Polzin: Counting down the Big Ten’s best

Will two new faces provide a spark for the Illinois offense?

Fighting Illini coach Bret Bielema (above) replaced offensive coordinator Tony Petersen with Barry Lunney Jr., who was a tight ends coach at Arkansas under Bielema. Meanwhile, Illinois added a transfer quarterback in Tommy DeVito, who threw for 2,360 yards and 19 touchdowns in 2019 at Syracuse but attempted only 148 passes the next two seasons.

Ohio State wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba (above) set a Rose Bowl record with 15 receptions for 347 yards — and three scores — to put an exclamation point on a fabulous second season with the Buckeyes.

Michigan State wide receiver Jayden Reed led the Spartans with 59 catches for 1,026 yards and 10 scores in 2021.

The mock drafts went out the second the 2022 NFL draft ended, and there were plenty of Big Ten names among those projections.

Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud (above), who threw for 4,435 yards and 44 touchdowns in his first season as a starter, may be the No. 1 overall pick next April.

Sept. 3: Penn State at Purdue

Sept. 24: UW at Ohio State

The Big Ten produced nine 1,000-yard rushers in 1994, 2002, 2016 and 2018. But it’s never had 10 in a season.

That could change in 2022.

Iowa cornerback Riley Moss (above) returned two of his four interceptions for touchdowns last season.

Ohio State cornerback Denzel Burke started 13 games as a true freshman and was named a Freshman All-American.

Jesse Minter is Michigan’s third defensive coordinator in as many seasons and takes over for Mike Macdonald, who left to join Jim Harbaugh’s brother, John, with the Baltimore Ravens. Minter was on the Ravens’ staff for four seasons before spending the 2021 campaign at Vanderbilt.

After being fired as the coach at Miami (Fla.), Manny Diaz (above) landed at Penn State as James Franklin’s defensive coordinator. No word if the turnover chain will make its way to State College.

UW outside linebacker Nick Herbig (above) had 14½ tackles for loss in 2021, which leads all Big Ten returnees.

Iowa’s Jack Campbell led the nation last season with 143 tackles.

Michigan kicker Jake Moody (above) was a first-team All-American and won the Lou Groza Award last season. Moody went 23 of 25 on field goals, setting a career high with a 52-yarder against Washington.

Noah Ruggles went 20 of 21 on field goals in his first season at Ohio State after transferring from North Carolina. Ruggles was a finalist for the Lou Groza Award.

Nebraska defensive end Ochaun Mathis (above) had 30½ tackles and 15½ sacks during his career at TCU — he was a second-team All-Big 12 pick each of the past two seasons — before joining the Cornhuskers.

Michigan center Olusegun Oluwatimi, a sixth-year graduate student, made 32 consecutive starts at Virginia and was a Rimington Trophy finalist last season.

Notre Dame at Ohio State (Sept. 3): A matchup of top-five teams on the season’s first full weekend? Yes, please.

Michigan State at Washington (Sept. 17): Spartans coach Mel Tucker spent a season in the Pac-12 and one of his five wins at Colorado came over the Huskies.

There was no turnover in the Big Ten coaching ranks after last season, which hadn’t happened in the conference since 2010.

You have to go back another decade-plus to find two consecutive no-pink-slip offseasons in the Big Ten, so count on at least one new face in 2023.

Ohio State is the easy pick in the East Division. The Buckeyes have difficult road tests at Michigan State and Penn State but get UW and Michigan at home. It’d be shocking if the Buckeyes don’t end up at Lucas Oil Stadium for the fifth time in six seasons.

But who will be joining them? That’s not so easy.

Ohio State is coming off its worst season under Ryan Day (above).

OK, OK, so the Buckeyes went 11-2 and beat Utah in the Rose Bowl. But losses to Oregon and Michigan doubled Day’s career loss total — he’s now 34-4 — and that defeat to the archrival Wolverines in the regular-season finale no doubt stuck with Day and Co. in the offseason for obvious reasons: It snapped Michigan’s eight-game losing streak in the series and cost the Buckeyes a shot at the College Football Playoff.