TouchDown Times: Friday, Oct. 5,2012

Touchdown TIMES A publication of The Daily Illini | Friday, October 5, 2012

BATTLE OF THE

UNDERACHIEVERS

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Illini defense, Badgers offense hope to recover from slow start

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Friday, October 5, 2012

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Senior slump?

Offensive makeover Ball is averaging 25 carries per game despite an offensive shuffle in the offseason. Former Wisconsin offensive coordinator Paul Chryst left to take the head coaching job at Pittsburgh, while quarterback Russell Wilson graduated to the NFL.

It’s hard to duplicate the numbers Ball put up last year. He tied Barry Sanders’ FBS single-season touchdown record with 39. He had more touchdowns individually than 42 FBS schools. But this year, Ball only has six touchdowns through five games and has yet to record a receiving touchdown, which he had six of last year.

EYE ON THE ENEMY: Wisconsin running back Montee Ball

We go as you go Ball averaged 77 yards rushing in Wisconsin’s losses at Oregon State and at Nebraska. In the Badgers’ three victories, Ball has averaged 99.7 yards. He left the UTEP game with only 40 yards after sustaining a concussion.

BY MAX TANE ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR

Coming into the 2012 season, Wisconsin running back Montee Ball was a preseason All-American and on the watch list for the Walter Camp Player of the Year, Maxwell Award and Doak Walker Award. The senior was also on the top of the list to return to New York for the Heisman Trophy ceremony, in which he finished fourth last year (Robert Griffin III won). After fighting through a brief battle with a concussion, Ball is now ready to test Illinois’ front seven Saturday.

WINE

Shaping his game Ball says he tries to model his running style after his two favorite running backs, Barry Sanders and LaDainian Tomlinson. The senior also pays close attention to South Carolina running back Marcus Lattimore, who is also in contention for the Heisman Trophy.

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Wisconsin’s Montee Ball (28) carries the ball for a touchdown against Nebraska’s P.J. Smith during the Badgers’ 30-27 loss to the Cornhuskers in Lincoln, Neb., on Sept. 29.

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Friday, October 5, 2012

Illinois simplifying game plan because of injuries

BY CHAD THORNBURG STAFF WRITER

The Illinois football team is going back to the basics.

After struggling mightily in back-to-back losses, the Illini coaching staff won’t be bringing an elaborate game plan into Madison, Wis., on Saturday.

“We’ve got to just look at what we can do, and we’ve got to get these guys believing,” co-offensive coordinator Billy Gonzales said.

“Limit the packages and be able to put our guys in positions where we can get the ball in their hands.”

Through fives games, the Illini (2-3, 0-1 Big Ten) have put up 113 points, but nearly half of those points came against FCS foe Charleston Southern; they were outscored 132 to 45 in three losses against Arizona State, Louisiana Tech and Penn State.

Entering Saturday’s matchup against the Badgers, 11 starters have missed time with injury this season, leaving the coaching staff shuffling the lineup from week to week.

“Just because of all the moving parts, all of the different people that are in, you can’t run as much stuff,” co-offensive coordinator Chris Beatty said. “You want to try to keep it a little bit simpler for them, so they can execute whatever it is that you’re asking them to do.”

As the injuries stack up, one area the Illini are hoping can stay consistent is at quarterback, where before Saturday’s loss to Penn State, Nathan Scheelhaase had played just four quarters of game time after spraining his ankle in the season opener.

Scheelhaase played his first full game of the season against Penn State, going 28-for46 for 270 yards and two interceptions. He said Monday that he feels as good physically as he did entering the season.

“Even watching the film, it was good to see the old me coming back to life,” Scheelhaase said. “I’m sure I’ll have as much confidence as I’ve ever had walking into this next game, just having my legs back under me.”

Scheelhaase led the Illini in rushing last season with 624 yards and six scores and, when healthy, presents a dual threat for opposing defenses.

But just having a mobile Scheelhaase in the lineup won’t be enough against a talented Wisconsin (3-2, 0-1) team hoping to hit its stride this weekend. Although the Badgers are 3-2, they were expected to be among the top teams in the conference. Wisconsin fell out of the top 25 after losses to Oregon State and Nebraska, but the preseason No. 12 Badgers still pack a punch.

“They’re big, they’re physical, they’ve got an outstanding running back,” said Beckman, referring to Wisconsin’s Monte Ball.

“Defensively, they’ve got guys that are very aggressive. ... They’ve been a champion. They understand what it takes to be a champion and that’s exactly what I’ve seen on film.”

