A little late in his college career for a position change but he obviously is a talented athlete. What about a qb platoon with him coming in as a change of pace?
Wisconsin 49, Illinois 20 POSTGAME
Deleted member 29907
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Only problem is that you are exposing your backup QB to injury...
yeah, but, it's time to do just that if necessary. He's wearing pads after all. And maybe it's time for robinson to see more action. We're at an all-hands-on-deck point. No use holding anyone back.
I feel like that would be the Aaron Bailey effect in that when he comes in, teams will stack the box and dare us to throw.
Miles Osei made a transition to receiver his senior year and did fairly well if I recall. As did Steve Hull (and he came from 3 years on the defensive side of things)
I think knowing the plays, routes, and reads would help him at WR plus it’s a major position of need due to injuries.
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So we're in a tie game against Minny, AJ was already out due to injury (he's already injured his hammy this year) and then MJ got hurt - you'd be ok that we were at the point of bringing in our 3rd string, untested QB? I think we have enough receiving talent we don't have to risk that potential event. A healthy AJ gives us a fighting chance to carry on if MJ were out and still win the game - Robinson - not so much. All players are wearing pads, but we're not throwing the punter in to receive kickoffs no matter how good/fast he is.
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We have no receiver talent, and Bush wouldn’t help.
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I actually think Tre is pretty good
So is Smalling but it’s just not showing this year.
GortTheRobot
- North Bethesda, Maryland
I know I should wait and see what a quarterback change does, but honestly, I already get that “this just ain’t working out” feeling. Seems like we should see more progress than this, at least in terms of competitiveness, in year three.
Wildcat. He's serviceable against a team that can't defend the run imho. I don't feel terrible about the offense under Rivers assuming we can keep the turnover monster in check. Gawd what happened there? I hope they got that out of their system.
The defense though. The defense is a TOTAL disaster. There's little consistent pressure on their QB. We're giving up a couple football fields worth of run yardage each game. And it's easy to slash us underneath the zone. See us in man, send a man deep and throw over his shoulder. We're so passive it's ridiculous. It's like we're a hippy, non-violent defense that doesn't want to make you feel bad. I can't imagine an offense lines up and feels any sense of foreboding. They have to line up and just salivate. The biggest difficulty our defense presents opposing offenses with is how do they want to beat us? With everything open it's hard for a QB to make a decision. Run? Yep. Short throw? That's open. Tight end over the middle? All day. Wide outs deep? If you're not worried about hurting your arm then you should probably go for it. The only real question is where do you start trying to fix this? I guess rushing the QB and stopping the run would be first priorities.
With a defense this bad, it's hard to see another win but at the same time I feel like we're our own worst enemies and the games at some point are within reach. Last year was a foregone conclusion. I think this year is the more frustrating of the two imho.
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Deleted member 746094
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Our now back up QB never gave the ball up when he was the starting QB so I don’t think we should worry about injury. Bush comes in he is running the ball and everyone watching knows it. This is a bigger concern and why bringing him in at QB is pointless. If he was a threat in the passing game he would still be the starter. He is one dimensional. If we need to go to someone other than Rivers go to one of the other freshman. We are playing to build for next year and this is why Bush is likely done here. Seems like a great young man, but there is a reason he has always been behind others wherever he has been. If I am Lovie and Rod I split him out this week and see if he can help us at WR. We need athletes out there as it may be one of the weakest position groups on our team(partly due to injury). Our level of competition drops drastically the next few weeks. If we establish the run I think Rivers will prove he should have been our starter the past few weeks. So I hope...
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Low odds. Unless they are lying, both smiths say they play the players who give us the best chance for todays game. We need to win now to show progress. AJ is next QB up. We need to win now, not develop next years 3rd string QB.
31 receptions for 510 yards and 2 TDs as a freshman on an offensively inept team.
For reference, AJ Jenkins (1st round pick) had 11 receptions for 287 yards and 3 TDs his freshman year.
Arrelious Benn (2nd round pick) had 54 receptions and 676 yards with 3 TDs in his freshman campaign.
Ricky’s not showing it this year for some reason, but he is definitely in “pretty good” company.
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Fair enough. He obviously has the physical tools and showed potential last year. I will give you “pretty good” based on last year and the fact Bush simply couldn’t hit a wide open WR.
Hopefully Rivers will ignite our passing attack and Smalling will get the chance to show he can make plays. The few times he has had this year have been disappointing.
