I’d have to check out.
Illini Football 2023
Illini92and96
- Austin, TX
Maybe building *sustainably* for longer term Iowa or Wisky-like success. Consistent recruiting relationships, stable coaching staff, stable offensive/defensive methodology. Deon for example, is already having significant coaching churn after year 1. Could be the right move but it's more disruptive. Obviously changing schemes is disruptive in the short term.
mhuml32
- Cincinnati, OH
Remember this?
Avery Jones started the first 8 games for Auburn and then was benched. Kreutz ended up with better grades across the board. Long-term win.
Avery Jones started the first 8 games for Auburn and then was benched. Kreutz ended up with better grades across the board. Long-term win.
You'll never get the Illinois fan base and insiders to believe this. Despite the fact he played right in front of them for 12 games. Illinois is still looking for a real center.
What you bolded and what I bolded can both be true. Yes he graded higher than Avery but he graded as the 87th best center in CFB. So yeah we’re looking for IOL.
Hope you're looking for tackles at a hotter pace than C. As a team, C, is way down on the priority list. At least it should be. I'd even take a healthy RB before a C.
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I'll trust that the B1G coaching staff at Illinois will be doing what they think will best benefit the team....their jobs depend on it.
That just means Jones was bad. It doesn't mean Kreutz was good.
Sure.
I'll assume you watched the games this year. Now put on your thinking cap. Strap it on real tight and remember what you watched. Who you got at starting LT and RT next year? Names of actual players. Who do you have at starting C? I can answer one of those questions real easy. I'm assuming you can as well. Maybe that starting C isn't Mr. Awesome, but he started the season as well as anyone and finished just fine. I can't answer the LT/RT question.
So the internal push to the fans on the message boards is that C is our problem? Why, I don't get it? And the group here just follows along.
You've got a lot bigger concerns next year at tackle and I know that's a fact because it was a bigger problem this year. For whatever reason, Pearl had a poor start and RT was initially a revolving door. All summer/spring we heard that the left side of the line was going to stay intact. That couldn't happen because they eventually figured out they didn't have a RT.
An here we talking/worried about Josh Kreutz and I just find it....Unbelievable. It defies logic.
I’m a fan of Altmyer. My following comment might make it sound like I’m not, but I am.
Our passing game was clearly better with Paddock last season. IMO that’s primarily bc JP got the ball out quickly and seemed to throw to a spot (that the WR was headed to) better than LA. I think LA has a stronger arm, won’t have as many passes deflected by defensive linemen, and is a threat to run the ball.
What I wonder is this:
Were we better with Paddock because he for Lunney’s offense better? Or because his abilry
To get rid of it quickly made up for us having a weak OL?
Our passing game was clearly better with Paddock last season. IMO that’s primarily bc JP got the ball out quickly and seemed to throw to a spot (that the WR was headed to) better than LA. I think LA has a stronger arm, won’t have as many passes deflected by defensive linemen, and is a threat to run the ball.
What I wonder is this:
Were we better with Paddock because he for Lunney’s offense better? Or because his abilry
To get rid of it quickly made up for us having a weak OL?
I think this comes down to experience. JP has experience of being a starter and can probably process and read defenses a little more aptly due to that experience. I also think JP was playing with house money, he was in his last year at a place and time when he knew he could just rip it and give it a go without fear of losing a job or hurting stock. All of this probably worked in BLJ system because JP was better at pre-snap read and throwing to the right guy quick before the pressure got to him.
LA has the better intangibles but he hasn't seen as many snaps. He will learn how to get better at his pre-snap reads and be more decisive. Hopefully as time goes on the OL gets better to allow for more long developing routes where you don't have to just throw and pray.
If it's that obvious to YOU, then imagine how obvious it must be to the coaching staff that is in charge of the team. Don't think it matters much that a message board wants to replace or upgrade a different position.
I'll say again that I think fans just look at the gaudy numbers Paddock put up and completely forget what a horrendous unmitigated disaster our oline was the first half of the season. There is no quarterback out there (and that includes the NFL) that wouldn't have been lit up the first half of the season. Practically every other play a DE was running completely untouched into the backfield. There's a reason Luke's best games were the last few he played- the oline was actually holding the line of scrimmage. And similarly, that's also why the running game was also greatly improving starting at that time.
