ILLINI: The Bad and the Ugly (There is little good here)

Like a dog chasing his tail, you'd think that I'd finally give up on Illini football (even this early in the season is acceptable to many Illini fans) because of the way that they constantly disappoint me. But clearly, I like the feeling of failure and with such, continue to punish myself by watching the on-field calamity and atrocious overall play. Where to begin this week is like asking where to start fixing healthcare. With that being said, let's jump in:

The Offense:
Much like the title of these players, this part of the team is just plain offensive right now. There is little being done right and few Attayboys to go around:

1. Juice Williams needs to elevate his play and the people around him.
Juice is a natural leader and needs to play like one. The first thing that was quite obvious to me while watching the game was Juice's flat footed delivery. I'm not sure if it is a result of the quad injury or what, but he didn't look comfortable in the pocket and barely even stepped into his throws. It is therefore not surprising when his throws are low, off target, and or intercepted because he didn't put enough velocity on the ball. Futhermore, he needs to stop locking onto receivers and staring them down, making it easy for defenders to intercept passes. If the arm isn't there, then he needs to take it upon himself to put the running game in order and work the option/triple option look in order to open the field for his receivers. He didn't do that and his backs payed for it. He looked slow, again maybe because of the quad injury but if that's the case, then get him off the field.

2. WRs need to do their job.
This one doesn't need to be explained too much. Job #1, catch the ball. Then look downfield for more. Especially Fayson. Kudos to Duvualt for a sweet catch in the 3rd. Too bad he was out of bounds at the time. Also, kudos to Rejus Benn. His stats weren't great (4 catches for 33 yards) but he played with his head. He made some good catches on poorly thrown balls and drew a pass interference penalty on an underthrown ball (which he also nearly caught). The guy is a stud and I hope he stays another year. But, if he doesn't, some NFL team is getting a REALLY good WR.

3. RBs need to show more vision.
Dufrene and Ford both need to do a better job of seeing the holes and busting through them. Too many times, they were cause running east/west instead of north/south and picking up needed yards to give them 2nd and magangable and 3rd and short situations. Furthermore, both of these backs seems so afraid to absorb a hit or try to run through someone. The only RB that has shown me fire when running and willing to really fight for yards is LeShoure. It'd be nice for him to clean up his off the field issues that cost him playing time in the game against Illinois State.

4. Attaboy to the O-line for doing a pretty good job protecting Juice from one of the, if not the, best defensive line country. Gibson, Latamore, etc. are monsters. It would have been nice to have more open holes, but the matchup wasn't even close.

Defense:
1. Commit to stopping the run.
The Illini should know that the Buckeyes like to run. They have a run happy QB in Pryor and 2 very good tailbacks in Saine and Herron. To go along with this, it was also raining and absolutely down pouring at certain parts of the game. With such condition and a conservative coach in Tressel, you knew that they were going to run. But the Illini refused to bring that 8th or even 9th guy into the box. Thus, the Buckeyes amassed 135 run yards and 0 pass yards in 1st half. 0 pass yards! This is not a fault of the players (see below for their troubles) but the coaching staff who needs to dial up a better scheme based on the weather.

2. Don't just lead with helmet.
This goes to everyone but especially the LBs and secondary (i.e. Hardeman, Wilson, Bellamy, I. Thomas). Too many times, I saw them lunging and just trying to knock a player over. NO, NO, NO, NO! This is one of the first things they teach you in pre-high school football. WRAP AND TACKLE. Put too arms around him and pull him too the ground. Instead, with good RBs like OSU has, they would absorb the hit or just spin off of them and get ~8 yards per carry. With numbers like that, there is no need to throw the ball. This is such a simple thing that is a major problem for more than 1 Illini player.

