Illini Links

So it was a great weekend for the Illini. First the Fighting Zookers beat Iowa, thank god! Which was a hard fought game, and shockingly it was our defense that actually won the game for us. The Defense scored one touchdown, had 3 turnovers, and stopped Iowas from the 8, 11, 1 and 10 yard lines, and Donsay finally killed someone. Here is the news from the weekend.

Illini HQ's Loren Tate's take on the Illini. For my money, I really like Rodney Pittman and Carson at linebacker, I understand they aren't great in coverage, but neither is Martez Wilson. I'm not saying that Tez needs to be benched, but these other 2 need to get some more playing time. Carson is a Mike linebacker, so he might not play weak, but get him on the field somehow!

http://www.illinihq.com/news/football/2008/11/02/tate_illini_go_big_in_the_clutch

The Illini won their first exhibition game of the year, and guess what? They scored more than 60 points in a game. Some observations:
1) Watching the game on Bigtennetwork.com almost gave me a seizure. Thank god only on other game should be online.
2) Calvin Brock has improved his game by improving what he did last year. He is still shooting baseline jumpers, 3's from the corner, drives to the lane, and this guy loves to rebound on the offensive end.
3) Dominique Keller was exactly as advertised. He scores inside, and it is not pretty. He is big and can rebound.
4) Mike Davis is a freak!! This kid can jump out of the gym. He was also all over the boards, and can get back up quick and get his shot off.
5)Mike Tisdale may become the new Brian Randle when it comes to fouls. He was a step slow, but he did get injured a couple weeks ago so he is out of game shape.

Illini HQ article, talking about game and Chester.

http://www.illinihq.com/news/mens_basketball/2008/11/03/tate_illini_need_a_guy_like_frazier

Zook got a great commit yesterday from Craig Drummond. Drummond is a DE and was and still considered by most to be the best senior in Illinois. He hasn't played this year because he had a high ankle sprain, so he sat out so he wouldn't injure himself further before college. He is a top 150 prospect, and is planning to enroll early in January. He was down to Illinois and Wisco, and took his official visit to Wisco the same weekend we shit the bed there, yet Zook still got a commit from him. A frustrating note to this though, Craig wanted to announce his commitment yesterday which was his birthday on TV, yet the Sun-Times and the Tribune had to steal the kids moment and announce his intentions on Friday. We are reporting this now because we wanted to actually here it from his mouth.

http://yourseason.suntimes.com/1254801,110108-drummond-illinois.article

Here is the video from CLTV of his commit.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/highschool/football/chi-081102-morgan-park-drummond-illinois-recruit,0,7282379.story


I stated before that Donsay Hardemann finally laid somebody out, well here is a youtube clip out of it. I feel that Donsay is finally living up to expectations, he loves to hit people, he is in on almost every run, got his first interception, and as excited as anybody on the field.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQK_Vz9JH_g

And finally no Illini update would be complete without terrible news. Apparently freshman running back Mikel Leshoure broke his jaw this weekend. The good news, it wasn't a fight with a student at a bar. The bad news, it was another player that knocked him out. He is not going to play this week, but Daniel Dufrene is going to be back on Saturday so we will have 3 backs.

http://www.illinihq.com/news/football/2008/11/03/leshoure_suffers_broken_jaw