Here’s what I did…I looked at Total Offense, All-Purpose Yards, Total Points, and Total Tackles for each Big Ten team in 2008, then found the percentage of each of those statistics that were made by players coming back in 2009. I did see that Phil Steele beat me to the punch (though I started doing this 2 weeks ago and I just took me a long time so I’m not copying him) on the number of tackles and yards. My number are a little different than him, but I don’t know exactly what his sources were. I used each teams’ official athletics site and looked at the statistics and the roster. I’m also not sure exactly what he was looking at for yards. I did both Total Offense and All-Purpose Yards. Total Offense give credit to the QB for passing yards, while All-Purpose Yards give credit to the receiver. So, a team like Penn State, that returns its starting QB but loses most of its receivers looks great in returning Total Offense, but pretty bad in returning All-Purpose Yards.
Total Offense:
Total Offense is mainly impacted by the starting quarterback and the starting running back. Teams that lost both (Michigan State, Northwestern, and Purdue) obviously look pretty back in this department, while teams that return both (Illinois, Minnesota, and Penn State) look great. Iowa is in the middle of the pack as losing Shonn Greene hurt, but Stanzi and Hampton do bring back a large chunk of Total Offense.
| Team | % Returning |
|---|---|
| Illinois | 100% |
| Minnesota | 99% |
| Penn State | 86% |
| Michigan | 63% |
| Wisconsin | 58% |
| Ohio State | 56% |
| Iowa | 52% |
| Indiana | 46% |
| Northwestern | 18% |
| Michigan State | 13% |
| Purdue | 5% |
All-Purpose Yards:
All-Purpose Yards mostly reflects the receivers and the running back, but also has an interesting component for the returners (both on special teams and after a turnover). Illinois and Minnesota both have a slew of receivers returning, while Purdue loses just about everyone. Iowa is pretty low in this category with Greene having the most All-Purpose Yards on the team. The loss of Brodell and Myers also had a large impact.
| Team | % Returning |
|---|---|
| Minnesota | 93% |
| Illinois | 91% |
| Wisconsin | 75% |
| Michigan | 73% |
| Penn State | 58% |
| Michigan State | 53% |
| Ohio State | 51% |
| Indiana | 50% |
| Iowa | 48% |
| Northwestern | 37% |
| Purdue | 26% |
Total Points:
Total Points is kind of interesting and really emphasizes a good placekicker. Like All-Purpose yards, QBs don’t matter much here unless they ran it in for a touchdown. Illinois and Minnesota are near the top again with their running backs and receivers returning, while Northwestern and Purdue are again near the bottom having to rebuild their offense. Iowa is in the middle with the loss of Greene and his 20 TDs, but Hampton had 7 TDs of his own and both Mossbrucker and Murray are back.
| Team | % Returning |
|---|---|
| Illinois | 93% |
| Wisconsin | 75% |
| Minnesota | 71% |
| Penn State | 69% |
| Michigan | 59% |
| Michigan State | 55% |
| Iowa | 54% |
| Indiana | 44% |
| Ohio State | 40% |
| Purdue | 36% |
| Northwestern | 21% |
Total Tackles:
Total tackles includes special team tackles and tackles after a turnover (did you know Shonn Greene had 1 tackle in additional to all his rushing yards?), but mostly it’s the linebackers that matter most in this category. The Big Ten is more balanced here with all the teams coming in between 52% - 72% (while Total Offense’s range was 5% - 100%). At the bottom are Illinois, who has the most to replace most of its front 7 and its best cornerback, and Penn State, who must replace its entire secondary. Iowa leads the way with 5 of the 6 leading tacklers on the team returning and Michigan State (who also returns 8 starters on defense) is in second.
| Team | % Returning |
|---|---|
| Iowa | 77% |
| Michigan State | 75% |
| Minnesota | 74% |
| Indiana | 70% |
| Northwestern | 68% |
| Purdue | 68% |
| Wisconsin | 60% |
| Ohio State | 59% |
| Michigan | 57% |
| Penn State | 56% |
| Illinois | 52% |
Notes:
Looking at the offensive stats, it’s pretty obvious Illinois and Minnesota return a lot. Illinois offense could be scary (maybe good that Iowa doesn’t have to play them) as they were already the 3rd highest scoring team in the Big Ten and 2nd in total yards. Minnesota is not quite so scary having one of the worst offenses in the Big Ten. On the defensive side, Iowa is sitting pretty. Not only do they return the most in term of tackles and tied for the most in starters, the team last year was already the best defense in the Big Ten. Ohio State and Penn State who had the 2nd and 3rd best scoring defenses respectively in 2008 do not return nearly as much as Iowa. And Michigan State, who does return a lot defensively did not have one of the better defenses last year.
