Notes from the practice Friday night at Homewood-Flossmoor High School.
* Positions drills, one-on-one's, then a long controlled scrimmage. The practice ran from 6:00 to approx. 8:15. Chilly night, around 40 degrees.
* Most of the scrimmage was live tackling, and you could tell these guys haven't done much hitting for a while. Not much physicality, and the cold weather probably impacted it as well.
* It was a good night for the Illini defense, particularly up front. The defensive line has made some pretty big strides.
* None of the inside guy's on the O-line could handle Rob Bain. He dominated Joe Spencer, Nick Allegretti, and Pat Flavin and was constantly in the offensive backfield. Tenacious bull rusher. Wrecking ball.
* On the outside, Jihad Ward and DJ Smoot were also very good. Ward is getting off the ball faster and is more confident. Smoot was too quick off the edge for the Illini tackles.
* Defense 1's - SDE Ward, NT Bain, DT Clements, LEO Smoot, WLB Monheim, MLB Neal, SS Barton, FS Fejedelm, CB Bently, CB Spence, STAR Finney. Top guys among the 2's were SDE Paul James and CB Caleb Day. Day had a great diving interception of Wes Lunt. James was outstanding in drills, not quite as good during the scrimmage.
* Beckman and Cubit were very unhappy with the performance of the offense. They didn't compete very well up front, and made quite a few mental errors (wrong routes, missed blocking assignments, etc.).
* Lunt was fine overall, and very sharp at times, although he threw into coverage a few times. Day had the pick, and Eaton Spence had a pick off of a tipped bally. The only big play in the passing game was a 40 yard pass to G-Mo on a go route.
* Not good night for Chayce Crouch. He was off target, threw a wobbly ball, and didn't make great decisions. You can see that the tools are there, but he really struggled.
* I talked to Cubit about the running back situation after practice, and he's not happy with where the backups to Ferguson are right now. He said they aren't running with any physicality, are hesitant, and take too many unnecessary steps. Kendrick Foster got the most carries with the 2's and had a TD.
* DiLauro at right tackle was best among the offensive linemen. He looks to be around 310 right now, and has very good feet.
* Most of the decent running plays were on misdirection stuff. That's not a good sign. They want a more effective inside running game, but it's not happening quite yet.
* Offense 1s: C Spencer, LG Flavin, LT Schmidt, RG Allegretti, LT DiLauro, WR Dudek, WR, G-Mo, WR Turner, TE Davis, RB Ferguson, QB Lunt. JUCO transfer Ainslie Johnson played H-back in the red zone. Justin Hardee gets the same number of reps at the starters at WR, and he's having a very good spring.
* JUCO transfer Jordan Fagan looked better than he did the first week of spring. He may emerge as the 3rd tackle. We'll see.
* Dudek actually looks significantly better this spring than he did last year. He's knows the offense, is very confident, and there's no hesitation. Mikey is literally 5-7 yards open on every play. He's a mismatch for all of the Illinois DB's. Special player.
* Malik Turner is another very talented soph WR, and another future pro. He needs to run sharper routes to take the next step, though. He rounds them off at times, making him easier to cover. He'll get it eventually.
* Positions drills, one-on-one's, then a long controlled scrimmage. The practice ran from 6:00 to approx. 8:15. Chilly night, around 40 degrees.
* Most of the scrimmage was live tackling, and you could tell these guys haven't done much hitting for a while. Not much physicality, and the cold weather probably impacted it as well.
* It was a good night for the Illini defense, particularly up front. The defensive line has made some pretty big strides.
* None of the inside guy's on the O-line could handle Rob Bain. He dominated Joe Spencer, Nick Allegretti, and Pat Flavin and was constantly in the offensive backfield. Tenacious bull rusher. Wrecking ball.
* On the outside, Jihad Ward and DJ Smoot were also very good. Ward is getting off the ball faster and is more confident. Smoot was too quick off the edge for the Illini tackles.
* Defense 1's - SDE Ward, NT Bain, DT Clements, LEO Smoot, WLB Monheim, MLB Neal, SS Barton, FS Fejedelm, CB Bently, CB Spence, STAR Finney. Top guys among the 2's were SDE Paul James and CB Caleb Day. Day had a great diving interception of Wes Lunt. James was outstanding in drills, not quite as good during the scrimmage.
* Beckman and Cubit were very unhappy with the performance of the offense. They didn't compete very well up front, and made quite a few mental errors (wrong routes, missed blocking assignments, etc.).
* Lunt was fine overall, and very sharp at times, although he threw into coverage a few times. Day had the pick, and Eaton Spence had a pick off of a tipped bally. The only big play in the passing game was a 40 yard pass to G-Mo on a go route.
* Not good night for Chayce Crouch. He was off target, threw a wobbly ball, and didn't make great decisions. You can see that the tools are there, but he really struggled.
* I talked to Cubit about the running back situation after practice, and he's not happy with where the backups to Ferguson are right now. He said they aren't running with any physicality, are hesitant, and take too many unnecessary steps. Kendrick Foster got the most carries with the 2's and had a TD.
* DiLauro at right tackle was best among the offensive linemen. He looks to be around 310 right now, and has very good feet.
* Most of the decent running plays were on misdirection stuff. That's not a good sign. They want a more effective inside running game, but it's not happening quite yet.
* Offense 1s: C Spencer, LG Flavin, LT Schmidt, RG Allegretti, LT DiLauro, WR Dudek, WR, G-Mo, WR Turner, TE Davis, RB Ferguson, QB Lunt. JUCO transfer Ainslie Johnson played H-back in the red zone. Justin Hardee gets the same number of reps at the starters at WR, and he's having a very good spring.
* JUCO transfer Jordan Fagan looked better than he did the first week of spring. He may emerge as the 3rd tackle. We'll see.
* Dudek actually looks significantly better this spring than he did last year. He's knows the offense, is very confident, and there's no hesitation. Mikey is literally 5-7 yards open on every play. He's a mismatch for all of the Illinois DB's. Special player.
* Malik Turner is another very talented soph WR, and another future pro. He needs to run sharper routes to take the next step, though. He rounds them off at times, making him easier to cover. He'll get it eventually.
