Big Ten Notebook: Michigan's Denard Robinson on special teams?

Ohio State's game at Penn State on Saturday is called by one columnist the conference's game of the year while another asks whether it's time for a dual-threat quarterback at Iowa.

By Mike Singer

Oct 23, 2012 at 10:34 am ET • 2 min read

Michigan State linebacker Max Bullough was named one of 12 semifinalists for the Butkus Award. (US Presswire)

News and notes from around the Big Ten:

Yahoo’s Pat Forde calls Saturday’s game between Ohio State and Penn State the Big Ten Game of the Year*. Forde's asterisk represents the fact that neither team is postseason eligible. Both teams are riding high on first-year coaches but seven games into the season, Bill O’Brien has become a rising star within college football coaching, according to Forde. “Penn State is fashioning as much of a feel-good season as is possible in the aftermath of the Jerry Sandusky horror,” he wrote. Forde also takes a look at Michigan’s 900 victories and picks apart what he calls “junk wins” against joke teams. In total, 57 of the Wolverines’ college-football-record 900 wins were deemed stat-padding junk victories, Forde surmised.

Wisconsin may be missing its top offensive lineman, LT Ricky Wagner, when it hosts the Spartans this weekend. Wagner sat out last Saturday’s win over Minnesota with a sprained ligament in his right knee and offensive line coach Bart Miller is preparing for either scenario. If he can’t go, the Badgers will shift guard Ryan Groy to tackle and place Robert Burge at left guard. Burge thrived in his first start last weekend, springing big runs with a few key blocks. “Those are things that stand out when you grade the film,” Miller said to Jeff Potrykus of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Even though he didn’t actually return a kickoff, the fact that Michigan coach Brady Hoke had Denard Robinson on special teams on the first play of the second half of last Saturday’s game vs. Michigan State is news. Robinson was the second-man deep, not the primary kick returner but a viable option on a reverse return. He also could’ve been a decoy. Hoke wouldn’t confirm the rationale for Robinson’s newfound duties and he wouldn’t say whether it was a one time thing, reported Mark Snyder of the Detroit Free Press.

Michigan State linebacker Max Bullough has been the most consistent player on the struggling Spartans team. He has 68 tackles on the season and was named one of 12 Butkus Award semifinalists on Monday, given to the best linebacker in the country. Three other Big Ten standouts -- Illinois’ Jonathan Brown and Penn State linebackers Michael Mauti and Gerald Hodges -- were all on the list as well.

Iowa’s one-dimensional offense was painfully obvious in last Saturday’s loss to Penn State as it was without leading rusher Mark Weisman for the majority of the game. Quarterback James Vandenberg, who has struggled this season, completed just 47 percent of his passes with two interceptions. It’s time for coach Kirk Ferentz to begin the search for a dual-threat quarterback, columnist Pat Harty of the Des Moines register wrote. “Iowa doesn’t have [the ability to extend plays] because when the play breaks down, Vandenberg usually breaks down,” he wrote. Before the season started, Ferentz called the proliferation of dual-threat quarterbacks just the “flavor of the day.” Perhaps it’s time Ferentz brought that flavor to Iowa City.

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