There are many positions in college football that the Big Ten dominates the rest of the country. Much like previous years, the Big Ten made headlines in the 2024 NFL Draft when Iowa Hawkeyes safety Cooper DeJean was drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles with the 40th pick and Minnesota safety Tyler Nubin was drafted by the New York Giants with the 47th pick, becoming the first two safeties off the board.
As the train keeps chugging forward into the 2024 college football season, there is a new list of names who headline the Big Ten safety class. Today, we rank the top five safeties heading into the 2024 season.
The Michigan Wolverines lost a ton of players from last year’s team to the NFL. The one position group that virtually stayed the same were the safeties. Rod Moore and Makari Paige were one of the best secondary duos in 2023, and they both decided to return to Ann Arbor in 2024.
This hope was short-lived, however, when Moore went down with a knee injury this offseason and underwent surgery. Because of this, the responsibility to protect the secondary falls on Paige to carry the torch.
In his second season as a starting safety, Paige showed out for the Wolverines. He logged 13 starts, finishing with 41 tackles, two pass breakups and a fumble recovery. He only missed three tackles all season and allowed just eight receptions on 14 targets in coverage, earning an All-Big Ten Honorable Mention. Paige is expected to be one of the leaders and top players in Michigan’s secondary this season.
Iowa produces dawgs on defense — that is just a fact. Quinn Schulte is the latest product in that category.
Schulte is entering his sixth year with Iowa. Over the course of his career, he’s made 141 tackles with 136 of those coming in the last two seasons. He started all 14 games for the Hawkeyes last year while recording 65 tackles, 2.5 tackles for a loss, five pass breakups and an interception. Because of his efforts, he earned a Big Ten honorable mention from the conference’s coaches and media. According to PFF, Schulte posted an 83.3 coverage grade (a career-high) last year while allowing 17 catches for 161 yards and no touchdowns.
If Schulte can produce half the talent that came from DeJean, there may not be much scoring on Iowa’s defense this season.
Hunter Wohler made 120 tackles during his junior campaign to go along with 5.5 tackles for a loss, a sack, one forced fumble and two interceptions. His tackling numbers not only were a team-high for Wisconsin and the most of any Big Ten defensive back, but they were second to only Reggie Holt for most tackles in a season since 1991. Because of his tape, Wohler earned first-team All-Big Ten accolades from the AP and second-team honors from the media at large.
With another year under his belt, Wohler is hungry to win and ready to become even better. If he can lead the Badger secondary to success, Wohler could be the next great Big Ten safety.
If a freshman could leave the NFL after just one season, Dillon Thieneman would have been a prime candidate. The former three-star safety stunned the college football world when he came out swinging against the nation’s top wide receivers.
In Purdue’s season opener against Fresno State, Thieneman made 10 solo tackles and logged one of his six interceptions in 2023. He went on to make 106-tackles (74 solo tackles) and six interceptions, ranking third nationally in both interceptions and solo tackles.
Thieneman finished as a third-team All-American according to the Associated Press, second-team All-Big Ten and the Thompson-Randle El Big Ten Freshman of the Year award. Given the fact that Thieneman has at least two more years of college football, he has every possibility of feasting on collegiate wide receivers.
Say what you want about Caleb Downs; he is a really good football player. Whether he was overrated or not is yet to be seen, but he had a fantastic freshman season at Alabama.
Downs posted a lot of accolades, including being the first freshman ever to lead the Crimson Tide in tackles (107) and tallied 3.5 tackles for a loss, two interceptions and a forced fumble. Alabama first began playing football in 1892. The 6-foot-0, 205-pounder was named the Shaun Alexander national freshman of the year at Alabama, earned first-team All-American honors from Pro Football Focus (PFF) and was the SEC Freshman of the Year.
Now that Downs has switched to the Big Ten and Ohio State ended up making the splash, Downs will get the chance to go up against new competition. If he can live up to the hype, Downs has the opportunity to become a household name in the secondary.
