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.
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