Unless you’re following the Southeastern Conference, where the genius of media days during the midsummer sports lull is again at work, it remains a time of vacations, barbeques and prediction season in college football.

This week, we’re looking at aspects of the 2015 Big Ten schedule. On the agenda for Tuesday are the top players to square off against Big Ten teams during nonconference play.

Let’s start by omitting TCU quarterback Trevone Boykin, who brings his array of skills to TCF Bank Stadium on Sept. 3 to face Minnesota. As a group, we agree that Boykin, who accounted for 41 touchdowns and more than 4,600 yards of offense last season, is the best the Big Ten will face in September.

So who’s next on the list?

Brian Bennett: BYU QB Taysom Hill

Since Boykin is off the table, I'll go with another dangerous two-way quarterback. Hill was lost for the season with a broken leg in the Game 5 last year against Utah State, but he showed what he could do with a five-touchdown day against UConn, three rushing scores in a victory at Texas and three touchdowns in a win against Virginia. In 2013, Hill threw for 2,913 yards and ran for 1,344, with 29 total touchdowns. A coach who faced Blake Bortles, Teddy Bridgewater and Hill in 2013 said the BYU quarterback was the best of the bunch.

Hill enters the season as a fringe Heisman Trophy candidate. And he'll get two shots to make some noise against Big Ten opponents in 2015, beginning in the opener at Nebraska and then at Michigan in Week 4. His playmaking skills give BYU a chance to pull off a couple of upsets, so Big Ten beware.

Josh Moyer: Alabama RB Derrick Henry

This kid's like a hurricane -- strong, fast and wreaks havoc everywhere he goes. Back at Florida, in high school, he set a national record with 12,124 rushing yards. As a true freshman at Alabama in 2013, he averaged more than a first down every touch. And, as a sophomore in the Sugar Bowl, he out-rushed T.J. Yeldon by powering his way to 95 yards, 7.3 yards per carry and 54 receiving yards against Ohio State. (He also scored 11 TDs last season on 172 carries.) In other words, he's good. Very, very good.

Henry, who opens with the Crimson Tide on Sept. 5 against Wisconsin at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, is one of the five best running backs in the nation. And in case you haven't caught on yet, he has a whole lot going for him. He's been compared to a young Brandon Jacobs -- which might even be a slight disservice -- and trains by flipping monster truck tires and pushing pickup trucks. Oh and, just for kicks, sometimes he trains at 4 in the morning.

It's scary what an offseason might do for someone so motivated, and the Badgers will clearly have their hands full. Henry likes to run between the tackles, and Wisconsin lost two big defensive tackles (Warren Herring and Konrad Zagzebski) and both of its starting inside linebackers (Derek Landisch and Marcus Trotter). This could be a nightmare matchup for the Badgers.

Mitch Sherman: Pittsburgh RB James Conner

With the salivating Week 1 schedule in the Big Ten that features TCU, Utah, Stanford, BYU and Alabama, followed by the nonconference matchup of the year in Week 2 when Oregon visits Michigan State, you might forget that Pittsburgh visits Iowa in Week 3. Yeah, that’s understandable; the Panthers and Hawkeyes slogged to a combined 13-13 record in 2014.

But don’t sleep on Conner, the Panthers’ junior bulldozer, who is drawing comparisons to the Packers' Eddie Lacy. The 6-foot-2, 240-pound Conner is a bonafide good guy, and he’s arguably the nation’s top returning back. Conner gouged the Hawkeyes for 155 yards on the ground a year ago en route to 1,765 yards and 26 touchdowns as a sophomore.

He led the ACC last season in rushing touchdowns, scoring, rushing yards per game and total rushing yards and broke the Pitt single-season scoring record of Tony Dorsett, held for 38 years after his 1976 Heisman Trophy season.