The Big Ten has long staked its reputation on a rough-and-tough brand of football.
It’s one reason NFL scouts still spend Saturday afternoons scouring the fields in places such as Iowa City, State College, Madison or Columbus. It’s why almost anywhere they go, from Michigan to Northwestern to Purdue, they find guys who can shut down explosive plays alongside playmakers capable of turning close games into blowouts. It even explains Iowa punter Tory Taylor sometimes donning a T-shirt that reads “Punting is Winning.”
In a college football era where track meets are all the rage and points are scored by the dozens, Big Ten country continues to churn out some of the nation’s best fundamental defenders.
“He plays so hard, he prepares extremely hard, he plays extremely hard, he’s totally invested,” Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said when asked about linebacker Jay Higgins. “For us to be good defensively, that’s just a critical position. Probably most teams are that way. But the way we’re wired, if you go back historically, the guys up the middle are really a big part of what we do.”
Nobody understands what it takes to succeed defensively better than Ferentz, who has sent dozens of players to the NFL since taking over the Hawkeyes in 1999.
He’s not the exception.
The Big Ten has more tacklers ranked among the nation’s top 20 (three), top 30 (four) and top 40 (six). Purdue safety Dillon Thieneman’s average (9.0) leads all freshmen and only two major programs, Mississippi and Iowa, have multiple players listed in the top 30. Hawkeyes linebacker Nick Jackson, a transfer from Virginia, is second on the Hawkeyes at 9.2
And it’s largely by design.
“You lose a guy like Jack Campbell and Seth Benson in the middle of the defense, and that’s why going after Nick was so important,” Ferentz said. “We felt he was an older guy that embodied some of those characteristics that Seth and Jack had.”
Ferentz, the league’s coaching dean, has staked his image on that philosophy since 1999.
Others have followed suit and the results are showing up throughout the Midwest and not just at the usual football factories like Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State.
At Wisconsin (3-1, 1-0), third-year safety Hunter Wohler has thrived in his first season as a starter. He ranks 12tth nationally with 10.2 tackles per game while recording two pass deflections and one sack.
