89 Illini (Part IX) July 22, 2011
I’m in mourning this evening. What I thought was a giant opportunity back in May was nothing but a blip on the radar. If you haven’t heard, Ohio State is more than likely getting off without so much as a single lost scholarship. Jim Tressel acted alone – a rouge coach avoiding the compliance department like he’s an in-state blue-chpper avoiding the Illini – and mighty OSU had no choice but to get rid of this scoundrel to maintain their impeccable standards. 8 months ago, it was the University President saying “I just hope Jim Tressel doesn’t fire me”. Now, they’re claiming that when Tressel told NCAA investigators that he tipped off the compliance department to the players getting improper benefits, he was lying. They never knew a thing.
And because of that two-step, it might be several more years before I see The Great Rise Of Illini Football.
I need a moment.
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Time to cheer myself up with more player breakdowns.
24. Darius Millines
If his foot wasn’t in a cast, I believe every accolade heaped on Ryan Lankford this spring would have been directed towards Millines. That’s not fair – Lankford did have a great spring. I just think Millines is still ahead of him at this point, but he just couldn’t show it this spring. I place him in front of Lankford for one reason: blocking. I think he was the best blocking receiver on the team last year, and for a team that will run a lot (I haven’t mentioned that recently – I still think we’ll run A LOT), that will be very important. And he’s no slouch in the receiving game either – anyone who was at the Rantoul Scrimmage last summer knows the kid can play.
23. Supo Sanni
For the last three years, when people talked about the “physical specimen” on the team, they talked about Martez Wilson. With Martez off to New Orleans, I’d say our new physical specimen is Supo Sanni. He doesn’t have Martez’s measurables, but the kid is built to be a safety. A strong safety. Maybe so strong that he could eventually move forward to Sam Linebacker. There’s no way to know if he’s 100% after his injury, so we’ll have to see what gives in Rantoul. But I’m hopeful he takes the strong safety job and runs with it.
22. Michael Heitz
First offensive snap against Arkansas State, I think Heitz is the starting right tackle. Sorry, strongside tackle. I’ll never get that right. Corey Lewis probably isn’t fully recovered yet, and Simon Cvijanovic is, in my opinion, a tiny bit behind, so Heitz is the guy. He looks the part – the part of every Wisconsin lineman the last 20 years, truth be told. Big strong farm boy with surprisingly quick feet. Here’s hoping he’s ready for the challenge because, well, the success of our entire offense might rest on finding a serviceable right tackle. Serviceable strongside tackle.
21. Fred Sykes
This ranking is wishcasting a little bit. The sophomore trio of receivers (Millines, Lankford, and Harris) might join AJ as the 4 main targets for Nathan, and Sykes might get shuffled down the deck. But he made a few plays this spring that made me think he could be a reasonable facsimile of Jarred Fayson. Not the athleticism and the speed, but the underneath, 9 yards when we need 8, possession receiver that Fayson became in his final year with the Illini. Seniors sometimes step up their game, and I’m thinking we’ll be pleasantly surprised by the player who I used to only refer to as “Alligator Arms”. I was so young and dumb back then.
So was he (OH.SNAP.)
20. Craig Wilson
We need Craig Wilson to be a space eater at defensive tackle like Ohio State needs Jim Tressel to stay quiet. I don’t like that one – let me try again. We need Craig Wilson to be a space eater at defensive tackle like Pat Fitzgerald needs a soft schedule to appear great. Still not there yet. We need Craig Wilson to be a space eater at defensive tackle like Ron Swanson needs Mulligan’s Steakhouse to re-open. I’ll go with that one.
We need Craig Wilson to be a space eater at defensive tackle. Because with the two redshirt freshmen probably not ready yet and possibly all three true freshman not making it to Champaign, he’s all we got. Send it in, big fella.
19. Ashante Williams
I make voice notes to myself when I’m watching practice. (As an aside, sometimes, while I’m doing this, I become self aware. I’m just a blogger. I have a job and a wife and kids and a mortgage. But here I am, in Champaign, at 7:30 in the morning, taking a vacation day from work, saying things like “Ashante Williams hesitated on a pass to the tight end and got burned”, and I’ll think “wait, why am I talking into my phone at 7:30 in the morning in Champaign?”)
Anyway, while saying those exact words into the voice recorder in my phone this spring, they sent Ashante on a blitz the very next play and he leveled Miles Osei (causing a fumble that the defense recovered for a touchdown). Took a perfect angle, ducked the block, and leveled the QB. On that very play, my Ashante Williams replacing Nate Bussey concerns dropped from level red to level orange. If he can continue to make plays like that in Rantoul, I might be all the way at level blue come Arkansas State.
18. Jack Cornell
I have a beard. So if you’ve pictured me as some skinny geek in his mom’s basement, I’m sorry to disappoint. Beautiful, flowing reddish beard that’s part Arn Anderson, part Yukon Cornelius. I tell you this because Jack Cornell also has a great beard. My hope for Rantoul is that I be granted a one-on-one interview with Mr. Cornell where we can discuss beards, football, and beards.
Cornell, a part-time starter last year, will move into a full-time starter role in his final season. He’ll start on the right (strong) side at guard. While I’m worried about what happens at right tackle, I’m not worried about right guard. I think he’ll have a very solid season. (Of course he will – he has a beard.)
17. Michael Buchanan
I’m not sure what I wrote about Buchanan last year when going through the 88 Illini, but I’d bet it was something like “how can someone that skinny rush the quarterback?” Because, really, it’s kind of amazing the leverage he gets with an offensive tackle that outweighs him by 70 pounds. I really think Buchanan can do big things the next two years as he gets more and more familiar with Vic Koenning’s bandit position. In fact, I’ll call it right now. Buchanan will have a game this fall where he makes a play in all three phases of his position: A sack, a tackle for loss on a run play, and an interception when he drops into coverage.
OK, I’m all excited now. Maybe the Great Rise Of Illini Football will be sooner rather than later.
A Ron “Fu#%ing” Swanson reference!?!? That automatically elevates this to #1 blog status. Incredible.
“…like … an in-state blue-chpper avoiding the Illini…”
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This is one of those “if I don’t laugh I’ll have to start crying” statements. So sad to admit: but its the raw, unavoidable truth.
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But I’m sure Zooker has a whole busload of better players on their way… (insert rolleyes emoticon here).
Well here we go with this again. Some people act like instate players should have some sort of allegiance to their homestate team.
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The reason OSU gets the good Ohio players is because OSU is a great program with a winning history. Players aren’t drawn there because of state boundaries.
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And then people act like every player from Illinois who picks another school is actively choosing to avoid Illinois and stick it to us. Guess what, they’re not.
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So here’s where i’ll insert my rolleyes emoticon…
illini125, I think you missed the point. Neither Robert, nor WaitingFor2012 were implying that blue chippers are trying to “stick it to us.” They were merely saying that they avoid Illinois. Why? Because like you implied, OSU gets good Ohio players because they have a good program, Illinois doesn’t get the good Illinois players, because, well…
Players in Ohio grow up as big OSU fans. Read or listen to their quotes about why they picked OSU. But why are players fans of teams? Sometimes it is state boundaries. Often times, though, it is the almighty W. OSU has a lot of them over the years, Illinois, not so much.
Robert and WaitingFor2012 both agree that (and guys forgive me if I’m wrong) “in-state blue-chippers” avoid Illinois like the plague. Why? Because they can win somewhere else. Not because, as you say they think, that they want to “stick it to us.”
I personally feel that in-state players should have some loyalty to their home team, as I hate fair weather fans. But, I also feel that Illinois needs to show loyalty to their potential players, and produce a consistent winning tradition. (See Robert’s 19 Point plan on how to do that) Players need to do what is best for them, and even if they love Illinois, but know they will get more exposure, more time on the field, more of an opportunity to make millions of dollars playing a game they love elsewhere, I cannot begrudge them for going to another school that will help them more than Illinois.
Some fans do, yes, but there has not beena post on here yet doing that. You just seem to have jumped on a true statement, and put words in peoples mouthes to make it somehting that you don’t like. Feel free to express your opinions, but I think you are wrong to say that blue-chippers don’t avoid Illinois. Unfortunately, they do. 19 point it out, and maybe they won’t.
Long live the Chief.
Real quickly, because the comment is so self-evident that its not worth much more trying to explain things to people who don’t get it in the first place: Our greatest recruiting successes “”should be”" with in-state players. Illinois should be getting the lion’s share of in-state recruits. It happens that way in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and many other places. (And.where it doesn’t, people complain.) In Texas, Florida, Alabama, California and a few other two-school states, people expect their HS stars to stay in-state. It’s as simple as that. Can’t dumb it down any further.
