The Chief doing his best David Lee Roth impression from the "JUMP!" video. What: Step (f)5.
When: Tomorrow at noon eastern, butt crack of dawn pacific time.
Where: Memorial Stadium and Big Ten Network.(On the Rocks in Redondo Beach, Ca. for me. They have Buckeye watch party specials! Hammed by noon.)
Why: I like turtles.
Ron Zook likes turtles too. Unfortunately for Zooker, he doesn't have an awesome zombie face paint job...... or a job in a few months with the way things are looking. Oh the Big Ten coaching hot-seat, sounds like a popular place this time of year.
Good news everyone, Big Ten play starts tomorrow! You know what that means? Well a couple of things really; we can root against Michigan without the whole "conference prestige" BS and the Buckeyes get to face off against familiar competition. It's kind of a "devil you know" situation. Illinois first played OSU in 1902 and OSU leads the series 62-30 with 4 ties coming in there too. Remember when there were ties? Wow, that was lame. It's been a couple of years since Illinois and Juice Williams came to Columbus and took the wind out of our sails. Admittedly I was super pissed because it was my first trip back to Columbus since graduating. Not exactly how I wanted that to go.....
This year's Illinois team is a bit different. Like I said, Juice is gone and so is Captain America(pre Stanzi), Jay Leman. The 2010 season started off on a disappointing note; a 23-13 loss to (somehow) rival Mizzou. This was a game that Illinois was up early, surprisingly, and lost towards the end. Fireronzook.com was probably rebooted immediately after.(I checked, it's not up) After that disaster, Illinois beat a couple of teams they "should" beat, Southern and Northern Illinois. Ahh directional schools, ya gotta love em. I mean, everyone plays them. OSU plays OU, UM plays at least one directional a year, etc. But here comes the pain train, wearing its' road white jersey.
On offense Illinois is lead by Red shirt freshman, Nathan Scheelhaase at quarter back, and junior Mikel LeShoure at runnign back. So far this season, Scheelhasse has gone for 3 TD's 3 picks and 380 yards while completing 54% of his passes. Also, he's been sacked 5 times. Not exactly world-beating numbers. Mikel LeShoure is what makes the offense tick for the Illini though, not so much the quarterback. Averaging 6.9 per carry and racking up 398 yards and 3 TDs in 3 games isn't bad at all for the 225 junior, but this weekend will be a little different. OSU will be keyed in on stopping the run, and making Scheelhaase beat them with his arm. Not likely.
On defense... well, you know. Illinois doesn't really "play defense". The front four is an experience group(3 seniors 1 junior), The linebackers are somewhere in between (2 juniors and a sophormore) and the secondary should be better(2 seniors a junuor and a sophpomore) than they have been so far this season. Will Illinois make the same mistakes other teams have made this year on defense? By that I mean, loading the box and daring Pryor to throw? Or will they back off and let the OSU run game beat them as it did last year? It's a tough decision to say the least. Pick your poison.
What do I want to see?
Good news everyone, Big Ten play starts tomorrow! You know what that means? Well a couple of things really; we can root against Michigan without the whole "conference prestige" BS and the Buckeyes get to face off against familiar competition. It's kind of a "devil you know" situation. Illinois first played OSU in 1902 and OSU leads the series 62-30 with 4 ties coming in there too. Remember when there were ties? Wow, that was lame. It's been a couple of years since Illinois and Juice Williams came to Columbus and took the wind out of our sails. Admittedly I was super pissed because it was my first trip back to Columbus since graduating. Not exactly how I wanted that to go.....
This year's Illinois team is a bit different. Like I said, Juice is gone and so is Captain America(pre Stanzi), Jay Leman. The 2010 season started off on a disappointing note; a 23-13 loss to (somehow) rival Mizzou. This was a game that Illinois was up early, surprisingly, and lost towards the end. Fireronzook.com was probably rebooted immediately after.(I checked, it's not up) After that disaster, Illinois beat a couple of teams they "should" beat, Southern and Northern Illinois. Ahh directional schools, ya gotta love em. I mean, everyone plays them. OSU plays OU, UM plays at least one directional a year, etc. But here comes the pain train, wearing its' road white jersey.
On offense Illinois is lead by Red shirt freshman, Nathan Scheelhaase at quarter back, and junior Mikel LeShoure at runnign back. So far this season, Scheelhasse has gone for 3 TD's 3 picks and 380 yards while completing 54% of his passes. Also, he's been sacked 5 times. Not exactly world-beating numbers. Mikel LeShoure is what makes the offense tick for the Illini though, not so much the quarterback. Averaging 6.9 per carry and racking up 398 yards and 3 TDs in 3 games isn't bad at all for the 225 junior, but this weekend will be a little different. OSU will be keyed in on stopping the run, and making Scheelhaase beat them with his arm. Not likely.
On defense... well, you know. Illinois doesn't really "play defense". The front four is an experience group(3 seniors 1 junior), The linebackers are somewhere in between (2 juniors and a sophormore) and the secondary should be better(2 seniors a junuor and a sophpomore) than they have been so far this season. Will Illinois make the same mistakes other teams have made this year on defense? By that I mean, loading the box and daring Pryor to throw? Or will they back off and let the OSU run game beat them as it did last year? It's a tough decision to say the least. Pick your poison.
What do I want to see?
- Better production from the running backs. I know there have been a lot more passes thrown than we're used to, and that has been a welcomed change, but at some point the run game will have to win us a game. I don't know when that will be, or who against but I'm pretty sure about it. It's time for better run blocking, and for at least one of the backs to have a 100 yard game.
- Zero false starts. Keep it goin guys.
- Zero turn overs.
- A special teams touchdown. We've been close, tripped up a few times by the last man standing. It's bound to happen sooner or later.
- Speaking of special teams, better kick and punt coverage. Kind of goes without saying.
- The talented Mr. Berry.... on offense, before garbage time. The dude is fast, and if he gets to the outside, forget about it, he's gone for 6.
- Posey getting open. He aught to know that he's going to see the opposing teams best cover corner every week. He's earned that. I have to believe that as happy as he is for Sanzenbacher's day, he can't help but want to one up him. Get open and the ball will get there.
- Continue to throw to the TE, no matter who it is.
- We keep the turtle. "Yay"
- Pryor goes over 300 total yards again.
- Posey gets a touchdown. You can't keep him outta the endzone two weeks in a row.
- The OSU defense holds LeShoure under 100 yards for the game. I'm thinking under 70 actually.
- Torrence or Chekwa get a pick,
- Moeller continues to be badass.
- Zooks hot seat gets turned up to 11.
Never. Forget.
(thank MOTSAG)
