Illini Football:  Illinois vs. South Florida
By Greg Taylor

[September 17, 2018] 

On Saturday, Illinois played South Florida in Chicago at Soldier Field, attempting to move to 3-0 on the year for the first time in the Lovie Smith era. It was a return to the home of the Chicago Bears, where Smith coached for 9 seasons from 2004 – 2012, taking Chicago to the Super Bowl during the 2005 season. Illinois fought hard for much of the game, losing 25-19 after leading 19-7 after the 3rd quarter. The outcome was super disappointing – especially considering the lead after three quarters – but we still found several positives about this game – as well as some things that certainly didn’t make us smile.

What we liked:

• Illinois seemed to the run the ball well repeatedly throughout the game. Mike Epstein ran with power and authority, rushing for 113 yards and Illinois’ only touchdown. Reggie Corbin used his speed to dart through holes, averaging over 8 yards a carry. It was so good, we started using the hash tag #runtheball on each tweet during game action.

• Chase McLaughlin was a machine kicking four field goals, including one from 53 yards away and Blake Hayes continued to punt with excellence, pinning South Florida deep on multiple occasions. Every kickoff by McLaughlin to USF resulted in a touchback, eliminating any long returns by USF’s super stud freshman returner. If we were assigning grades, we would give the entire kicking/punting team a A+.

• True Freshman Quarterback MJ Rivers played the entire game at the most important position on the field and for the most part did well. We have no idea if 5th year transfer AJ Bush will return on Friday night against Penn State in Champaign, but we really liked the poise of Rivers!

• We really liked seeing Chicago Bear legend Brian Urlacher at the game today, catching up on the progress of his former coaches rebuild at Illinois. We also liked seeing former Illini Juice Williams and Rashard Mendenhall – stars of Illinois’ 2007 Rose Bowl team. Sadly, following the dismissal of coach Ron Zook following the 2011 season, it has seemed as if Illinois’ football program was not very exciting, even to former football players and alums. That says nothing about recruiting. Our guess is being able to see former greats like Urlacher chatting it up with Lovie Smith on the sideline can do nothing but help!

What we didn’t like:

• Illinois seemed to go away from the run multiple times for no apparent reason. We are not football coaches – and we are not planning to start anytime soon – but it didn’t seem to make sense why Illinois abandoned the running game so often. And yet, Illinois at times “forgot” their bread and butter, hence the hash tag #runtheball!

• Illinois could not finish several drives with touchdowns – thank goodness for a great kicker! That said – touchdowns are always better than field goals – we know that is genius! Illinois did a pretty good job moving the ball in the first half, but couldn’t punch it in the end zone for six – and it ended up costing them a victory.

• Illinois’ defense might best be described as “bend but don’t break” – this probably won’t work against likes of Penn State, Wisconsin and Iowa. You cannot give up 600 plus yards (626 to be exact) and win games very often – although Illinois almost did just that! It should help when (if) Lovie lifts the suspensions on several key defenders, but bottom line is this: Illinois MUST get better on defense, and soon.
 

Is there any hope?

In a word, YES! Three reasons we remain hopeful for the future of Illinois football, and even the current 2018 season. First, we really like what Lovie Smith and his staff are doing – they continue to play the kids! So many of the starters were freshman and sophomores on Saturday and we love this! The NCAA changed their redshirt rule this year, allowing true freshman to play in the first couple of games without giving up a full year of eligibility so that might be part of this. But our guess is Lovie and his staff are committed to play the best – no matter how young they might be. This would have to bode well for a potential recruit wanting to play right away in college?

Second, the Big Ten is on the struggle bus this year and several of the teams on Illinois’ schedule are seemingly in tougher spots than the Illini. For quite some time, we thought games against Purdue and Rutgers COULD be possible victories. Now it looks like the Maryland game could also be a win. And Nebraska is 0-2. And Northwestern lost at home to Akron. It might just be the schedule is such that 3 or 4 more wins is NOT crazy talk after all. And 6-6 or 5-7, with 3 or 4 Big Ten victories WOULD be progress.

Third and finally – recruiting, recruiting, recruiting! It looks like Lovie and his staff and turning the corner! We remain optimistic that more and more difference making athletes WILL choose Illinois, among other reasons, because of the guy running the show and the staff he has around him!

Friday night at Champaign will probably be tough – I don’t see any scenario where the Illini upset Penn State – but October should bring more than just a new month – it should bring a couple of victories for Illinois’ football team! At least we hope so! Go Illini!