Hear Bob Asmussen's thoughts on Illinois' spring drills here.

Spring gleaning

The Big Ten coaches had their annual spring teleconference earlier in the week. Here's what they had to say:

Indiana

What's happening: The Hoosiers need to replace seven starters on defense. Coach Bill Lynch has done some shuffling in the secondary, moving experienced players to new spots. Lynch is hoping to develop depth among the defensive backs and feels good about the number of players being used. Thanks to a healthy spring, there aren't any major injury issues facing the Hoosiers going into the summer.

What Lynch said: "There's no question that Tyler (Replogle) is the leader of our defense. He's everything you're looking for in a Big Ten football player. He's tough. He's aggressive. He's a leader. Great student. Has a passion for the game. He's played a lot of football for us and the guys have rallied around him."

Iowa

What's happening: The Orange Bowl champions welcome back 16 starters, including quarterback Ricky Stanzi. The Hawkeyes are hoping for the healthy return of running back Jewel Hampton, who missed the 2009 season with an injury. Iowa isn't allowing him to have any contact during spring drills and Ferentz is confident Hampton will be ready to go for the 2010 opener. The offensive line lost star Bryan Bulaga, but coach Kirk Ferentz said he is happy with his first six. Adam Gettis and Markus Zusevics are fourth-year players who are currently filling the right side.

What Ferentz said: "On one hand, I would say (expansion) is inevitable. It just seems to be the way college football is going right now. If it happens, when it happens, I won't be surprised. If it doesn't happen, that won't shock me either. I'm not really worried too much about it right now."

Michigan

What's happening: Coming off a second consecutive losing season, the Wolverines ended spring practice Saturday. Eighteen starters are back, including quarterback Tate Forcier. But the sophomore will have a training camp battle against Devin Gardner, who enrolled in January and impressed Rodriguez with his talents and work ethic. Gardner has a chance to start in 2010, coach Rich Rodriguez said.

What Rodriguez said: "We only have 12 seniors, but we think we're going to have an outstanding group of leaders amongst those 12 seniors. I think you can sense a little bit of the leadership and chemistry in the spring. And you can pick up, from a concept standpoint, how quickly your returners pick up from where the left off in the fall. I feel pretty good about that."

Michigan State

What's happening: With Kirk Cousins established as the starting quarterback, Keith Nichol has been moved permanently to receiver. Coach Mark Dantonio said Nichol is playing well at receiver, a position of need after the graduation of standout Blair White. For the spring game, Michigan State allows the seniors to draft players to fill the two teams. The draft is scheduled for Wednesday.

What Dantonio said: "I think there are always high expectations. But those expectations are placed by us on ourselves. I firmly believe we'll play and compete for a Big Ten championship. I do that every year. I think that every football team we played against this past year, we had an opportunity to win. The game was close. We lost four games at the end of the game last year. I think there's room for improvement there. I guess in a perfect world, you'd like to see us go 6-6 the first year, 7-5 the second and 9-3 the third. But we are building a foundation here. We've stacked great recruiting classes on top of each other."

Minnesota

What's happening: The Gophers are hoping for a bounceback season from quarterback Adam Weber, who struggled as a junior. coach Tim Brewster said Weber is having his best spring. MarQueis Gray has also played well. Brewster plans to name a starter at the end of the spring. Of the two starters lost on offense, one is star receiver Eric Decker. Brewster said his young team has had a good spring. Competition across the board has helped to push the players during the workouts.

What Brewster said: "I'm a proponent of playing a Big Ten championship game, a nationally televised championship game in the month of December like some other conferences in the country. We're sitting at home watching while some others are out there really doing some good things and getting exposure for their teams and conference."

Northwestern

What's happening: The Wildcats need to replace Mike Kafka but welcome back Dan Persa, who had a part-time role in 2009. The top two receivers are also gone. The Wildcats do bring back three of their top four running backs. Safety Brian Peters isn't participating in spring drills because of an injury. Coach Pat Fitzgerald said Peters will be ready soon. The coach doesn't plan to name his starters until the week of the opener at Vanderbilt.

