(This article originally published August 1 on www.orangeandbluenews.com)
Down the hall from the Grand Ballroom, in the Columbus Room, media met with Big Ten coaches and players today for one-on-one interviews. I met with several of the Big Ten’s premiere athletes to get their thoughts on some of the faces and places that make the Big Ten special. Here’s our panel:
Mike Klinkenborg, LB, Iowa
Marcus Thigpen, RB, Indiana
Luke Swan, WR, Wisconsin
Vernon Ghoulston, DE, Ohio State
Mike Sherels, ILB, Minnesota
Anthony Morelli, QB, Penn State
Tyrell Sutton, RB, Northwestern
What’s your favorite place to play in the Big Ten?
Klinkenborg – Wisconsin. The fans up there are great, they’re pretty wild.
Thigpen – Wisconsin.
Swan – All the road trips have been about the same. I shouldn’t say this, but you really try to go focus on the game, and there’s not a lot of focus on the outside stuff. I try to make everything the same, the hotel the same, the trip the same in every way.
Ghoulston – Ohio Stadium! Other than that…Illinois, probably. The field, how it was at night, I really liked it there.
Sherels – Penn State. Its just unrivaled, the fans are crazy, they’re passionate, it’s the best.
Morelli – That’s hard to say, in a conference like this, you have so many exciting stadiums. Ohio State was pretty exciting, really good atmosphere there, and they beat us up a little bit.
What’s the toughest road trip in the Big Ten?
Klinkenborg – I haven’t been to Penn State yet, I’d probably say Ohio State, maybe Wisconsin.
Thigpen – Wisconsin.
Swan – Penn State. The fans there are so vocal and really in to the game.
Ghoulston – The 2005 Penn State game was really tough. This year we play them there again, and the fans are going to be crazy, rowdy, everything.
Sherels – Penn State, that’s the loudest place I’ve ever been in my entire life. They have less people, but they’re always shouting, and the stadium is built so they’re right on top of you.
Morelli – Has to be Ohio State.
Sutton – Any road game is always going to be tough. They’re all loud and hard. When we played at Nevada last year it was so loud, even louder than Arizona State, and that place was really loud. Ohio State has 120 thousand fans all screaming at you. They’re all tough.
Who talks the most trash in the Big Ten?
Klinkenborg – I don’t think there’s a lot of trash talking in the conference, for the most part, there’s some pretty good sportsmanship here. But my team mate Mitch King has talked his share of trash.
Thigpen – When you get hit, that’s when it happens, when you’re a receiver and you are at the bottom of the pile, you get talked to. Ohio State and Michigan do it the most.
Swan – It gets the worst when you have two guys who both want to talk to each other, then it never stops. I just try to be silent out there, be the silent assassin.
Ghoulston – There’s not much trash talking. With how competitive we are, we’re always huffing and puffing after every play.
Sherels – I’m just going to say the state of Michigan, and you can figure out which school I’m talking about.
Morelli – It was probably Wisconsin for me.
Sutton – Illinois. Well, anyone because they all trash talk out there. From J Leman to AJ Hawk, there’s a lot of trash that gets thrown around out there.
Who’s the toughest player or scheme you’ve ever matched up against?
Klinkenborg – Anthony Gonzalez (Ohio State TE). That guy’s pretty quick.
Swan – Jack Ikeqwuonu. I match up against him every day in practice. He’s made me a lot better.
Ghoulston - Probably Penn State’s Levi Brown and Michigan’s Jake Long. Trying to get around those guys is like trying to get around a wall.
Sherels – Dorien Bryant from Purdue. Two years against them they went in to 5-wide almost the entire game, and I was the overweight middle linebacker out there trying to cover him, and he made me look foolish. The summer afterward I worked really hard at my footwork and getting better so he couldn’t make me look foolish again. We played them last year and I did a lot better.
Morelli – Michigan. Their defensive line was unreal, and I got knocked out of the game. So that was pretty tough.
Sutton – Wisconsin gave me a concussion last year. So whoever hit me, but I don’t remember who it was.
How do you know when your head coach is mad at you?
Klinkenborg – When we’re doing two-a-days in December.
Thigpen – When he gives you a look. Its just that look, man. You know it.
Swan – Its pretty obvious, Coach Bielema lets you know you made a mistake, but that’s what the coaches are there for. They’re getting us ready every day to play in front of 85 to 100 thousand people.
Ghoulston – When he stops talking to you.
Sherels – Its ‘the glare’. He’ll just give you this death stare.
Morelli – They’re either going to yell at you or stop talking to you. But Coach Paterno is always telling us that we should worry when they stop yelling us, because that means they don’t think we can get any better than we are.
Sutton – When he stops talking to you. He just stops talking.
What do you do to relax when you’re not playing or practicing?
Klinkenborg – I just like to hang out, go to the movies, maybe play a board game. Devan Moylan likes to play risk, but I don’t play him that much, because he beats me, and I don’t like to lose at anything.
Thigpen – Me and my best friend, Nick Polk, he’s a safety, we like to go bowling. We bowl a lot. I probably average about 200. I’m pretty good.
Swan – I’m a pretty chill guy, I like to golf a lot. I had a job last summer at a golf course, so I try to golf over at University Ridge as much as possible. I’m about a 6 or 7 handicap.
Ghoulston – Just being able to sit down, relax, and eat. I love to eat. I can put on SportsCenter and watch that 3 or 4 times a day.
Sherels – I’m a bit of a nerd. I like to read a lot. I just finished the last Harry Potter book. The last two in the series are definitely the best. (Me: Which Hogwarts House would you belong to?) Oh, I gotta say Gryffindor. Gotta Gryffindor.
Morelli – I’m a big hunting and fishing type of guy. I actually just caught a 40 lb., 3 foot, 8 inch catfish back home in Pittsburgh, in the Allegheny. That was cool.
Sutton – Sleep. I like to sleep. Ask anybody, I can sleep anywhere.
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