Ralph,

I've heard that a lot lately about the defense.
On the defensive coordinator, it's Ron Zook. Dan Disch and Curt Mallory are doing what they are told to do and what they are trained to do. But they are not the ones who designed the defense.

Dan,

He's got a sprained ankle. I'm guessing he won't play next week, even though he'll want to. That will give him until Sept. 26 to get ready for his next game.
A receiver on a bad wheel, even Benn, won't be much of a receiver.

Tom,

The coaches and players admitted the secondary struggled. A lot. To his credit, Donsay Hardeman came into the postgame interview session and ripped himself. Impressive job of standing up. But he had a bad game.

Brian,

Ron Zook was asked that and he said they wanted to control the ball and control the clock, which is the way Mike Schultz coached at TCU. I think Juice had time to throw the ball down the field too. Not much pressure from the Missouri defense, probably intentional.

Dave,
Benn is out with a sprained ankle. I'm guessing the return is for Ohio State.

Fayson left with cramps and had to have IV fluids in the locker room.

Daron,

That's the question everyone will be asking for the next week. And beyond. Maybe it's partly mental. Maybe falling behind Missouri sends the team into a panic mode. It's like a reverse of the basketball series.
Illinois has to force turnovers against Missouri and can't do it. Lose the turnover battle, lose the game.

JE,

The initial reaction will be that Illinois is looking at a 4-8 season. But remember the rest of the Big Ten struggled on Saturday and they weren't playing teams as good as Missouri. The Ohio State, Minnesota and Iowa fans have to be going nuts.

Dave,

Early, I told Paul Klee that Martez seemed to be making a lot of plays. I don't have the stats yet, but I'm guessing there were a high number of tackles.
hard to grade the rest of the linebackers. Nothing special. But nothing glaringly bad. The secondary takes most of the heat for this game. And the offense.

Ralph,

I don't expect any drastic changes. Defense the Disch way might be the same as defense the Zook way. Dan Disch learned from and coached under Zook. He isn't going to do something different. I think the running back position will be in flux the rest of the month.
And I think Zook is fiery, but he couldn't do anything about Saturday's game.

Chris,

I want to see what Illinois does in the next month. It will beat Illinois State. If it loses the first three Big Ten games, then a bowl game is going to be very difficult to manage. If Illinois wins a game or two against the Big Three, then a better season is possible.

Jon,

Great question. One I will ask Ron Zook on Sunday. The plan seemed to be to throw short passes. There are a lot of ways to come back, but you're right. It worked in the 2008 game.

Joseph,

Second part first, four freshmen played: Justin Green, Terry Hawthorne, Joelil Thrash and Michael Buchanan. You might see a few more in the coming weeks.
I agree that the team wasn't the same after Benn went out. He's a leader and they missed him. I'm puzzled why he didn't return to the sidelines.
Generally, I think Zook is a good motivator. But when the guys don't execute, no amount of screaming and yelling will work. Illinois played poorly. And I don't know why.

Reid,

If Illinois goes 2-10, I do think there would be a hard look at the program's future. I don't know that there would be a change, but 2010 would be difficult.

Try,

You make good points. I don't know what is inside those players. Ron Zook wonderered if maybe they had talked to glowingly about the preparation. I don't think that's it, but you never know.
I did notice some guys were hanging their heads a little bit, especially after the long plays. It's hard when you think you are going to win and see it going so far the other way.

Brent,

I think Illinois can still win six games. And I think it can still lose 10 games. You will find out a lot about the Illini in the coming weeks, especially the difficult three-game stretch at the start of the Big Ten season.

Joseph,

Mike Schultz said he scripts the first 10 to 12 plays of the game. It was clear Illinois wanted to keep possession with short passes and runs. To me, the offense was most effective in the option. And that might be the case all year.
I'm going to assume that Mike Schultz didn't come up with the game plan on his own. It was a group effort. The lack of deep passes was puzzling. The coaches are with the players all of the time and know what works best. And having Benn out had to changed some of the calls.

Tim,

There is a package for Eddie because of his ability to run and catch passes. That package wouldn't work as well for Jacob.
I expected Illinois to show its version of the wildcat offense early, just to get future opponents thinking about it. But the way it worked Saturday, teams might want Illinois to try it.

Jimmy,

As always, good points by you. You're right, it's a critical year for Zook's program. If the team doesn't bounce back, the questions will be flying after the season.

Jason,

Joe Paterno has often said that athletic directors should only be allowed to hire one head football coach. He was mad at Rutgers for firing his buddy and coach Dick Anderson.
Ron Guenther is on his third football coach, though he inherited Lou Tepper. The inability to win consistently in football is his primary concern and he wants to see it fixed.
Frankly, right now at Illinois, the athletic director doesn't have much to worry about because of all of the problems elsewhere on campus.
Somebody should have tried to use some influence to get Blaine Gabbert into Illinois.

K. Foster,

Who else is on your overrated linebacker list? Thomas had 13 tackles and Wilson had nine.
I'm going to study the game tape when I get home and try to make a reasonable assessment of Wilson and the Illinois linebackers. With all of his physical skills, you would think his numbers would be off the charts.

Ken,

Great idea. Arrelious Benn and Jason Ford have sprained ankles. Jarred Fayson missed time with cramps.
Other than that, nothing was reported during the postgame. I'll check with Ron Zook on Sunday to see if anybody else is questionable for next week.

Gary,

I was thinking the same thing. Missouri had timeouts, so the clock wasn't going to run out before it kicked a field goal.
We didn't ask Zook about the clock management, but I will Sunday.
Illinois did change the way it handles the opening call, taking the ball instead of deferring. I would always want the ball.