Illini May be OK This Year

Paul M. Banks a.k.a. The Sports Bank, NBC Chicago Street Team

This past weekend, the University of Illinois Fighting Illini got some measure of redemption from their week one DISASTER in St. Louis. The Illini responded from their 37-9 thrashing at the hands of Missouri to rout FCS opponent Illinois St. 45-17 in Champaign. Granted it was against a lower tier team predicted to finish near the bottom of their vastly inferior conference, but the Illini did without the services of arguably their three if not best, most important, players: QB Juice Williams, WR Arrelious Benn, and LB Martez Wilson. Williams, a Chicago native who’s been tutored by another Chicago product and star quarterback, Donovan McNabb contributed just one series before getting hurt. His injury is not supposed to be extremely serious and his return is key, for the Illini to have a legitimate leader.

Williams spoke about what he learned from working with McNabb. “Keep your head…a majority of quarterbacks know that when things start going on around them, people start talking, things start to tank. It’s just the quarterback mentality to let everything go and just stay focused and go from there,” Williams stated.

His top-flight receiver in a highly heralded corps is Arrelious “Rejus” Benn, a projected top ten pick in the NFL Draft. But his stock is falling because Rejus has been a total non-factor so far. The Illini receivers have been extremely hyped, and if Benn isn’t 100% healthy then other players like Jeff Cumberland, Jarred Fayson, and Tight End Michael Hoohoomanawananuii (have fun with trying to pronounce that) will need to step up big time.

Illini Head Coach Ron Zook also needs to realize who his starting tailback is. It should be Daniel Dufrene, with Jason Ford as a capable back-up, not the other way around. They’ve battled some injuries as well this young season, so they fit right in with the rest of the team.

On the other side of the ball, it comes down to another well-recruited Chicago product, Martez Wilson, who moves over to Middle Linebacker, and needs to be the “quarterback” of the defense.

“The last two, actually the last three years, our Mike linebacker has led the Big Ten in tackles,” Zook said. “I don’t want to put the pressure on him that he’s not doing a good job if he doesn’t lead the Big Ten in tackles, but he’s a guy that a lot of things revolve around him, with our calls and so forth, and it’s going to be important that he has the kind of year that we think he can.” Wilson was also hurt and missed the last game. But Illinois won in impressive fashion, despite all the key missing pieces, which is a good sign. It’s also a good thing they have this week off- to get ready and healthy for mighty Ohio St. on September 26th.

See more of Paul M. Banks’ work at The Sports Bank, Washington Times, Walter Football.com

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Illini Juice not Fresh Enough

Paul M. Banks a.k.a. The Sports Bank The St. Louis-bred social philosopher Nelly once told us, “Can’t nobody stop the juice, so baby tell me what’s the use” in his 2002 hit “Hot in Here.” This maxim was true for opposing defenses all season as Illinois quarterback Juice Williams broke the school record for single season total offense with 3,892 combined passing and rushing yards. On his way to breaking the record of Tony Eason –the New England Patriots starting QB in Super Bowl XX- Juice broke single game total offense records for both Memorial Stadium and Michigan Stadium, the latter of which is especially impressive given the rich history of Michigan Wolverines football.

Unfortunately, the rest of the Fighting Illini didn’t have juice like Williams did on the field. After 2007’s Rose Bowl Champaign campaign, most people in Illini Nation expected a similar encore in 2008. Instead, Illinois finished just 5-7 after getting walloped by #20 Northwestern 27-10 on Saturday. This “earned” them the dubious distinction of being the first team to go from Rose Bowl one year to no bowl the next since (well, Illinois again in) 1984. However that team was sanctioned by the NCAA and allowed no bowl appearance. The last team to legitimately go from Roses to thorns was over 40 years ago. Soon after Juice watched the fans of his rival team storm Ryan Field in celebration, I asked him if expectations were too high in Champaign and if that led to collapse: “I don’t think the pressure really got to us, I think it’s more a matter of not coming out every Saturday and performing like we know we can. We can’t have morale victories out there. We can’t have games where we say we should have won that game, that’s not enough. We’re at the point where we can win games, we just got to go out there and do it.”

Had Illinois won and later secured a bowl berth, it would have been the first time since 1992 that the program procured consecutive bowl game seasons. Juice talked about the pain and disappointment of coming up just short. “It’s like you expect something on Christmas and then you wake up and it’s not there: It’s the type of feeling you have when you realize there’s really nothing more you can do about it…We worked so hard to come out and be successful and to be one game short of being bowl eligible is a feeling that is going to eat at you.”

