Big Ten Coaches Talk Anonymously About Conference Foes for 2026

NCAAF College Football
May 18, 2026
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It’s not easy getting college football coaches to honestly comment on another coach, player or team. Most coaches don’t want to give opposing teams bulletin board material, which is why there is a lot of coach speak or overused cliches used during the year.

In order to get an accurate assessment of teams heading into 2026, Athlon asked coaches in the Big Ten to talk anonymously about their opponents.

Note: These scouting reports come directly from coaching staffs and do not necessarily reflect the views of Athlon’s editorial staff.

[Editor’s note: This article is from Athlon Sports’ 2026 College Football Preview print magazine. Order your copy today online, or pick one up at retail racks and newsstands nationwide.]

“They evaluate great. They know what fits for them. They do a great job of not swinging for a home run every time they recruit only to lose guys to Ohio State in some one-on-one battle. They have no business doing that. They’re super aware of that. They don’t spend a lot of useless time, and they evaluate really well. It’s not surprising in any aspect that they’re this good.”

“Their defensive line was outrageously good the last two years. In our evaluation, it was every bit as good as Penn State’s, Michigan’s and Ohio State’s. But I know most of that group has left, so it’ll be interesting to see who they replace them with.”

“The biggest glaring thing is the production they lost in the receiver room. They’ve got some young guys coming in, and they paid a s— ton for [Michigan State transfer receiver] Nick Marsh, so we’ll see how he does. They’re just gonna be very young there.”

“Defensively, they still return most of their production. But to me, it’s hard to replicate what [Fernando] Mendoza did. [TCU transfer quarterback] Josh Hoover is a good player. I think he’s got some turnover issues. But other than that, they reloaded.”

“They’re gonna lose that rush of James Madison guys that they had the last two years, so they could definitely struggle in some areas of continuity where maybe the talent does have to take over, but I’m definitely not gonna underestimate Indiana again.”

“I heard that at Wake Forest, [former transfer quarterback] Jeremy Hecklinski struggled a bit there. Struggled to put on weight, struggled to buy into the intensity of college football a bit. I’m interested to see how he progresses at Iowa.”

“It’ll really be interesting to see with them the new philosophy of adding more transfers. What they’ve been doing has been working. It’s been developmental, but in this day and age, you can’t do that anymore. You have to adapt and make the right choices in the portal. I would still bet a lot of money that they’re going to be really good, and the culture of their team will still be intact.”

“They’re hanging a lot on the quarterback [Malik Washington] and hoping that he repeats what he did as a freshman. I thought he was really impressive. I didn’t think coming out of high school that he would be ready to do that. I know they lost eight straight, but he was not really the reason that they were losing. [Washington] is elite. He’s a really good athlete, and we hit him a couple times, and it just didn’t bother him.”

“I think it’ll be interesting how that whole thing stays together if they can be really productive on offense.”

“I get the sense that they would like [head coach] Mike Locksley to work out. They’re not trying to get rid of him, but it may just get to a point where they’ve gotta do what they’ve gotta do.”

“I love that roster. The second that [ex-Michigan head coach] Sherrone Moore was gone, they actually got to run that roster. There are four or five players in that freshman class who’ll contribute immediately, and they had a bunch of freshmen last year who contributed.”

“On offense, you’re gonna have Bryce [Underwood], Andrew Marsh and Jaime Ffrench and JJ Buchanan out of the portal. There’s a lot of excitement for what that team can be this year.”

“The 2027 season was the target because they really liked that 2025 class, so the thought was to build it for that third year and focus on retaining those guys while bringing in younger players.

“I think they can win the conference. It’s not a group with a lot of household names, but there’s a lot of depth with really good players.”

“Their entire staff of position coaches made me go, ‘Oh, s—. Interesting.’ They brought in a lot of good coaches, so I think they’ll be a good team this year.”

“I don’t think they added a lot of players that change the game for them, but you could tell from the outside that the culture wasn’t great. Maybe them losing a bunch of players and talent and completely hitting the reset button is actually a good thing. I’m pretty bullish on them.”

