Big Ten Football: Handing out 2025 Dundie Awards

It’s almost time to hit the summer and the full preseason for Big Ten football and the 2025 season, and we’re thinking about things a bit differently this offseason.

Oh sure, we could line up another Heisman prediction or predicted order of finish, but it’s admittedly a bit early for that. You know what it’s not too early for?

The 2025 Big Ten Dundies!

To the uninformed and uncultured, the Dundies are an award created and handed out by the iconic Michael Scott from The Office. They range from honoring (or dishonoring) an individual’s quality of work to highlighting something specific about their background.

Before we dive in, let me mention one thing: There are not enough Dundies to go around for all 18 programs in the B1G. But I think we’ve found the most noteworthy awards to compile, so let’s dive in!

2025 Big Ten Dundies

Here is Saturday Tradition’s list of Dundies for the 2025 season:

Hottest in the office — Lincoln Riley

I fought the urge to simply go with Ryan Day here, because “Hottest in the Office” and “Ryan” go together like peanut butter and jelly. Day also had undeniably the “hottest” 2024 imaginable by leading the Buckeyes to a national title.

However, everything since the end of the season has been about a growing buzz at USC under Riley. (And don’t worry, Day will get his own Dundie later on.)

Coming out of a disappointing 3rd season, Riley and the Trojans were quick to strike and grab GM Chad Bowden out of Notre Dame. It illustrated a commitment to program building by USC, and the results will be intriguing to follow.

USC has landed 13 transfer commitments this cycle with a group that ranks 18th nationally per 247Sports. However, the even brighter story is that the Trojans currently hold the No. 1 recruiting class for 2026 with 23 hard commitments.

If the Trojans cross the finish line at No. 1 overall, it will set the stage for an extremely bright future down the road, regardless of the immediate results in 2025.

Don’t go in there after me — Ryan Walters

Ryan Walters is no longer at Purdue, obviously, so why is he getting an award for this season? It has everything to do with how Walters left things in West Lafayette after departing the Boilermakers.

On the field, Purdue was horrific under Walters with a 5-19 overall record — including a 1-11 season in 2024. It was 1 of just 3 seasons with a lone victory when playing 11+ games in a season.

Walters did manage to grab a top-30 recruiting class in 2024, but the problem was that he could not retain his best players. Deion Burks and Nic Scourton headed for the SEC, and the 2025 recruiting class had all but evaporated by the time Walters was let go after the regular season.

Somehow, Purdue convinced Barry Odom to join the fold and lead the program, but he’s adding a massive transfer class of 40 additions (and possibly counting).

Fine work — James Franklin

I get it. There’s nothing to sneeze at for 3 straight seasons of 10+ wins and 6 overall seasons with that mark under Franklin’s tenure.

However, in the biggest game for Penn State since the Joe Paterno era, Franklin’s game plan and trust in quarterback Drew Allar doomed the Nittany Lions. That’s without mentioning some major busts from the defensive side of the ball after a brilliant outing against Notre Dame.

Plenty of programs would undeniably love to have the kind of success Franklin has delivered in Happy Valley. But considering the full body of work, there’s only one way to describe it all.

Just fine.

Moving On Up — Ryan Day

After years of coming up just short in a variety of ways — to Michigan, in the Big Ten race, on the national championship front — Day finally delivered his signature moment for the Buckeyes. Making the moment even wilder, it came out of what felt like a rock-bottom moment for the head coach.

Facing the Wolverines and favored by more than 20 points at home, Ohio State fell flat in the worst way possible, getting held to just 10 points in a 13-10 defeat. It was just the 3rd time under Day being held to less than 20 points and one of the worst upset losses he has ever sustained.

Instead of wilting with an angry mob calling for his job, Day rallied his troops like few have before. What transpired from that moment is one of the best stretches of football we have seen in quite some time, as the Buckeyes beat 4 straight top-10 teams and 3 teams inside the AP Top 5 to win the national title.

Every win in that stretch was by 11+ points with an average margin of victory of 17.5 points. That is quite the statement to usher in the expanded Playoff era.

Has Day truly morphed into the ultimate big game coach for this era of college football? That remains to be seen, but one thing is for certain.

Day has moved on up into the role of top dog entering the 2025 season.

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Promising Assistant Manager — Brian Hartline

Forgive me if we’ve been down this road before with Hartline after he tried to succeed Kevin Wilson as the offensive coordinator entering the 2023 season. Admittedly, circumstances were a bit different then, and the performance of the Buckeyes that year should not diminish the promising aspect of Hartline’s trajectory.

We know what Hartline can do in recruiting and developing elite receivers for the offense. We know he’s already among the top assistant coaches in the country for that reason alone.

However, Hartline’s full promise as a coach rests on whether or not he can deliver results for Ohio State’s offense. If he succeeds, he’ll be on his way to a head coaching job in the future. If the unit regresses yet again, Hartline could find himself destined to a career as an elite receivers coach alone.

Redefining Beauty — Sherrone Moore (and Wink Martindale)

How do you define beauty on the football field? It’s a tricky subject, but there are traditionally some things that would classify well below beautiful.

Averaging just over 4 yards per carry. Throwing 2 interceptions with less than 70 passing yards in a game. A star tailback averaging 3.6 yards per carry.

But, when you combine those things with an elite defense and mix in a win over your archrival? Well, that’s a new way of looking at things, and that’s how Sherrone Moore and Wink Martindale redefined what can be described as “beauty” in The Game.

Worst Salesman of the Year — Luke Fickell/Phil Longo

Technically, this was a 2-year sales pitch by Fickell after he brought Air Raid disciple Phil Longo to Madison. It was about as bold as you can get for a new head coach at Wisconsin with a bang or bust outcome, and it was truly a bust for the Badgers.

Some of it might have been injury related (2024 starter Tyler Van Dyke was lost for the year in the 2nd game of the season), but it doesn’t take away from the fact that Wisconsin did not find a way to spotlight its best talent for the better parts of the past 2 seasons.

Not only does it make Fickell and Longo the worst salesmen (Longo’s now the head coach at Sam Houston), but it also puts Fickell on a seat we’ll describe as “moderately warm” entering 2025. If Fickell doesn’t deliver something of consequence soon, he’ll be looking for a new job.

Extreme Repulsiveness — Your rival

What’s college football without something to hate? Fortunately, each and every team and each and every fan has something to be repulsed by.

That would be your program’s archrival, whoever that might be.

What is Ohio State without the hate for Michigan? What is Wisconsin without battling Minnesota for the Axe? What is Michigan State without a desire to pummel Michigan and grab Paul Bunyan? Where would the passion for Iowa be without Floyd of Rosedale and the rivalry vs. Minnesota?

As long as there are fans on each side of the rivalries, there will be plenty of repulsiveness to go around. Admit it, it’s part of what makes college football so incredibly special.