Illini Football

Having Directv, I've been able to watch pretty much all the Illini games. I've gotta say, Juice is looking pretty good this year. It's night and day between this year and his freshman year. As opposed to missing throws by fifteen yards, he's been laying in some pretty nice ones. He's also developed some touch, as opposed to "rocket every throw I can" mode. For the most part, his decision making's improved too: he'll throw the ball away and look to keep passing when flushed out of the pocket. Guess his work with Donovan in the offseason helped. On the runningback front, Dufrene has been a nice surprise. Jason Ford also had a nice breakout game last week and he looked pretty impressive. Granted, it was IU but it's still nice to a freshman back doing that kind of damage. It's nice to have that kind of promise in the underclassmen. For now, he's a nice contrast to Dufrene, he's more of a downhill runner/power back type.

As good as the offense can look at times, they can be inconsistent at times. That's the most frustrating thing, since I know they can be pretty good. On top of that, the team as a whole just makes mistakes at inopportune times: turnovers, missed defensive assignments, special team issues. (Reference Mizzou and Penn State games.) On that note, defense is one our weaker areas. Almost allowing Louisiana Lafayette to come back from a 17-3 deficit doesn't scream staunch D.

I've watched pretty much all the Illini games, and that's my two cents on the team. I actually got the chance to head over to Ann Arbor a few weeks ago. It was a pretty good time, not that I was expecting otherwise. True, the Big House holds ~110,000...but I wouldn't say it's comfortable. The fans were surpisingly subdued, although their trailing for most of the game may have had a say in that. I thoroughly enjoyed the game though, and I actually didn't catch too much flak for that.

The Big Ten network's also had this thing called "Illini Football: The Journey" running for a bit. It's pretty cool seeing what goes on during a week leading up to a game and during the game. It's a nice chance to see what some of the players are like too. No real highlights off the top of my head, but it's cool to get a behind the scenes look at a team, especially when it's yours.