“I thought picking up [offensive line coach] Nick Tabacca was really smart. And [safeties coach] James Adams, he is absolutely unbelievable. He’s the best I’ve ever been around in terms of a coach, an evaluator, a recruiter; he makes his guys want to run through a brick well every day. Any staff that he’s on, stock up big time.”

“They’re so consistent. I would anticipate them staying at the level they’ve been at, probably not competing for the conference. I wouldn’t call them a dark horse. They won’t be in the bottom half [of the Big Ten].”

“They evaluate really well. They’re just like Illinois. Their GM [Gerrit Chernoff ] is awesome. They have a really, really good personnel staff. They know exactly what their wheelhouse is, and they strike really well in it.”

“It’s funny because P.J. Fleck’s thing is ‘Row the Boat,’ which is so fitting for them because in college football, whether the decision is right or wrong, as long as everybody is in it together, you’re usually gonna do something good. That’s what they are.”

“They’re in a ton of denial with the quarterback situation. Dylan Raiola is as good as they get as a player and as a person; losing him, I thought he was their last hope. He was the pin that was holding that thing together.”

“I don’t imagine they’re gonna do anything special. I think five wins, maybe six wins at the most [this] year. If they hit seven, I’d be shocked.”

“[Head coach] Matt Rhule has some great aspects. He can make you run through a wall, but there’s just always so much turnover with his staff. I know that it’s a tough environment for those coaches to be in. Rhule makes it like that on purpose because he doesn’t want you to get comfortable. I don’t want to say his model isn’t going to work, but I don’t know.”

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“I was super interested in the [new Northwestern offensive coordinator] Chip Kelly move. Just from a personnel-meeting-scheme standpoint, I just imagine their personnel department was like, ‘What the f— do we do now?’ Everything they’ve built with that team is like this ground-and-pound, man-zone running scheme that you have some play-action of it.”

“I thought they had a couple of good young players. I don’t think they evaluate like Minnesota or Illinois, but I wouldn’t say they’re poor at it.”

“Kelly is run-heavy, and there’s this misconception that he’s been someone who throws it all over the yard. He’s not, he’s just a tempo guy, and that’s not their game at all. I don’t think it was a shocking move, but I think it raised some eyebrows.”

“I thought the [defensive coordinator] Matt Patricia hire was awesome last year. What made them so good was they were super simple. They’d let you take something super short and run your base stuff, and then not budge to that. Then the second you get out of your stuff, they’re ready for it. They were mentally tougher than you.”

“It was so innovative what they did with their coordinators because in today’s game, coordinators are being taken out of their college stuff. They thought, why not bring in two NFL guys [as coordinators] who might not — from the outside looking in — be known for their relatability to players and all that other BS who are just known for being schematic dudes that know what the f— they’re doing from a scheme standpoint, and they’ve executed that really well.”

“That might be the best roster in college football, with the returners they have on the D-line and the back end, with the addition of Koi Perich from Minnesota — and then offensively, they basically return everyone but Malik Benson, Kenyon Sadiq and a couple running backs, but they played three running backs all year. They lose a couple O-linemen, but I think they feel fine about it. [Dante Moore] was the best quarterback we faced last year.”

“With them, the key is going to be how their coordinators put their guys in position to make plays because at no point did I think what they did on defense was super complicated, but it was just so sound and everyone was doing their job at a high level. When you watch them on tape, they look like a team with a lot of 5-stars.”

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“I don’t necessarily know that they’re gonna be immediately good in Year 1, but I thought the three big guys who followed [former defensive coordinator] Jim Knowles to Tennessee went for way more money than I would’ve paid them if I were Penn State. I thought they made a couple of really good adds. I also thought they kept a couple of really good players that could’ve left, like [linebacker] Tony Rojas. That’s a really good player that probably could’ve gone anywhere for a lot more money than what he got at Penn State.”

