The Illini offense has been pretty good this year under new head coach Bill Cubitz. He took over for Tim Beck a couple of days before the season opener. Illinois hasn't played a very difficult schedule so their 4-1 record is a little bit misleading. The two toughest games they played were at North Carolina a 48 to 14 loss and the win over Nebraska last weekend. The Illini are scoring 30.2 points per game with 244 yards passing and 155 rushing. Wes Lunt is the QB for the Illini he's thrown for 1107 yards 8 touchdowns just 2 interceptions. He has a few weapons to watch for at the wide receiver position. Geronimo Allison is the lead guy with 32 catches for 453 yards 2 TD. I would expect Desmond King will be following him in man to man situations. Marchie Murdock is another target with 20 catches for 194 yards and 3 TD's. Desmond Cain is the third target he has 19 catches for 141 yards. Illinois is going to be a spread offense with a pass first mentality. They will be similar to Iowa State with less talent on the outside and similar to North Texas. The Iowa secondary has been up to the challenge all season so I expect they will be able to make some big plays. The interesting thing is Illinois might try a lot of underneath passes since Iowa tends to give those up in the zone defense.
Illinois does run the ball too, but they will be without starting running back Josh Ferguson who was injured in the Nebraska game. Freshman Ke'shawn Vaughn will be the main guy he has 76 carries for 325 yards. Iowa has been dominant vs the run allowing just 84 yards on the ground. The only time Iowa struggled a little was when North Texas was running out of the Spread. The good thing in that game was Drew Ott was clearly not 100 percent. Illinois could attempt to try and run the ball like the Mean Green did. Ott proved last week he's back dominating the Wisconsin offensive line. The defensive line for the Hawkeyes has shown their dominance so far this season. Now that we know about the Illini offense what kind of challenges will the Iowa offense face.
Illinois is only allowing 126 yards per game rushing. To be fair though they haven't played a physical rushing attack like Iowa. The Hawks are rushing for 185 yards per game and Jordan Canzeri has taken over the running back position. Leshun Daniels is getting healthier so maybe this is the week that he shows the explosiveness he had earlier this season. The Iowa passing attack had a lot of struggles last week against a very strong Wisconsin defense. The Iowa receivers had a lot of trouble getting open in man to man situations. Tevaun Smith will miss another week and a couple of guys are still day to day. Boone Myers missed last week vs Wisconsin and Derrick Mitchell also missed last week both could play Saturday.
The Illinois defense isn't nearly as good as the defense Iowa faced last week vs the Badgers. I think we could see the tight ends more involved in the offense this weekend. The biggest thing I'm looking for is how does CJ Beathard bounce back after last weeks rough Start? Can Jerminic Smith and CJ Beathard get on the same page. Smith does have the ability to get open vs man to man coverage. I think Iowa will try to get him some early touches so he can get some confidence. Matt Vandeberg is the main threat with Tevaun Smith being out of the line. I also think this is the first week we see Jake Duzey get targeted. George Kittle has come on lately so I think we might see some of the three tight end sets we saw a few years ago against Ohio State. Also Iowa has to take some shots down the field even if the receiver isn't open. Beathard has the arm to throw the ball down the field and they can complete big pass plays or draw a penalty. If the run game is rolling Iowa should have some chances on play action passes. I also want to see more play action passes on first down especially when they get into the red zone.
This could be an interesting game, Iowa is coming off an emotional victory over Wisconsin and they can't come out flat. Illinois although not a great team is capable of winning at Kinnick Stadium. The good thing is this team has been so focused that I don't see a let down. Homecoming in front of big crowd I see a rout as the Hawks move to 2-0 in the Big ten with 38 to 14 win. Again Illinois does have some talent so this isn't a game where Iowa can get caught looking ahead to Illinois.
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