Now that we’re “officially” eliminated from a bowl, I’d like to voice my complaint. There’s an old saying you win as a team and lose as a team. That maybe true, but in my eyes we LOST football games due to ONE PERSON!!! OC Mike Schultz. If you’re a fan and want to scout Illinois it’s easy. Run the ball 97% of the time and throw it the other 3% a little sarcasm but not much. Zook has lived with Juice for four years, he knows he can’t throw, that’s why when he’s in there along with Eddie McGee we RUN and RUN and RUN some more. The play calling isn’t even close to the same when Jacob enters the game. Running the ball is great but you have to throw it at sometime to WIN. I’m not 100% sure, but in the first half I think we ran the ball EVERY TIME on 1st downs. We were down 21-3 in the 4th qtr and we were still trying to run the ball. Jacob is a QB, the kid can throw it, and receivers don’t have to fall over trying to catch them like when Juice is trying to throw it. Let’s face it he can’t do it, were a running team only when he plays now.
Last week it was nice seeing Benn catch a ball in stride, same with Cumberland. Eddie came in the game today and he did the same thing Schultz asked Jacob to do hand it off so why make the change? The one deep ball Eddie threw it was 10 in front of Benn and you saw his frustrations. Speaking of that, I’m tired of people asking what happened to Benn, NOTHING JUICE CAN’T GET THE BALL TO HIM! You know the players are tired of it, but won’t say anything. WHO cares Jacob was picked off at the end of the half, how many times have we seen Juice get picked off or Eddie to fumble like he did today. Take the handcuffs off the kid and let him THROW IT. During the Minn game last week at one time we ran the ball 6 times in a row. Jacob comes in and the game changes. If this kid was our QB three weeks ago we win more or more competitive or if they throw the ball downfield earlier we win today. The color guy said it on TV today, it’s about time they (Illinois) looked downfield. Also I know Jacob may not be as fast as Juice or Eddie, but he’s not bad.

Well, I'm tired of people defending Benn. Week after week, receivers with nowhere near his supposed talent outshine him. I hope he prospers in the NFL, but right now the only function he serves is as a metaphor for everything that's wrong with Zook's regime.

One wonders if Zook had left Charest in the game if he would have pulled it out for us. It more and more looks like putting Eddie in was simply a lost third quarter with no meaningful results offensively. It really was a game we should have won. The play calling is mind boggling at times including the wasted time on the last TD drive repeatedly running the ball.

I agree. Benn is a tremendous talent, but he's fragile. The NFL scouts are shying away in droves - not because he hasn't caught many passes rather because he can't stay healthy. I've never seen anyone that gets "dinged" up some much.

Yeah, I really like Benn, I really do, he seems like a great kid, seems to really care about winning. Tried to come here to turn things around etc.

I also think he has NFL athletic talent.

But at the same time, maybe its the coaching or whatever, but he doesnt seem to get that open, at least not compared to other elite WRs that you see in college. And I do grant half the issue looks to be the Qb's who cant get him the ball. But some of it is Benn.

Also I agree, Benn for being a big guy has been kinda fragile in his career. He comes out of a lot of games.

I dont know that Benn goes in the first round.

The only consistency with Benn is high likelihood of some sort of injury situation.

It is no mistake that his best season was the Rose Bowl year. We had a consistent threat at RB and a strong OL. Defenses were forced to be honest when defending him because of the threat of Mendenhall. That real threat has not been there since RM left for the NFL and every team we play consistently is throwing 2-3 guys at Benn. When your best offensive player is getting the bulk of the attention from opposing teams and nobody steps up to make a big play, it is easy to see why Benn's numbers have not been good.

Yeah, Benn doesn't get the stats and he gets hurt. But he is a major NFL prospect because of his smarts of the game. He is the only receiver that has the balls to put a block on some one. Everyone else tries to run away from the ball. Also if you ever give him a chance he will make the play. Its impossible to catch a ball that is over thrown by 20 yards.

Did you watch the starting kickoff? He ran through about 5 tackles with almost no momentum. I know I want him on my NFL team.

Actually his best season was last year, he had 1100 of his 2100 career yards, 3 of his 6 career receiving touchdowns and 67 of his career 154 receptions.

A star receiver will always been doubled teamed in college.