What Fitzgerald said: "I don't receive a vote. I respect and appreciate what commissioner (Jim) Delany and our presidents will do as far as expansion. I'm a Big Ten student-athlete at heart and a Big Ten fan. I'm more of a traditionalist. I'm not one who thinks we have to keep up with the Joneses. I think the Big Ten product is as competitive as it's ever been. At this point, if we're going to add a team, it needs to be the significance of when we added Penn State."

Ohio State

What's happening: The defending Big Ten champions need to replace six starters on defense, including early departee Thaddeus Gibson. The Buckeyes have only one hole on offense. Of course, the offense starts with quarterback Terrelle Pryor, who showed he can throw in Ohio State's Rose Bowl win against Oregon. Bad news for the rest of the Big Ten: the Ohio State coaches have seen improvement in Pryor during the spring, especially his footwork and ability to read defenses. Coach Jim Tressel sees Pryor emerging as a leader.

What Tressel said: "I don't know that I expected (from Pryor) after two years to have been the starting quarterback on two Big Ten championship teams and have taken us to two BCS games. I don't know that I thought, 'Oh boy, that's just going to be a walk in the park to do that.' Am I surprised that he's been able to be a part of that? No. In terms of his development, you never know what the experience level of a guy is going to be."

Penn State

What's happening: It all starts with the quarterback, where the Nittany Lions need to replace Daryll Clark. The good news for coach Joe Paterno is that tailback Evan Royster decided to stay in school. Paterno isn't counting on much help from his freshmen, even the guys who have enrolled in school early. Paterno calls the early enrollments "a lousy idea." He thinks the players should enjoy their senior year of high school. The Nittany Lions face early challenges against Iowa and defending national champion Alabama.

What Paterno said: "We're not a very good football team right now. The quarterbacks are very average, but they're young. Hopefully, over a period of time, they get better. We're just very, very average right now. We're not tough. We're not doing some things real well. The kicking game is terrible. We've got a lot of work ahead of us. I think we're very young in key spots. We don't have a quarterback who has played more than 20 plays. We have some very, very gifted skill people on both sides of the football. A very average offensive line. I think we have to be realistic and stop dreaming that all of the sudden the good Lord is going to come down and bless us."

Purdue

What's happening: The Boilermakers need to replace 10 starters, five each on offense and defense. Injuries were a problem for Purdue during the spring. At one point, the Boilermakers were missing 20 players, including 10 starters. Coach Danny Hope considered canceling one practice because of the depleted roster. Tailback Ralph Bolden suffered an ACL injury and surgery is an option. A decision will be made later in the month. Hope said he expects to have Bolden back for the 2010 season. The offensive line needs to be completely rebuilt. And Hope needs to find a quarterback to replace Joey Elliott.

What Hope said: "We can be very good at quarterback. We have some good quarterbacks at Purdue and we have some competition for the positive. (Miami transfer) Robert Marve and Caleb TerBush are the two guys getting most of the reps with the top units and they've both done very well. Robert Marve is extremely talented. He has thrown very well. He's thrown very accurate. Caleb TerBush has taken his game to another level."

Wisconsin

What's happening: There isn't much work to do on offense, where 10 starters return from a Champs Sports Bowl winning team. The Badgers got in eight of their practices in before spring break, going outside for six of the sessions. Offensive linemen Gabe Carimi and John Moffitt returned to the field after spring break. Tailback John Clay sat out the spring because of an injury, but is expected back for training camp.

What coach Bret Bielema said: "As teams become more and more aware of what your (scheduling) desires are, you can garner some interest from other places. That's begun to happen. I want our fans to realize how eager we are to play certain opponents. Hopefully, we can make those things happen. On our end, I know where we'd like it to go. There has to be two sides to both stories in a contract to play a game. I do think some talks with (Nebraska and Notre Dame) are something we'd like to pursue. It's going to take an interest on both parts to make that happen."