Burning questions for each Big Ten football team during spring practices

After a wild offseason of player and coaching movement, we’ll start to get a better sense of what it all means as Big Ten programs begin spring football across the country. 

With three consecutive national championships, the Big Ten has emerged as the dominant power conference after years of watching the SEC own that claim. Perhaps most impressively, it has been three different programs — Michigan, Ohio State and Indiana — winning a national title. 

The Big Ten should again have multiple title contenders, including the recently crowned Indiana Hoosiers, but there is still a lot to learn before the games kick off in September. 

As spring practices begin, here’s a look at the biggest questions surrounding each of the league’s 18 teams. 

Illinois: Do defensive scheme changes pay off?

There are plenty of questions around this Illinois program, including on offense, where the Fighting Illini need to replace star quarterback Luke Altmyer and four of their five offensive linemen starters. But the move that fascinates the most is hiring former Montana coach Bobby Hauck as defensive coordinator. Hauck has mostly served as a head coach the last two decades — two stints at Montana sandwiching a stop at UNLV — and will bring a change to a 3-3-5 defensive scheme. It’s a scheme you don’t see that much of in college football — approximately a dozen programs run it — but it can be effective in confusing offenses with different blitz pressures. The bold move came after defensive coordinator Aaron Henry, who played for Bret Bielema at Wisconsin, left for Notre Dame. We’ll get an early preview this spring on how Illinois’ existing pieces fit into the new system. 

Indiana: Can Josh Hoover keep it rolling?

Curt Cignetti and Co. are 2 for 2 on quarterback transfers, including helping turn Fernando Mendoza into the presumptive No. 1 overall pick, and soon we’ll see if a third keeps the streak going. TCU QB transfer Josh Hoover is the most accomplished of the three on paper, throwing for 9.629 yards and 71 touchdowns in his career. There are questions at the receiver spot with Omar Cooper Jr. and Elijah Sarratt off to the NFL, but Michigan State transfer Nick Marsh has the potential to be Hoover’s No. 1 target right away.

Iowa: Who wins the QB job?

With Mark Gronowski out of eligibility, Iowa will turn to either sophomore Jeremy Hecklinski or junior Hank Brown. Hecklinski, a Wake Forest transfer, has thrown all of two collegiate passes but is well-regarded internally. The Auburn transfer Brown has a bit more seasoning, throwing 73 passes for seven touchdowns, 642 yards and four interceptions. You know Iowa’s defense and special teams will be strong, but the offense has long been the area keeping the Hawkeyes a win or two away from being playoff contenders. This feels like perhaps the most open and interesting quarterback competition in the Big Ten. 

Maryland: How much impact can one 5-star have?

Maryland coach Mike Locksley pulled off an all-time recruiting coup, signing five-star Zion Elee, the highest-rated recruit in school history. The 6-foot-4, 220-pound edge-rusher looks the part and had 12 sacks and 20 tackles for loss his senior year at St. Frances. Can Elee be a game-wrecker right away, or will the faster speed of the college game limit his immediate impact? Locksley can use all the defensive help he can get for a program coming off a 4-8 season. Paired with talented sophomores Zahir Mathis and Sidney Stewart, the Terps have what looks like a very promising defensive front if all the pieces pan out.  

Michigan: Can Jason Beck get the most out of Bryce?

New Michigan coach Kyle Whittingham made two crucial coordinator hires — he swiped Jay Hill away from BYU and convinced Jason Beck to follow him to Ann Arbor. Beck is one of the fastest-rising offensive coordinators in the country and got the best out of 5-foot-11 Devon Dampier. If Beck can help sophomore quarterback Bryce Underwood elevate another level, Michigan should be a bona fide playoff contender even with an especially arduous schedule. Underwood didn’t quite live up to his No. 1-recruit hype his first season, showing flashes at times but never progressing as much as expected. That was bad for 2025 but means there’s plenty of growth potential for Underwood to make a sophomore leap in 2026.  

Michigan State: Where does the offensive explosiveness come from?