“I thought they did really well with their personnel. They obviously took a lot of Iowa State players. That made sense. They took pretty much that whole offensive staff and brought a lot of defensive players from Iowa State. That brings continuity throughout that roster. ”

“Some continuity definitely helps [head coach] Barry Odom in Year 2.”

“Truthfully, I wasn’t incredibly impressed with what they brought in through the transfer portal. At Purdue, you have such an avenue to offer playing time to guys when other schools that you’re gonna play against that aren’t that much better than you can’t do that. I don’t think they took great advantage of that, but I definitely think they’ll be better from a continuity standpoint.”

“I really do think that they have a good coaching staff, but I’d be lying if I said that I was impressed with what they brought in through the portal.”

“I get the sense that the school thinks they’re actually going to make this investment and give [head coach] Greg Schiano a chance to get it done because they have not done that yet. The people there know that he’s basically been fighting that fight with a hand tied behind his back.”

“Schiano is an excellent coach. He works incredibly hard. But at some point, it’s a results business, so I would imagine that the rubber meets the road in the next year or so if they can’t make a turn.”

“But they were just not talented on defense last year. You turn on the tape, and they didn’t have anybody that could do anything. That’s a program problem. If you’re in the Big Ten, and you’re unable to recruit good players into your program, it’s gonna be tough.”

“If I was going to defend [QB Nico Iamaleava], I would do some things to stop him from running and make him throw the ball — particularly downfield. He’s a playmaker. But without his feet and without his ability to scramble, I’m not sure that he can sit in the pocket and carve you up. It’ll be interesting to see what the NFL guys think of him. He’s a good player and can take a hit, but he just didn’t seem like he could kill you with his arm.”

“I was blown away with what their NIL budget was a few years ago. It was unfathomably low. I don’t know if they’ve gotten that ramped up.”

“I’ve heard they’ve been kind of arrogant on the road with following the [Curt] Cignetti model. Like, ‘Look who we are,’ instead of saying, ‘We’re gonna do this the right way.’ I’m interested to see how [new head coach Bob Chesney] does, though.”

“The defensive questions are very much there, but they’re also recruiting to the point where it wouldn’t surprise me to see those questions answered.”

“They have enough talent to be real competitors in the conference. That’s the beauty of the Big Ten. You can be fifth and be on the borderline to make the playoff. It wouldn’t surprise me if they did that. If I were setting the odds, I would view it as damn near 50-50 as to whether they’re gonna get to the playoff.”

“They recruited really, really well on both lines of scrimmage the last couple classes. At the high school level, they’re hoarding a lot of the big bodies. They may have a freshman or two start on the offensive line with how they recruited, and then a player like [defensive lineman] Jahkeem Stewart is one of the more unbelievable guys you’ll scout.”

“They can recruit better at the high school level, which would help them get there. I almost see them in the same light as Minnesota. They’re not a dark horse, but they’ll be a top-half team. I definitely think talent is a part of that.”

“It was assumed that [quarterback Demond Williams Jr.] was going to LSU when he entered the transfer portal. You got the sense pretty early on that after LSU missed out on [Cincinnati transfer quarterback Brendan Sorsby], they were pretty desperate. But it wouldn’t have made a lot of sense for [Williams] to leave Washington, and once it came out that his agency cut ties with him because of it, there was no way that was gonna happen.”

“They scored 81 points in nine conference games. I don’t care who your quarterback is. That speaks to a lot of bigger issues than just the quarterback position. There are teams in the conference who could not throw a single pass and score more than nine points per game. It also speaks to, defensively, your ability to make turnovers, and special teams, your ability to make kicks. I thought it was a whole package thing.”

“Truthfully, I was surprised that both Wisconsin and Maryland decided to run it back with their head coaches. I wasn’t really impressed with either one of those teams. It almost felt like they didn’t really know who the next guy was gonna be, so they decided they’d rather have a year to prepare a move like that.”

This story was originally published by Athlon Sports on May 18, 2026, where it first appeared in the College Football section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

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Big Ten Coaches Talk Anonymously About Conference Foes for 2026

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