Yes, it’s that time of year already as we begin the fun that is Spring Football games this weekend. In fact seven of the twelve Big Ten teams will play their games this Saturday. For those of you with us from the beginnings over at WiscoBadgers.com you’ll remember our Spring Football Previews from last year. Things will look similar to that, but a few tweaks in the system will hopefully bring you some good looks at the other teams around the Big Ten.
We start things off in our division with a look at the Illinois Fighting Illini who had perhaps one of the most disappointing seasons in Illini history last year and that resulted in Ron Zook being relieved of his duties. In his place stepped Tim Beckman who had led the resurgence of the Toledo program over the past three years. This program has a ton of question marks obviously after their utter collapse from a 6-0 start and a top 25 ranking to a team playing in the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl, so let’s take a look at what’s on tap for the Illini this Spring.
2011 Record: 7-6 (2-6)
Postseason: Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl – W 20-14
Head Coach: Tim Beckman (1st year at Illinois, 21-16 career record)
Returning Starters: 17 ( 7 offense, 8 defense, 2 special teams)
Spring Game Info: April 14th @ 2pm Central
Spring Outlook: With a new regime in place there’s always an aura of excitement around the program and that’ll be the case on Saturday as the new look Illini take to the field for what promises to be a spirited Spring game. Beckman has said that no starting position is a lock including at quarterback so there will be a lot to look forward to.
One of the most interesting things that’s happened this Spring is Beckman reaching out more to the players of the past as he’s brought in former Illini o-lineman Dave Diehl to really help in grading out and assisting with the offensive lineman in camp and he was there just as recently as this past Friday.
Not only that but players of the past will help coach the Spring game which will be a game picked by a draft tomorrow. The coaches will also be split between the two sides (orange and blue). The honorary coaches will be Jeff George, Mike Holmes, and Brit Miller for the Orange team while Doug Dieken, Dana Howard, and Tim McCarthy will coach the Blue team. So at least he’s trying to surround the team in the winning culture of the Illini past.
On the field though there are plenty of questions to go around. Most of them are coming on the offensive side of the ball despite returning a ton of starters from last season. Quarterback Nathan
Scheelhaase did not exactly instill a ton of confidence down the stretch of his sophomore season and saw Reilly O’Toole and him in a rotation to try and spark the offense towards the end of the year. Scheelhaase’s numbers were down from his awesome freshman campaign as he threw for 2,110 yards with a decent 63.2% completion percentage. He had just 13TD’s to 8INT’s though and his decision making at times was very questionable. O’Toole came in a went 40-67 for just 270 yards with 1TD to 4INT’s in relief of Scheelhaase. Beckman has stated both will battle but Scheelhaase is his starting QB and with a more pro-style offense being installed it will be key to watch what these QB’s look like in picking up the new offense in the spring game.
Whomever is going to throw the ball this fall they’ve got to have someone to target right? Well, gone is all-Big Ten receiver A.J. Jenkins and his 90 receptions season. Looking to fill the void is the returning duo of Spencer Harris and Jon Davis. The problem is neither were all that productive, catching just 26 and 22 balls last season. So, watching to see if they can step up and be much more productive in the absence of Jenkins will be something to keep an eye out for in the Spring game.
Despite the questions at QB the bigger issue through spring has been a lack of depth at Running Back. Gone are the top two rushers last year in Jason Ford and Troy Pollard (600 and 475 yards a piece) and both Donovonn Young and Josh Ferguson aren’t around for Spring practice but could be 100% by fall camp. That leaves a lot of inexperience and a history of injuries to worry about.
However, the biggest area of concern and perhaps the biggest reason for the lack of success in 2011 is the offensive line. Bringing in two time Super Bowl Champion Dave Diehl (NY Giants) to work with the coaches and players during Spring will go a long way in evaluating what the Illini have and where they need to improve upon in the work up to their season opener.
Defensively the Illini should be very solid despite the loss of DE Whitney Mercilus and his Big Ten best 16 sacks from last season. They will have outstanding LB Jonathan Brown back (team best 108 tackles) and a dominate inside force in DT Akeem Spence (69 tackles, 1.5 sacks) as well as one of the more underrated CB’s in the Big Ten, Terry Hawthorne to anchor this team. The biggest question marks are who’s going to step up and play Safety for this team as well as who will help Brown and Ashante Williams in the linebacking corp. A switch to a hybrid and more versatile defense than what was run under Zook should be interesting to say the least. Tim Banks should get a very good idea of where his players stand in the Spring game because of the draft format.
This is one team that has a lot of talent on it, but needs to put it all together in order to be competitive on the field in 2012. Watching a team turn around under a new head coach is always interesting and this should be one of the spring games to watch if you are so inclined this weekend.
If you want more info on the Dave Diehl situation and the past returning to campus check out our good friend Bob Asmussen’s video. You can also see more of his writing over at IlliniHQ.com and the News-Gazette.
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