Although there’s still a little over a month to go until Ohio State’s season opener against Oregon State, the offseason will start to come to an end this week.
With the start of preseason camp on the horizon, football coaches and players from all 14 Big Ten schools – including Ohio State’s Urban Meyer, Parris Campbell, Dre’Mont Jones and Isaiah Prince – will answer questions and preview their teams’ upcoming seasons at Big Ten Media Days on Monday and Tuesday at the Chicago Marriott Downtown Magnificent Mile.
The four Buckeyes won’t take their podiums until Tuesday, but coaches and players from seven other schools – including Michigan and Penn State – will spend their time with the media on Monday.
Eleven Warriors is in Chicago to cover both days of the action, so you’ll want to check back throughout the next two days and follow @11W, @Dan_Hope, @JGrega11 and @AndrewMLind on Twitter for updates from the Big Ten’s preseason media event.
If you’re preparing to follow along, here’s what you need to know:
Press Conference Schedule
All 14 Big Ten head coaches – seven on Monday, seven on Tuesday – will open their teams’ participation in Big Ten Media Days with a 15-minute press conference. Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany will also speak Monday in the first press conference of the event. Mark Silverman, the president of Big Ten Network and Fox Sports national networks, and Bill Carollo, the Big Ten’s coordinator of football officials, will also hold press conferences on Tuesday.
The full schedule of press conferences, each of which will be televised by BTN, is as follows:
| Who | When (Times ET) |
|---|---|
| JIM DELANY, BIG TEN COMMISSIONER | 12:30 – 1 p.m. |
| SCOTT FROST, NEBRASKA COACH | 1 – 1:15 p.m. |
| PAT FITZGERALD, NORTHWESTERN COACH | 1:15 – 1:30 p.m. |
| JAMES FRANKLIN, PENN STATE COACH | 1:30 – 1:45 p.m. |
| JEFF BROHM, PURDUE COACH | 1:45 – 2 p.m. |
| P.J. FLECK, MINNESOTA COACH | 2 – 2:15 p.m. |
| CHRIS ASH, RUTGERS COACH | 2:15 – 2:30 p.m. |
| JIM HARBAUGH, MICHIGAN COACH | 2:30 – 2:45 p.m. |
| Who | When (Times ET) |
|---|---|
| KIRK FERENTZ, IOWA COACH | 9 – 9:15 a.m. |
| TOM ALLEN, INDIANA COACH | 9:15 – 9:30 a.m. |
| MARK DANTONIO, MICHIGAN STATE COACH | 9:30 – 9:45 a.m. |
| LOVIE SMITH, ILLINOIS COACH | 9:45 – 10 a.m. |
| PAUL CHRYST, WISCONSIN COACH | 10 – 10:15 a.m. |
| MARK SILVERMAN, BTN/FOX SPORTS PRESIDENT | 10:15 – 10:30 a.m. |
| URBAN MEYER, OHIO STATE COACH | 10:30 – 10:45 a.m. |
| DJ DURKIN, MARYLAND COACH | 10:45 – 11 a.m. |
| BILL CAROLLO, BIG TEN COORDINATOR OF OFFICIALS | 11 – 11:15 a.m. |
Podium Interview Schedule
Each of the coaches, as well as the three player representatives from each school, will also each spend one hour answering questions from media members at individual podiums during designated windows for their schools. While those sessions will not be televised live, Eleven Warriors will provide coverage from the coaches and players’ interview availabilities.
Meyer will hold his podium session with the media from 3:15 p.m. to 4:15 p.m. Tuesday, while Campbell, Jones and Prince will answer questions from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday.
