Gopher Football
That’s not to say there aren’t those with hope among the Illinois faithful. One of the greatest aspects of sports–and college football in particular–is that hope is perennial. It’s just that in this case, the hopes are for the most part modest. There’s no question that Ron Turner (entering 8th year at U of I; 39-53 record there) is on the hot seat. He doesn’t need to run the table to get off of it, but he does have to come up with at least a few wins–probably at least four. Even that might be a challenge for this Illini team, but it’s certainly not an unreasonable goal.
2003 SUMMARY
Overall Record: 1-11
Big Ten Record: 0-8 (11th)
2003 Game Results:
L 15-22 vs. Missouri
W 49-22 vs. Illinois State (I-AA)
L 3-6 @ UCLA
L 24-31 vs. California
L 20-38 vs. Wisconsin
L 10-43 @ Purdue
L 14-49 vs. Michigan State
L 14-56 @ Michigan
L 10-36 vs. Minnesota
L 10-41 @ Iowa
L 14-17 @ Indiana
L 20-37 vs. Northwestern
Schedule Difficulty: 33rd (out of 117)
2004 OUTLOOK
Schedule:
Sept. 4 vs. Florida A & M
Sept. 11 vs. UCLA
Sept. 18 vs. Western Michigan
Sept. 25 vs. Purdue
Oct. 2 @ Wisconsin
Oct. 9 @ Michigan State
Oct. 16 vs. Michigan
Oct. 23 @ Minnesota
Oct. 30 vs. Iowa (Homecoming)
Nov. 6 vs. Indiana
Nov. 20 @ Northwestern
Offense
Returning Starters: 9
Probable Strength(s): Quarterback (maybe) and running back (maybe)
Probable Weakness(es): Offensive line
Question marks abound on the offensive side of the ball. The good news is that last year’s 10th-place conference finish and 107th-place national finish in scoring offense leaves a lot of room for improvement.
Senior quarterback Jon Beutjer was granted a rare sixth year of eligibility after injuries limited his playing time the past two years. Beutjer is something of a wildcard. He led the Big Ten in passing in 2002 with over 2,500 yards through the air, despite splitting snaps with Dustin Ward. Last season, injuries contributed to Beutjer’s drop-off in productivity, as he threw for just shy of 1,600 yards in 2003 with 10 touchdowns and nine interceptions. His other problem has been improvident decision-making. He’s got experience, good size, and a great arm, and if he can stay healthy and keep dumb mistakes to a minimum, Illinois will have one of the best quarterbacks in the league. If he has problems either with his health or his focus, the Illini will have to go with less experienced talent and likely will be in for another long year. Those less-experienced talents are primarily sophomores Chris Pazan and Tim Brasic. They were both listed as alternate second-stringers coming out of spring practice. Brasic might be the more athletic of the two, but Pazan has more game experience. The passing game was the closest thing to a bright spot in the Illinois offense in 2003, as they finished 46th in the nation and third in the conference in passing offense.
While Illinois returns its top three rushers from last year–a trio of sophomores (Ibrahim “E.B.” Halsey, Pierre Thomas, and Marcus Mason)–it’s not clear to what extent that’s a good thing, given the absolutely dismal results last season. Illinois’ rushing offense ranked 101st in the nation and 10th in the Big Ten last year. Even worse, the Illini had just five (5) rushing touchdowns all of last season. Halsey, Thomas, and Mason had 537, 238, and 225 rushing yards for the year, respectively. In fairness, the Illini running backs were plagued by injuries, first to Halsey and then to Thomas a game or so later. Additionally, the weak o-line made it tough on the backfield. Halsey actually is a very promising player who can do it all (he caught 37 passes for 303 yards and four touchdowns last year, and also returned punts and kickoffs–all told, he ranked fourth in the conference in all-purpose running, after Michigan’s Chris Perry, Minnesota’s Marion Barber III, and Northwestern’s Jason Wright). Remember also that Illinois’ running backs were thrown into a trial by fire as freshmen, and that should pay off somewhere down the road. Junior Jason Davis will share time at fullback with talented freshman Brock Bolen and redshirt freshman Brian Grzelakowski. The whole backfield unit should be better than last year, although it can’t get much worse.
