Chris Perry is gone now. Fred Russell, too. There's not even a Maurice Clarett around to pick on anymore.

Save for the dynamite duo in Minnesota, the feature backs in the Big Ten are few and far between this year. But the Big Ten coaches will say it's not for a lack of talent.

The numbers seem to suggest otherwise. Only the Golden Gophers' Marion Barber III and Laurence Maroney are averaging 100 yards a game and only five total backs have 400 yards or more so far this season.

This from the conference that is supposed to be built on strong running and strong defense. Well, it's still got one of those things going for it.

"Defenses really load up now against the run," Wisconsin coach Barry Alvarez said. "We've got defenses now you didn't use to see so much, coming up with eight or nine guys in the box. I think that all has played a part in it."

The suffocating defenses roaming the Big Ten these days are some of the biggest reasons the run game has suffered. There are few squads in the conference that aren't more than capable of loading up and stuffing the run.

Unless teams can dominate the trenches like the Gophers, many teams in the conference have been forced to adapt to what defenses are giving them. And that means throwing the ball.

"Things trickle down from the NFL and it gets difficult to run the ball there against some of those big, strong defensive linemen," Ohio State coach Jim Tressel said. "So people are doing a good job of throwing the ball. Some teams use short throws for the same purpose of runs. Add all that together and it's not surprising there's only a few 100-yard [a game] rushers."

Part of this transition has been bred from an influx of new coaches into the conference in the past several years. Joe Tiller and Randy Walker have both succeeded at Purdue and Northwestern, respectively, by running spread offenses and emphasizing the pass in their tenures.

The teams in the Big Ten are now seeking balence on offensive, regardless of past philosophies.

I figure most of us have tried to become more balanced and some have become more oriented toward the pass," Indiana coach Gerry DiNardo said.

"I think it's somewhat becoming a trend to move away from rushing attempts, which in turn decreases the rushing yards."

...I'd have no luck at all

More bad news for Kirk Ferentz and Iowa as starting tailback Jermelle Lewis tore his anterior cruciate ligament in last week's win over Michigan State. That makes a grand total of three Hawkeye running backs who have torn ACLs so far this season and 10 invasive surgeries on the team as a whole.

"Any time you have injuries you try and analyze them," Ferentz said. "I think a lot of it is very cyclical. In 2002, we sailed right through without any injuries to starters and that's just part of football."

As an example that one shouldn't read into the nature of the injuries, Ferentz joked about the playing surface.

"Three of our ACLs came on grass," Ferentz said. "Maybe we should try playing on turf more. I don't know."

Quotable

Speaking of astroturf, Michigan State coach John L. Smith voiced his disdain for the stuff from when he was at Idaho.

"At Idaho, every day for nine years we practiced on that turf. Our kids were like lepers because there was very little skin left on their bodies."