Big Ten Football: 5 incredibly early bold predictions for the 2023 season

1. Ryan Walters emerges as the Big Ten’s new coaching rockstar over at Purdue

This may have more to do with the incredible program he is inheriting from Jeff Brohm, but don’t sleep on Ryan Walters at Purdue. He was a huge reason why Illinois had such a great season under Bret Bielema. Despite being a Colorado alum, Walters picked a fantastic spot to be a first-time head coach. Purdue isn’t going 10-2, but Walters could go 8-4 in his first season at the helm.

This is much, much bigger than the Boilermakers’ 2023 regular-season record. It is all about presence. We are always looking for the next up-and-coming head-coaching rockstar, and I putting all of my cheese curds into the middle of the table for that guy to be Walters in the Big Ten. I felt this way when James Franklin took over Vanderbilt, as I did with Shane Beamer at Sakerlina.

While much of the coaching attention will be on what Luke Fickell does at Wisconsin, the Badgers aren’t going to be that easy of a fix. For as good as Fickell is as a head coach, it will take two years for Wisconsin to pop under his guidance. Even if Walters does not achieve what Brohm did in West Lafayette, he will be a strong college football head coach we will talk about for well over a decade.

There is a chance the Walters hire could be as good as Sonny Dykes at TCU or Brian Kelly at LSU.