3. No stupid penalties.
Too many times, the Illini crush their own momentum with penalties. Be it holding, false start, or other things that are avoidable if they would just pay attention to the game and think. The one that was the worst today was committed by Sanni, who made a late hit on one of the OSU tailbacks when he was already out of bounds. Use your head! That was an extra 15 yards tacked onto an already. I hope that Zook and Co. make them run this week for that. They deserve it.

4. Attaboy to Clay Nurse, DE. He played great. He is a big guy who put pressure on Pryor. He did have a facemask penalty, but I can overlook that since he made some good plays not falling for Pryor jukes and moves.

Special Teams:
No complaints. They played pretty good, except for the continued awefulness of Santella's punting. I just will never be a fan of this guy. Sorry. Attaboy to Jeff Cumberland for recovering a fumble and downing a punt inside 5 yard line. Nice hustle and having a nose for the ball. Now if only Juice could acutally put to use your huge size (6'5'') and quickness on the offensive side of the ball.

Overall: We suck. Many improvements need to be made, and perhaps the first and foremost is pulling Juice. I hate to say that cause I really thought that this would be the breakout year. I don't know if he is hurt or what, but if he doesn't produce, at least give McGee a shot.

The Big Ten: Can We Compete?

I really can't write anything here about the Illini today since they played Illinois State yesterday. It was a completely one-sided affair in which the Red Bird players looked more like high school players than Division I athletes. So, I turn my attention instead to the Big Ten as a whole and a question that continues to plague one of the most storied conferences in all of college football. Can they win big games against other conferences' marquee schools? Most these days would say no.

We had an opportunity to see this mentality shift a little bit yesterday. Michigan played Notre Dame, who annually receives a Top 5 or Top 10 recruiting class. Purdue played Oregon, who has shown some real talent of recent in their spread offense with Dennis Dixon, Jonathon Stewart, and now Jeremiah Masoli. And the big one, Ohio State played USC, who has pretty much been a perennial contender for the national championship for the last 9 years.

Michigan, even in their supposed 'rebuilding' period, looked very good. They played tough defense and made good open field tackles. Tate Forcier is also the real deal. The kid looked poised and led that team like he'd been there for 3 years. The Wolverines 38-34 win was a big one, helping to reestablish themselves within the conference. But Notre Dame's lack success of recent years has to make people wonder whether they could really be able to play with the heavy hitters in other conferences.

Purdue looked sharp at points yesterday. Ralph Bolden did a little bit of everything for the Boilermakers, carrying the ball 29 times for 123 yards and 2 TDs, as well as caught 3 passes for 52 yards and 1 TD. But the Boilermakers kept shooting themselves in the foot. Joey Elliot threw an INT that was returned for a touchdown, there was a fumble returned for a TDnd the Ducks blocked a Purdue PAT. All real bad mental mistakes. Purdue couldn't boiler up enough and lost 38-36. While Oregon is not a ranked team, a win here could have done some good reputation-wise in terms of the Big Ten's ability to play against the spread offense and the Pac-10.

The big let down of them all though was Ohio State. They came out in the beginning and played some really inspired looking football. The defense came ready to play and held USC to 5 offensive yards in the 1st quarter. They were pressuing Matt Barkley and made good open field tackles. They only reason that the score was tied 7-7 was because of a Tyrelle Pryor INT that was returned to the OSU 5 yard line and later punched into the endzone. The defense really came to play in the 1st half. In the third quarter, they looked a little gassed, and in the fourth quarter, they just could not stop Joe McKnight and Damian Willaims. The two main things that came to mind in the 4th was (1) On 4th -and-1, why is there no LB right over the center to stop Barkley from easily picking up the 1st down? and (2) Why continue to give the ball to Boom Herron and take it out of Pryor's hands? I felt that the OSU offensive coordinator should have done more to roll Pryor out of the pocket and give him the option to either tuck it and run or throw it. This is not to say that Herron is a bad RB. He just wasn't able to shake the defenders or really push the pile like the 6'6'', 240 Pryor can. This loss is REALLY disheartening to any Big Ten fan and only gives that nay-sayers more ammunition to put down the conference.