Pat Fitzgerald, back in college football for the first time since 2022, has a good building block in quarterback Alessio Milivojevic, who showed real promise in his final four games of the season. The issue in 2026 is the offensive talent surrounding Milivojevic. Gone are leading rusher Makhi Frazier (Ole Miss) and leading receiver Nick Marsh (Indiana). Michigan State will likely rely on transfers at running back, receiver and most of its starting offensive line. UConn transfer running back Cam Edwards has the production (1,240 rushing yards in 2025), albeit against lesser competition than what he’ll face in the Big Ten. At the receiver spot, the Spartans will be asking a lot from a pair of veteran receivers in Michigan transfer Fredrick Moore and Notre Dame transfer KK Smith, who combined for 26 catches in three seasons each of play. 

Minnesota: How to replace Koi Perich?

There’s a lot to be excited about what Minnesota returns for 2026, namely quarterback Drake Lindsey and running back Darius Taylor, but there’s no mistaking that Koi Perich is a big loss. The Minnesota native quickly emerged as a star for the Golden Gophers, earning first-team all-Big Ten honors as a true freshman in 2024. It’s extra painful to lose a homegrown star to an intra-conference rival like Oregon, which has a habit of swiping talented safeties from Big Ten schools. Kerry Brown, who had 40 tackles and two interceptions in 2025, should take on a bigger role in the secondary in Perich’s absence. Lehigh transfer Mekhai Smith should also be a contributor at the safety spot. 

Nebraska: Could Anthony Colandrea be an upgrade over Dylan Raiola?

The much-ballyhooed Dylan Raiola era didn’t pan out as everyone hoped. Rumors of him being unsatisfied and considering a transfer seemed to always hang over the program before he finally opted to leave for Oregon this offseason. Nebraska thought it had found his replacement in Notre Dame’s Kenny Minchey, who committed to the Cornhuskers only to flip to Kentucky days later. With names flying off the board, Nebraska pivoted to an intriguing option: UNLV’s Anthony Colandrea. In his first year in Las Vegas after two up-and-down seasons at Virginia, Colandrea threw for 3,459 yards and 23 touchdowns. Colandrea will have to beat out TJ Lateef, but assuming he does, it is fun to imagine what he could accomplish in Dana Holgorsen’s offense. 

Northwestern: What’s the impact of the new offensive coordinator?

With so much player and coaching movement this offseason, don’t feel bad if you missed that Chip Kelly is now Northwestern’s offensive coordinator. It is just the latest step in what has been a fascinating career for the former Oregon head coach. In just the last couple years, Kelly resigned as UCLA’s head coach, won a national championship at Ohio State as Ryan Day’s offensive coordinator and then got fired midseason as Pete Carroll’s offensive coordinator in Las Vegas. Kelly doesn’t have a Jeremiah Smith or Emeka Egbuka in Evanston, but his experience and track record should be a boon for the Wildcats. 

Ohio State: Who steps up on defense?

There’s a very real chance Ohio State lost three players on defense that will go in the top 10 in this year’s NFL Draft in linebackers Arvell Reese and Sonny Styles and safety Caleb Downs. Reese and Styles are athletic freaks, while Downs was one of the smartest players Nick Saban ever had at Alabama before he transferred to Ohio State. Finding replacements for those guys won’t be easy, but there’s, of course, lots of talent on the roster. Sophomore Riley Pettijohn and Wisconsin transfer Christian Alliegro are two good options at the linebacker position. The Buckeyes will look very different from the back end but Duke transfer Terry Moore is one to watch at the safety spot. 

Oregon: Does talent overcome lack of continuity?

Oregon should be extremely talented yet again, headlined by Dante Moore coming back for another season. Under Dan Lanning, the Ducks recruit very well in both the high school and portal ranks. Some real positional questions still need to be answered, namely at the offensive line spot, but the coordinator changes have the potential to make the biggest impact. Lanning lost both coordinators to head coaching jobs when Will Stein left for Kentucky and Tosh Lupoi for Cal. Lupoi had been with Lanning from the start, while Stein arrived in 2023 to replace Kenny Dillingham. While Oregon never got Phil Knight’s dream of a national title with that trio, it was highly successful and productive. Their replacements — DC Chris Hampton and OC Drew Mehringer — were both internal promotions, which makes sense to try to keep the good times rolling rather than bring in an outside voice. Hampton will be fine with the defensive-minded Lanning as a backstop, but there will be significant pressure on Mehringer to capitalize on Moore’s last season. 