That said, one thing I could argue though is that John had better blitz recognition than Luke and was better at picking up the defensive coverage (not surprising for an experienced senior vs. an underclassman first year starter). I'd expect Luke to improve on that with experience. The other, and this could be for a multitude of reasons, but it seemed like the defense knew the snap count when Luke was out there, to the point where it seemed like way more than a coincidence. It's possible that he might have been tipping the snap count. That could also have been a Josh Kreutz issue, but I wouldn't be surprised if the first half of the season opponents had figured out a tell, as the defenders reaction time to the snap was near instant, and our coaching staff later discovered and rectified.
So that leads to another questions
Was the O-Line “fixed” and improved later in the year, or was their weakness just now as evident bc Paddock got the ball pit so quickly.
We still struggled at 3rd or 4th and short later in the season.
blackdog
- Champaign
We also need to acknowledge the strength of defenses the two played against. Paddock got two games against NW and Indiana who were not exactly setting the world on fire with their defense. In the one game against Iowa he was ok but sub 50 completion percentage. Altmeyer had to play more teams with some really good defenses (Toledo, PSU, Wisconsin, Nebraska were all top 25 in terms of points allowed per game).
I think "fixed" is a relative term in this case. For the o-line, I think Maryland was the turning point game as from there on out, our ability to at least hold the line of scrimmage and engage with opponent d-line players was much much improved from where it was early in the season. Now they weren't consistently "great" but they were a large step up from being one of the worst in the nation, which is how they started the first 6 games.
I'd also say that while Illinois wasn't good at all in runblocking for short yardage situations, they were able to pick up some of their attempts later in the season and instead of their RB consistently being hit 2yds in the backfield, they were now being hit at about the line of scrimmage. So I do think we improved prior to the switch to Paddock, but I don't think it was necessarily "fixed" as much as it was simply a lot better.
And again, this isn't taking anything away from Paddock, it's just that I think judging Luke, or Love, or Lunney on our first 6 games of the season isn't going to be very helpful because our o-line issues didn't allow for any success during that part of the season. Comparing Maryland, Wisconsin, and Minnesota Luke to Paddock is a much fairer comparison in my opinion
Joel Goodson
- respect my decision™
this has nada to do with the football team, but it's very nice that the program has brought Mendenhall back into the fold. good work there by all involved
The big thing is EXPERIENCE.....not only for the QBs but the whole offensive unit. It takes time to gel when you have so many new pieces thrown together.
Altmyer grew as the season went on. I have no problem blaming the OL for stuff but Altmyer was learning on the job. He threw into double coverage and forced some passes earlier in the season. Big thing I noticed is he was trying to make plays with his feet at times and took losses when he should have just thrown the ball out of bounds. It wasn't drastic but he really did improve on the little things like this as he got more time and think the game was slowing down for him.
The other side you have Paddock coming in off a 18 TD 14 INT season at Ball State. Those stats don't look impressive but he also threw the 10th most passing attempts in the 2022 season. He could read defenses and found the open man. Ton of those TD drives were in fast tempo and it played to his strengths.
I think a lot of us follow Illiniboard.com but wanted to post this anyway. All the numbers seem to show this was the most anti bret bielema team yet of his tenure. Long drives, bad field position, turnovers, and poor situational football in the red (yellow) zone. Had to be so frustrating for that guy. Yeah I know all of us, but knowing how much he values all that stuff it must be crushing as a coach. So badly hoping this year was an aberration.
illiniboard.com
What Happened?
Patient's name: 2023 Illini Football Date Of Birth: September 2, 2023 Date Patient Expired: November 25, 2023 Cause of death: To Be Determined Date Autopsy Performed: Pretty much the entire week of November 27, 2023 Autopsy performed by: Dr. Robert
When do we expect Jones on campus? He was 110% committed to Illinois, he just didn’t say when. I mean, 110% is even more than 100, so I know he’ll be here at some point.
Hard no from me. The hardest of all hard no's...
Or both?
I also am an Altmyer fan and he is much more talented than Paddock, but I think getting rid of it quicker is where he has a growth opportunity. I think it will come from being more comfortable in the offense in his second year and just having more games under his belt.
To answer your question, I think it was both, but also think by the time Paddock played, the OLine was healthier and in a much better place than early in the year when Luke was playing.
I thought we should’ve seen Luke in the second half in that Iowa game because I think Paddock was just ok in that game. 13 passes batted down and he missed a couple open receivers with the wrong reads in big moments.