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There’s no doubt that Westerkamp, Ward and many others (like the O-linemen Iowa picks off) are TARGETED AND RECRUITED BY UIUC. We’re not getting them. Again, a very simple statement.
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Put those first two thoughts together: people everywhere expect in-state stars to stay close to home; and our in-state targets are going elsewhere. See if logic leads you to any conclusion.
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If we were winning with Zooker’s parade o’ outofstaters, things would be different. We’re not winning: therefore, things are not different.
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The earliest coach I remember talking about an primary recruiting area within a four-hour drive from UIUC is Tepper. White may have said the same thing. But we’ve never managed to build that fence.
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On the day Schnellenberger was hired at Miami, he drew a line from Tampa to Daytona on a map and told his assistants that was the State of Miami and he wanted every blue-chipper from there. EVERY SCHOOL WANTS THEIR LOCAL TARGETS. WE AREN’T GETTING THEM. WE NEED TO CHANGE.
I thougt of another example for those people who are still a little “unclear on the concept”: Nebraska.
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The Cornhuskers win. And they win big. If a HS star from Omaha goes off somewhere else, Husker fans don’t get too upset: their attitude is “seeya and beatya later buddy”. But if a HS star from Denver goes to Nebraska, you bet the Buff fans are going to be upset. Because most likely they’d be watching that kid beat them 3 out of 4 years at a minimum on Thanksgiving weekend.
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I for one am sick and tired of watching the Hawkeyes and Badgers RUN OVER US with Illinois HS stars on their team. If all of Zooker’s vaunted out of state stars were better, we’d be beating Iowa and Wisconsin. We’re not.
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Zooker was hired with warts. We were told he can recruit, so that will solve everything. Six or so years in, watching Ward, Westerkamp, et al move on is a bit much. Those kids were targeted, recruited, etc. We wanted them. We didn’t get them. Not good when recruiting is supposed to be your one and only strong suit.
Wisky and Iowa “run all over us”….well you’re completely wrong about that.
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2006 Iowa beat us by 17 and Wisky by 6
2007 We beat Wisky by 6 and Iowa beat us by 4
2008 We beat Iowa by 3 and Wisky beat us by 10
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And we haven’t played either team since 2008. So in the zook era after the first shortened year he was hired the avg. point differential for our games against Wisky was -3.33 (meaning we lost by an avg of 3.3 pts.) and against Iowa it was -6 pts.
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I REALLY fail to see how that constitutes getting run all over. Get your facts straight before you continue to come post with nothing but Zook/player bashing because you are always in a piss and moan mood.
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We have beaten Iowa and Wisky so your comment about if Zook’s players were better we would be beating them but we’re not is 100% factually wrong.
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Also, the problem hasn’t been the players, it’s been the coaching they have received from previous coaches, none of whom are still here. And if you would come down off your “I hate Zook” pedastal and think objectively for once I think you would admit that our team played better with the new coaches here.
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What a joke…
As if somehow Tate banging his head against a wall in the pressbox over Zooker’s timeouts didn’t happen.
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Zook was hired as a recruiter. He hasn’t shut off the floodgates. It took FIVE YEARS for Zook to get those assistant coaches people now view as saviors. It took Gunther putting a gun to his head. It took a fortune in salaries. Zook can hardly be handed the credit for the assistant’s attempts to turn things around.
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Six bowls possible for those two schools mentioned above during the time frame: they went to five. Our close loss to Iowa in their one missing year: anyone remember the circumstances surrounding the 10-6 loss in Iowa City? Anyone remember any “coaching controversy” that day? Anyone think it was the fault of the assistants?
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As if point differential is somehow golden. Next thing you know, we’ll be beating Arizona State, who will beat Oregon, who will win the Rose Bowl: so “we’re better than the Rose Bowl winners!!”
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Illinois hasn’t been able to hold on to recruits. People like Moekai, Richardson, Doering, and more than a few others have gone to other Big Ten schools before and after Zook. The point is, Zook was specifically hired to recruit. If people want to say that somehow it took him five years to figure out how to hire good coaches, and now we’ll win…. with the recruits he’s brought in… despite missing our in-state kids… because now he has good assistants who will be here forever… well, more power to ya.
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(When’s that new AD getting hired??)