Juice Benched, McGee to Start for Illini

[COACH DITKA]

Saw this on the IL message boards earlier - I guess the Zooker pulled the plug on Juice again and Eddie McGee will start vs MSU on Saturday.
While sitting at the game on Saturday, it felt exactly the same as my first 2 years at U of I under the Ron Turner regime - inept offensively, a ton of booing, empty stands by the end of the third quarter, and another lopsided loss. So much talent going to waste on this awful team.


Moose

[Daws1089]

Finally, this came a season or two too late wouldn't you agree?

[The Mailman]

They need to do something, that's for sure.

[joepa66]

Thanks for the info Coach!

And, I hate to jump on the bandwagon, but I couldn't agree more with the astute observations of the three posters before me!

[COACH DITKA]

Originally Posted by Daws1089

Finally, this came a season or two too late wouldn't you agree?

Originally Posted by Daws1089

Finally, this came a season or two too late wouldn't you agree?

Juice was the guy IMO that helped bring some buzz back to the IL football program. After that Sugar Bowl run w/Kittner, we had fallen back on some lean years w/good old Ron Turner and his lack of recruiting (Mike Dlugolecki (sp?) over Cutler at QB, some guy whose name is escaping me over Lawrence Maroney at RB, and the list unfortunately goes on. I believe Juice had committed out of CVS even before his junior year b/c I def remember plenty of hype about him down there my freshman year. All you heard was about this dual-threat QB that could run as well as throw the ball about 70 yards. Part of the problem may be the pressure he's basically had placed on him since then as I do feel many people crowned him as the guy that would put us back on the map. IMO he played his best during his sophomore year but it obviously helped he had Rashard lined up behind or next to him in the backfield on most of the snaps.
Juice is maddeningly inconsistent. Yeah, he will put up numbers (set 3 stadium records last season for most total yards in a game including at the Big House) and set the all-time mark at Illinois on Saturday (which was put on the scoreboard and no one seemed to notice until they actually announced it about 2 minutes later resulting in, at best, a smattering of cheers) to move ahead of Kittner but it honestly seems like he is regressing (though not quite to the point JaMarcus Russell is). He is just as likely to hit a receiver in stride 50 yards downfield as he is to overthrow a back in the flat thats 15 feet away. There certainly has been no shortage of weapons the last couple years w/Rashard, Benn, Fayson this year, Cumberland (who I don't think is used nearly enough), and so on. I do think the offensive line has played a role in his poor play this year as we lost 3 guys from a year ago including Ryan McDonald, who was very underrated and a very smart guy making the calls up front. They have played pretty poorly especially in the running game as I think consistency there would definitely have aided Juice.
Regardless, it was time a change was made as you have to look towards the future. McGee is def a guy I like but at this point I almost assume they put someone like Charest in there at QB while letting McGee line up at WR. This is basically a lost season now unless something drastic happens as I don’t see much more than 4-8 with the schedule they have left.
Also, IMO Zook is gone after the year. It used to seem that he and Bruce were opposites: Bruce could coach but not recruit while Zook could recruit but not coach. Weber def has silenced the recruiting critics while Zook has failed to do anything w/all the recruits he's brought in outside of the fluke Rose Bowl run 2 years ago.
The state of Illini football is just depressing ... at least bball season is getting closer.

[FlyersFan]

i really don't understand the whole ILL game plan every week honestly. They have run the ball rather effeciently this season, but they seem to use about 219 RB's every game and each guy gets about 9 carries or so. They have also scored a grand total of 6 points in the first half of their 3 games versus D1 opponents which is really just brutal. I watched them play OSU and a decent amount of the PSU first half and i really have to say again, i have no idea what they are trying to do each week on offense.

once again another great case for the zooker being able to recruit guys but not coach them up.

[irishmike]

Help is on the way!
Zooker just offered 29 eight graders from Cincy, Cleveland, and Y-town!!!