Thinking of other top college receivers, Anthony Carter, TEd Ginn, David Boston, Chris Carter, David Williams, Joey Galloway, Terry Glenn, Braylon Edwards, Charles Woodson, Andre Rison, Charles Rogers, Palxio Burress, Lee Evans etc etc.

All of those guys came through the Big Ten and made huge impacts. Love Benn's potential, but frankly in college, those guys all required double teams and everyone knew they were on the field. Benn just doesnt require that kind of attention.

Back to the playcalling, I actually think the contrary is true. I would have RUN more in the first half but with Leshoure not Dufrene. Dufrene does not break tackles the way Leshoure does. We wasted a lot of downs with Dufrene getting nowhere. Leshoure gained over 20 yards on his first two carries. I would have run, run, run with Leshoure, spell him with Ford and then go play action over the top. Defensively, how can our DBs never seem to be in position to knock a ball down? Are NU's receivers that good?

Schultz was not brought in because of his creative play calling. He was brought in because he has a history of running offenses that control the clock and being the best in the nation at it. Nothing fancy about it. A lot of being able to control the clock is to keep it on the ground and hope you offense has the ability to pick up 3-5 yards per down. You do that, you run the clock down and you keep the ball out of the opposition's hands.

I'm not saying I like it, but that is what his play calling is designed to do.

LeShoure is the closest this team has come to finding a legitimate replacement for Mendenhall. I thought that was clear after the Purdue and Michigan games. But who starts against Minnesota? Ford. He's a solid No. 2 back, but LeShoure is the workhorse. Then yesterday? Dufrene! Please don't tell me Dufrene was the RB who had the best week of practice. Even if true, at this point in the season why is a coach using practice to determine his starting RB? He's seen enough games to know who produces.

This is yet another example of why Zook and his coaching staff need to be fired right after the Fresno State game. Unless Ikenberry has a master plan to stay on for another year himself and orchestrate the hiring of Jim Phillips as the new AD, bringing back Zook is the sign of a school that just doesn't care anymore about its football program or its fans.

contrary to what about 80% of the people on this board think , the ONLY way we win games is to establish the run , and pass when we either have to , or have a match up advantage. Otherwise, if we can avg 3-4 yards per run, we will win 80% of the time we carry the ball 45-50 times per game.

burn clock and dont turn it over. keep opposition off the field except for 3 or 4 possessions per half , and our D has a decent chance of keeping them to 17 points.

Totally agree with everything mentioned. This is the most predictable offense in football, including ( Pee Wee, Jr. High, High School, Sandlot, or anywhere football is played). It's like SCHULTZ has never heard of PLAY ACTION, and I would probably faint if we ever threw the ball on 1st down. I would like to know the percentage of times teams throw on 1st down against us. I would bet it's greater that 50%.

The problem, is that we are NOT WINNING games, or am I looking at a different team from what your seeing?

Zook's constant changing of running backs just makes no sense. Clearly LeShoure and Ford are the best we have. And to not start LeShoure in the second half was stupid after he had a good first half. Between playing too many running backs and not letting Charest play in the 3rd quarter I believe we lost the game. The bad coaching decisions continue.

I stated this in another thread as well, but I have to reinforce what was stated earlier in this one. How can we establish any kind of offensive flow when the key players (i.e. running and quarter backs) are in a revolving door? LeShoure has more than earned his starting spot without having to look over his shoulder every week. Charest should have been our starter beginning three weeks ago and ride it out till the end. It would have given the kid some experience and confidence going into next year because this one was a lost cause by then.

Just my $.02

All good points, but the ball control offense STINKS, it cost us games, we have a kid who can throw it, so why not RUN and THROW. Next game if Juice is back there were going to run the ball 80% then watch him miss open WR's. At one point he was the face of the program, now that's over no bowl game in two years. He's a great kid an awesome person, but it's time to move on. I can't tell you how many times I watch WR be open and they have to fall over to try and catch it, its DI football were better than that.

I don't disagree with you 83. At least regarding running the ball. However, I think the team is so undisciplined that penalties and mistakes prevent us from running the ball as much as we should. Our top backs and QB do a great job of getting 5 yards on a carry but when you consistently have to get 20-25 yards for at least 1-2 series every drive, that kills you. A little discipline and better defense scheme would go along way.