The full interview schedule:
| Who | When (Times ET) |
|---|---|
| PENN STATE QB TRACE MCSORLEY, CB AMARI ORUWARIYE, S NICK SCOTT | 3 – 4 p.m. |
| NEBRASKA COACH SCOTT FROST | 3 – 4 p.m. |
| MICHIGAN COACH JIM HARBAUGH | 3:15 – 4:15 p.m. |
| PURDUE COACH JEFF BROHM | 3:30 – 4:30 p.m. |
| RUTGERS COACH CHRIS ASH | 3:45 – 4:45 p.m. |
| NEBRASKA LG JERALD FOSTER, WR STANLEY MORGAN JR., NT MICK STOLTENBERG | 3:45 – 4:45 p.m. |
| NORTHWESTERN COACH PAT FITZGERALD | 4 – 5 p.m. |
| NORTHWESTERN LB NATE HALL, CB MONTRE HARTAGE, QB CLAYTON THORSON | 4 – 5 p.m. |
| PENN STATE COACH JAMES FRANKLIN | 4 – 5 p.m. |
| MINNESOTA COACH P.J. FLECK | 4:15 – 5:15 p.m. |
| PURDUE LB MARKUS BAILEY, QB DAVID BLOUGH, QB ELIJAH SINDELAR | 4:45 – 5:45 p.m. |
| MINNESOTA LB THOMAS BARBER, LB CARTER COUGHLIN, RB RODNEY SMITH | 5 – 6 p.m. |
| RUTGERS CB BLESSUAN AUSTIN, LT TARIQ COLE, LB DEONTE ROBERTS | 5:15 – 6:15 p.m. |
| MICHIGAN RB KARAN HIGDON, S TYREE KINNEL, DE CHASE WINOVICH | 5:30 – 6:30 p.m. |
| Who | When (Time ET) |
|---|---|
| IOWA DE PARKER HESSE, DE MATT NELSON, QB NATE STANLEY | 3:15 – 4:15 p.m. |
| OHIO STATE COACH URBAN MEYER | 3:15 – 4:15 p.m. |
| IOWA COACH KIRK FERENTZ | 3:30 – 4:30 p.m. |
| WISCONSIN LG MICHAEL DEITER, S D'COTA DIXON, LB T.J. EDWARDS | 3:30 – 4:30 p.m. |
| MARYLAND COACH DJ DURKIN | 3:45 – 4:45 p.m. |
| MARYLAND LT DERWIN GRAY, WR TAIVON JACOBS, S DARNELL SAVAGE JR. | 4:15 – 5:15 p.m. |
| INDIANA COACH TOM ALLEN | 4:30 – 5:30 p.m. |
| MICHIGAN STATE COACH MARK DANTONIO | 4:45 – 5:45 p.m. |
| MICHIGAN STATE QB BRIAN LEWERKE, RB LJ SCOTT, S KHARI WILLIS | 5 – 6 p.m. |
| OHIO STATE WR PARRIS CAMPBELL, DT DRE'MONT JONES, RT ISAIAH PRINCE | 5 – 6 p.m. |
| WISCONSIN COACH PAUL CHRYST | 5:15 – 6:15 p.m. |
| INDIANA S JONATHAN CRAWFORD, LG WES MARTIN, WR LUKE TIMIAN | 5:30 – 6:30 p.m. |
| ILLINOIS COACH LOVIE SMITH | 5:45 – 6:45 p.m. |
| ILLINOIS RG NICK ALLEGRETTI, WR MIKE DUDEK, DT JAMAL MILAN | 6 – 7 p.m. |
Additional TV Coverage
In addition to televising the head coaches’ press conferences, BTN will also air a live Football Media Day Special, in which the coaches and athletes from each school will visit the BTN studio set for interviews with BTN’s Dave Revsine, Gerry DiNardo and Howard Griffith, from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. on both Monday and Tuesday.
BTN will also air the conference’s annual Kickoff Luncheon, featuring interviews with all 14 head coaches and College Football Hall of Fame inductees Dana Howard (Illinois) and Aaron Taylor (Nebraska) and speeches from Delany, Tournament of Roses president Gerald Freeny and Michigan State safety Khari Willis – the featured student-athlete speaker for this year’s event – in a tape-delayed broadcast on Wednesday at 8 p.m. Tickets for this year’s Kickoff Luncheon, which will also be held at the Chicago Marriott Downtown Magnificent Mile and is open to fans, are sold out.
Reading Material
While you wait for Big Ten Media Days, check out the following articles here on Eleven Warriors to read up on some of the event’s participants and some of the other top players around the conference and on Ohio State’s non-conference opponents this year:
