I still have a boatload of preseason questions I never answered – thanks for the overwhelming response while I was in Rantoul.  To be honest, I won’t be able to answer them all.  But I want to get to a few more questions today.  Right to it.

Will our special teams finally be competent this year?

This is the hardest unit to get a read on.  When you’re scrimmaging against yourself, sometimes it’s easy to get a read on certain parts of the offense or the defense.  If the QB is consistently hitting the TE on a seam route over the middle, chances are the offense is on a roll – throw it right and run the route correctly and it’s hard to defend.  Same goes for the defense.  If they’re reading the play correctly and pursuing to the ball, you can feel OK about their progress.  With special teams, it’s nearly impossible.

I saw Justin Green break one in the kickoff return drill.  Hit a seam and was gone.  Great return, or horrible coverage?  I saw freshman linebacker Houston Bates break through the line and block a punt – awesome block, or awful protection?  It’s really hard to say.

I do think we’ll be better on kickoffs, both kicking and receiving.  Derek Dimke has the leg to put the ball 5 yards deep in the endzone every time out.  He had 12 touchbacks last year – I’m thinking he could double that this year.  And seeing Terry Hawthorne and Justin Green lined up to return a kickoff makes me feel funny inside.  Easily the fastest return tandem in Illini history.  And yes, I remember Benn + Vontae.

Punts?  I have no idea.  We’ll obviously have more than 50 punt return yards on the season this year, so it will be an improvement over last year, but by how much?  Will Hawthorne be the difference all by himself?  And can we get to the opposing punter and maybe block a punt this fall?

Punt coverage?  Scared to death.  Look, I understand the idea behind the spread-out, 3-guys-back-to-protect-the-punter formation.  But we use linemen for the three backs.  Is that really what we need when we’re trying to, you know, run to the other end of the field and tackle a guy?

All told, there’s no way to predict any special teams improvement before September 4th.  I’m hopeful on kickoffs and frightened on punts.  That’s the best I can do.

Oh, and to answer another question – yes, I think we’ll still do the swinging gate.

Is Jay Prosch getting any looks?

I think Jay Prosch is getting lots of looks.  Fullback and H-back mostly.  Petrino likes to be multiple, and so extra-blocker guys like Prosch and Willett have to learn several positions (including tight end).  In pure blocking roles (usually from the H-back position), I think you’ll see lots and lots of Jay Prosch and Chris Willett.

And I want to take this opportunity to talk about the fullbacks/H-backs for a minute.  I’ll be intentionally vague because I know Gary Pinkel is reading.  Several people asked about the “fullbacks” in this new pro-set offense, expecting us to return to, I don’t know, dumping the ball in the flat to Carey Davis again or something.  I really don’t think that’s the case in this offense.  Blocking backs like Prosch and Willett will lead block from multiple positions on the field, but, in my opinion, rarely from the prototypical offensive backfield position.  Petrino may not be Mike Locksley, but he isn’t Ron Turner, either.

Where is Andrew Carter?  Is he out there and what position is he at? Tackle?

He’s back at guard. I was hoping he’d be at tackle, because, well, we graduate the majority of our offensive tackles in a few years. But for the most part, I think I saw Carter at weakside guard. My prediction: they’ll try him out at all three interior line positions, and in two years, when he’s a redshirt junior, he’ll replace Jack Cornell at guard.

You heard it here first: 2012 starting offensive line: Corey Lewis – Hugh Thornton – Graham Pocic – Andrew Carter – some stud tackle recruit we sign this winter (please).

How do we look fundamentally (conditioning, tackling, running crisp routes, blocking, making crisp on-target passes)?

Comparing this Rantoul to last year, it was obvious that we were stressing fundamentals this year.  But we looked better last year, if that makes any sense.

Let me attempt to explain. In the 11-on-11 drills last year, Juice would throw 6 touchdown passes and I’d be in awe. But it rarely showed up on the field come fall. This year, they’ll run an 11-on-11 play, the quarterback won’t even release the ball, and the assistant coaches will come out firing as soon as the play is over, pointing out every part of the blocking/route running/quarterback reading that was done incorrectly. So while it wasn’t as football-pretty, is was very teaching-heavy.

I went back and forth on this many times after leaving camp. We looked like a well-oiled machine last year in camp, but that team rarely found the field. We look disjointed this camp – does that mean we should expect an even worse product on the field this fall? Or does it mean that more teaching is going on this year, and once the product goes live, crisp happens?

Ask me in the second quarter of the Missouri game. We had our answer by that time last year – hopefully we’ll get a much better answer this year.