ESPN College Football

As signing day approaches, it's fun to take a look back at how some of the Big Ten's top recruits from years past fared on the college stage.

ESPN Recruiting took a comprehensive look back at the 2007 recruiting class: how the top players fared, who met expectations, who exceeded them and who turned out to be a bust. It also revised the team recruiting class rankings.

Here's how some of the Big Ten recruits in the ESPNU 150 fared:

Illinois LB Martez Wilson (No. 5 nationally): After recording 73 tackles as a sophomore for the Fighting Illini, Wilson's junior season was cut short due to a herniated disc and he was granted a medical hardship. In 2010, he had 104 tackles, four sacks and two forced fumbles.

Michigan QB Ryan Mallett (No. 12): As a true freshman, he played in 11 games for Michigan before transferring to Arkansas. After sitting out a year due to transfer rules, Mallett started all 13 games in 2009 and threw for more than 3,600 yards and 30 touchdowns. He completed an Arkansas single-season record 242 passes in 2010 and is expected to be drafted in the first round of the 2011 NFL draft.

Illinois WR Arrelious Benn (No. 17): He was named Big Ten Freshman of the Year and followed that up in 2008 by earning first-team All-Big Ten honors, as well as being named team MVP. He was given honorable mention All-Big Ten as a junior and drafted in the second round of the 2010 NFL draft by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He is currently the team's No. 2 WR.

Michigan WR Junior Hemingway (No. 19): Hemingway played in 10 games as a freshman and redshirted in 2008 due to mononucleosis. Hemingway was the Wolverine's fourth-leading receiver in 2009 and third-leading receiver in 2010. He has started 18 contests at wideout in his career.

Wisconsin T Josh Oglesby (No. 28): After redshirting in Oglesby he played in 13 games as a sophomore and started every game in 2009. However, a knee injury in Week 2 ended his 2010 season.

Ohio State S Eugene Clifford (No. 37): After playing in four games for the Buckeyes in 2007, he was suspended for violating unspecified team rules and then kicked off the team before the 2008 season after being charged with assault. He transferred to Tennessee State where he finished his career with 204 tackles and was named as a first-team FCS All-American in 2010.

Minnesota QB Clint Brewster (No. 45): After redshirting in 2007, Brewster went to the College of Sequoias in 2008. He joined the Tennessee Tech roster in July 2008, but has sat on the bench since.

Illinois DT D'Angelo McCray (No. 64): McCray redshirted at Illinois in 2007, before transferring to Eastern Illinois. After playing in 2008 for Eastern Illinois, he transferred to Coffeyville Community College in 2009 and then transferred to Memphis University in 2010 totaling six tackles.

Michigan CB Donovan Warren (No. 86): In 2007, he played in all 13 games and totaled 35 tackles and one forced fumble. He was on the Freshman All-America Team and was named the Big Ten Defensive Freshman of the Year. In 2008, he started 10 games at corner and one at safety, recording 36 tackles. As a junior, he started all 12 games at corner, totaling 66 tackles, four interceptions and 11 pass breakups.

Michigan S Mike Williams (No. 94): After not seeing any game action in 2007, he played in 11 games in 2008, including nine at safety. In 2009, he started nine games at safety and played in 10, registering 56 tackles. In 2010, he appeared in two games before missing the rest of the season due to a head injury.

Iowa T Bryan Bulaga (No. 96): He played in seven games as a true freshman, starting five. In 2008, he started all 13 games at left tackle, earning second-team All-Big Ten honors. As a junior, he made 10 starts at left tackle and was named Big Ten Offensive Lineman of the Year. He was drafted No. 23 overall by the Green Bay Packers in 2010 and is the team's starting right tackle.

Ohio State moved up to No. 7 in the revised class rankings, while Michigan fell out of the top 10.

Michigan's Hemingway and Jerimy Finch, a safety who signed with Florida before transferring to Indiana, are listed among the recruiting busts of the 2007 class.

You might see Minnesota head coach Tim Brewster tonight at the Rose Bowl.

He'll be sitting in a section with the other parents of Texas players. He's trading in his maroon and gold and will be decked out in burnt orange.

For one night, Brewster isn't a major college head coach. He's a dad. And when his son Nolan, a reserve safety who backs up both Longhorns starters, takes the field with his Texas teammates for the BCS national title game, Brewster will feel the same mixture of pride and anxiety as the other parents.

"It's very cool to be at a game and not be so wired into the coaching aspects of it, but just be a dad," Brewster said earlier this week from Philadelphia, where he was recruiting for the Gophers. "That's what I try to be when I go watch Nolan play or any of my other boys. You're a dad, and you're a proud dad.

"To have a son playing for the national championship ... it's as good as it gets."

All three of Brewster's sons -- Eric, Clint and Nolan -- are former or current college football players. Eric played wide receiver at Northern Arizona, Clint started off playing quarterback at Minnesota before transferring to Tennessee Tech. Nolan, a mainstay on special teams, has appeared in every game his first two seasons at Texas, where his father worked as an assistant from 1998 to 2001.

Tim has seen Nolan play twice, last season against Missouri and this year in the Big 12 title game against Nebraska. But the Gophers' coach receives every Texas game tape and reviews it with his son.

"The deal is, Nolan asks me what I think," Brewster said. "That's the way we've always done it. I never forced football on my guys. Nolan was always a competitive young kid. He's always looking to improve [and asks] 'Dad, what did you see here? What did you see there?' And not just on defense, but in the kicking game."

