The Big Ten boasts its share of elite talents offensively, including Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor. The breakout stars this fall could be at wide receiver, however, where Indiana's Tandon Doss leads an underrated corps of targets. Doss ranks as one of the conference's 10 Best Offensive Players as voted on by writers from the Big Ten Web sites …





GoldandBlack.com's Brian Neubert, Orange&BlueNews.com's Jeff Johnson, SpartanMag.com's Matt Dorsey, BadgerBlitz.com's Tom Lea, BlueWhiteIllustrated.com's Nate Bauer, HawkeyeReport.com's Tom Kakert, BuckeyeGrove.com's Kevin Noon, TheWolverine.com's Michael Spath, GopherIllustrated.com's Matt O'Connell and WildcatReport.com's Louie Vaccher contributed to this feature.




Here is how it worked. Each site cast a ballot with its top 10 offensive players. A first-place vote garnered 10 points, a second-plate vote nine points and so on. We added the point totals up and ranked them accordingly.



Coming in the next few days and weeks: the best defensive players in the conference, breakout players, rookie impact performers and MVPs for all 11 teams, plus best games and much, much more.




This is how it breaks down if interested: three running backs, three wide receivers, two quarterbacks and two offensive linemen. Wisconsin, Penn State and Ohio State each feature two of the top-10 offensive performers while there is one athlete from Iowa, Purdue, Indiana and Illinois.







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style="vertical-align: top; background-color: rgb(246, 246, 248);">Throughout
its storied history, the Big Ten has been known for producing great
backs and this fall, Clay has an opportunity to add to his already
impressive legacy at Wisconsin. The redshirt junior was the Big Ten
Offensive Player of the Year in 2009 after leading the league in
rushing with 1,517 yards and 18 touchdowns on 287 carries (5.3 yards
per carry). Clay totaled 100 yards or more in nine of 13 games last
fall. A bull of a ball carrier at 6-1, 248 pounds, Clay possesses
nimble feet and a strong burst. With 2,401 yards in his career, Clay
needs a little more than 1,000 this year to break into UW's all-time
top five.

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style="vertical-align: top; background-color: rgb(246, 246, 248);">Pryor
could be (and probably should be) the clear-cut No. 1 player on this
list by the end of the 2010 season but there are plenty of those that
cover the Big Ten that are not yet convinced. Unfortunately for Pryor,
his hype before arriving at Ohio State set the bar ridiculously high,
and he has yet to meet it, completing 58.0 percent of his pass attempts
for 3,405 yards and 30 touchdowns in two seasons, though he has also
rushed for 1,410 yards and 13 scores in two years.  Pryor is a
winner, however -- 20-3 in two seasons a starter -- and should emerge
the best dual-threat quarterback in the country this fall.





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style="vertical-align: top; background-color: rgb(246, 246, 248);">For
a team that lost its starting quarterback, it was a real boon for the
Nittany Lions that Royster decided to return for his fifth year. The
6-1, 213-pound tailback has been one of the nation's best backs during
the past two seasons, rushing for 2,405 yards and 18 touchdowns on 396
carries (6.1 yards per carry). Royster is one of just seven ball
carriers in Penn State history with a pair of 1,000-yard campaigns and
could become the first PSU athlete with three 1,000-yard seasons while
taking a run at the Blue and White career rushing record of 3,398 yards
held by Curt Warner (1979-82). Royster currently ranks eighth all time
with 2,918 yards.



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style="vertical-align: top; background-color: rgb(246, 246, 248);">In
a league that may boast depth at wide receiver but not star talent,
Smith is the best of the bunch. The 6-2, 226-pounder features a bit
more physical ability than many of the Boilermaker wideouts that have
reached 100 receptions during the past 15 year, giving Smith a
legitimate chance to make a living playing football. In 2009, the Fort
Hood, Texas, native led the Big Ten with 91 receptions and was the only
conference receiver to break 1,000 yards (1,100) while scoring six
touchdowns. He earned all-league first-team honors last year and in
2010 could form one-half of a dynamic quarterback-receiver tandem with
Robert Marve.

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style="vertical-align: top; background-color: rgb(246, 246, 248);">By
the end of the 2010 campaign, Posey might just be a Biletnikoff Award
finalist. The 6-2, 200-pound junior possesses the physical makeup to be
a dynamic wide receiver this fall while playing for one of the nation's
top teams. Posey ranked sixth in the Big Ten in receptions a year ago
with 60 and was third with eight touchdown catches. He averaged 13.8
yards per grab and had a 62-yard catch-and-run. Posey figures to be
Pryor's go-to target for the second straight season.



