Big 10 & Notre Dame - Offensive Talent Analysis

This blog digs a little deeper into the talent level on each Big Ten team plus Notre Dame by focusing on the offensive side on the ball. This analysis is similar to our previous articles on the SEC and the ACC. The raw data comes from Rival.com prospect ratings and is calculated as followed.

5.7 = 1.00 point
5.8 = 1.25 points
5.9 = 1.50 points
6.0 = 1.75 points
6.1 = 2.00 points

Players under 5.7 were not calculated into the raw data as a way to limit complexity.

The 2005, 2006, 2007 classes are weighted at 100% while the 2008 class is weighted at 75% and 2009 is weighted at 25%. Important to note is that this data only includes current players on the roster, so players that left the team, transferred, left early for the NFL or exhausted their eligibility are not included.



Notre Dame has the most talent on the offensive side of the ball out of any team that I have ranked to date (ACC, Big 10, SEC) and their results although mostly positive have been a mixed bag. The Irish move the ball extremely well ranking 9th in Total Offense, but struggle scoring points ranking 46th in Scoring Offense. Notre Dame passes the ball well ranking 5th in passing offense, but struggle running the football ranking 84th in Rushing Offense.

Michigan ranks behind Notre Dame in terms of offensive talent and despite switching from a pro-style offense to a spread option under Rich Rodriguez the Wolverines rank 1st in Scoring Offense and 5th in Total Offense, which points towards the defense being the problem in Ann Arbor (stating the obvious here).

Ohio State is the opposite of Michigan. There offense although possessing a lot of talent is nothing special ranking 4th in the Big 10 in Scoring Offense and 8th in Total Offense. The Buckeye's defense is its strength and the main reason OSU is headed to the Rose Bowl.

This seems to be the winning formula in the Big 10 as both Penn State and Iowa both have offense that are above-average, but defenses that are very stout.

Wisconsin and Michigan State are both teams that buck that trend and feature offenses that rank in the upper tier of the Big 10 in terms of Scoring Offense and Total Offense despite being in the middle of the pack in terms of talent.





Above is the offensive talent broken down by position. Not a whole lot to take away from this data. In general the Big 10 has more talent along the offensive line than the SEC or ACC, but less talent at the skill positions, which is to be expected considering they footprint of the leagues.