Big Ten Notebook: Badgers QB Curt Phillips may get chance to start

Fifth-year senior quarterback Curt Phillips will battle with Danny O'Brien to start the Badgers' Nov. 10 game at Indiana. (US Presswire)

News and notes from around the Big Ten:

• Despite the Buckeyes' overall success, Ohio State's tight-end-turned-receiver Jake Stoneburner has had a roller coaster year. He went three games without a catch in the middle of the season but since an individual meeting with coach Urban Meyer, has become more of an asset in the offense. In the past three games he has seven catches and none bigger than his 72-yard touchdown reception against Penn State last weekend. “[Meyer] always says if they're not coaching you, they don't care,” Stoneburner said to Tim May of the Columbus Dispatch.

• No Big Ten coach offered opposition to the NCAA's announcement for stiffer penalties on cheaters when speaking on the coaches' teleconference Tuesday. “If you have concern with anybody that is touching your football program, well, then you have problems,” Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald said. Michigan coach Brady Hoke said Denard Robinson's arm injury isn't significant and that it's the type of injury that “flares now and then depending on how he gets hit.” Hoke expects Robinson to play Saturday vs. Minnesota, reported Tommy Dahlk of the Lincoln Journal Star.

• Wisconsin offensive coordinator Matt Canada said fifth-year senior and once highly regarded QB Curt Phillips will get a chance to win the starting job this week in practice during Wisconsin's bye week. The news comes after freshman Joel Stave broke his collarbone in last weekend's loss to Michigan State. Phillips, who has torn his ACL in his right knee three times, will battle this season's initial starter, Danny O'Brien, for the starting nod. The winner of the competition will start against Indiana in Bloomington on Nov. 10. “He has waited for this opportunity,” coach Bret Bielema said to Jeff Potrykus of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “We've given him some doses but he's never been able to wrap his hands around the football and say: ‘I am a starter.' "

• Saturday's comeback win against the Badgers in Madison may have been a coming-of-age-type victory for Michigan State first-year starting QB Andrew Maxwell. In fact, it reminded coach Mark Dantonio of the first time former Spartans QB Kirk Cousins drove down the field with an opportunity to win the game. “He had that same feel. He went down the field at the end of the game with an opportunity to win it,” Dantonio said of Maxwell. “It doesn't hurt the confidence, that's for sure,” Maxwell said to Joe Rexrode of the Detroit Free Press. Saturday he'll face Nebraska, which has allowed just 244.5 yards over the past two games.

• Purdue coach Danny Hope finally relented and said sixth-year senior QB Robert Marve, who tore his ACL this season, will start Saturday against Penn State. Hope had opted to go with Caleb TerBush, but a four-game losing streak has undermined that decision. Marve started the first game of the season and threw for 295 yards and three touchdowns against Eastern Kentucky but was relegated to second string once TerBush returned from a one-game suspension. Marve has nearly 600 yards passing and six touchdowns this season in mostly spot duty. “It's unfortunate, at times, the media can spin it like it's a quarterback controversy and our fans embrace that perception,” Hope said to Mike Carmin of the Journal and Courier. “It's been competition all along.”