota had a dirt-dumb gameplan. Hudson was pretty good this year but he's basically a linebacker and despite the shiny numbers there's probably 6 dudes I'd rather have at LB, if we're not specifying viper.

Ace: Agreed on Hudson. I had a really hard time leaving Cabinda off my team. And Bush.

Adam: I probably should have gone with Denzel Ward over Hudson.

LB is so loaded it's hard to find room for this guy. [Bryan Fuller]

Brian: We have a 2 vs 2 Bush vs Connelly fight.

Ace: I thought Bush faded while Connelly got better. Big Ten stats bear that out—Connelly had 9.5 TFLs in conference play against 5.0 for Bush.

Brian: Bush also suffers because we're aware that he had two or three major busts during Big Ten play and Connelly was impeccable in the one game we watched in detail.

Ace: Wisconsin’s stats suggest Connelly was generally impeccable, not that Bush was far off.

Brian: I felt despair because he was always in the right place even when Michigan tried to goof with him. "I feel despair because of you" means you get on my All Big Ten team. If you're an opponent.

Seth: Connelly did have the benefit of a 3-4 with monster DL bent solely on protecting him from blockers. Bush had to deal with a lot of that on his own, and defenses that schemed to mess with him. Each time he downloaded what they were doing and it stopped happening.

Ace: Speaking of that monster D-line, here’s a stat: Conor Sheehy had more TFLs in Big Ten play than Steven Richardson had all year.

Brian: Jeez, I didn't even look at Sheehy's stats because I assumed they lied about his impact.

Seth: Richardson was doubled up all year because he was the only threat.

Ace: You do understand Sheehy’s job, right?

Seth: Nose versus 3-tech; I'm not going to die on this branch because Sheehy is very very good.

Ace: Sheehy was as good at nose two years ago as Richardson was this year. I thought Richardson was good, not great. I thought he’d have better stats given how often he gambled for big plays.

Seth: Fair enough. When I did the FFFFs for those two teams Richardson stood out more, but I was glad Sheehy got on your list because I would have split my vote.

Plays like this got Hill on all our teams. [Fuller]

Seth: There are so many defensible options at corner who are so much better than Wisconsin hoodie guy. For me it came down to perfomance versus Simmie Cobbs. Michigan's duo shut him down, Denzel Ward did not until ge got safety help.

Ace: Rashard Fant may admittedly have been helped by only having to face Cobbs in practice every day. The one pick I have a minor quibble with, though I kinda hate to, is David Long. That’s only because he split snaps with Brandon Watson and the other guys were every-down players. The toughest guy for me to leave off was Ward.

But really, we should be talking safeties, since that’s where the most disagreement is. Why’d y’all take D’Cota Dixon when he’s the poor man’s version of Marcus Allen?

Seth: Because Penn State's pass defense folded when it finally met a passing game.

Ace: Wisconsin's might if they ever faced one.

Seth: Also dreads.

Ace: I’ll admit Allen has his issues in coverage; he’s also an amazing run defender.

Seth: You also picked the other Northwestern safety. I thought I was the only person besides People Who Went to Medill who knew about that guy.

Ace: Queiro vs. Igwebuike is the classic better college player vs. better pro potential. Or at least that’s what I gathered in the admittedly small period of time I exposed myself to Northwestern football this year.

David: Admittedly small period of time being the 4th Q vs MSU?

Seth: No. There was the end of the Iowa game too. I believe that was the extent of watchable Northwestern football this year.

Ace: So, I have punting stats.

Seth: Is there need? I figured we all left Chrisman off our lists because of small sample size, and Ohio State doesn't punt if they're <60 yards from the end zone.

Ace: Chrisman and Gillikin had the exact same number of punts inside the 20, fair catches, and touchbacks (20, 15, 3). Chrisman had 11 fewer punts and a half-yard better average and Michigan was literally the only team that got an actual punt return against him, and that took some DPJ absurdity. They’re both depressingly good.

BiSB: PFF has Chrisman graded as a "disgrace to his ancestors," and Gillikin as "not worth the little black rubber pellets on field turf from which he punts." So they're basically indistinguishably good.

Seth: Chrisman also gets to send an army of 5-stars with sub-4.4 speed after his punts. You saw how fast those gunners got downfield.

Ace: Dude. Penn State also has fast guys.

The Mathlete: Gillikin easily graded out better in my numbers, had him worth 11 points over the average punter this year, tops in the B10 and 5th nationally.

Ace: I’m now afraid to ask how Chrisman graded out.

The Mathlete: Chrisman was good, but not great. +3 points on the season, on about 75% of the volume of Gillikin.

Ace: I blame his gunners being too fast and downing the ball too soon.

Pack of Dudes. [Barron]

Ace: I think the last thing to address is Brian including Mason Cole at a position he didn’t play?

BiSB: And Adam picking two Michigan DEs.

Adam: Toughest thing for me was deciding which two of Bosa, Winovich, and Gary to include. Bosa and Winovich have surprisingly similar numbers and I went with the guy I've seen more of.

Ace: Yeah, that wasn’t an easy choice even before thinking about the other OSU DEs, too. But I think Bosa is a superior run defender to Winovich. So is Gary but he had a couple large mistakes and didn’t get many chances to make a big impact until late in the year.

Seth: I thought the same. DE was also ridiculously deep in the conference this year. Even that MSU walk-on [Kenny] Willikes turned out to be better than alright. And he's still in line behind like four Ohio State guys. And Iowa's [Anthony] Nelson.

Ace: Let’s all agree to burn the MSU preview portion of last year’s HTTV.

Seth: I handed it over to the attorneys.

Ace: The other thing that I think inches Winovich ahead of the non-Bosa pack: he pretty much played every dang down. That was hugely valuable given this team didn’t really have a backup WDE.

Seth: Yeah I had a harder time deciding between Gary and Winovich than Winovich and Sam Hubbard.

Ace: There’s a bizarre inclusion we need to discuss. Mike Gesicki, Brian? 7.3 yards per target and Mike Gesicki’s blocking? That Mike Gesicki?

Seth: Projected Detroit Lions 2nd Round Pick Mike Gesicki?

Ace: Ugh, that's totally happening.

Seth: At least we're getting him a round later than we did last time. 

Ace: I would’ve taken Juwan Johnson or DaeSean Hamilton before him. Gesicki had fewer yards in Big Ten games than Bennett Skowronek—who’s a real person I didn’t just make up on the spot, you can check.

Basically a 6'7" Whop Philyor.

Seth: I'm guessing Brian put that on there more as a "he's not a tight end" protest of three receivers.

Since I'm the only person to include Minnesota's Tyler Johnson, I'll point out his usage this year was one third of Minnesota's targets, and he still managed to crack 10 YPT.

Ace: I need to see more before I think of him as Rashad Still 2.0. I’d take Felton Davis over him. He didn’t benefit so much from the element of HOLY CRAP MINNESOTA TRIED TO THROW.

Anything else?

David: Coach of the Year?

Ace: (deep sigh) Dantonio.

David: How do you block someone on Slack?

Ace: Yeah, we're done here.