Scouting the Fighting Illini

Offense
Leading the team at quarterback is sophomore Juice Williams. He is passing better this year, going 56% for 1138 yards, 8 touchdowns and nine interceptions. He has 568 yards on the ground with five rushing touchdowns. The Illini like the run the ball, sitting at 6th in the nation with 261 yards/game, and junior Rashard Mendenhall leads with 1,314 yards and 14 touchdowns. He has five 150+ yard games. Illinois does not pass the ball much, but freshman Arrelious Benn leads the team with 573 yards. The team only averages 160 yards/game in the air, which is 116th in the country. Illinois's kicker Jason Reda is 13 of 14, hitting 3 of 3 from 50+ with a long of 50.

This Season
Illinois opened the season with a loss to Missouri, then won games against West Illinois, Syracuse, Indiana, Penn State and Wisconsin. Then they lost to Iowa and Michigan. The Illini are currently on a two game winning streak with victories over Ball State and Minnesota.

Scouting Report
Illinois will not win the game by depending on Juice Williams passing the ball, they need to establish a running game. OSU leads the nation in rush defense, only allowing 65 yards/game. Ohio State shut down Wisconsin, only allowing 17 yards rushing, although that number is a little misleading since there were 73 yards lost in ten sacks. I believe Illinois and Michigan will both get over 100 rushing yards against OSU, but hopefully it won't lead to touchdowns. Illinois has the 21st ranked defense in the country, only allowing 112.5 rushing yards/game, 242.5 passing yards/game and 19.1 points/game.

Coach
Ron Zook is 11-22 in his third season at Illinois. He is 28-33 at Illinois and Florida. Zook was a defensive back assistant coach under Cooper from 1988-1990 at Ohio State. He is from Loudonville, Ohio. Zook was a defensive back at Miami (not Florida) and the team went 32-1-1 while he was there.