As you know, I’ll be interviewing Adam Rittenberg sometime this week.  Adam runs ESPN’s phenomenal Big Ten blog and as part of his off-season work, he ranked each of the units in the Big Ten.  I talked about some of them at length here.  Today, we’ll take a look at his Offensive Ranks across the Big Ten.

The chart above, if you were wondering, is organized alphabetically.  If you want to look at Adam’s write-ups for each position, here you go :Offensive Lines, Quarterbacks, Running Backs, and Receivers and Tight Ends.

The first thing you should notice is that Adam did not rank the QBs for four teams, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Penn State.   I used an ‘8′ ranking for each of these team’s quarterback situations. These, unsurpisingly, are the four Big Tens without an established quarterback.  For Penn State, we know the story, as Pat Devlin and Daryll Clark duke it out for the honor of replacing Anthony Morelli.  For Iowa, Jake Christensen started all 12 games last year and statistically was good, throwing just 6 interceptions with 17 TDs.  However, during training camp, Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz emphasized that the QB position was up for grabs.  At Michigan, four candidates, all either sophomores or freshman, who have thrown a combined one collegiate pass, are trying to replace Chad Henne. (which, I’m told, may be harder than replacing Morelli.)  And in Madison, Allan Evridge is the likely starting QB, but Bret Bielema hasn’t announced a starter.

When you look at these situations, they all appear to have been mostly settled over the course of the summer.  According to the truly fantastic Iowa blog Black Heart Gold Pants, Christensen is pretty much set as the starter.  I’ll certainly yield to them on this one.  I know football isn’t played on paper, but looking at his stats there’s no reason why he shouldn’t be starting for Iowa in 2008.

For Michigan, Steven Threet, a redshirt freshman transfer from Georgia Tech is widely expected to start the year under center.  And for Wisconsin, common knowledge has it that Allan Evridge has been pretty much assured the role of starting QB.

Which brings us to Penn State.  We know that we’re probably going to see both Devlin and Clark on the field extensively in most games.  The two quarterback system worked (to an extent) in the Alamo Bowl last year, but Clark needs to prove he can throw the ball if we’re going to get adequate play out of our passing game.  In his career, Clark is 20-36 for 147 yards, which isn’t great, but is passable as the scrambling QB.  In the past couple years we’ve seen how effective the two-QB system can be.  In fact, the two most notable two-QB teams in each of the past two years captured the BCS championship, with Florida’s Chris Leak and Tim Tebow teaming up in 2007, and LSU’s Matt Flynn and Ryan Perrilloux sharing duties last year.  However, Pat Devlin has thrown all of one collegiate pass, and I am more than just a bit cautious comparing him to either of the seniors mentioned above.  Still, the point is that a two-quarterback system can be effective.

But we’re trying to fill in the chart, so just how effective is the question.  According to Rittenberg, Penn State features the 2nd best Offensive Line and 2nd best receivers, so whoever is behind center will both have time to throw and capable receivers.  Frankly, I think we can pencil Penn State’s quarterback situation in around #5.  Right now Juice Williams is the #4 guy, and while I think that either Devlin or Clark could potentially be better than Williams, I don’t want to annoint them just yet.

But when you look at the chart as a whole, you get the sense that Ohio State really is that good.  Rittenberg ranks them either first or second in the Big Ten in every single category, and as much as I hate to give them any more ammo, that might actually be underrating them.  Frankly, Beanie Wells may be the best RB in the country, and I know Wisconsin has an arsenal of backs, but Wells is handily better than any of them, including PJ Hill.

We also see how much Michigan is going to struggle to put up points next year.  I know its like beating a dead horse at this point, but they lost 9 starters from a year ago, and return very little experience.  Using my admittedly rough system (considering ‘not rated’ quarterback situations as an ‘8′) they are projected to have the second-worst offense in the Big Ten.  Threet could be good, but it’s definitely going to take time for RichRod to implement his spread offense.  He just doesn’t have the right pieces now.

Honestly, Rittenberg’s rankings seem to be pretty dead on.  You could argue (as I would) that Minnesota’s Adam Weber is being underrated (I’d have him at #4) but this chart really doesn’t tell us anything we shouldn’t already know.  If Penn State is going to get consistent production out of their QB play, they could be very, very dangerous on offense.  We already know the weapons in Williams, Butler, Norwood, Royster, and Green.  If this Spread HD offense can cater to the strengths of both quarterbacks, I won’t predict a BCS championship, but 10 (dare I say 11) wins are certainly within reach.  Same goes for Wisconsin.  If Ohio State makes the championship as many expect, Penn State and Wisconsin could well be duking it out for the right to play in the Rose Bowl, though we can’t count out Illinois.  Those same ‘many’ made sure of that, ranking Illinois ahead of PSU.

I’ll take a look at Adam Rittenberg’s defensive rankings in the next couple days, in time for my interview with him. Again, feel free to suggest any questions.  But what do you think of his offensive rankings, not just for PSU but for any team?  Please, let your voice be heard (or at least your words read) and leave a comment!