After five weeks, neither team is where it would like to be — Illinois is last in the Leaders Division and Wisconsin is fourth — but both the top teams in the division are out of the picture. Ohio State and Penn State

DARYL QUITALIG THE DAILY ILLINI

Illinois' Mason Monheim (43) prepares to tackle Penn State's Alex Kenney during the 35-7 Illini loss at Memorial Stadium on Saturday. are ineligible for the Big Ten Championship game, so hope remains for the remaining four bowl-eligible squads.

“We’re still within range,” Scheelhaase

said. “There’s still a lot of season left.”

Chad can be reached at thornbu1@dailyillini.com and @cthornburg10.

Friday, October 5, 2012

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SANNI, HULL RETURN

TEAMMATES SUPPORT EACH OTHER IN SICKNESS, HEALTH

Friday, October 5, 2012

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BY THE NUMBERS

Sanni

2008: 12 games played, 9 tackles 2009: 11 games played, 11 tackles 2010: Missed season with ruptured right Achilles tendon 2011: 13 games played (11 starts), 49 tackles, 1 interception

Hull

2009: Redshirted 2010: 8 games played (1 start), 19 tackles 2011: 11 games played (11 starts), 58 tackles, 1 interception

BY SEAN HAMMOND STAFF WRITER

In

the Memorial Stadium locker room on a late September evening, Supo Sanni donned his blue No. 7 jersey and his orange Illinois helmet knowing full well that he was not going to see any time on the field. The fifthyear senior free safety had to watch from the sidelines as his teammates were embarrassed 52-24 by Louisiana Tech in front of their home crowd.

SANNI WAS RECOVERING from a left knee sprain sustained at Camp Rantoul before the season. The injury kept Sanni out of action for more than a month. When the Illini met the Bulldogs under the lights Sept. 22, he was not quite back to full health, but knew he was close.

“I’ve been in that position before,” Sanni said. “It’s hard to take and it’s hard to watch. Just knowing that I can be out there, helping the team.”

Sanni was a spectator as Bulldog quarterback Colby Cameron picked apart the Illinois secondary for 284 yards and four touchdowns. Meanwhile, Sanni’s longtime partner deep in the Illinois secondary, strong safety Steve Hull, found himself in a familiar position alongside Sanni — on the sideline.

Hull, who played in 11 games with Sanni in 2011, missed Illinois’ opener against Western Michigan while recovering from a surgically repaired shoulder. He made his season debut against Arizona State on Sept.

8, only to suffer a different injury to the same shoulder, one which sidelined him for the second half in Tempe, Ariz., and the following two games.

With Penn State in town last Saturday, Sanni suited up and once again found himself next to Hull. But for the first time in 11 months, it was between the hash marks.

ON THE CUSP of his junior season in 2010, Sanni ruptured his right Achilles tendon in August before the Illini ever played a down. Sanni missed the entire season and was granted a medical hardship waiver, enabling him to have two more seasons of eligibility.

Sanni said his family back home in Chicago Heights, Ill. helped him get back onto the field. The youngest of Sesis and Olatunji Sanni’s four children, Supo believes his Nigerian roots taught him the values of family. The Sannis keep in touch through family meetings over the phone and over Skype once a month. Supo, whose full name, Olasupo, means “wealth surrounds me” in Yoruba — one of the dominant languages of Nigeria — said

BRENTON TSE DAILY ILLINI

Steve Hull brings down Alex Kenney during Illinois’ 35-7 loss to Penn State on Saturday. this past offseason. Following surgery on his shoulder, he made an appearance against the Sun Devils only to reinjure his shoulder midway through the game. After Hull’s brief glimpse of the field, the starting safeties were together on the sideline once again sporting sweatpants and Illinois football caps.

DARYL QUITALIG THE DAILY ILLINI

Illinois’ Supo Sanni (7) tackles Northwestern’s Drake Dunsmore (9) during a game at Memorial Stadium on Oct. 1, 2011. The Illini won their 2011 Homecoming game 38-35. his siblings have helped him keep his goals in sight.

“They know where I want to be,” he said. “They know I have aspirations of playing after (college). They said if you want to do it, you’ve got to be able to perform and be healthy. It was not hard for me to decide that.”

Sanni returned in 2011 and played in all 13 of Illinois’ games, making 11 starts. He recorded 49 tackles and had one interception. And despite making it through the season without any major injuries, his Achilles

flared up again in the spring. Sanni was back on the field by the summer, but the Illinois coaching staff was cautious.

“They didn’t want to push me too far,” Sanni said. “They wanted me to progressively get better without the pounding your legs take at the safety position.”

The Achilles recovered, but it was the sprained left knee that caused Sanni to miss the first four

games of his last season of eligibility.

While Sanni was coping with the Achilles injury, Hull was having injury problems of his own. In August 2010, before his redshirt freshman season, Hull was moved from wide receiver to safety. The transition was hampered by an ankle injury that caused him to miss five games midseason.

