Illini Start New Season

Well it is finally here, the start of a new season for the Illini football team, and not a moment too soon. Just like the last few years, the Illini will open up their season in St. Louis against Mizzou. Unlike the last few years, Illinois is actually much better than Mizzou and are favored for this game. Going into this game Illinois is a 7 point favorite and I tend to agree with Vegas. So lets get on to the Durty Butter preveiw of the game. By the end of this I plan on having all of you whipped up into such a frenzy that you will probably run out to the parking lot and head butt a car window like Lattimer from The Program.

There are 5 reasons why I think that Illinois will win this game against Mizzou:

1) Illinois has a better QB

Like I have stated before most sports fans are morons and have the memory of an infant. The next time you hear an Illini fan bash Juice you automatically know 3 things about them. A) They are not true Illinois fans because if they were they would realize that Juice is Dan Marino compared to Tim Brasic, Jon Beutjer and Dustin Ward. They will not remember any of these names however because being the fair weather douche bags that they are, they were too busy playing beer pong with 14 guys and 2 girls who were remotely attractive after a case of Keystone. B) Instead of playing football or watching it in high school or college, they were too busy hanging out with their emo friends painting their finger nails black and listening to Rise Against. If they actually knew anything about football, they would realize that it is almost impossible to turn an option QB who threw the ball less than 10 times a game in high school into a pure pocket passer, hence the reason that Juice has been a work in progress for 3 years. C) Like I mentioned before they don't have a memory because it was Juice's 4 touchdown passes and him running the ball for 8 straight minutes that gave Illinois the greatest victory of all time against #1 Ohio State in Columbus (which I am watching right now). I know last year is on everyone's mind, but can we please remember that our now SENIOR quarterback led us to the Rose Bowl as a SOPHOMORE!!

Juice will probably become Illinois' total yardage leader after this game, and now that he has an offensive coordinator who is committed to running the ball with somebody other than Juice, it will make his job much easier. We all know that Juice can make every throw, but with talent in the backfield and at receiver, it will take all of the pressure off of him to carry this team. Juice did lead the Big Ten in passing yards last year and touchdowns. That should continue, and with one more year under his belt, the turnovers will go down.

2) Arrelious Benn is the best player on the field

Rejus is this years Jeremy Maclin. He is projected by pretty much everyone as the #2 reciever in this years draft, so now he has to come out and prove it. Mizzou had one of the worst pass defenses in the country last year, and it shouldn't be much better this year. There is no one who can cover Rejus one on one, and because of that expect a lot of zone coverage (also the fact that Illinois will still use the spread). With a zone coverage, and safeties worried about Rejus, you will see Uh-Oh underneath a lot, and Cumberland deep a lot with only a corner or a safety. Because Rejus is such a force, and him and Juice have been together for 3 years now, Illinois will find ways to get him the ball. As much as I hate bubble screens to receivers, Rejus is one guy who can make a lot happen with one. You will never see a corner take him down by himself, and this season you will see him break at least one for a big touchdown. What I would like to see more of this season is actual deep routes with Rejus. He had his 2 touchdowns last season against Penn State, and both of those were over 30 yards. If anything, having him run deeper routes will open up Fayson, Jenkins, Sykes, Duvalt and who ever else the Illini play at slot.

3) This is the best receiving corp ever at Illinois

I know a lot of people will want to argue that Lloyd, Young and Co. were better, but none of them had the talent of Benn. Cumberland is basically a wash with Young, and we will finally get introduced to Jarrod Fayson. For the record, Fayson was the 3rd ranked reciever coming out of high school just behind Percy Harvin. As a freshman at Florida, Fayson only had 12 catches, but 3 were for touchdowns. He will take of a lot of pressure off of the rest of the receivers, and he has played in much bigger games than anyone else on Illinois, like the 2007 National Championship game. Besides these 3 you have so much depth it is scary. The only person missing from last season is Will Judson, and 3 true freshman got some time last year, so there is experience on the second team. Look for Cordale Scott to also get some time in the Red Zone as he is 6-3 and 215 lbs. I am hoping that this group of recievers will help me forget forever the nightmare that was Kyle Hudson. Just for a comparison; Kyle Hudson was a starting reciever on our Rose Bowl team. Now Hudson would be the starting slot reciever on the scout team. I rest my case.

4) We have a new offensive coordinator

I loved Mike Locksley, but this last season he lost his damn mind. The breaking point for me was when Juice threw the ball 20 times in the fourth quarter against Western Michigan with only one designed running play. That wouldn't seem too far fetched except for the fact that Illinois was only down by one touchdown to a MAC team. To say that Locksley fell in love with the pass last season is about as big of an understatement as saying that Brett Favre loves attention. Illinois led the Big Ten in rushing in 2006, and 2007. All of the sudden they led the league in passing in 2008. With Mike Schultz at the healm of the offense this year, we will have a much more balanced team. Add to that fact that besides the great receivers, Illinois brings back all of its running backs from last year, and you have reason to believe that the Illini will become decicated to running the ball again. Remember this is the coach who is credited with turning Ladainian Tomlinson into such an amazing running back at TCU.

The talent on the offensive line is still very good, and with a running game it will keep defenses honest. Last season teams just pinned their ears back and tried to kill Juice because Illinois was a pass first team. It amazed me that Locksley went away from what got Illinois to the Rose Bowl. If you watch the OSU game again you will see that all of Juice's touchdown passes were off of play action. The safeties were so worried about Mendenhall and Williams running the ball that they bit on every fake. Now before you jump all over me and say "Well Illinois didn't have Mendenhall last season!" Look at 2006. Pierre Thomas, EB Halsey, Rashard Mendenhall and Juice were all in the mix that season. A spread option offense causes defenses to play assignment football, and gives running backs a lot of one on one match-ups. Last season Daniel Dufrene averaged 5.2 yards a carry!! Why would you not give him the ball more?

