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.