Wisconsin Badgers

[Duke1632]

Captain Obvious prediction:

Wisconsin is going to dominate the B1G West in the coming years and will rival the elites of the B1G East.

I will be watching Lovie Smith and Mike Reilly (to find their niche) and Pat Fitzgerald (who I think learned something very valuable this year after a long tenure), and even Kirk Ferentz (who might challenge in intermittent years) but don't think any of them will be consistently able to match Paul Chryst and those ferocious Badgers.

[Spence]

I think Mike Reilly will have something to say about that. Lovie Smith has to prove he can recruit before we know what is going on.

[Eric]

I really want to see Lovie Smith make Illinois relevant again. The Juice Williams era was the last time anybody paid attention to Illini football.

The Purdue opening is an interesting one. I've always thought that somebody like Mike Leach would be a great fit there. Not that he's leaving Wazzu any time soon, but I'd like to see Purdue start airing it out again. They need somebody who isn't totally reliant on recruiting to get the job done. P.J. Fleck of WMU is hot right now, but with him being so young, it's kind of a weird situation. He can either go for broke at Purdue or hold out of a better job, but I don't know any top-tier school that would want to take a chance on a guy so young. His schtick is good at a school like Western, but it probably wouldn't work at a place like Texas or LSU. That's shooting pretty high, but a school like Georgia Tech might open up this year.

[highfly24]

Purdue opening is very interesting. Alot of talk around the Illinois State area is Brock Spack. He was the DC under Tiller and has said he would be open to the return. I'm not sure they would go that route and ISU is having a rebuilding year. Some recruits are tweeting about the possible rumors but its hard to know how much is from rival coaches stirring it up. In this age of social media, a rumor becomes fact quick and becomes disproved very slowly.