Opposing B1G coaches anonymously size up the Fighting Illini: (This happened around B1G media days).
“They were athletic. They’ve had their ups and downs. Maybe in Year 3 they will have both sides of the ball clicking at once. They haven’t had that yet.”…
“I loved Nathan Scheelhaase. He was a really good football player. He probably didn’t get enough credit but he moved the ball.”…
“They have some good-looking skill players and are on the verge of potentially taking the next step. I thought they were coached well and we were able to make some plays against them. You can get some big plays on them early in the game and then they’ll eventually make plays but then they are behind. Just seemed to play from behind a lot. Hard to win that way.”…
“I thought personally it was a physical team and they did some good things. Settling into what they want to do on offense and defense will be key, because they have quite a lot of things going on schematically, especially on offense with the passing concepts, so that takes time. But they are right there.”…
“You have a team that’s close but not close enough yet. If they catch fire and believe they can win, that’s infectious.”…
“Their wideouts are good looking. It’s not like you’re looking at players that don’t look the part.”…
“I haven’t heard much about the new quarterback (Oklahoma State transfer Wes Lunt).”…
- See more at:
http://athlonsports.com/college-football/big-ten-coaches-talk-anonymously-about-conference-foes-2014#.U-FOTU81wwU.mailto
