COLUMBUS — No offense to Cris Carter, David Boston or Terry Glenn, but Ohio State has never featured a better stable of wide receivers than it boasts this year.

Unfortunately, few outside Buckeye Nation may notice because the Big Ten, collectively, is shoulder-pad deep at that position.

Hide your eyes, Woody. The slobber-knocking, snot-dripping, smash-mouth Big Ten you remember has become more free-wheeling thanks to spread offense proponents like Purdue coach Joe Tiller and Northwestern coach Randy Walker.

Even Wisconsin coach Barry Alvarez has gotten away from simply trying to pound on opponents with 1,000-yard backs and silo-sized linemen. Last season, the Badgers’ Lee Evans set the league record for single-season receiving yards — 1,545 — on 75 catches with nine touchdowns.

“Who would have thought,” Alvarez said, “we’d be talking about one of the great receivers in league history coming from Wisconsin?”

Evans, on the mend after tearing knee ligaments this spring, easily could have been a Buckeye. He grew up an Ohio State fan in the Cleveland suburb of Bedford.

“That was definitely a school I wanted to go to, but they had a couple of other players in mind who suited them,” said Evans, who hopes to be back to full strength by the start of the Big Ten season. “They came after me a little, but by the time they got into the swing of it, I had already made my decision.”

Evans would have made a nice complement to OSU’s sure-handed Michael Jenkins and acrobatic Chris Vance. Those two combined for 83 receptions and seven touchdowns last season.

You don’t hear anybody second-guessing Ohio State for letting Evans get away. Maybe because waiting behind Jenkins and Vance for a chance to shine are Drew Carter, Chris Gamble, John Hollins, Angelo Chattams, Bam Childress and freshmen Roy Hall and Santonio Holmes.

“We’ll have the opportunity because of the talent coming back to stretch the field,” coach Jim Tressel said, “but the quarterback has something to do with that and I think that will be part of the equation.”

Ohio State will be breaking in a new starting quarterback and so will Illinois, which welcomes back arguably the nation’s best wideout tandem in Brandon Lloyd (65 catches, 1,062 yards, 10 TDs) and Walter Young (50 catches, 890 yards, 8 TDs).

Will they be as effective without the departed Kurt Kittner as their triggerman?

“It’s going to be strange looking in the huddle and not seeing Kurt there, but me and some of the older guys are going to have to step up and fill the leadership role Kurt had,” said Young, who was recruited by the Illini as a quarterback. “Kurt moved on to bigger and better things (in the NFL), and we have to move on as well.”

The Drew Brees Era at Purdue ended in 2000 and the Boilermakers felt the loss of their record-setting quarterback as they slipped from an 8-4 Rose Bowl team to 6-6 last season.

That means all eyes will be watching the burgeoning relationship between a pair of sophomores — quarterback Kyle Orton and wide receiver Taylor Stubblefield.

Orton was 0-3 as a starter last season, but threw 62 passes in his first start against Indiana and an NCAA bowl-record 74 in a 33-27 loss to Washington State in the Sun Bowl.

Stubblefield is recovering from a skull fracture suffered when he fell trying to leap a fence at a friend’s apartment complex. He caught 73 passes for 910 yards and two touchdowns last season.

“I think Orton has a stronger arm than Brees, which allows him to thread the needle more,” Stubblefield said. “Drew was an amazing, smart quarterback who broke defenses down, but Orton is learning that. There is a lot of great potential for him.”

Ohio State catches a break by not playing Michigan State this season. Spartans quarterback Jeff Smoker led the Big Ten in pass efficiency last season and threw a school-record 21 touchdown passes. His favorite target was 6-4, 200-pound wideout Charles Rogers, the preseason Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year.

Last year as a sophomore, Rogers set school single-season records for receptions (67), TD catches (14) and 100-yard receiving games (six). He had 10 catches for 270 yards in a 44-35 victory over Fresno State in the Silicon Valley Bowl.

“I watch a lot of film of (Minnesota Vikings All-Pro) Randy Moss,” Rogers said, “because I think our games are similar ... making big plays, being explosive anytime we touch the ball and getting the job done with the game on the line.”