So I lied. Sorry. I stated earlier that I was done writing about the Illini. This year's awful play is just another chapter in the UofI manifesto on how to completely underachieve. With that being said, I actually chose to spend some of my free time this weekend watching today's game. Thus, I saw some things that I thought were worthy of a post and therefore, here I type. I obviously didn't expect much as they were facing a Purdue team that came off a win against OSU last week. The Illini ended up keeping it somewhat close scorewise, but really never seemed much of a threat to the Boilermakers, falling 24-14. Here are some of my thoughts regarding the game.
The Zooker- Zook showed a REALLY short leash for the first time in his Illinois tenure. Matt Eller missed a field goal, next thing you know Derek Dimke is in there kicking. Juice threw a pick, in came redshirt freshman Jacob Charest. It was really amazing to see him try to switch things up on the fly and light a fire under the ass of his players. Too bad that none of those changes really made a difference.
Juice Williams- I'm not sure I've ever seen someone fall off the horse like this guy. It eerily reminds me of Ryan Leaf's transition to the NFL and his absolute loss of ability. Juice is playing with absolutely no confidence, making bad reads, and when he does make a good read, he is hesitating to make the throws. All around bad play. At this point, I almost think that they should use him like they did Eddie McGee today as more of an athlete than a QB and let Charest get some experience.
Jacob Charest- The kid really didn't impress me today. That's not to say that he was bad, just really not impressive. He had 1 really good throw to Hubie Graham (who was wide open, but it was still a nice throw) in which he stepped into his throw and put some zip on the ball. The rest of his passes seemed very hesistant. He didn't really step into any of these throws and hence couldn't really muster any zip on the ball. I think that given some actual offseason work with the 1st team and more development of fundamentals, he could be a really good player.
Mikel LeShoure- I called it right at the beginning of the season (in my post after the Mizzou game). He is a VERY good runner. He runs hard, finished runs, and doesn't allow himself to be arm tackled. This was especially seen on a 4th-and-1 when he was hit in the backfield, bounced in back out to the left, absorbed a hit at the original line of scrimmage, and then dragged the tackler for a 3 yard gain and 1st down. Nice. The problem is, he needs to get the ball enough times to show this potential. Zook somewhat shook his RB by committee and gave LeShoure 15 touches today (he should have had more) on which he gained 122 yards. The kid can play, plain and simple. Give him the touches and stop messing around with the committee thing.
TEs (Hubie Graham and Michael Hoomanawanui)- Welcome back. The insertion of a new QB finally allowed someone to actually see you guys running around on the field. I thought from day 1 of the season that the TEs would be key to take some pressure off of Benn and be able to work the middle of the field. They were forgotten in the abysmal play of Juice but found by Charest today (since TEs are a new QBs best friend).
Offense- Seriously, no more penalties. The Illini got called for multiple holding penalties on their linemen, as well as a bunch of illegal substitution penalties on the receivers/backs. I'm not sure how many times, but I'd estimate it was about 5 or 6 drives that after penalties, they'd end up with a 2nd down and 15-20+ yards to go. You're not going to be successful if you keep shooting yourself in the foot.
Defense- A better job of tackling today (not too many people leading with the crest of the helmet but actually wrapping and tackling) but really nobody did anything special or worth mentioning. They couldn't force any turnovers, which is not surprising since they were able to muster almost no pressure on Purdue QB Joey Elliott.
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