best ranking in 35 years!

[hdhntr148]

Illinois coming off of historic season has 16 starters coming back with his experienced very good QB and Ranked 12th best since same ranking 35 years ago. BB is a very good HC and with this type of experience and mixing in Transfers with similar will be a real presence in B1G.

Indiana is ranked 18th and will play them early in september and then OSU which is number 2. IMO will beat IN as they were exposed in their playoff game as more of a pretender with easy schedule. Then should give Buckeyes all they can handle tho they have best talent money can buy.

Look for another great season for IL even possibly making CFP. We shall see how it all rolls out.

[Rickster]

2 weeks

I'm a big fan of TEs, especially play action passing to them in the red zone. I see 10 TEs listed on the roster...any of them any good?

[ChiefSTL]

Can't wait to get this thing rolling. Getting some national recognition is great. I think #12 might be a little lofty, but we'll see. The Indiana and Duke games early on are really going to set the tone IMO. Win both of those and you really feel good about the rest of the season.

[Rickster]

I'd love to be 6-0 going into the OSU game.

[ChiefSTL]

I'd love to be 6-0 going into the OSU game.

Would be awesome to host our first college gameday!

[Vinegar Ben]

Don't want to get my hopes too high. They still have to play every game. They do have some talent back so things could be interesting this year. Last night's game against an undermanned Western Ill squad wasn't much of a test even though the Illini made some mistakes in this contest. The sacks raised its ugly head from last year. I blame part of that on Luke who holds the ball too long. The unsportsmanlike penalties need to be addressed by the coach. Against top line opponents they will break their backs. Run defense was good, pass defense was average against an inferior opponent.
Lot of things to look forward to-good talented receivers, many different style running backs [I hope Feagen can stay healthy this year but he seems to be injury prone.
Go blow out the Blue Devils and make us believe!

[Rickster]

agreed....it seems what we thought were the 2 biggest "weaknesses" going into the season - D line and WR - showed out and had a strong game. I think Beatty and Molek will be fine and look forward to seeing them develop into reliable targets. Can't remember his name, but I liked what I saw from #36 at nosetackle. I think he can really benefit from teams concentrating on keeping Jacas out of the backfield.

That Valentine kid at RB seems to really understand how to use his burst effectively. It seemed like he consistently turned small gaps into positive yards with every carry.

play action pass to the TE in the red zone for TD #1 ???....yes, please. More of that please and thank you. Cheers to that play call and perfect execution.

[ChiefSTL]

agreed....it seems what we thought were the 2 biggest "weaknesses" going into the season - D line and WR - showed out and had a strong game. I think Beatty and Molek will be fine and look forward to seeing them develop into reliable targets. Can't remember his name, but I liked what I saw from #36 at nosetackle. I think he can really benefit from teams concentrating on keeping Jacas out of the backfield.

That Valentine kid at RB seems to really understand how to use his burst effectively. It seemed like he consistently turned small gaps into positive yards with every carry.

play action pass to the TE in the red zone for TD #1 ???....yes, please. More of that please and thank you. Cheers to that play call and perfect execution.

Fun game to be at. Did what we should do against an inferior opponent. It's pretty neat that now 5 minutes after the game is over they let fans onto the field and exit through the south end zone. My boys thought that was pretty awesome to get some pics in the end zone.

You're right about the DL and WR. I think we look really deep there. The #36 you're talking about is Tomi Durojaiye. He was a highly ranked high school recruit but is on his 4th school in 4 years. Man he really did jump out. I thought he was a linebacker out there and then when I looked him up I was shocked to see it was Tomi. Another good surprise on the DL was #96, Eli Coenen. He transferred in from Bemidje State in Wisconsin. He has 3 years to play and I didn't think he'd be on the depth chart this year. He's a masssive dude at 6'7", 300 lbs. He'll be a nice depth piece behind James Thompson.

LB's look like a deep group too. Malachi Hood and JoJo Hayden really look athletic. We've got 4 good ones there with those guys and Rosiek and Odeluga.

Daniel Brown provided some good pass rush out on the edge. We're 5 deep at OLB with Jacas, Bryant, Brown, Barna and Lowery. Barna looks faster this year. He's gonna shine when he takes over for Jacas next year.

Little concerning at CB with Jahieme Clark out with a hammy injury. There's a chance he's back for Duke, but it's not likely. Kaleb Patterson is ok in zone coverage and is a good tackler helping against the run, but he's bad in man coverage. If Clark is out, I think they gotta bump Xavier Scott outside and either have Miles Scott or Tanner Heckel cover the slot. Mac Resetich looks like a beast, so him playing FS if Miles has to play the STAR doesn't hurt us.

Little rusty on timing with Luke and the new transfer receivers. Bowick slowed up just a touch on the deep ball that should've been a TD. Clement looked over the wrong shoulder on a corner route in the end zone that Luke put on the spot. That'll get better though. I think we've got enough talent there.

You're right about Valentine, he's got some burst. Last year I felt like he tried to just rely on his speed. But I saw some film breakdown of Friday's game and he showed some great patience in letting his blockers get set up before bursting through the holes. We've got a really good set of RB's with our top 3. Feagin was creating something out of nothing on some of his runs.

Big litmus test on Saturday. Duke has one of the best QB's in the country and an experienced defense. If this was at home I'd feel good, but never know on the road. If we really wanna be contenders, gotta win games like this though. It's gonna be 90 degrees there on Saturday. Hopefully our overall depth helps us out there.

[Rickster]

agree on Hood...the other LB. He looked fast and effective. That late hit call on him was terrible. The ball carrier lowered his shoulder to drive into Hood just as he stepped on the sideline. No possible way the defender (Hood) could pull up and avoid contact that fast.

Sounds like Duke defense is not very good? They gave up a lot of rushing yards and 17 pts to a cupcake in their opener. Illini are betting favorites.

Unfortunately, I think I have to miss this game to take our dog to the annual puppy pool party. I'll have to watch the game highlights.

[ChiefSTL]

agree on Hood...the other LB. He looked fast and effective. That late hit call on him was terrible. The ball carrier lowered his shoulder to drive into Hood just as he stepped on the sideline. No possible way the defender (Hood) could pull up and avoid contact that fast.

Sounds like Duke defense is not very good? They gave up a lot of rushing yards and 17 pts to a cupcake in their opener. Illini are betting favorites.

Unfortunately, I think I have to miss this game to take our dog to the annual puppy pool party. I'll have to watch the game highlights.

Yeah I've got a golf tournament on Saturday so I've gotta watch it on delay. One thing I did read was that Duke's left tackle has issues with pass protection. Hopefully Jacas lives in the backfield all day.