Penn State: Can James Peoples be a star?

Headed into the 2025 season, James Peoples looked poised to be the guy in Ohio State’s run game. Peoples was expected to be the first option on first and second downs for the Buckeyes, but it never quite materialized that way. Bo Jackson wrestled away the job, rushing for more than 1,000 yards as a freshman, and Peoples hit the portal. He landed at Penn State where he should have a good opportunity to be a primary rushing option for a Big Ten program. The talent is there — Ohio State folks were very high on him preseason — and he averaged 5.6 yards per carry on 61 attempts.

Purdue: Who starts on the line?

After a season in which its offensive line ranked top 30 in sacks allowed, there will be a lot of new faces on Purdue’s offensive line this year. Redshirt senior Joey Tanona is the only returning starter on the line, with Barry Odom relying heavily on the portal to fill out the group. The Boilermakers added two South Carolina transfers (Boaz Stanley, Jatavius Shivers), two USC transfers (Makai Sanai, Micah Banuelos) and one from Oklahoma State (Nuku Mafi). At least three of the five will probably be starters for Purdue this season, though the spring could feature plenty of mixing and matching to see what group fares best at protecting quarterback Ryan Browne. 

Rutgers: Who wins the QB job?

Greg Schiano has an important decision to make at the quarterback spot. Does he go for the little-used former four-star quarterback AJ Surace, who has been in the program since 2024? Or does he opt for Dylan Lonergan, now on his third school after previous stops at Alabama and Boston College? Lonergan looked like a good fit for Bill O’Brien’s offense at BC but struggled under pressure and was eventually replaced as the starter at the end of the season. This is another competition that should be pretty open and could shift based on how each performs this spring. 

UCLA: Is this the year Nico puts it all together?

UCLA quarterback Nico Iamaleava was embroiled in controversy after he left Tennessee late last spring to head to UCLA. It led to a lost season for Iamaleava, who saw his head coach (Deshaun Foster) and offensive coordinator (Tino Sunseri) let go a quarter of the way through the season. Still, there were some highs, like a five-touchdown performance in a shocking win over Penn State that doomed James Franklin. Nico doesn’t always wow you with his play, but the talent is there. With new head coach Bob Chesney and offensive coordinator Dean Kennedy bringing some much-needed stability, you can talk yourself into this being the long-awaited breakthrough year for the former five-star. 

USC: Does Gary Patterson still have it?

In a critical year, Lincoln Riley is making a big bet on Gary Patterson being the elixir for a USC program that has largely underachieved in recent years. Patterson has a reputation as a defensive mastermind but has bounced around in off-field roles since he left TCU in 2021. He hasn’t been a defensive coordinator since 2000. It’s an interesting gambit for Riley after losing D’Anton Lynn to Penn State. Will Patterson be well-rested and ready for the challenge, or will the offensive game have passed him? 

Washington: Can Demond Williams’ play justify the drama?

Before Darian Mensah’s surprising, last-minute exit from Duke, the most fascinating offseason player story occurred out in Washington. Demond Williams announced he was leaving and likely headed to LSU or Miami, and yet somehow the relationship was repaired, and he came back for another season. The Huskies have made a significant investment in Williams — financially and reputationally — that he’s good enough to elevate the program. The talent is there, but his play was inconsistent in 2025, with mistakes like a three-interception game against Michigan leading to a team a tier or so below the Big Ten’s best. With a deal that pays him as one of the top QBs in the country, Williams will need to be better in 2026 for Washington to take that next step and compete for a playoff spot. 

Wisconsin: Can the QB bad luck finally end?

It has been a brutal run of quarterback injuries for Luke Fickell and his Wisconsin program. In each of the last three seasons, the quarterback brought in to be the starter suffered a significant injury at some point during the season. Last season, both Billy Edwards and Danny O’Neill suffered season-ending injuries. There is no margin of error this season as Fickell sits on one of the hottest seats in the country in a clear win-or-be-fired season. The Badgers are hoping Old Dominion transfer Colton Joseph can break the unfortunate streak. Last season, Joseph played in 12 games and threw for 2,624 yards and 21 touchdowns.