Previewing Week 1 of Big Ten Football | B1G Today

Penn State vs. West Virginia I think this is a really tricky game for Penn State having to go on the road but this will give us a great insight to who Penn State is right now when you look at Drew Aller at the quarterback position a new offensive coordinator I think Drew will be asked to run the ball a little bit extend some plays with his legs and they'll be able to do that the question will always be when we talk about Penn State going back a couple of years now is can they create explosive plays can they get back to running the ball with the consistency they had a couple of years ago this will be really a Telltale for them and they need to find a guy who's going to be able to take the top off the defense to get those explosive pays out of the pass game anytime you go on the road I think you have to be able to take a defense with you this Penn State defense is going to be one of the best I believe in the country with Tom Allen now the defensive coordinator it'll be fun to see Abdul Carter really starting to play on the defensive line now I'm sure he'll still be at the linebacker position in certain situations but he's going to be a matchup problem for West Virginia up front you don't know where he's going to line up whether it's the right side the left side or over the center he's going to create some problems I really like the secondary matchup as well there'll be some receivers for West Virginia that are going to be able to test the secondary of Penn State but if Penn State can get the pass rush that they need they'll be able to come up with some turnovers and they'll need those turnovers to give their offense a short field Howard you're the man this is the big board you see a couple of games on Thursday night that right here on the bigton network another one on Friday the Penn State West Virginia game that Howard mentioned one of the featured matchups on Saturday and then it all wraps up not until Sunday night with USC and LSU we are back Rick piso Dave revon to talk about some of those games and I do want to start where Howard started with that Penn State West Virginia game and I know they're going to be really good defensively I am waiting to see what Andy cotal Nikki the new OC does with Drew Aller yes they have the two guys back in the backfield and Singleton and Allen and yes they still probably have some questions to answer on the outside finding explosive guys but Aller has an NFL arm I want to see it I want to see him let loose a little bit and I know you may not want to do that on the road against another Power type opponent but you got to do it at some point to me you do it early and you show the rest of the nation that we are willing to throw the ball around a little bit he threw it really well when we were there for practice Andy colal Nikki has an interesting offense there's a lot of motioning there a lot of keeping teams off balance and I know the players really embraced it they were enjoying it I do think there's questions at wide receiver they think Trey Wallace had a great camp and so that maybe he emerges as a big-time weapon for them we know about Julian Fleming of course as well that to me is the big question mark is do they have the weapons kind of what you were talking about there and West Virginia is the kind of team that maybe you try R it on they're they've got transfers in the secondary they've got some players who they really are high on coming in but communication is you know with new players that becomes challenging and so maybe this is a timer right away to your point you take some shots but that's a challenging game I mean they're going to be it's a tough place to play too if you've ever been to Morgantown like they are not the most hospitable so I have not play good game there if you've been there I have been there and I've been to both a basketball and a football game there and if you're on the opposing side not the friendliest environment you've ever been in but I mean Drew Aller has played right in the Horseshoe and I mean you've been there before so to me I want to see if you can take the top off a little bit I I just I just want to see it early in the season to establish that we're going to do this over the course of the year and if you win that game man I like their schedule a lot I think they're in really good shape they do have to play Ohio State but they don't have to play michig they don't to play Oregon like I think they they can make a run and look the preseason poll has them in the top so it's not unreasonable to think this is a playoff team I think there's a lot of pressure on them to be a playoff team this year I do and I think a lot of questions they're a quarterback and questions in Lincoln were answered right when Matt rule said Dylan riola is our guy and that makes their season opener pretty intriguing no doubt I'm so UTEP vs. Nebraska excited to watch Dylan Rola I will say this we've been to a million of these training camps and I've gotten it wrong a lot there are times where you see someone I think it's really important to remember like we're parachuting in for one day yeah and I sometimes you watch someone and they have a great day or they don't have a good day and you extrapolate that that's what the season's going to be but there's just some intangibles Rick where I feel like you can tell and Dylan riola just has that the ball comes out of his hand beautifully he has a confidence