As an avid Illini fan, I am excited to report that Camp Rantoul 2010 has been a huge success for the football team. What this team has accomplished in two short weeks is impressive to say the least. We are steadily making those much needed improvements before facing Missouri in the State Farm Arch Rival game in just two short weeks.
Week #1 at this year’s Camp Rantoul was spent battling the elements. Central Illinois has never been known to be mild in terms of weather; we tend to experience the extremes from one day to the next-and this week was no different. The biggest challenge for these players was the scorching temperatures during which the heat index often remained well over 100 degrees. To counteract the heat, the coaching staff was instrumental in changing practice times to make the most of the time they had. Every effort was made to ensure that the players had enough practice time in preparation for the end-of-the-week scrimmage.
Held Saturday evening at Bill Walsh field at Rantoul High School, said scrimmage was certainly rewarding. The Fighting Illini offense seemed well ahead of the defense, especially in the first half and after only a week’s worth of work. It’s a general rule of college football that defenses are usually far ahead of offenses in the spring and the pre-season. For our offense — which in my opinion is the most impressive unit on the field — to produce so many big plays speaks volumes to Coach Petrino’s strategy for this year’s pro-style schemes.
Several big plays highlighted the Rantoul scrimmage on Saturday evening. The offensive line was note-worthy for allowing enough time for the quarterbacks to find their receivers downfield. They also sustained their blocks and allowed Green, Leshoure, and Ford to be productive in the running game. Our defense did give up some big plays-mostly in the first half. However, the second half showed marked improvement as the defense tightened up their ranks, shutting down the running game or at least confining the gains to mere ten and fifteen yard increments. Coach Koenning’s defense remained in a base defense the entire scrimmage. Mistakes were made on both sides of the ball, which is normal with only one week to prepare (as opposed to the two weeks the players would normally have). These mistakes are both understandable and correctable.
Week #2 was remarkable; improvements were made in individual, group, and unit work. Defense should be greatly improved in the upcoming scrimmage. Defensive backs Wilson, Hawthorne, Bellamy, Henry and Sanni will recover in the scrimmage scheduled for Saturday August 21 at 3:30pm. There is still a good amount of competition for many starting positions before our first game on September 4. Hopefully the scrimmage this Saturday will answer a lot of questions in the minds of coaches and players alike.
Possible rookie sensations include: #23 Bud Golden RB, #12 Ryan Lankford WR, #9 Darius Milliness WR, #89 Evan Wilson TE, #8 Brandon Denmark LB, #99 Michael Buchanan DL, #20 Fritz Rock DB.
As I’ve said before, this year could be the beginning of a whole new era for Illini football. Dave Revsine of the Big Ten Network has commented, “We come out of here each year saying, ‘There are very few teams that look like Ohio State.’ Illinois, year in and year out, would be a team you would group among the better teams just in the way they looked physically. Some years, that has played out, most prominently in 2007 when they made it to the Rose Bowl. In other years, it hasn’t played out as much.”
It is clear that the potential for greatness is there, we just need to see it through.
On a side note, (but not completely unrelated) Congratulations to Martez Wilson for being selected for the Butkus Award watch list. Hopefully Coach Disch and the linebackers will support his efforts.
Let’s see if Saturday’s scrimmage will offer us a glimpse of the exciting season to come.