Big Ten Awards: Did coaches send a message with missing Ducks?
There needs to be an explanation for Matayo Uiagalelei's first-team exclusion.
You didn’t expect the rest of the Big Ten to just start giving away what little it still had control over, did you?
Sure, the Oregon Ducks are 12-0 and just capped a 9-0 stroll through their inaugural run through this supposed super conference. And yes, they knocked off Ohio State, eased through defending national champion Michigan in front of 110,000, turned Jump Around into their pump-up song at Camp Randall and literally smashed a Washington helmet in during their regular season finale against the Huskies.
But the rest of the Big Ten coaches would have you believe that only came thanks to typical Oregon flash.
See, the conference’s regular season awards came out on Tuesday, and on the surface these awards, as voted on by the coaches, appeared fine. The conference’s offensive first team features Oregon offensive lineman Josh Conerly Jr. and quarterback Dillon Gabriel, who was named the conference’s offensive player of the year.
No qualms there. Nor should there be. The Big Ten anticipated the high-powered brand of offensive football Oregon brought to the conference. That was the concession to expanding this thing. The Ducks could have that.
But here’s the thing: Oregon’s defense was better than its offense in 2024. The Ducks have the No. 9 scoring defense, the No. 7 total defense and finished sixth in the country with 39 sacks. Yet there isn’t a single Duck on the conference’s first team.
And while you can make arguments that Bryce Boettcher’s place on the second team is just, or Jordan Burch’s spot on the third team is OK because he missed so much playing time, there were two egregious errors in this thing.
And they feel a bit petty.
Let’s begin with this:
Player A: 38 tackles, 12 tackles for a loss, 6 sacks, 1 forced fumble
Player B: 45 tackles, 7 tackles for a loss, 3.5 sacks, 0 forced fumbles
Player C: 44 tackles, 15 tackles for a loss, 10 sacks, 2 forced fumbles
Player D: 37 tackles, 13 tackles for a loss, 10.5 sacks, 2 forced fumbles, 1 interception
Player E: 54 tackles, 20 tackles for a loss, 10 sacks, 2 forced fumbles