Adam Rittenberg on ESPN.com finished off his rankings of the top 30 players in the Big Ten today. Arrelious Benn topped the list. I thought it was a pretty good list and pretty fair to the Hawkeyes. Four Hawkeyes made the list: #23 Ricky Stanzi, #20 Pat Angerer, #15 Amari Spievey, and #5 Bryan Bulaga. I was a little surprised the Stanzi made the list, though I do believe he will have a very good year. A bigger surprise to me is the omission of Adrian Clayborn, especially since 6 other defensive ends made the list. So there are at least 6 other DEs in the Big Ten better than Clayborn...I don't think so.
Sure Clayborn will not have the stats as some of the others. He's not going to have double digit sacks or anything. He only had 2 sacks last year, but was second on the team in tackles for loss with 8. He is however very versatile and will be able to shift inside and play tackle when needed as Iowa lost 2 four-year starters in King and Kroul at tackle. He will also be very good in run support, Iowa's defense number 1 priority. And perhaps most importantly, he will cause the opposing offense to double team him almost every down. I love the idea of having Clayborn shift inside and draw a double team on third down freeing Binns to go one-on-one on the outside. By the end of the year, I think you'll see Clayborn getting a lot more respect.