Does the scheme work if the talent is there, or once we resolve the talent gap are we still going to have a scheme issue?
Pregame: Illinois vs Maryland, Saturday, November 15th, 2:30pm CT, FS1
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The problem is every offseason we’ve over valued our returning players and also our ability to coach them up. Realistically I’ve seen very little improvement from several starters.
The oline for next year should be interesting. Henderson, McMillen and Hanson are the guys to have gotten any snaps. Aiden Knapik missed most of camp and the season with an injury so how does that impact his development. Dez can’t stay healthy so you can’t count on him.
We recruited everyone for a defense that plays man. Look how we played free and fast last weekend. When we were dropping 8 guys into coverage we had a lot of miscommunications and blown assignments. We looked slow because guys didn’t know where to go. Then to make matters worse we got no pass rush which is not good for a struggling secondary.
Yeah I guess my question is if Henry stays and talent gets better, are we all good, or is there still a problem that's only been partially addressed?
If the talent I’m improves then by default the defense should improve regardless of who’s calling it. I’ve said it a bunch but if keep Henry we did a veteran dc somewhere on the staff to help with that side of the ball.
This class we are adding Thomas, rankin, hankin and Eberhart. Hopefully we can also flip Dawson. That’s a great prep class but we can’t be counting on a bunch of true freshman to play
The remaining teams left on the schedule actually have okay defenses too.
our zone is horrible. If we were executing at the level that Iowa does I would be all for switching to it. We give almost no resistance and teams move the ball right down the field. I would rather play aggressive and try to make plays. The end result can’t be any worse than our zone defense.
2:30 game and no BTN is a pleasant surprise! Should get a few more eyeballs on us.
Kind of confused why they are waiting to decide on CBS vs BTN for the Iowa @ USC game. Even if Iowa and USC both lose this week, CBS would surely still pick that game over PSU @ MSU right?
The CBS v BTN choice is strange. It seems like Iowa v USC all day long. Maybe there is a game the following week that CBS is waiting on and would defer their pick to next week? I don't even know if that is a thing, but there seems to be a lot more nuance in the agreement between the networks.
we don't want that, we want Maryland mediocre and someone we can beat.
that's a sleeping giant in a recruiting hotbed.
we agree....northwestern always a tough game and their mobile quarterback could give the defense problems.
That may not be helpful to us as fans. The game before us may trickle over into ours. That often happens. We could miss a sizable portion of the first quarter; The network scheduling for college games hasn't figured out what the NFL finally got through their thick heads--football games rarely last just 3 hours on the nose. That's why, a few years ago, they changed scheduling from one to four to one to four thirty. ( Eastern time) It works!
rush 4 or 5 and play man. This is the best strategy. Make it easy on the defense.
BZuppke
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We will beat Maryland partially because they will make mistakes. Locksley’s teams, like Zook’s, will have stupid penalties and sloppy play that will make the difference. I do think they also will not be able to stop Luke if he has time.
NW is in my opinion the most intriguing game. It will be their big game and we need to bring our best.
NW is in my opinion the most intriguing game. It will be their big game and we need to bring our best.
Maryland is a good team this year. Indiana is just amazing. I can't believe I had to type that.
I been rewatching some past illini games including both Rutgers games from the past 2 seasons I get the BL talk as a headcoach. he has definitely grown as a coordinator hes definitely gotten more creative and alot more confident i hope he stays for another season or 2 at least but I get it with the head coach talk I think hes definitely capable especially with the right coordinators .Hopefully we will have him for at least 1 more season.go ILLINI
And sadly to say there defense looks capable not ohio state good but above average for sure
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