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More experience, strength and speed will make this defense better. How many upperclassmen starters did it have last year?
More experience, strength and speed will make this defense better. How many upperclassmen starters did it have last year?
We had 24 upperclassmen last year.
More experience, strength and speed will make this defense better. How many upperclassmen starters did it have last year?
Are you insinuating he might not be a full time starter, or that he might struggle more than other DBs on the roster?Five. Del'Shawn Phillips, Jamal Milan, Tymir Oliver, Stanley Green and Cam Watkins were all regular starters. Dele Harding also had a couple starts, and Jake Hansen was a 3rd year sophomore who was also a full time starter.
We will probably still see a fair number of underclassmen in the rotation, Quan Martin, Calvin Avery, Delano Ware and Sydney Brown are all likely have big roles along with maybe Beason, hopefully Oladipo, probably Verdis Brown. We've always played younger than people expect under Lovie. Though that changing would probably be good news.
But it's true that everyone is taking a step forward. I can't imagine there's a defense in the country that loses less from their two-deep than we do, literally just Phillips.
We were just so unbelievably bad last year, with a lot of the individual pieces regressing from 2017. Age and experience will help, but that's not going to do it by itself.
Are you insinuating he might not be a full time starter, or that he might struggle more than other DBs on the roster?
I met him before the game in Minneapolis around Thanksgiving in 2011 that wound up being his last game. He couldn't have been a nicer, more polite dude.Bad as some things were.....Zooker's record at Illinois looks pretty good today. Met the guy a couple of times....great people skills, life of the party type. 3 bowls..right?
With AD Miller and hopefully Thomas/Ford, I doubt Beason would have to play offense (and he's stated he sees himself as a CB).Either of those things, or he might play offense, who knows.
Somewhat random thought: with regards to the WR position, I’d love to see Kendall Smith switch back to WR this year. He seems buried at S and will be a junior this year. He was more of a receiver as a recruit and has some size and athleticism.
Yeah Pearl seems like a wildcard. Kinda how I see Okpala too. Both are just huge athletes. Try them on both sides and keep developing them. Their natural athleticism at that size gives them a crazy high ceiling.Good call. I expect Pearl to be switched to OL. Any other possible/probable switches?
I hope this is clear, Lovie wanted a spread offense with a running QB. What is happening on Offense is what Lovie wanted! It is not like Lovie wanted to run a power running pro offense in college and they talked him out of it despite an old man stubbornness. The dude is smart, he knows football, when he gets physically mature talent on defense, he will be successful...back to a last page conversation / response to 0440. I guess I understand a Texas tie to recruiting as a
position coach, but the step forward on offense came from a fresh new perspective and the freedom
to implement a system based upon our players. I don't see our defense making significant strides
with Lovie implementing the same old same old. It hasn't worked yet. I would hope for a like-minded
DC (to Lovie) who has a track record at the college level, knows how to motivate a defense.
I won't survey all of FBS, but just in our own conference, Iowa under Fry and Ferentz have consistently won for 40 years and Dantonio has been a home run for a dozen seasons at MSU. Those two, plus Wisconsin, were mediocre-to-garbage programs for decades until everything fell into place.
As has been mentioned countless times here, given fan bases, resources and recruiting areas, there is zero reason why Illinois cannot be as successful a program as Wisky, Iowa or MSU. What has held back the Illini are a lack of commitment from the administration, the right coach and a cracker jack AD. I'm optimistic the latter issue has been resolved by Whitman, but I'm still concerned about the former.
I said NO to this at least a month ago.Schiano is looking for a job now...?
Vastly entertaining !Finally our DC prayers have been answered!
https://www.hireronzook.com/
Finally our DC prayers have been answered!
https://www.hireronzook.com/
Kudos to whomever put that together.Finally our DC prayers have been answered!
https://www.hireronzook.com/
Vastly entertaining !
Couldnt be worse than what we got......
Appreciate that - always happy to make someone laugh and/or smile in relation to Illinois Football.Kudos to whomever put that together.
I met him before the game in Minneapolis around Thanksgiving in 2011 that wound up being his last game. He couldn't have been a nicer, more polite dude.