Last season with no running game, safeties just sat back and waited for the pass, and linebackers blitzed on damn near every down. It is crazy to expect your offensive line to protect a QB when a defense is bringing 5-7 guys on every pass down. If anything, this season Illinois should get back to having 3rd and short which is where having a QB like Juice is a major advantage. He can just lean his big head forward and the momentum from that is bound to get him 4 yards. This should also help in the red zone where Illinois was attrocious last season. You can throw 15-30 pass plays when the defense is in a zone because you are running a 4 wide spread. When you are at the 15 yard line, you have to be able to run the ball, and Illinois was not only terrible at that, but Locksley still thought he could pass all of the time from there. Rewatching games from last year, Illinois was amazing in between the 20's. In the red zone though, they absolutley fell apart, which is why we lost to Minnesota even though we outgained them by a large margin.

5) Our Defensive Line is much better than people think

Last season when we played Mizzou, we went into the game without either starter at defensive tackle. Sirod Williams was injured and lost for the season, and Josh Brent was out with an undisclosed issue. Now you ask any person who actually knows a damn thing about football and they will tell you that on defense it all starts with the defensive tackles. Brian Urlacher was the best linebacker in football when Ted Washington was commanding double teams in the middle, and Urlacher was free to tee off on running backs. Washington leaves and Urlacher is a bust. Tommie Harris comes in, and the Bears with a "rejuvanted" Urlacher go to a Superbowl. Tommie Harris gets hurt and Urlacher has a mediocere season. Do you see what I am getting at here? With Sirod Williams, Josh Brent (who could be a very high draft pick) and all-world Sophomore Corey Liuget ( A potential First Round Pick in 2 years) in the middle of that line, it will take a ton of pressure off of the Martez Wilson, Ian Thomas, and Russel Ellington at linebacker. Now Mizzou ran all over us with a make shift defensive line last year. This year, they should not be able to run up the middle, and without having their lineman being able to get up on our linebackers, we should be able to handle Washington running the ball. Our defensive ends are not nearly as good as last year, but for the most part they have experience, and they are athletic.

Here are a couple of people that you should look for in the game on Saturday:

1) Jarred Fayson WR #11
2) Tavon Wilson CB #3
3) Justin Green RB #26 (True freshman who is an absolute burner)
4) Ian Thomas LB #38
5) Russell Ellington LB #33
6) Corey Liuget DT #93

Now that we have gone through what PacMan likes to call "my delusional optimism" I will continue by debunking some of the knocks of this Illinois team.

1) The linebackers will be bad this season

At Middle Linebacker the last 2 seasons we have had Britt Miller and J Leman. They were phenomanal, but they lacked in atheleticism. You can bash Martez Wilson all you want, but how many true Freshman and Sophomores come in and set the world on fire? Especially when they were defensive ends in high school. Martez spent the last 2 seasons learing how to play linebacker, which is not easy to do. Russell Ellington is coming on strong as a Sophomore, and Ian Thomas has been impressive also according to reports. Why can these guys not step up and fill the shoes of Leman and Miller? They are more atheletic. They have better atheletes around them. Last season Illinois' defense led the Big Ten in tackles for loss!! What that tells you is that they were extemely talented, but they gave up plays because they were sloppy fundementally. You can learn how to tackle, pursue, and anticipate. You can't learn to be bigger, faster, stronger than everyone else.

2) The defense lacks experiance

Losing Vontae Davis, Britt Miller, Will Davis and others will obviously hurt this defense. However, you are not losing anything that cannot be replaced. Illinois still has plenty of experiance at positions that matter, and young talent that can fill in the gaps. Dere Hicks is a 3 year starter at cornerback. Martez Wilson was second on the team in tackles last season and will play the middle (which coincidentally is the exact same transition that Britt Miller made last season) Donsay Hardemann is recovered from a career threatening injury and will be back trying to kill recievers across the middle. I have already laid out the DT situation. Illinois has 2 seniors at DE with Doug Pilcher and Antonio James, both of whom have seen plenty of playing time for the defense. What should help you sleep at night is not who we have returning at these positions, but the fact that all of the recruits that we have gotten the last 4 years are now ready to play. In the past you knew you had 2 or 3 people you could rely on with the defense, but beyond that, you knew that Illinois was overmatched athletically at every other position. Now there is not a spot on the defense where Illinois does not have a solid player who might only lack in experiance and technique, which Zook promised that he addressed at Camp Rantoul compared to last year.

3) Athletes don't necessarily lead to wins.

Bullshit! Bullshit! Bullshit!
The most athletic teams almost always win. Last season Illinois lost to Mizzou, Penn State, and Ohio State. All three of those teams were better than Illinois. What lost the other games for Illinois was the fact that they had no desire or will to beat teams that were not better than them. 2007 was a perfect storm for Illinois where they had both talent and desire. Last season the players on the team felt that they were better and therefore they would win. The difference between a 8-3 season and a 5-6 season was heart and desire. The difference between a 1-10 team and an 8-3 team is athletes!! The point of this rant is this; Illinois has all of the pieces to be great. 5 years ago we weren't even capable of dreaming of this. At every position we have upgraded drastically from the horrific nightmares that were the end of the Ron Turner era and beginning of the Ron Zook era. Talent-wise, the only team that might have more skill than Illinois is Ohio State. With teams like OSU and PSU, they have a tradition of winning. At Illinois you don't have that. What we do have again is a chip on our shoulder. In 2007 it was proving that the Illini actually belonged with the top tier teams. Now the chip is proving that 2007 wasn't a fluke. Now Illinois is out to prove that they have the heart and desire to win games they should, and hopefully a few that people think they shouldn't.