I watched a good part of the NC vs SC opener and the upcoming game is going to give us an idea of how well our D matches up with athletic offenses. NC probably should have beat SC, but their QB, Williams, threw a couple of terrible interceptions in the end zone.
Williams is a good athlete with good size, and it sounds like he ran the ball a lot last year. It appears they're trying to balance the offense more this year and while Williams threw the interceptions, he also made some nice throws to some big, athletic WRs. They've also got a sophomore RB named Hood that was a highly ranked RB coming out of HS and looked very impressive. He'll run through some tackles. If we hold these guys under 20 it will be a good day and portend good things with respect to the rest of the season.
It was tougher to get a read on NC's defense because SC started a RS Freshman. If I remember correctly, SC turned the game by getting their running game going and busting some long runs. After watching the Illini the last two games, it would be a big surprise if we were able to win a game in this manner. I think it likely we'll have to continue using the short passing game to supplement the running game.
This game is going to be an interesting chess match between Cubit and Chizik, the DC for NC. Chizik has coached against plenty of spread offenses while in the SEC so you'd think he's got a pretty good idea how to scheme it. I think they'll attack the lateral stuff; bubble screens, RB screens and flare passes, and we'll have to keep them honest with some deeper passes. I don't know what it's actually called, but we've tried to throw the pass where one of the bubble screen blockers slips his defender and runs down the seam, but Lunt hasn't yet been able to drop it in. It might have been Doug, but someone said they didn't think Cubit has shown much of the offense yet. I'd be willing to bet a few dollars that this is the week we see more of Ferguson and one of the other tailbacks in the game at the same time in an effort to create mismatches with LBs and safeties. For what it's worth, I'd like to see more of Enyenihi. He's decisive, gets north and south in a hurry, and gets some yards after contact. The freshman might have the higher ceiling, but it looks like Enyenihi might be the more productive back at this time. Add to that, Vaughns' fumble was pretty brutal. It looked like he lost the ball just running into the back of a blocker.
All in all, I'm looking forward to this game with more anticipation than any other Illini game in quite some time. I'm afraid we'll have to play almost mistake free to pull it out, but it's not the mismatch it would have been the last few years.
Williams is a good athlete with good size, and it sounds like he ran the ball a lot last year. It appears they're trying to balance the offense more this year and while Williams threw the interceptions, he also made some nice throws to some big, athletic WRs. They've also got a sophomore RB named Hood that was a highly ranked RB coming out of HS and looked very impressive. He'll run through some tackles. If we hold these guys under 20 it will be a good day and portend good things with respect to the rest of the season.
It was tougher to get a read on NC's defense because SC started a RS Freshman. If I remember correctly, SC turned the game by getting their running game going and busting some long runs. After watching the Illini the last two games, it would be a big surprise if we were able to win a game in this manner. I think it likely we'll have to continue using the short passing game to supplement the running game.
This game is going to be an interesting chess match between Cubit and Chizik, the DC for NC. Chizik has coached against plenty of spread offenses while in the SEC so you'd think he's got a pretty good idea how to scheme it. I think they'll attack the lateral stuff; bubble screens, RB screens and flare passes, and we'll have to keep them honest with some deeper passes. I don't know what it's actually called, but we've tried to throw the pass where one of the bubble screen blockers slips his defender and runs down the seam, but Lunt hasn't yet been able to drop it in. It might have been Doug, but someone said they didn't think Cubit has shown much of the offense yet. I'd be willing to bet a few dollars that this is the week we see more of Ferguson and one of the other tailbacks in the game at the same time in an effort to create mismatches with LBs and safeties. For what it's worth, I'd like to see more of Enyenihi. He's decisive, gets north and south in a hurry, and gets some yards after contact. The freshman might have the higher ceiling, but it looks like Enyenihi might be the more productive back at this time. Add to that, Vaughns' fumble was pretty brutal. It looked like he lost the ball just running into the back of a blocker.
All in all, I'm looking forward to this game with more anticipation than any other Illini game in quite some time. I'm afraid we'll have to play almost mistake free to pull it out, but it's not the mismatch it would have been the last few years.
