Q. Ke'Shawn Vaughn is a guy you recruited hard. What did you like about him in high school that made you pursue him so hard?
COACH HAZELL: I thought he was really good with the ball in his hands in terms of being aggressive in the holes and he had good enough top-end speed. I watched him against Wisconsin; he played that way, I thought, against Wisconsin on the film, and we will see how he plays this Saturday.
Q. Feel like it's a couple of good freshman running backs in the game this weekend?
COACH HAZELL: We certainly have one, yeah, we'll see about the other guy, but he's a good player. He's still young, you can see that at times, where he doesn't go as fast or as hard as he always does, but he's going to be a good player, he's just a young guy.
Q. Staying on Illinois's running game, the last three games they haven't produced a lot of yardage. As you have looked at their entire season, Ferguson has been out for them the last three games. Is there a direct correlation why they haven't produced as much in the run game?
COACH HAZELL: I think that has something to do with it. I'm not sure how much they have committed -- have been committed to running the ball, I'm sure at some point in time they will. They will try to find where that identity is if they're going to run or get into four-wide situations and try to run the draws and the traps in the zone plays, but I'm not exactly sure why they're struggling in the last three weeks to only produce that much yardage.
Q. Do you now like that match-up with your defensive line, not just against Illinois but in general the way that they've played these last couple of weeks?
COACH HAZELL: I think our defensive line -- our defensive front, not just the line, but our defensive front has played really good run football in the last two weeks, against two pretty good opponents running the ball. The question is -- which I asked questioned to our defensive staff, is what are we going to see on Saturday? Are we going to see that four-wide-out team, or are they going to button down and try to run the ball at us? Coach Cubit's nature is not to do that, but we will see what happens.
Q. What do you remember about your time with Bill Cubit at Rutgers?
COACH HAZELL: Bill is a very intense guy. We spent two years together at Rutgers in 2001 and 2002. He's a very good football coach, a great offensive mind, and he has a passion for the game.
Q. How has Wes Lunt looked?
COACH HAZELL: Um, you know, earlier, I thought he was doing a really nice job of finding some guys and the last couple of weeks he's struggled a little bit, I'm not sure exactly why, but he's a great player and he has a great soft throw that he makes, and I'm sure he will come back and -- he's taken a lot of shots, and I'm not sure if that affects him throughout the course of the season, but I'm sure he will come out ready to play on Saturday.
Q. This team has faced its fair share of good receivers whether it's Burbridge, Erickson, Westerkamp, as you mentioned. What kind of challenges does Geronimo Allison pose for this team?
COACH HAZELL: He's a good player, he really is. I think some of the things that we have to do is mix up the coverages against him. I think we have to put pressure on the quarterback because that all plays into it, but we better stay in cover aim with him and we better get our hands on him early in the route so he can't get free.
Q. What will Illinois -- what do you expect from Illinois' defense, specifically?
COACH HAZELL: They're a four-man front team, you know, last year when we played them they were a big-time man-to-man coverage team; they played press coverage on the wide-outs and played those safeties in the box, and we were able to hit them last year with a lot of "I" violations. That's why we had some of those bigger runs. They are playing much more zone coverage right now, so you you're probably not going to get the long runs the way you had, but they want you to go the long, hard way.
They want you to earn every single yard, but they're doing a nice job. I tell you what, that front, they didn't play as well last week against Penn State, but when you go back and watch the Wisconsin came and you watch the Iowa game, that front is pretty good, so we're going to have to do a good job blocking those guys.
COACH HAZELL: I thought he was really good with the ball in his hands in terms of being aggressive in the holes and he had good enough top-end speed. I watched him against Wisconsin; he played that way, I thought, against Wisconsin on the film, and we will see how he plays this Saturday.
Q. Feel like it's a couple of good freshman running backs in the game this weekend?
COACH HAZELL: We certainly have one, yeah, we'll see about the other guy, but he's a good player. He's still young, you can see that at times, where he doesn't go as fast or as hard as he always does, but he's going to be a good player, he's just a young guy.
Q. Staying on Illinois's running game, the last three games they haven't produced a lot of yardage. As you have looked at their entire season, Ferguson has been out for them the last three games. Is there a direct correlation why they haven't produced as much in the run game?
COACH HAZELL: I think that has something to do with it. I'm not sure how much they have committed -- have been committed to running the ball, I'm sure at some point in time they will. They will try to find where that identity is if they're going to run or get into four-wide situations and try to run the draws and the traps in the zone plays, but I'm not exactly sure why they're struggling in the last three weeks to only produce that much yardage.
Q. Do you now like that match-up with your defensive line, not just against Illinois but in general the way that they've played these last couple of weeks?
COACH HAZELL: I think our defensive line -- our defensive front, not just the line, but our defensive front has played really good run football in the last two weeks, against two pretty good opponents running the ball. The question is -- which I asked questioned to our defensive staff, is what are we going to see on Saturday? Are we going to see that four-wide-out team, or are they going to button down and try to run the ball at us? Coach Cubit's nature is not to do that, but we will see what happens.
Q. What do you remember about your time with Bill Cubit at Rutgers?
COACH HAZELL: Bill is a very intense guy. We spent two years together at Rutgers in 2001 and 2002. He's a very good football coach, a great offensive mind, and he has a passion for the game.
Q. How has Wes Lunt looked?
COACH HAZELL: Um, you know, earlier, I thought he was doing a really nice job of finding some guys and the last couple of weeks he's struggled a little bit, I'm not sure exactly why, but he's a great player and he has a great soft throw that he makes, and I'm sure he will come back and -- he's taken a lot of shots, and I'm not sure if that affects him throughout the course of the season, but I'm sure he will come out ready to play on Saturday.
Q. This team has faced its fair share of good receivers whether it's Burbridge, Erickson, Westerkamp, as you mentioned. What kind of challenges does Geronimo Allison pose for this team?
COACH HAZELL: He's a good player, he really is. I think some of the things that we have to do is mix up the coverages against him. I think we have to put pressure on the quarterback because that all plays into it, but we better stay in cover aim with him and we better get our hands on him early in the route so he can't get free.
Q. What will Illinois -- what do you expect from Illinois' defense, specifically?
COACH HAZELL: They're a four-man front team, you know, last year when we played them they were a big-time man-to-man coverage team; they played press coverage on the wide-outs and played those safeties in the box, and we were able to hit them last year with a lot of "I" violations. That's why we had some of those bigger runs. They are playing much more zone coverage right now, so you you're probably not going to get the long runs the way you had, but they want you to go the long, hard way.
They want you to earn every single yard, but they're doing a nice job. I tell you what, that front, they didn't play as well last week against Penn State, but when you go back and watch the Wisconsin came and you watch the Iowa game, that front is pretty good, so we're going to have to do a good job blocking those guys.
