I strongly encourage you to sleep in on Saturday. If you’re reading this early Saturday, well, go back to bed. The Illinois football team plays its first road game on Saturday night. At 9:30 p.m. If you figure three hours for the game, you’ll realize that the game will actually be decided on Sunday.
In fairness to the schedulers, that’s not as late as it seems. The game will be contested in Tempe, Arizona, so it’s actually 7:30 p.m. local time for the Arizona State Sun Devils.
Either way, it’s Saturday Night, and it’s our first chance to see if this year’s football team is, or has the potential to be, special.
Many likely remember last year’s under the lights thriller against Arizona State at Memorial Stadium, where Illinois squeaked out a win in a very tight game. Arizona State’s offense will likely look significantly different, as the “why is that really tall guy lining up under center? Oh, holy crap, that’s their quarterback” offensive threat that was Brock Osweiler has moved, picked in the second round of the NFL Draft by the Denver Broncos. Taking snaps in his place is Taylor Kelly, a rookie quarterback with one game under his belt.
About that game: Arizona State blew out their first week opponent 63–6. That may not tell us a whole lot, as the Sun Devils dropped a division and played FCS Division (formerly known as Division I-AA; and they should really change it back to that, because everyone still has to add that fact in to distinguish it) and in-state non-rival Northern Arizona. I know, I know: you all have been studying the Lumberjacks roster at length and have an number of them, and other Big Sky Conference players, on your football fantasy teams. Don’t we all? But still, that win didn’t tell us a whole lot, as unless you get the fledgling PAC 12 Network, you didn’t see it. Another reminder of how spoiled we are in the Big Ten.
Arizona State had a good defensive outing as well, holding Northern Arizona to just 237 total yards. But then again, I don’t have to tell you about the Lumberjacks offensive woes since they lost … um … you know … that guy?
So we don’t know a whole lot about the opponent.
We may not know a whole lot about the Illini, or at least the Illini iteration that will take the field Saturday. Following a left ankle injury that had him leave the Illini opener in the third quarter, Nathan Scheelhaase has been listed as a “gametime decision” after practicing Thursday for the first time since the opener. New head coach Tim Beckman isn’t committing on which backup, Miles Osei or Reilly O’Toole, would start in the absence of Scheelhaase, who’s started the past 27 games for the Illini.
The oddsmakers are predicting a close game, though ASU is a mild favorite at roughly half a touchdown, and they have recently had a very, very solid record in home games. Illinois hasn’t won a non-conference road game since 2007, but that’s misleading. If you look at that span, aside from the now-defunct series with Missouri, that 2007 game against Syracuse was actually the last non-conference road game they played.
Arizona State, like the Illini, has a new head coach for Saturday’s, game, at least they will if he doesn’t suddenly leave and take a job at another school, which is a frequently run play in his playbook. Assuming he’s still there and hasn’t texted his players news of his departure (again, something he’s previously done), Graham has indicated he intends to run a hurry-hurry offense. Major-division football coaches are notoriously uncreative, so it only stands to reason that Oregon’s success with this kind of thing would be aped abundantly.
Illinois has indicated they’ll counter by planning plenty of defensive rotation, and continuing to execute a hydration plan (game’s in Arizona, remember) that they began instituting weeks ago.
So pace yourself on Saturday and tune in for the game (televised nationally on ESPN). It’s our first chance at seeing if this team is special.