The Big Ten is the home of the defending National Champions and the Ohio State Buckeyes dominate College Sports Network’s top 100 returning players in the country this season. As such, they also dominate the top players returning to the Big Ten, but are they the runaway picks for favorites to repeat in 2025?
Tory Taylor left significantly sized shoes to fill in the Iowa Hawkeyes special teams room, but Rhys Dakin filled them splendidly in 2024, earning CSN Freshman All-American honors. Dakin housed over half of his 64 attempts inside the 20 during his debut campaign while averaging 44.1 yards per attempt.
For as long as Iowa has a bottom-half of the FBS offense under Kirk Ferentz, Dakin will be as important to the program as a quarterback or wide receiver on any other college football team.
Lost in a poor Purdue Boilermakers season was the emergence of tight end Max Klare as one of the top pass catchers in college football. He heads to the Ohio State Buckeyes this fall on the back of a 685-yard, four-touchdown campaign that showcased his incredible pass-catching and route-running capabilities.
Klare ranks second among returning tight ends with 2.40 yards per route run, which is hardly surprising when you flip on the tape and watch him duking defensive backs out of their skin with his sudden movement.
Special teams players are special players, too, and Michigan Wolverines kicker Dominic Zvada is the best there is returning to college football in 2025. The former Arkansas State Red Wolves standout led the Big Ten in field goal percentage last fall (95.5%) and contributed more points than any other Michigan player.
Furthermore, he was the only player with seven or more attempts from 50+ yards to complete 100% of his kicks from that distance. Big-time leg. Big-time accuracy. Big-time player.