Overall, I can't say that I can argue with any of the experts, etc. that the Big Ten is just not as good as the Pac-10, SEC, or certain other conferences. I am a firm believer in the old homage 'believe what I do, not what I say'. And the fact of the matter is that the Big Ten has not proven themselves to be in the same league as the rest. Until a team goes out there and is able to defeat one of these perenially contenders, the Big Ten will continue be in their shadow and not garner the respect that they deserve.

On a side note, I think that Matt Barkley definitely has the talent to develop into a top QB. But I think all the acclaim he has received to this point is ridiculous. He stats from yesterday's game were not good (15-31, 195 yards, 1 INT) and the final drive was at least half running plays. The few times he did throw, they were short crossing routes or slants in which the receiver did most of the work. People need to get off their knees and realize that just because this kid starts at USC does not mean that he is that good at this point (especially since its likely that 4 of the 5 starting linemen for the Trojans are projected 1st and 2nd round draft picks and he has Joe McKnight in the backfield who is compared to Reggie Bush).

I-L-L ... We-Still-Suck

Well, I'm sure that I'm gonna be opening up a firestorm of college football blogging here by writing about the Illini (as we have representatives from Northwestern and Michigan who write on the blog). But, after the 37-9 beat down that they sustained from the Missouri Tigers today, I feel the need to go on an Elie aka The Miracle Worker-style tirade. First off, it appeared that as soon as Rejus Benn went back to the locker room due to the ankle injury that the rest of the team just threw in the towel. While he is a big part of the offense and a key player, YOU CAN'T JUST GIVE UP LIKE THAT. Nobody was willing to fight or make a play themselves to change the game. They all wanted someone else to do. This kind of pansy attitude doesn't fly in smashmouth Big Ten football.

Where to begin is pretty much the hardest part since 98% of the team played worse that the Buffalo Grove Bison 10-year old league. Guys who did have a good showing:

1) Mikel LeShoure: The guy had 38 yards on 10 carries and 1 TD and added 41 yards through the air on only 3 catches. I know that the running stats are essentially the same Troy Pollard (5 carries for 38 yards), but his style of running was a lot more physical and bruising than any of the other backs. He actually put his head down and plowed into potential tacklers in order to gain the extra yard or two. There was none of this east-west, run sideways to get around the tackler bullshit. He took his licks and kept on trucking, which is the way that Big Ten running should be. Zook needs to appreciate this on film and give him 15-20 carries per game and stop messing around with spreading out the carries to different people.

2) The O-line: The offensive line was atrocious last year, giving up 25 sacks over the course of the season. But they seemed to do a good job in the offseason in really bringing the unit together as one. They looked really good in the first half, giving Juice Williams lots of time and space to stay in the pocket to deliver the ball. The line did eventually surrender 3 sacks in the game, but this came later once Williams felt the need to start scrambling more in order to make something happen on offense. Overall, I thought they looked much improved and hopefully will continue to give Juice time to throw and open up lanes for whoever lines up in the backfield.

3) Jarred Fayson: Had 4 receptions for 50 yards today. What I was impressed with the most was how he caught the ball with his hands and ran good routes (he even had some nice blocks on screen and some others downfield). Unfortunately, Juice was not delivering a good ball today, which makes it hard to put up any kind of decent numbers. I think Fayson should be a pretty decent contributor across from Benn this year and will hopefully bring a winning mentality from Florida with him to the Illini.