For more Chicago Sports Analysis and discussion.

For my Washington Times.com blog “Chicago Blue State.”

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You Can’t Go Home Again

Paul M. Banks a.k.a. The Sports Bank According to legend, the traditions of both homecoming and tailgating started at my alma mater, the University of Illinois. Although it’s difficult to scientifically prove these facts, anyone who’s seen a football game at the newly renovated Memorial Stadium would concur. Homecoming, the Christmas of college football, saw Illinette alumni dancing on the sidelines, marching band alumni sitting in with the current band and myself working and socializing with my fellow media alums at this year’s Champaign campaign. Like Kanye West & Coldplay’s Chris Martin sing, “I’m coming home again.”

However, what we lacked was a win over a 12 point underdog University of Minnesota team that Illinois out-gained in total yardage 550-312. Next to me in the press box was my Lakeview neighbor, and UI classmate, Paul Schmidt of Chicago Sporting.com. We witnessed the Illini making a lot of mistakes: short yardage inefficiencies, twice kicking off out of bounds for some odd reason. (I didn’t get the press release stating that the Golden Gophers had Devin Hester as their return specialist.) From our 8th floor vantage point, the two of us might have sounded like a young-man college football version of the Muppets’ Statler & Waldorf. (Two old guys in the balcony always criticizing the show.)  (“You know the Illini red zone offense isn’t half bad,” and then the other could respond, “no they’re all bad.” Ok, we didn’t really do that, but you get the idea!

 

Conversely, the 27-20 outcome had some bright spots. Sophomore stud wide receiver Arrelious Benn set new career highs in receptions (12) and yards (181, 5th most in school history). “The things that we did and the plays that we made, as far the numbers, I would never have thought we would lose, but that’s how stuff goes,” Benn said.

Benn’s mentee, freshman receiver A.J. Jenkins also had a huge day catching a career high three passes for 117 yards and 2 TDs. “Rejus has kind of been a big brother to me,” said Jenkins. Of course, I can’t write an Illini post without mentioning Illini junior QB Juice Williams, who set a Memorial Stadium (est. 1924) record for single game passing yards (462) and total offense (503). It was the second highest total offense total in school history behind Dave Wilson in 1980. However, Head Coach Ron Zook said it best in the post game presser, “we had a lot of great individual performances today, but this is a team game, not an individual game. And the object is to win.” For more Chicago Sports Analysis and discussion.

For my Washington Times.com blog “Chicago Blue State.”

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Orange Juice & Champaign: Meet the Illini QB

Paul M. Banks a.k.a. The Sports Bank “Juice” is a slang term meaning power, connections, respect and prestige. If you’re on a Big Ten campus, look at the starting quarterback on the football team. Juice (no one ever calls him Isaiah) Williams is the starting quarterback for the #20 ranked Illinois Fighting Illini. The native Chicagoan was a top 100 Rivals recruit while playing his prep ball at Chicago Vocational, the same school where Illini/Bears legend Dick Butkus played. Last year Juice guided the Illini to a BCS bid in the Rose Bowl and Illinois’s first road win over a #1 ranked team ever. Last season, I spoke with Williams on the eve of the school’s first national ranking in 6 years. “I would have something to tell my grandkids about – that I was part of a ranked team,” Williams said about his burgeoning ‘juice.’

If there’s one team people talk to me about more than any other, it’s probably Illini football. This makes sense given how I was the football beat reporter for the student daily in college and that I watch every single Illinois game. Unfortunately, the last two years I’ve heard numerous Illini fans make racist remarks about Juice when his play struggled. Apparently, some backwards people out there still think an African-American shouldn’t play quarterback. I hope I don’t hear any more from those people with Jim Crow era views on race. Idiots like these only reinforce the negative reputation my alma mater had from the Chief Illiniwek issue. Criticizing Williams for problems running the offense is one thing. Those degrading him for the color of his skin have lost their right to discuss Illini football (or anything else for that matter) with me.

This season, Juice and the Illini will have to compensate for the loss of star running back Rashard Mendenhall. Last year’s starting tailback left a year early after setting a school record for season rushing yards. However, he has a ton of returning talent blocking for him up front and reinforcements at wide receiver to complement big-time playmaker Arrelious Benn. Juice himself is an All-America candidate on the Davey O’Brien Award (top collegiate quarterback) watch list. For these reasons, his number #7 replica Illinois jersey is extremely popular…giving him even more ‘juice!’

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