about him I love the way their schedule lays out I think they have a chance to I don't want to say ease into things but utep's a team that you should be able to handle in the opener and then Colorado who knows I think there's a lot of pressure on Nebraska to win that game against Colorado but I don't know I I just feel like this is a if they get a couple kind of what we were talking about if you get a couple under your belt they're in they're in good position they love their receiver core and they have a good running back they have a deep running back room they have veterans back there they have what should be a pretty solid offensive line Fon really underrated at the tight end position I don't know I mean I do think though you probably treat this a little bit differently than the situation I just described with Drew Aller I don't think you want Rola going down the field taking all sorts of shots early you make some safe play calls allow him to get some confidence but I'm with you I think this young man has everything to be an absolute star in this league and I think probably sooner rather than later hey speaking of sooner rather than later we're going to get to see Minnesota very early very soon as a matter of fact and I think there are a lot of questions with this goer team you and I we just just talking off camera we both think PJ UNC vs. Minnesota Fleck is an unbelievable football coach fabulous when it comes down to ex's nose fundamentals his teams are always among the least penalized in the country they have all those boxes checked they can run the football we know that but Max brosmer is a transfer QB who comes in from UNH it's a different level of football I've heard various reviews from folks that have seen him throughout training camp and I their schedule is not an easy schedule I think that PJ will get the most out of this team I just think even against the North Carolina team that's not supposed to be great it is a power four team you can tell a lot about how you match up with a team that I think is a little bit comparable in its own League very interesting game I love that it's at home for Minnesota I think that helps them a lot brosmer again you you parachuted in for a day brosmer didn't have a great day the day that we were there was very early in Camp and I know that they're very excited about him but he wasn't great so I agree with you they're gonna be able to run it Darius Taylor being healthy if he stays healthy all year but then they have CA bangura who they brought in from Ohio University who they really like and you can see why he's a versatile guy they have a deep Back Field and their offensive line is really good I think to me the big question is they took a step back defensively last year like if you look at the things that went wrong I understand the past game was poor a season ago but the defense was not at the level that it had been the previous two years which which was really good yeah so maybe that's a little bit unfair but that to me is going to be interesting you got UNCC they got Max Johnson throwing it around replacing Drake May highly touted kid so that's a really interesting one USC and LSU is a USC vs. LSU fascinating game game of the weekend as well it is in in Vegas I mean you were talking about kind of hey Minnesota you're playing North Carolina maybe kind of a comparable power five team USC and LSU are are somewhat comparable as well and again new quarterback or Jaden Daniels isn't there anymore so and big side relief from USC for that but the question mark with USC is how good is the defense you're going to find out right away against dalls well Lincoln Riley has made no bones about it he said that my biggest move this year was not in recruiting it was not in getting us ready to transition into the Big 10 it was getting Dan Lynn to come from UCLA to USC and you can say everything but you have to prove it and USC's defense has not proven it in recent years when you have Caleb Williams and you're scoring those points and you can't get to the spot that you want to be then the question becomes how do you fix the area that badly needs to be fixed we'll see if Dan Lynn is that guy I do want to touch on Iowa because I think it's an interesting game to watch Kirk farence Iowa vs. Illinois State will be suspended along with John budm Seth Wallace is the acting head coach it's the first game for Tim Lester as the OC and oh by the way we haven't had an announcement yet as to whether it would be Kade mcamera or Brendan Sullivan it's a game Iowa should still easily win but there a lot of questions to be answered in week one there are a ton of questions I think we kind of look at this Iowa team I look at them as a dark horse playoff team I think they've a really favorable schedule you have to get better quarterback play and the reports out of Camp are that they have not gotten better quarterback play so can you figure something out I think Tim ler given his track record it's a really good hire but you know again kind of to your point what is this going to look like not necessarily in week one but what does it look like week two against a really good Iowa State team and I'll say this whoever is the quarterback in week one I think it's a very short leash because that other guy is waiting behind and that's a tough situation uh so those are the games to keep an eye on in week one of course we'll be talking about all of them all of them next week all 18 games 18 of them