Guys who played poorly:
1) Juice Williams: It really sucks to put him here because he's now in his 4th year of starting games, so you'd think that he'd be ready to play. Not only did Juice look antsy in the pocket (is there such a thing as giving a guy too much time in the pocket?), but he threw a lot of balls low. Thus, his receivers had to go to the ground to get it, negating any opportunity for YAC. And what throws he did complete seemed to be mainly simple and safe out routes to the sidelines. I'm not sure whether is was the play calls coming in from upstairs or whether Juice was just not making the correct reads, but the offense only existed outside the hashmarks today. Not sure why the TE's (Hoomanawanui had 1 catch) weren't utilized more after they were such a large part of the offense last year. If you want to run out routes with your receivers thats fine, but then have the TEs settle down over the middle or have them run seam routes or something. Also, there were no throws down the field, which didn't help to keep the safeties back and allowed them to come up and help with run defense. Overall, a really poor game by Juice (both physically and planning wise). Not sure if it's the coaches fault (play calling) or his (making reads) but if he's going to collapse back to how he played his freshman year, please bring in Eddie McGee and give him the reps.

2) Jeff Cumberland, Chris Duvault, A.J. Jenkins and the rest of the WRs: Wow. That's all I really can say. I saw more drops of catch-able balls this game than I have in a long time. It looked less like college receivers and more like kids that should be lined up in front of the garage and taught to catch with their hands like most parents do with their 8 year old kids. These drops stifled drives and didn't allowed Juice to establish any kind of rhythm what so ever (not to say that Juice was really helping his cause either). And Cumberland committed the worse sin of all by not securing the ball and fumbling it back to Missouri on one of the drives. These guys really need to just get back to basics and CATCH THE DAMN BALL . It's not hard. Don't think about juking this guy or that guy. And don't shy away from contact. Catch the ball, secure it, turn upfield, and stiff arm the corner defender. That's it.

3) The entire Illini secondary: This one is gonna be broken into 2 parts since I have separate beefs with each part:

a) Cornerbacks- Play up toward the line. Even jam the receiver you are responsible for from time to time. But instead, you give them a solid 7-10 yard cushion each time. What does that mean? That leads to a lot of hitch routes in front of you and slant routes in which even if you get there on time, the WR has shielded the ball from you with his body and you can't break up the pass. CHANGE IT UP. Give different looks so that they offense doesn't know what to expect.

b) Safeties- Good god. (1) READ YOUR PLAYBOOK. There were 2 or 3 long plays for Missouri that was a result of blown coverage by the safeties. KNOW YOUR COVERAGE AREAS. It's really not that hard. (2) LEARN TO TACKLES WITH YOUR ARMS AND BODY. I'm so sick of watching them dive with their helmet or shoulder pads and try to cut the legs out from under a RB or WR. Seriously, learn to wrap and tackle and actually use that mentality in the game. They teach it to you from the beginning for a reason. (3) STOP GLOATING. The Illini were already down big and I watch Bo Flowers, Donsay Hardeman, and Travon Bellamy celebrate after breaking up a pass or making a tackle (most of which, again were cutting the legs out from under someone). ARE YOU SERIOUS? You are losing. Get over yourself and your nothing accomplisment and get your ass back to the huddle or at least in formation since you can't do shit against the hurry-up offense.

These guys (both (a) and (b)) need to really get it going or no matter how many points the offense eventually puts up, the Illini are going to lose everygame this season because we don't know how to defend the pass.

4) Matt Eller: You have the cushiest job on the field. You play a position that scores a lot of points, is barely on the field, and is not even allowed to get hit for fear of penalty. You are the kicker. What you should kick after this game though is your own ass. How do you miss a PAT? It's a chip shot after making a 24 yard FG earlier. I know that in the grand scheme of things the single point doesn't matter. But what does matter is focus and by missing a PAT, it demonstrates to me that his head probably wasn't in the game due to the score at that time and he didn't really care if he made it or missed it. That sucks and if that was his attitude, Zook should find a new kicker fast.

The commentators at the end of the game said it best, the Illini better figure their shit out really quickly and hope that Benn isn't that hurt because if they have a poor showing like today any time over the next few weeks, they will be out of the Big Ten race before Big Ten play even begins. Let's not relapse into oblivion like a few years ago guys. It's already embarassing enough that we are the only Big Ten team to lose in Week 1.