“It’s frustrating because you only get so many Saturdays,” Hull said. “To have some of those Sat-

urdays taken away is frustrating, but I can only take advantage of the ones I have now.”

Hull played alongside Sanni for much of the 2011 season without incident. He made 58 tackles and had one interception for an Illinois defense that ranked seventh in the nation. But with three games left, a back injury sidelined Hull for Illinois’ final home game and the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl against UCLA. Like Sanni, Hull found himself injured once again

WHEN SANNI AND HULL sported their orange jerseys and blue matte helmets against Penn State, they were starting alongside each other for the first time since Illinois’ Nov. 12 loss to Michigan at Memorial Stadium last season. With the rash of injures, Hull and Sanni have seen a lot of each other in the training room.

“We made it a competition to see who could get healthiest the fastest,” Hull said. “We’re definitely in (rehab) every minute that we can to get back to health.”

Sanni and Hull became close friends when Hull was moved to safety before the 2010 season. Their relationship began on the field but blossomed off the field.

Hull said their friendship has helped them build great chemistry on the field.

“It’s more of a brotherly type of love where we hold each other accountable and we want to make the best decisions out there,” Sanni said. “Me and Steve, when we’re back there controlling things, we’ll do our best to make sure that everybody has the right calls.”

While pushing each other to get healthy, Sanni and Hull also became mentors to their backups, Earnest Thomas and Patrick Nixon-Youman. From the sidelines, Sanni and Hull helped with defensive play calling and gave Thomas and Nixon-Youman advice when the defense was off the field. With their experience,

Sanni and Hull proved to be valuable resources in the film room as well.

“It really sucked watching film and seeing certain kind of mistakes that you can see,” Sanni said. “We try to give them the most information possible and try to help them understand film and understand what teams are going to try to do to us. Other teams know that they’re first-year starters. They’re going to try to evaluate them, they’re going to attack them early and take some shots. We’ve got to give them the experience by telling them,‘Here’s a clue to what they might do.’”

After four weeks of rehab and watching from the bench, Sanni made 10 tackles in his return against Penn State.

Hull added five of his own, but the return effort was all for naught because the Nittany Lions handled the Illini 35-7. Both safeties were thrilled to be back on the field, but not as much with the team’s performance.

“That’s not us,” Sanni said after the loss. “We’ve just got to get our identity back.”

For the first time in months, the Illinois defense has the two staples of its secondary back where they belong.

As the Big Ten season progresses, the Illini will need Sanni and Hull to get back to where they were last season. But when the safeties pull their jerseys over their heads in the visitors locker room at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison, Wis., on Saturday, they will be doing so knowing that they have already overcome adversity just by putting on their pads.

Sean can be reached at sphammo2@dailyillini.com and @sean_ hammond.

Friday, October 5, 2012

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PLAYERS TO WATCH

JARED ABBREDERIS

The junior wide receiver is leading the Big Ten with 99.7 yards per game, putting up over 140 receiving yards in each of the Badgers’ last two games. The Illini secondary has been vulnerable at times this season, particularly in blowout losses to Arizona State, Louisiana Tech and Penn State.

The sophomore running back is the team’s leading rusher with 222 yards through five games this season. If the Illini can get the ground game going early and aren’t forced to abandon it because of the score, Young, along with redshirt freshman Josh Ferguson, could be major difference makers for the Illinois offense.

DONOVONN

YOUNG

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Friday, October 5, 2012

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Illini Drive

SEAN HAMMOND

SPORTS WRITER

JAMAL COLLIER

CHAD THORNBURG

SPORTS WRITER

MAX TANE

SPORTS WRITER

JEFF KIRSHMAN

ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR/ HOST OF ILLINI DRIVE

SPORTS EDITOR

OUR PICKS Tane (17-8)

Hammond (18-7)

Collier (14-11)

Kirshman (17-8)

DAN WELIN

FOOTBALL COLUMNIST

PORTRAIT BY DARYL QUITALIG THE DAILY ILLINI

Thornburg (14-11)

Welin (16-9)

Illinois at Wisconsin 35-17

35-10

41-10

17-13

31-21

38-10

30-13

35-7

27-21

35-7

No. 4 LSU at No. 10 Florida 16-12

27-14

No. 5 Georgia at No. 6 South Carolina 28-23

24-14

38-34

31-28

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17-10

1

Recaps

2

Predictions

3

Player & Coach Interviews

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31-24

No. 8 West Virginia at No. 11 Texas 52-38

42-35

41-35

33-27

35-32

49-38

107.1 FM

No. 21 Nebraska at No. 12 Ohio State 24-20

24-20

23-18

27-20

28-14

28-20

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Friday, October 5, 2012

Badgers, Illini not living up to preseason hype

Illini Drive

THREE OUT

AND

DAN WELIN Football columnist

Illini Drive goes “three and out� every Monday on WPGU. Here are the highlights.

