Fast facts
Five takeaways from the last day of Big Ten Media Days:
1. Two wheels, by land
P.J. Fleck's Row the Boat mantra might have some competition. Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz coined his own phrase at Big Ten Media Days on Friday: "Pedal the Bike." The idea came to him when he was trying to use a new exercise bike and took 15 minutes to figure out how to work it. He said that reflected the current complexity of college football from training to recruiting to media coverage. Yet the basic goal of fielding a championship team of upright student-athletes is a constant. "So just like riding a bike, you've got to pedal it. You've got to put energy into it. The basics, being the fundamentals that it takes to be successful in anything, I don't think have changed in any amount of time. That part has remained consistent."
2. Shade tree?
It wouldn't be a Big Ten media event if Jim Harbaugh wasn't making headlines. The Michigan coach couldn't even wait until he spoke on Friday, instead garnering attention Thursday for comments made on a podcast with Tim Kawakami of The Athletic about former Ohio State coach Urban Meyer: "Urban Meyer has a winning record, really phenomenal record everywhere he's been. Also, controversy follows everywhere he's been." Harbaugh, who hasn't beaten Ohio State in his tenure at Michigan so far, doubled down on that quote Friday. "No, I don't see any, no context you should know about. I don't think it was anything that was anything new or anything of a bombshell. It's things that many of you all understand and have written about."
3. QB intrigue
Numerous Big Ten teams have quarterback battles raging ahead of this season, including the Gophers with Zack Annexstad and Tanner Morgan. It was a hot topic at Media Days, despite some of these decisions seeming obvious. And Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald poked fun at the media's intrigue: "I'd really like to have it done already, but that's not what my experience has been. It's usually taken a couple weeks during training camp. We'll narrow it down probably somewhere no later than that. And then I will promise you that I will absolutely not tell you who the starting quarterback is probably until we go out on the field in the opener against Stanford. Then you can ask me all the questions you want about the competition. I'll probably tell you nothing about it anyways. I'm pretty good at that."
4. food networker
Wisconsin's Chris Orr might have a future in broadcasting. The senior linebacker was one of the best quotes at Media Days, going on tangents about everything from how he'd like to be a quarterback so referees would help him up after a big hit to extreme detail of his top-three cheat meals. For the record, it's the spicy tender box with fries, a biscuit, blackened ranch and popcorn shrimp at Popeye's; a double cheeseburger with cheese fries and a cake shake at Portillo's; and a bacon and cheddar ButterBurger basket with mayo, mustard, grilled onions and fries — "not cheese curds, it'd be a little too heavy" – plus a vanilla Concrete Mixer with Reese's and Oreos at Culver's. But that's only because there aren't Whataburgers in Wisconsin.
5. hands drill
The conference found a creative and maybe slightly dangerous way to hand out raffle prizes at the Kickoff Luncheon on Friday. The two quarterbacks in attendance, Iowa's Nate Stanley and Nebraska's Adrian Martinez, threw footballs to the winners in the crowd. Despite fragile glasses, sharp cutlery and an abundance of nice clothing, the QBs completed a few passes, saw some balls dropped and banged at least one football off a white tablecloth.
MEGAN RYAN
