Quick Thoughts On Illinois

Hello Readers,

I'm back at work after my wife had our second child, and with a new routine comes hopefully a bit more standardized time to do a write-up of the games.

For this week though it'll be quick thoughts.

1.) How has our secondary gone from being a weak spot on our team to a strong spot? We're currently 3rd in the NCAA in interceptions. Further, we put young Darqueeze out there and the drop off from Chris L Rucker to him is not as steep as expected.

2.) The improvement in play by Will Gholston has been fun to watch. I suspect that on opening day 2011 he will be our best pass rusher. He has all of the physical tools to dominate, just need to learn the playbook now. It's been a treat watching him come along.

3.) The Illini are currently 3-3. Their season ends with: Indy and Purdue at home, at Michigan, Minny at home, at Northwestern and at Fresno State. I think they could finish this season 5-1 and should finish this season 4-2.

4.) This team is legit. I didn't believe it until this weekend, but Illinois did exactly what I had been waiting for a team to do all year. They came in and shut down the run, then they started to run on us. The second half came around and we started playing some quick drops and getting lots of quick throws.

In short, they came in and took our lunch. Halftime came, there was some screaming, some yelling, some adjustments and we adapted our game plan to beat them a different way. I don't remember this being a characteristic of any MSU team as long as I've been watching them.

Enjoy the ride folks.