Through two weeks, the Illinois football team is sitting at 2-0. With a win over Western Illinois at home (expected) in Week 1 and a huge 45-19 win on the road over Duke in Week 2, Illinois fans could not have asked for a better start.
With two weeks in the books and the team prepares for their upcoming matchup against Western Michigan I wanted to dive into the good, bad and surpises that we have seen. Let’s dive into it.
Offensive line play
Heading into the season one of the things that we where most sure of was that the offensive
was going to be very good. All five lineman are returners and who played together alot. Plus left tackle J.C. Davis will be drafted in next year’s draft. However, it has not been all sunshine and rainbows through the two games.
At times the offensive line has struggled to open up holes in the running game, especially early in the Duke game. They also have allowed seven sacks on the season through two games. A few of those sacks are on Luke Altmyer for holding the ball too long however. But the pass protection was very poor in the first half of the Duke win.
The plus side of things is that Illinois made some adjustments at halftime of that Duke game, and they finished fantastic. Let’s hope that translates over to this game and the rest of the season, and I think it could.
Hank Beatty emerges as WR1
A huge question mark heading into the season was, who was going to replace Pat Bryant and Zakhari Franklin in the offense. Through two games it has been Hank Beatty as the alpha in the offense. He has 13 catches for 236 yards and one carry for 25 yards and a touchdown lined up as the wildcat quarterback. Luke Altmyer and the coaching staff trusts Beatty and it shows.
The other emerging wide receiver is Justin Bowick. He has came on as a redzone target with three of his seven catches resulting in touchdowns. His speed and route running has be impressive through the two games with Illini.
Two guys I wish to see more of is Malik Elzy and Hudson Clement. They just have seven catches combined and have not been a big part of the offense quite yet. I would expect that to change shortly considering how talented those two players are.
Defense
The Illinois defense has been terriffic through two games thus far. The stats do not paint a clear picture because they have given up a lot of yards. However, they have played the bend but don’t break defense about as good as you can play it. On top of that they are forcing turnovers again which we have not seen since Ryan Walters left the program.
In my opinion defensive coordinator Aaron Henry has taken a massive leap this year. Another guy who has taken another step forward is Gabe Jacas. He has three total sacks on the season and two of them are strip sacks. I give him credit for completley flipping the Duke game, and making a huge play when the defense needed it.
Another fantastic surprise has been Tanner Heckel. The sophomore made a major impact on the Duke game with Jaheim Clarke out with an injury. Like Jacas, Heckel had a strip sack, but he also intercepted quarterback Darian Mensah, who is one of the better quarterbacks in the country.
This Illinois defense has been fun to watch this season. With their age and continuity they could be a huge part in why the Illini could earn their first Playoff bid in school history this season.