Illinois’ starting receivers are decent but fairly unheralded. The top wideout from last year, Kelvin Hayden, has been switched to corner to help shore up the defense. That leaves senior Ade Adeyemo and either sophomore Lonnie Hurst or junior Kendrick Jones to take up the slack. Last year’s second-leading receiver, senior Mark Kornfeld, was listed as second-string behind Adeyemo coming out of spring. Like the quarterbacks and running backs, this group was really hurt last year by injuries (to Adeyemo and Hurst). Sophomore Melvin Bryant and senior Anthony McClellan both have starting experience at tight end.
Perhaps the biggest concern on offense is along the offensive line. The Illini lost their best o-lineman from last year, tackle Sean Bubin, to the NFL. Illinois does have three of last year’s starters slated to start again this season–right tackle Bucky Babcock, center Duke Preston, and left guard Bryan Koch. The rest of the o-line is quite young–two juniors, two sophomores, and five freshman–although some have starting experience. The line showed a little promise late last season, and might be improved, but it’s got a long way to go to be counted among the conference’s best.
Defense
Returning Starters: 6
Probable Strength(s): N/A?
Probable Weakness(es): Take your pick.
How bad was the Illinois defense last year? They ranked last in the conference (98th in the nation) in scoring defense, giving up a painful 33 points per game, and last in the conference (111th in the nation) in rushing defense, giving up an equally painful 224 rushing yards per game. The pass defense actually ranked third in the Big Ten (35th in the nation), yielding 202 passing yards per game. Don’t be fooled, though. The passing yardage numbers were only relatively low because everyone could run on Illinois at will. The Illini made only two (!) interceptions the entire year. The good news is that Illinois should have a better defense this year (again, it would be an accomplishment to get much worse).
Last year’s 4.7 yards per carry allowed indicates some problems on the defensive line. Two starters from last year (junior DT Ryan Matha and junior DE Scott Moss) return. Senior Mike Maloney will step in at DT, and senior Mike O’Brien returns after missing all but the first game of 2003 with an injury. Thus, the Illini will have a veteran d-line this year, but lack of depth is a problem. The return of 6’6″, 310 lb. sophomore Charles Myles (not listed on the two-deep) after sitting out last season because of academic ineligibility will help by adding some much-needed size to the d-line.
Senior linebacker Matt Sinclair returns after leading the Illinois defenders in tackles in 2003 (129 stops). Sinclair may be the heart and soul of the Illini defense this season. He will be joined in the linebacking corps by two new starters, junior Josh Tischer and senior Mike Gawelek, but there is some depth present with former starter and junior Antonio Mason backing up Tischer on the two-deep. Mason tallied 90 tackles a year ago. Three redshirt freshmen round out the balance of the linebackers on the depth chart.
The Illinois secondary should be interesting to watch this year, if nothing else. Switching your top receiver over to start at cornerback and moving a senior running back (Morris Virgil) to start at strong safety may be viewed by some as a sign of desperation. Perhaps rightly so, but desperate times call for desperate measures. The coaches seem to be impressed with former WR Kelvin Hayden’s transition to cornerback this spring. Sophomore Alan Ball, who was forced to burn his redshirt last year, should be better with a year of experience under his belt. Junior free safety Travis Williams is the most solid proven player in the defensive backfield. He’s got cover corner size and speed and made 91 tackles in 2003. All in all, there is some promise here, but little in the way of known quantities, aside from Williams.
Special Teams
Probable Strength(s): Punting
Probable Weakness(es): Field goal kicking
Illinois has two good punters in junior Steve Weatherford (44.5 yards per punt) and senior Matt Minnes (43.1 yards per punt). Steve Weatherford currently is listed as the only kicker on the depth chart, but he may cede the job to highly-touted incoming freshman Jason Reda this August. E.B. Halsey did a decent job on punt returns (9.9 yards per return) and a rather good job on kickoff returns (23.6 yards per return) last season but is only listed as a punt returner this year. That’s probably a good decision. Morris Virgil and Kelvin Hayden are listed as the top kickoff return men.
Bottom Line: This Illinois team will almost certainly be better than last year’s squad, which was decimated by injuries and a rash of turnovers (the Illini finished 112th in the nation with a -18 turnover margin for 2003). The bad news is that most of the Big Ten’s lower-tier teams will also be better, and Illinois’ jump in improvement won’t likely be enough to catch the traditional top-tier teams either. Three or four wins would be a positive accomplishment for this team, and most fans of the Orange and Blue would be ecstatic with six wins. The best that can be hoped for this year is competitiveness throughout the season and a building block for 2005.