Football season can't come soon enough but, until that opening kickoff, we're here to help you pass the time.
Every day this week, as part of a new series, we're debating the top -- or, in some cases, second-best -- player at different positions. We won't always agree, but we'll always give you our reasons for a particular pick.
The first roundtable of the week: After Ohio State's Ezekiel Elliott, who is the best running back in the Big Ten?
Dan Murphy: Wisconsin's Corey Clement
The two running backs with the best chance of catching Elliott this season are former high school teammates. When Rutgers' Paul James hurt his ankle as a senior at Glassboro High School in New Jersey, the door opened for sophomore Corey Clement to make his mark. James has been hampered by injuries during his college career as well -- most recently a torn ACL last September, which is why Clement gets the nod here over his elder former teammate.
Clement managed to run for 949 yards last season while scraping for carries behind the nation's leading rusher, Melvin Gordon. He takes over as the top option for a Badgers' offense that should continue its heavy dependence on the run under new coach Paul Chryst. That means more chances for Clement to break the kind of long runs that helped Gordon stack up so many yards. Other than the name and the number, not much will change for Wisconsin on offense this fall.
Josh Moyer: Clement
Forget the endless comparisons to Gordon and the great line of running backs that Wisconsin's produced. Clement is an explosive player in his own right and the clear No. 2 to Ohio State's Elliott.
Clement never carried the ball more than 17 times per game last season, but that didn't stop him from nearly reaching the 1,000-yard mark. (He finished with 949 yards while averaging just 10.5 carries per game.) Against Rutgers, Clement even outperformed the Heisman runner-up with 14 carries and 131 yards compared to Gordon's 19 carries and 128 yards. Clement also averaged 6.5 yards a carry on the season, while another opposing runner -- Nebraska's Ameer Abdullah -- averaged 6.1 ypc. That should give you an idea of just how solid Clement is.
Sure, Elliott is the better player, but it wouldn't be a huge surprise either if Clement ended up winning the Big Ten rushing title. He's quick, fast and boasts great vision. He'll be fun to watch.
Austin Ward: Northwestern's Justin Jackson
Operating behind an offensive line that nobody would confuse as one of the league's best, often with a large target on his back thanks to a passing attack that wasn't much of a threat and having to do all that while just learning the ropes as a true freshman only makes what Jackson did all the more impressive last season. Maybe the numbers paled in comparison to the superstar tailbacks across the conference, but considering everything he was dealing with, Jackson's 1,187 yards and 10 touchdowns were pretty remarkable and provide a glimpse at just how high his ceiling might be for the Wildcats down the road.
Northwestern has to fill two significant holes on the offensive line this fall and there's no certainty it will be all that much better through the air, but it has an invaluable building block in Jackson in the backfield. He almost certainly won't come close to the eye-popping statistics Elliott will post -- and he probably won't even be in the same production neighborhood as Clement -- but few players in the Big Ten are more important to their program than Jackson to Northwestern -- and he's got the talent to deliver.