Week 1 Previews: UNC vs. Minnesota, FAU vs. Michigan State and W. Michigan vs. Wisconsin | B1G Today

Preview: North Carolina vs. Minnesota back on Big 10 today Minnesota's Darius Taylor only played in six games last year but when he was out there there was literally no running back in the nation who ate up more yardage number one with better than 133 yards per game now he had injury issues last year which is why he only played six games he got banged up in a portion of practice that was open to the media last week PJ Fleck didn't really elaborate on his status for the opener against North Carolina so that's something to monitor obviously throughout the week and Yogi this is a good measuring stick game for Minnesota this is a solid North Carolina team one they beat them handily a year ago now you get the game in Minneapolis what do you focused on well thankfully Drake May is not playing for Carolina as well as the five offensive linemen in front of him we're seeing what he's doing in the preseason and I think that's going to Bod well for Minnesota and their new look defense this is a defense that that has to show out especially in the red zone and on third down so I want to see what exotic package is do they throw a potentially two quarterbacks they'll see for Carolina offensively of course you want to see Max brosmer what do this transfer AO a chip on his shoulder we've seen all the things all summer long of how he's leaned into his teammates and how they're following his guidance and Leadership now let's go seat on the field I expect this offense to be dramatically better if their lead back is out Moore may fall on his shoulders but definitely in critical D ands is going to fall on his shoulders he's going to have to elevate this team they're going to go in this new look league as far as I think they're back takes him yeah I think one of the things you notice about this Minnesota team traditionally under PJ Fleck is he's had some running backs that are going to be able to step up if they need to be able to do that but I'd say the important part is to make sure that they can get off the field in third down situations 12 of 17 last year I know it's a different offense for North Carolina but you've got to be able to address the third down situation and just in general defense they took a step back last year Cory heatherman comes in as the new defensive coordinator they took a step back they went from being fabulous to being solid defensively but PJ Flex had better than solid defenses historically so interested to see what that group looks like and we mentioned Matt Bro Max brosmer he is one of nine transfer quarterbacks who was a good chance of Preview: Florida Atlantic vs. Michigan State starting the season opener in the Big 10 you see some of the QB newcomers here it's a list that includes will Howard at Ohio State Dylan Gabriel of course at Oregon Washington's Will Rogers on there Michigan State's aeden childes at the very front of that list and Yogi as we move to Friday's action Michigan State really intriguing team we just saw them last week they were a really bad offensive team last year in fact if you go to scoring average in the power of five Iowa was the only team in the power conferences that averaged fewer points per game than Michigan State but a whole new year obviously new coaching staff and Jonathan Smith you've got Charles who you saw during his time at Oregon State coming over what do we think of Michigan State and where they stand as they try to rebuild this thing and get it headed in the right direction again well it's a fun matchup against Tom Herman and Company and I think Aidan Charles looks like some of those quarterbacks that coach Herman coached when he was at Ohio State I mean Aiden Charles to me if you took an anonymous poll among all 18 teams and said you can have this dude the next two or three years I bet 90% of the coaches would take him right take away Dylan Gabriel maybe take away Dylan Rola but I think he's that type of player he was that dynamic in high school he had a flashes at Oregon State I think being around him we saw his ability at practice that day talking to the staff they Rave about his accuracy his Acumen if you saw social media know his confidence I think he said hey take the over if you're looking at this game so I'm I'm a big fan of watching him compete I just think the temper expectations it's 61 new players I don't care who you are it could be Jonathan Smith you could be Pete Carol you could be bill bich it's still hard to climatize to a dramatically new roster in Year One with all the turnover and even turmoil they went through so I think it's going to be process Step One is this game I don't think it's going to be easy Charlie fry the offensive coordinator you remember him from akan and of course in the NFL Rock Bell anony is their defensive coordinator he's been all over the country in college football he will call an aggressive game so Aiden Charles he'll have to play more than I think the 91 career snaps he's played thus far in his young career how does he navigate when it gets hard when there's luls those will be all the things he'll learn and grow from but you're going to be looking at I think an emerging star in college football and I think that's one of the keys to be patient as a fan to be patient as a coaching staff it's a little bit different when you know you're only going to get a couple of Series in a game and then be able to run out there and be able to handle it you obviously know in most cases what you're going to be up against now he's going to be out there each and every down and it's going to be critical for him to be able to be patient not try to make the big plays take exactly what defenses are giving him and then he can have the success and build the confidence and the momentum that you need to build in young quarterbacks lot of room for improvement in fact a lot of room for improvement on both sides of the ball frankly they were bottom two in the Big 10 last year both Total offense and Total Defense as you guys were talking about a ton of new faces so fascinated to see how it all comes together starting with that game against FAU so we have that game here on the big Ted network over on FS1 they have a Friday night game as well it is Preview: Westenr Michigan vs. Wisconsin Wisconsin in action they will be taking on Western Michigan it will be the badger debut for Tyler van djk former ACC I of the year in Miami up and down career there in fairness he went through three 'son three seasons now he comes to Madison he work with Phil Longo remember Longo's offense averaged less than 24 points per game last year those was the fewest for the Badgers in 19 years pretty tough schedule including Alabama as we know in the non-conference it feels to me like Yogi they're kind of banking on hey year one we're getting our feet wet in the new system new offense new defense new head coach coach lot of changes and kind of banking on this notion that year two everyone has a better sense of what we're doing and you improve just by virtue of familiarity yeah I think the big takeaways from talking to you guys and watching the training camp shows is this team feels as though they have a foundation that's pretty solid and I think when you're talking about the Air Raid Offense that you just referenced it's really important and Howard you and I talk about this all the time on our bus as we're traveling around the Midwest it's a philosophy not a scheme everybody's air raid does not look like Mike Lee or Lincoln Riley or Cliff kingsbery same deal here at Wisconsin so for Tyler van djk it's all about for me for him getting the ball out and getting it out efficiently because their opponent led by Lance Taylor the head coach his background is running the Rock Christian mcaffrey a notable guy that he coached at Stanford he coached him in the NFL in Carolina and they've got a good run game as well and the way you beat the air R is you force a couple three and outs you run the football and limit possessions so right now if you're Wisconsin heading into this ball game to me it's all about a efficiency within this scheme checking the ball down getting the ball out of your hands quickly not taking poor sacks and Tyler and Van dijk he's got a lot of experience I look forward to watching a reemergence of him probably the better version of himself than what we saw at his most recent stop because confidence gets impacted at the quarterback position now based on what you guys shared what we've learned from talking to people there his confidence should be at an extremely high level and in this game he'll get tested early get the ball out keep the sticks moving get a couple early scores cuz I don't think you'll have a lot of possessions I think they'll be able to really hang their hat on the defensive side coach Trestle I think continues to do an unbelievable job of developing that team he didn't have his entire system in last year but he started to get there and as we saw him this summer I think they're much closer I think on the offensive side when you talk about Yogi getting rid of the football it's going to be important you can't take sacks they've got to be able to continue to move the ball and help their defense out a little bit lower expectations than we're used to with the Badgers last four years they've started the season rank and finished unranked that won't happen this year because they do not start the system ranking unranked Wisconsin team heading into the year