Rav's CFB Notebook: Early Big Ten Findings

One of my favorite and least favorite times of the year: prepping for the upcoming CFB season with my yearly notebook. I say favorite because it reminds me how close we really are to getting back to the glory days of football season again and watching 12 straight hours of football every Saturday. Rotting on the couch, Doordashing a full chicken tender triple dipper platter from Chili's. There's actually nothing better.


I say least favorite ... because the amount of work that's needed to fully preview 68 college football teams is daunting. Pulling from different sources, finding what matters and weeding out what doesn't. It takes a lot. But prepping for the season and getting the notebook done is ultimately one of the best joys of this job. 


Everybody's Big Ten preview starts and ends with Oregon and Ohio State. Fair, they should be there. But if that's the only two teams you read about, you're missing where this conference actually gets interesting. In fact, I won't be talking about Ohio State in this preview at all. Here's what I've got, backed up by Brett Ciancia's Pick Six Previews book on top of my own read, as well as online research from Athlon Sports, collegefootballnews.com, and more.

Yes, Dante Moore came back after throwing for 3,565 yards, 30 touchdowns, and a 72% completion rate last year, the #5 QB rating in all of Power 4. Absurd numbers for a guy who could've been a first-round pick, and even more crazy that Oregon brought him back. But the part of this roster that has me the most excited is the defense.

Oregon returns its ENTIRE starting defensive line. Bear Alexander and A'Mauri Washington on the interior, Matayo Uiagalelei (who led the whole Big Ten in sacks in 2024) and Teitum Tuioti off the edges. That group is so deep that all four backups behind them transferred out to other Power 4 schools as four-star talents. Programs don't usually have that problem.

Then Dan Lanning went and added Minnesota's Koi Perich, an All-Big Ten safety, to a secondary that already had four five-star recruits in it. Brett Ciancia put it bluntly in his Pick Six Previews:

That's a program stacking more talent on top of a unit that was already elite. Everyone's going to talk about Moore slinging it to his (elite) receivers who also decided to come back for a chance at a natty. I'm telling you the D-line plus that portal secondary work is what makes this team a pick to win it all. I'm not fully there yet on a national champion, but they're at the top of the list. 

For years, the conversation around USC was great skill players, especially on offense, and no idea how to block or rush the passer. Not anymore. Eight offensive starters are back, a #1 recruiting class in the country baked into that offensive line, and Jayden Maiava (third-team All-Big Ten, 9.2 yards per attempt, 24 touchdowns) is one of the more veteran QBs in the country.

New defensive coordinator Gary Patterson (yes, the Hall of Famer and former TCU head coach that brought the Frogs to the national championship) inherited a stacked front and said it himself at his opening press conference: he's never had a defensive line this big. Jide Abasiri anchors the middle, Jahkeem Stewart is a Freshman All-American already, and the portal additions (Michigan State starter Alex VanSumeren, Penn State transfer Zuriah Fisher, and five-star Luke Wafle, the nation's #1 defensive end recruit) turned a good room into a scary one.


Here is a great in-depth answer from Lincoln Riley at Big Ten Media Days talking about the quality of USC's trenches this season:

And I NEED to talk about this running back room. If you remember, I absoltely loved betting on both Waymond Jordan and King Miller last season in that stacked offense. Jordan was averaging 6.6 yards a carry before he got hurt, and King Miller stepped in as a literal walk-on and nearly hit 1,000 yards at 6.2 a pop, including a 158-yard game against a ranked Michigan defense. Both are back, both are proven, and USC still added two more Top 100 backs behind them. Four capable backs, all different, all rotating behind a much better offensive line. I LOVE this room.


USC and Lincoln Riley has zero excuses left in 2026. This HAS to be the year for Lincoln Riley to take that next step. Making the playoff is a bare minimum for him to keep his job safe in Southern California.

People still want to treat last year's 16-0 title run like lightning in a bottle, Cignetti magic that can't repeat. Are you kidding me? You're still doubting one of the greatest turnarounds in sports history? Losing Fernando Mendoza hurts, obviously. You don't replace a Heisman winner for free, and Josh Hoover does carry real turnover baggage after coughing it up 42 times in 31 starts at TCU. But Curt Cignetti is extremly confident that what is still built around him can elevate Hoover's game. And on paper, it absolutely can.

Indiana allowed 11.7 points a game last year, second-best in the country, under Broyles Award-winning coordinator Bryant Haines. Oregon's own Dan Lanning said Haines' defense plays with relentless effort and "runs the best zone-break scheme he saw all year". Six of Indiana's nine All-Big Ten defenders are back, headlined by interior duo Tyrique Tucker and Mario Landino, and the staff went and added two more starters off Kansas State's defensive line in the portal. The offensive line is a Joe Moore Award semifinalist unit built around All-American Carter Smith.

You lose a Heisman quarterback and your top two receivers and you're still a Playoff team on paper. This shit is no longer a flash in the pan man. Respect one of the best coaches in the game. 

Matt Campbell coming in from Iowa State and dragging 13 Cyclones starters with him, including quarterback Rocco Becht, is a crazy story on its own. New coach, almost an entirely new roster, usually would sound to me like a step-back year no matter who you hire.

