How will the commitment of Terrelle Pryor to Ohio State affect Illinois' 2009 season?
With Michigan being unable to reel in Pryor, a victory in the Big House seems even more real. Although Pryor will be behind Todd Boeckman, how will his future affect ours?
Do you think he can make that much of an impact in his first year? or during his time there?
IMO, it probaby won't have any impact at all. Afterall, OSU is still "King of the Mountain." Now, had Indiana or Purdue gotten TP, then that would have shaken the pecking order within the conference. In saying that, the road to the Big 11 Title still rolls through Columbus. Let's no exhalt TP as the second coming...just yet. I look for OSU to use him similar to how we use Benn. My guess is they will line him up in the slot as a receiver, maybe run some sweeps and tosses, short throws...anything to get him in space. