AWn PDMonday, August 6, 2001- The Michigan Daily -13
ho is going to be 2001 Big Ten champions?
Northwestern B) Michigan
Ohio State D) other MONDAY
hsigandaily.comi/sports AUGUST 6, 2001
Iation bmedia gets its
irhsrt chance With Bi
orthwestern dubbed the preseason favorite
Jeff Phillips
ily Sports Writer
CHICAGO - This past weekend,
Big Ten held its annual media
t the Sheraton Inn in Chicago.
e conference's 11 head coaches
swered many questions relating to
upcoming Big Ten season.
mong the topics of discussion
s Northwestern's meteoric from
ng projected last in the Big Ten to
fning a share of the conference
e last year and being picked to win
title again this year by the media.
am very optimistic," North-
ern coach Randy Walker said.
e have a lot of work to do to
ome a great team."
alker also warned fans to be
ary of projections by the media
preseason magazines.
I just remind the guys that the
e experts that picked us last are
same experts that are picking us
st," Walker said.
ichigan head coach Lloyd Carr
that the success of teams like
western and Purdue has added
sew element to the Big Ten, which
traditionally a conference that
les on strong defenses and run-
g games.
'There is an old saying that says,
ffense wins games, defense wins
mpionships,' and certainly that
nt out the window last fall," Carr
ch of Northwestern's success
been attributed to its spread
nse, which opens up the field by
just one running back and
most sets out of the shotgun.
iker does not necessarily agree
with this assessment.
"I think we were a better team
(last year), not because of the
spread, but because we executed
better - we played the game bet-
ter," Walker said.
Another topic on everyone's mind
was the status of Indiana's Antwaan
Randle El, who has played his first
three years of his college career at
quarterback, before making the
switch to wide receiver this year.
"(Randle El) is a
quarterback/wide receiver/punt
returner in that order,"
Indiana head coach Cam
Cameron said: "We are not as deep
at receiver as we were last year so
we will also need his help in that
area."
The versatile Randle El is being
touted as a frontrunner for the Heis-
man trophy by the Indiana Athletic
department - and with good rea-
son. Randle El has amassed 8,736
yards of total offense thus far in his
college career, averaging 1,935
yards passing and 977 yards rushing
per season.
While Randle El anticipates tak-
ing many snaps at both wide receiv-
er and quarterback, some Big Ten
coaches are less than thrilled at the
prospect of preparing a defense not
knowing where Randle El will line
up.
"I've been around a lot of great
players and I don't know if there's
any of them that can do the things
that he can do with the ball," Wis-
consin head coach Barry Alvarez
said.
"Wherever he is playing, whether
at quarterback, wide receiver, tail-
The Michigan defense, anticipated to be much improved upon last year's, will have a tougher time with Big Ten opponents.
Coach Lloyd Carr and other Big Ten coaches talked about their teams and the competition in Chicago last week.
back or wherever he is, you better
know where he is and you better
give him extra attention."
Above all, perhaps nothing was
on coaches' minds more that the
death of former Ohio State standout
and Minnesota Vikings tackle Korey
Stringer. Stringer died Thursday of
heat exhaustion.
"Those of us who have been in
coaching for many years have
watched the evolution of dealing
with the heat," Ohio State head
coach Jim Tressel said. "Our hearts
go out to Korey's family. It's a
tough reminder of the real world."
Stringer's death, as well as the
deaths of Florida's Eraste Austin
and Northwestern's Rashidi Wheel-
er have caused many football pro-
grams to rethink the way they are
training in the offseason.
"We put a lot of emphasis on
working hard, but we need to work
on educating athletes on the dangers
of overtraining," Illinois coach Ron
Turner said.
CONFERENCE
When the Big Ten players and coach-
es met with the media in Chicago
last week, the preseason awards as
named by the media were
announced.
The ESPN/USAToday/Coaches poll
was also released last week, with
Michigan at No. 10.
AWARD WINNERS
PRESEASON TOP THREE TEAMS:
1) Northwestern
2) Michigan
3) Ohio State
PRESEASON OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR:
Damien Anderson, Northwestern RB
PRESEASON DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR:
Wendell Bryant, Wisconsin DT
ESPN/COACHES' POLL
released Thursday, Aug. 2, 2001
first-place votes in parentheses
Team record Pts Pvs
1. Florida (25) 0-0 1,401 11
2. Miami (FI) (15) 0-0 1,349 2
3. Oklahoma (8) 0-0 1,314 1
4. Nebraska 16) 0-0 1,292 7
5. Florida State (1) 0-0 1,249 4
6. Texas (2) 0-0 1,164 12
7. Tennessee (1) 0-0 1,042 25
8. Oregon (1) 0-0 1,038 9
9. Virginia Tech 0-0 899 6
10. Michigan (1) 0-0 856 10
11. Kansas State 0-0 844 8
12. Oregon State 0-0 796 5
13. Georgia Tech 0-0 706 19
14. Washington 0-0 652 3
15. UCLA 0-0 547 -
16. Notre Dame 0-0 534 16
17. Louisiana State 0-0 515 -
18. Clemson 0-0 503 14
19. Mississippi StateO0-0 481 22
20. Northwestern 0-0 366 -
21. Ohio State 0-0 259 -
22. South Carolina 0-0 258 21
23. Wisconsin 0-0 204 24
24. Colorado State 0-0 168 15
25. Alabama 0-0 131 -
Veeler latest in football tragedies
VANSTON (AP) - The breathing problems that forced its conditioning policies and the entire incident "to find out if
i Wheeler out of a conditioning drill didn't seem to be there is any possible way we could have done something bet-
ifferent from the 30 other asthma attacks he'd ter."
while playing football the past three years. The evaluation will be done by people outside the
ut the Northwestern safety was never able to athletic department, Taylor said.
h his breath Friday afternoon and later died. "Anytime you go through something like this, we
nchial asthma was the preliminary cause of death, = k would be terribly remiss if we did not re-evaluate
Cook County coroner's office ruled Saturday. everything that happened," Taylor said.
"I didn't want to wake up this morning," said Wheeler's death came two days after Minnesota
hwestern coach Randy Walker, still fighting back Vikings tackle Korey Stringer died of heatstroke fol-
s and trying to control his emotions Saturday lowing an intense practice in stifling heat. A week
on. earlier, Florida freshman Eraste Autin died after col-
not been here. I guess I've lived a very forte- er lapsing of heatstroke.
life to not undergo a tragedy of this scope. It's new Wheeler was a chronic asthmatic - head athletic trainer
und for me. I think all of us are asking, 'What's the deal?' Tory Aggeler said he'd seen Wheeler have more than 30 asth-
Tere's no apparent answer at this point."' ma attacks in his three years at Northwestern - and had
thletic director Rick Taylor said the school will re-evaluate dealt with the condition since at least high school.