Except Penn State's 2026 schedule avoids the Big Ten's Playoff trio entirely and instead draws five of the bottom seven teams in the conference. A roster that just got an infusion of players from the Big 12, a softer conference, gets to find its identity against an easier slate instead of getting thrown at the usual heavy-hitters of the conference.


Becht himself is no small addition either. He enters the year second among Power 4 quarterbacks in career passing yardage and third in touchdowns. I'm not saying Penn State wins the conference. I'm saying don't be shocked if that schedule break has them a lot closer to the top than people expect come November.

Hank Brown versus Jeremy Hecklinski. That's the current Iowa QB battle heading into the 2026 season for Kirk Ferentz, who enteres his THIRTY-SEVENTH year at Iowa. But that's not even what worries me, although I'd buy you lunch if you could tell me anything about either of those QBs. And the fact that Ferentz's answer to questions about the battle at Big Ten Media Days was "At this point, we still don't have clarity" ??? Definitely a problem.


Iowa had eight defenders earn All-Big Ten honors last season. Seven are gone. Eleven of their top fourteen tacklers are gone. Six of their top eight defensive linemen are gone, including all-league stars Aaron Graves, Jonah Pace, and Max Llewellyn. The fix? FCS transfers like Holy Cross's Brice Stevenson and Elon's Kahmari Brown to plug holes on a defense that ranked #1 in the country against the pass a year ago.

That's the identity of this entire program walking out the door in one offseason. And yes, Iowa's program has been able to develop great defenses year after year no matter who is playing. Books have Iowa's win total sitting at 7.5 right now, and that number alone tells you the market doesn't see this as a top-of-the-league team anymore. A road-heavy schedule stacked on top of a defensive rebuild this steep and another year of obvious uncertainty around the QB position is the kind of combination that turns "Iowa will always somehow get to 8 wins" into an actual down year ... and potentially the end of the line for Kirk Ferentz. 


Ferentz and long-time DC Phil Parker have earned the benefit of the doubt over the years. I just think this is the year that track record could finally run its course.

Bob Chesney took over and brought both of his James Madison coordinators, plus ten JMU players with him, all wrapped around former five-star QB Nico Iamaleava staying in Westwood. That's a lowkey amount of familiarity dropped into a program that ranked in the bottom ten nationally on both sides of the ball last year.

This is the same Iamaleava who threw for five total touchdowns to upset a then-#7 Penn State team last November, who yes, crumbled like no other team in recent memory (besides Clemson. Fuck Clemson), but still captain'd a squad playing under an interim staff after firing its head coach four games into the season. New DC Colin Hitschler's defense at JMU finished top ten nationally in total defense, rush defense, and third-down rate, and he brought Sun Belt Freshman of the Year Sahir West (7 sacks, 14 TFLs) with him to fix a pass rush that was the least disruptive in the country last year.

Circle a couple dates. UCLA travels not that far up north to play Cal Week 1, and they're currently favored on the road (-1.5). What a great game to really test if what they've got, especially on defense, is cooking. They go eat to Maryland before a bye week September 26, which can definitely be a sneaky spot if things are rolling in the right direction. Can they sneak a win over a down Michigan squad or a desperate USC team in the final two weeks of the season? I say neither of those possibilities is out the window. But neither is a guaranteed upset. Regardless, a team with a potentially legit quarterback and a defensive staff that already built a Playoff-caliber unit somewhere else is exactly the kind who ruins somebody's afternoon in spots like these.

Malik Washington threw for 773 yards in his first three college games last year, the most by any Power 4 true freshman in that span since 2018. He finished the season with 2,963 yards and 17 touchdowns, including a 459-yard game against Michigan State that ranks second on Maryland's all-time single-game list. Top 5 in the entire Big Ten in passing yards per game. That's a school record, as a true freshman.

Here's the part that will always sell me: Maryland's offensive line finished #1 in the country in pass protection last season, allowing a sack on just 2% of dropbacks, while simultaneously ranking #124 in rushing yards per game. Elite in one phase, brutal in the other. Mike Locksley skipped the portal chase entirely this cycle and kept all ten of his most important players, Washington included, and hired Clint Trickett specifically to fix the run game after Trickett got a nine-win season and the nation's rushing champ out of Jacksonville State. Washington's completion rate (57%) still has room to grow. But if that run game comes even a little bit off the mat, a passing attack that's already producing at this level is going to be a real problem for people who slept on them.


Jovan talked more on Maryland, and specifically Malik Washington, in a blog post from a few days ago ⤵️

Oregon's front seven and portal defensive work carry the top spot. USC finally has the trenches and a running back room to match the skill talent. Indiana's built for the long haul and not just one magic season. Penn State's schedule sets up a sneaky climb. Iowa's defensive losses have me nervous regardless of who wins the quarterback job. UCLA has multiple dates circled where they've already shown they can crash the party, and Maryland's offense deserves a lot more respect than it's getting.


It's almost college football season people. GET FUCKING HYPED. And if you made it this far, I genuinely appreciate the hell out of you for your support. Also, if you ever want to talk ball, my DMs are ALWAYS open. I will respond and chop it up with you. Here's to another season of driving that Rav4 to the greenest of pastures and getting nice on Saturday's. 🍻