NATIONAL QUESTION — Three games this week featuring teams in the top 15. Which one are you watching?

Thomas Bruch — There’s no debate here. Two words. (West Virginia’s) Geno Smith. You’re watching a game (in which) he plays. After that performance last week against Baylor, maybe Texas has a better defense than Baylor, but it looked like he was passing at will. ... I try to follow the major storylines in college football, but Geno Smith came out of nowhere.

BIG TEN QUESTION — Who’s the coach under the most pressure right now?

Jamal Collier — I’m going to go with Pat Fitzgerald. Because Northwestern’s still got that bowl losing streak. Am I right?

They are in the top 25, 5-0, and they’re going to make a bowl game. And they got Illinois on their schedule, so that’s one more win. So they should win a bowl game now.

ILLINI QUESTION — Is a four-game losing streak all but certain?

Max Tane — You can take that to the bank. ... You know what, if this team gets embarrassed in these next two weeks and you come back home for Homecoming against Indiana, they can easily overlook Kevin Wilson and the Hoosiers, and that losing streak could become six. Because after Indiana, you got to go face Urban Meyer in Columbus (Ohio).

T

he famous quote from former Arizona Cardinals head coach Denny Green “The Bears are who we thought they were� following Chicago’s stunning comeback in 2006 seems to be the exact opposite of how to describe the way Illinois and Wisconsin have performed so far this season.

Let’s go back to a much simpler time for Illinois and Wisconsin: July 2012 — before any preseason hype needed to be backed up.

The NCAA had just levied sanctions and a postseason ban on Penn State. Along with the bowl ban against Ohio State, the Leaders Division was a four-team race between Illinois, Indiana, Purdue and Wisconsin.

Montee Ball returned to Wisconsin for his senior season and another shot at the Heisman Trophy. The program even endorsed a campaign behind its premier running back: “This Fall Belongs to Ball.�

From an Illinois standpoint — despite a complete overhaul of the coaching staff — defensive line coach Keith Gilmore was retained, and outside of now-Houston Texans linebacker Whitney Mercilus’ departure, the rest of the gang was back.

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defensive linemen being drafted in the NFL, such as 2011 first-round pick Corey Liuget and the aforementioned Mercilus, senior defensive end Michael Buchanan and junior defensive tackle Akeem Spence gave Gilmore two NFL-type talents to unleash on opposing teams.

Wisconsin’s offense and Illinois’ defense were supposed to be two of the best units in the conference and possibly the country.

Last season, the Badgers’ offense scored 28 points or more in every game (coincidentally against Illinois in last season’s 28-17 victory), averaging almost 45 points per game. This season, Wisconsin has scored more than 28 points in only one of its five games (over 1-4 UTEP), averaging just 22.6 points a game.

For the Illini defense, the most points it allowed last season was 35, and the largest margin of defeat was 20 (the former in a 38-35 victory of Northwestern, the latter a 27-7 loss at Minnesota). But this season, the Illini have allowed an average of 27.8 points per game and Louisiana Tech to hang 52 on them at home.

Wisconsin and Illinois experienced disappointing losses in last week’s conference openers, but the disappointment was defined differently for each team.

Wisconsin allowed 20 second-half points to Nebraska on the road, tying the Cornhuskers’ second-largest comeback in school history, whereas Illinois continued to struggle in all three phases in its third blowout loss of the season.

One week after getting pounded and physically dominated for 173 rushing yards and four touchdowns by the Nittany Lions, things aren’t going to be much easier for the Illini against an opponent riding a 19-game home winning streak and sporting a rushing attack dying for a breakout game.

On a less impressive note, Illinois hasn’t won a conference game since defeating Indiana on Oct. 8 of last year. With Wisconsin on tap, a road trip scheduled for the Big House the week after and a bye week Oct. 20, the showdown with Indiana will be the first realistic shot Illinois has at recording its first conference victory in over a year.

Without Ohio State and Penn State, the previously mentioned four-team race sounds even less prestigious five weeks in as Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin all lost last week, while the two suspended teams started 1-0.

Saturday could prove to be a statement game for one of these underwhelming units as something’s going to give in this matchup between a lackluster offense and beat-up defense.

But up to this point, neither the Illini nor the Badgers have lived up to the hype.

Remember, they aren’t who we thought they were.

Dan is a senior in Media. He can be reached at welin1@dailyillini.com. Follow him on Twitter @WELINandDEALIN.

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