Let a walk-on play if necessary. Whatever.
Yeah. A new quarterback won't keep teams from dropping 40 on the defense each week.
The QB position is killing us right now. Coaches are not showing they are not committed to or convinced w AJ or MJ. I saw Curran Taylor throw and run and know he is better than AJ/MJ. If the plan was to redshirt Curran Taylor this year and bring him next season, abandon the plan and bring Curran up and give Illini a chance.
Has he even played in a game? Are you basing this on practice? Keep in mind, there was a ton of hype around AJ before the season as a dual threat, but he is certainly only a single threat during games.
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Sustained drives makes a big ace difference!
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I have lived in Peoria area my entire life(minus 4 years of college) and am closely connected with high school coaches throughout the area. CORAN Taylor was a man against boys in high school and a superior athlete. He does have a strong arm. PLUS he had unreal athletes around him the year they won the state championship. A QB doesn’t score 50 a game without a strong supporting cast.
That being said, most every coach in Peoria (not coaching at Peoria High) will tell you he is not a Big Ten QB. His offer list reflected that. Us, Miami of OH and ILStU. At best it would be AJ Bush 2.0. To pull his redshirt would be robbing him of a year of eligibility and wouldn’t help the team at our current state. A QB at this juncture isn’t going to make a difference if we can’t stop other teams from moving the ball down the field at will. FWIW.
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Depressed but hopeful.
I have all this Illini stuff: flags, for instance, three of them. Will I fly them? Yes. Why?
First: because flags prevent birds from crashing into my patio sliding-glass doors!
Second: because I have been and always will be an Illini fan. Can't help it: I was born in Chicagonois, and the thing to do for Illinoisans is to pledge allegiance to the flagship university. My parents had a thing for Northwestern, only because they were north-siders and loved to dance at Edgewater Beach Hotel near NW. But daddy went to U of I! Furthermore, I always suspected him of being a closet Wolverine (our family came from Michigan and he spent many summers up there). He's gone, and I never got the chance to interrogate him.
The point is: if you're able, fly the flag! Win or lose. Once an Illini, always an Illini. What else are we gonna do? Switch to Miznoz?
P.S. Lovie: shave! Concentrate on coaching.
P.S. 2: the white uniforms looked pretty good.
I have all this Illini stuff: flags, for instance, three of them. Will I fly them? Yes. Why?
First: because flags prevent birds from crashing into my patio sliding-glass doors!
Second: because I have been and always will be an Illini fan. Can't help it: I was born in Chicagonois, and the thing to do for Illinoisans is to pledge allegiance to the flagship university. My parents had a thing for Northwestern, only because they were north-siders and loved to dance at Edgewater Beach Hotel near NW. But daddy went to U of I! Furthermore, I always suspected him of being a closet Wolverine (our family came from Michigan and he spent many summers up there). He's gone, and I never got the chance to interrogate him.
The point is: if you're able, fly the flag! Win or lose. Once an Illini, always an Illini. What else are we gonna do? Switch to Miznoz?
P.S. Lovie: shave! Concentrate on coaching.
P.S. 2: the white uniforms looked pretty good.
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I'm sad that I was relatively close with my prediction in the pregame thread...
"Seriously though, I have a strange feeling we bounce back a little bit this week. Not near enough to win, but something like 52-24 where we have something that resembles an offense for part of the game... "
Turnovers were crushing for us. People want to blame the defense, and it hasn't been great, but the offense has to do its part to keep the defense from being on the field for long periods of time.
"Seriously though, I have a strange feeling we bounce back a little bit this week. Not near enough to win, but something like 52-24 where we have something that resembles an offense for part of the game... "
Turnovers were crushing for us. People want to blame the defense, and it hasn't been great, but the offense has to do its part to keep the defense from being on the field for long periods of time.
The Dave
- CA
I told a co-worker who is a Badger fan that if Wisconsin doesn't score at least 50 on us it is only because they chose not to score 50. Well, they didn't score 50 (yeah, yeah) and it wasn't from lack of trying. While this was a spanking and while we are definitely not good, this game was better than I expected.
If you told me we'd have 5 turnovers (and be -3 net) and I would have thought they laid 60+ on us.
If you told me we'd have 5 turnovers (and be -3 net) and I would have thought they laid 60+ on us.
I'll take the under on 2 wins the rest of the year