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style="vertical-align: top; background-color: rgb(246, 246, 248);">The
next great offensive lineman at Wisconsin, Carimi is clearly considered
the top lineman in the Big Ten by our 10 pollsters. Similar to many
Badger stalwarts, Carimi stands 6-7 and weighs 315 pounds and is a
force in the UW running game while improving tremendously as a
pass-blocker. A three-year starter entering his fifth-year senior
season, Carimi was named All-Big Ten first team by the media in 2009
and was a second-team coaches' selection. He should contend for
All-American honors and could be one of the top picks in the 2011 NFL
Draft.

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style="vertical-align: top; background-color: rgb(246, 246, 248);">Featuring
one of the Big Ten's best receiving corps, Indiana has earned some
respect from our pollsters with Doss' inclusion. He deserves the
accolade after making 77 grabs for 962 yards and five touchdowns during
the 2009 season. Doss' 77 receptions were just two shy of the IU
single-season record held by James Hardy in 2007. The 6-3, 195-pound
wideout, blessed with outstanding speed, is the Hoosiers' most
dangerous offensive weapon and should further his exploits this fall
with an experienced quarterback -- Ben Chappell -- eyeing him every
chance he gets.

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style="vertical-align: top; background-color: rgb(246, 246, 248);">Though
he's not one of the most physically gifted quarterbacks in the Big Ten,
Stanzi wins. He's 18-4 in 22 starts the Iowa signal-caller and led the
Hawkeyes to a 9-0 start in 2009 before a second-quarter injury knocked
him out of an eventual 17-10 loss to Northwestern that ruined Iowa's
bid for perfection. Stanzi reminds many of the Big Ten's two most
recent national championship quarterbacks -- Michigan's Brian Griese
(1997) and Ohio State's Craig Krenzel (2002) -- because of his style="font-style: italic;">it factor. As a redshirt junior, he
completed 56.3 percent of his attempts for 2,417 yards and 17
touchdowns. He should improve upon those numbers significantly this
fall.

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style="vertical-align: top; background-color: rgb(246, 246, 248);">A
move to guard, where he played in 2007 and 2008, shouldn't stand in the
way of another all-conference campaign for the 6-3, 297-pounder. A
third-team All-American at center in 2009, Wisniewski has started 25 of
26 games the past two seasons and saw action on 905 snaps last fall
(the third-highest total on the team). He became the first Penn State
true freshman offensive lineman to start a game (in 2007) since Joe
Iorio in 1999 and has been adding to his resume with impressive honors
every year since. In 2008, he was a second-team All-Big Ten performer
and he was the first-team center a year ago.





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style="vertical-align: top; background-color: rgb(246, 246, 248);">In
voting that was extremely close, LeShoure barely edged out Purdue's
Ralph Bolden, who if healthy likely would have finished within the top
five for this ranking. LeShoure could be the breakout offensive
performer of 2010 after rushing for 734 yards and five touchdowns on
just 108 carries (6.8 yards per carry) for the Fighting Illini in 2009.
The 6-0, 230-pounder also added 14 receptions for 177 yards and two
scores during his sophomore campaign and enters his junior year one of
the best multi-dimensional backs in the Big Ten.

style="vertical-align: top; background-color: rgb(0, 40, 79);">style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: bold;">1. John Clay -- Wisconsin (97 points)

style="vertical-align: top; background-color: rgb(0, 40, 79);">style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: bold;">2. Terrelle Pryor -- Ohio State (88 points)

style="vertical-align: top; background-color: rgb(0, 40, 79);">3. Evan Royster -- Penn State (68 points)

style="vertical-align: top; background-color: rgb(0, 40, 79);">4. Keith Smith -- Purdue (43 points)

style="vertical-align: top; background-color: rgb(0, 40, 79);">5. DeVier Posey -- Ohio State (40 points)

style="vertical-align: top; background-color: rgb(0, 40, 79);">6. Gabe Carimi -- Wisconsin (39 points)

style="vertical-align: top; background-color: rgb(0, 40, 79);">7. Tandon Doss -- Indiana (35 points)

style="vertical-align: top; background-color: rgb(0, 40, 79);">8. Ricki Stanzi -- Iowa (28 points)

style="vertical-align: top; background-color: rgb(0, 40, 79);">9. Stefen Wisniewski -- Penn State (26 points)

style="vertical-align: top; background-color: rgb(0, 40, 79);">10. Mikel LeShoure -- Illinois (18 points)

style="vertical-align: top; background-color: rgb(246, 246, 248);">style="font-weight: bold;">The Next 10:  Ralph Bolden -- Purdue (16 points); Kirk Cousins -- Michigan State (14 points); Justin Boren -- Ohio State (13 points); Derrell Johnson-Koulianas -- Iowa (13 points); Brandon Saine -- Ohio State (8 points); John Moffitt -- Wisconsin (6 points); Adam Robinson -- Iowa (5 points); Scott Tolzien -- Wisconsin (4 points); Drake Dunsmore -- Northwestern (2 points); Tate Forcier -- Michigan (2 points).

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