Illinois football is done.  With seven losses, there’s no chance at a bowl game.  Darn.

Saturday was sad.  Illinois allowed 139 rushing yards to a team that can’t run.  Mike Kafka ate the secondary alive in the second half by running one of two pass plays; a five and out route, or a corner route.  Illinois never adjusted for this, and Kafka hit the 300-yard mark.  Fortunately Lou Groza semi-finalist Stefan Demos stunk up the place by missing three field goals, otherwise Illinois would have never got close. 

Jacob Charest did alright in his first start.  They couldn’t get in the end zone in the first half but were able to figure things out late in the second.  Even thought he was average, he didn’t deserve to be pulled in the second half.  The only reason for him to leave the game would have been if Juice soaked his ankle in some holy water and suddenly was 100% ready to go.  Instead, he gets pulled for Eddie McGee, who reminded us why he is no longer a quarterback.  The only way McGee should be a “quarterback” is if we decide to add a wildcat or something.  I don’t think we should do that because I don’t want McGee on the field.  I’m sure he’s a nice guy, but every time the ball gets near him I get fear the worst.

During his time in the game, nothing got done offensively, and Northwestern pulled too far away.  The only good that came from this game is Mikel LeShoure once again averaging close to six yards a carry, and Jacob Charest bouncing back to give his team a chance.  I’m excited to see what he can do in a full season next year.

With that being said, what does Illinois do against Cincinnati?  Is it Juice or Jacob?  I got to go Juice on this one, and it looks like Coach Zook will to if he’s capable of playing.  He runs the shotgun options and runs it better than Charest (only because of experience), and he was finally starting to get in a zone.  Sure Charest might throw better, but like I’ve said all year, we shouldn’t be throwing the ball.  If we throw more than 15-20 times, then we’re throwing too much.  I want to see a 3:1 ration of run/pass.  Put the ball into the hands of our best players, which right now are LeShoure and Jason Ford.  Let them plow people over and move down the field.  Run that clock down and keep the two-headed monster of Tony Pike and Zach Collaros on the sidelines. 

No reason to worry about that right now since a bye week is coming up.  Let’s focus on something awesome.

Basketball…

The men look good early on, and the women look like they might be a high scoring team.  Can’t wait they get a few more games under their belts, and really can’t wait until the Big Ten season!  I was thinking about doing another prediction thing when the Big Ten season started, where you would pick the winners of all of the Big Ten games going on that week.  It’s been fun doing the football predictions, and it seems like you guys are enjoying it. 

Also it was nice to see the volleyball team fight hard at Penn State.  In the second set, Penn State needed 27 points to beat Illinois.  Even thought the Illini lost 3-0, they showed that they deserved that #5 ranking.  In fact, they were @ Ohio State last night the won 3-1, so there were no ill effects from the Penn State loss.  By the way, Penn State’s win over Illinois was their 92 in a row.  They haven’t lost a match in three years.  That’s ridiculous.

Coming at you a day early, here are the updated prediction standings after the Illinois-Northwestern game.  Northwestern won 21-16, so NW was +5 on the real score difference.

Name                                                              W                    L                      GB

Tom Young (NW 34-31)                                6                      4                      143

Jshaw (NW 21-17)                                          6                      4                      175

NCAA 10 (NW 41-10)                                    6                      4                      204

Jweeks (ILL 28-17)                                          5                      5                      216

Combatmedic44 (NW 27-24)                         5                      3                      148

chrispatton33 (ILL 28-27)                              4                      6                      123

dave1956 (IL 24-21)                                        4                      3                      135

Dropintheknowledge (DNP)                         0                      1                      20

kfj (DNP)                                                          0                      1                      41

I won’t be taking time off during the bye week.  There’s too much going on.  The men play tomorrow vs. Northern Illinois in basketball, and the women next play Wednesday vs. Central Michigan.  Volleyball plays Friday vs. Iowa, so not only are there a lot of Illini teams in action, they’re at home this week.  There are plenty of chances to get out there and check them out.  Let’s have a good week Illinois.

I-L-L…