Brewster loves watching Nolan play, but when the ball is kicked off, he locks into the action on the field. He reviews a play and wonders what he would do in the same situation.

A bit of friendly advice: Don't approach him during the game.

"I'm very quiet," Brewster said. "I don't like to be talked to. If I could watch it by myself, I'd watch it by myself. Every play my son's on the field, I play the play with him. I want to help him make the play. That's the way it's always been for me. I'm totally invested."

At least until the game ends.

Brewster will spend Friday recruiting for Minnesota in the Los Angeles area.

"I'll come out of the game," he said, "and I'll make sure I get my Minnesota shirt back on."

Posted by ESPN.com's Adam Rittenberg

One of the things Jake Christensen likes about playing football at Eastern Illinois is the appreciation Panthers players have toward the game.

"The guys care more about football at this level, honestly," Christensen said Monday on a conference call with reporters. "It’s easy to care about football when you’re playing in front of 100,000 people every weekend and you’re a superstar in town."

	Stephen Mally/Icon SMI
	Jake Christensen returns to Penn State Saturday, this time as Eastern Illinois' quarterback.

EIU players will get a taste of the limelight Saturday (ESPN Classic, noon ET) when they face Penn State at Beaver Stadium (capacity: 107,282). The atmosphere will be unlike any the Panthers experience in the Ohio Valley Conference.

Christensen expects many of his teammates to be "awestruck at first," but he won't be. The former Iowa quarterback will be making his second trip to Happy Valley as a player after facing Penn State in 2007. Christensen endured a rough day in a rough season, as Iowa lost 27-7 and he was sacked five teams as the Hawkeyes recorded only eight first downs.

His lasting impression from Beaver Stadium?

"Real loud," he said. "They're going to be bigger than we are and probably faster than we are at every position, but it’s been done before and there’s no reason why we can’t do it. We’re not scared, we're not intimidated. We're ready to play football."

Christensen, who transferred to EIU this summer, would rather not look back at his time in Iowa City, but his connection to the Hawkeyes does work in his favor Saturday. After all, Iowa has won seven of its last eight games against Penn State, including a 21-10 triumph on Sept. 26.

"I don’t know, man," he said when asked to explain Iowa's success in the series. "They get some breaks against that team that I’ve never seen before in my life."

That wasn't the only playful jab he took at his former team. When asked if left-handers get picked on by their coaches, Christensen, a southpaw, said with a laugh, "Well, apparently Iowa's coaches didn't like me very much."

Christensen has done well at Eastern Illinois, completing 65.4 percent of his passes for 1,090 yards and 11 touchdowns with three interceptions in five games.

Here's a look at how several quarterback transfers from the Big Ten are faring with their new teams.

• Jake Christensen (Iowa), Eastern Illinois: 89 of 136 passing for 1,090 yards, 11 TDs, 3 INTs, 218 ypg, 155.04 rating, 4-1 record
• Kellen Lewis (Indiana), Valdosta State: 93 of 142 passing for 934 yards, 3 TDs, 3 INTs, 123.5 rating, 233.5 ypg, 4 rush TDs, 2-2 record
• Pat Devlin (Penn State), Delaware: 100 of 155 passing for 1,252 yards, 7 TDs, 2 INTs, 144.7 rating, 4 rush TDs, 3-2 record
• Clint Brewster (Minnesota), Tennessee Tech: No pass attempts this season.
• Steven Threet (Michigan): sitting out the season at Arizona State, per NCAA transfer rules.

Posted by ESPN.com's Adam Rittenberg

Check these out after we chat. 

• With Purdue at 2-6 and coach Joe Tiller weeks away from retirement, the question begs to be asked: Have the players tuned out Tiller? Several Boilermakers say no, but former Purdue basketball coach Gene Keady says Tiller has a tough task, Tom Kubat writes in The Journal and Courier.
  

"Any time you hire another coach, the coach that is being replaced is a lame duck toward motivating [the players]," Keady said. "They know they don't have to listen to you the next year. It's tough. I can sympathize with Joe. It's not any fun. After you've coached 50 years, you would like to go out a winner, and that's not going to happen. ... You feel like you've let everybody down when that happens."

• Boilermakers quarterback Curtis Painter will make the call on whether he can play Saturday against Michigan after sustaining a separated throwing shoulder, Stacy Clardie writes in The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette. 
• Tim Brewster's coaching career came full circle last Friday, on a high school football field in Indiana, Marcus Fuller writes in the St. Paul Pioneer Press. Brewster's son, Clint, who transferred from Minnesota this summer, still keeps tabs on his dad and the Gophers. 
• There's some disagreement about how long Northwestern running back Tyrell Sutton could be sidelined. The school says at least six weeks, while Sutton's mom thinks it's more like 6-12 weeks, Shannon Ryan writes in the Chicago Tribune. Quarterback C.J. Bacher hasn't been ruled out yet.
  
• Wisconsin's bowl prospects improved after last week's win against Illinois, though the Badgers still have some work to do, Tom Mulhern writes in the Wisconsin State Journal.
• As poorly as Rich Rodriguez's offense has looked this season, Michigan's defense has endured struggles of its own, John Heuser writes in The Ann Arbor News.  
• Iowa had to replace six starters on defense heading into the season. The Hawkeyes came out with an even better product, Andy Hamilton writes in the Iowa City Press-Citizen.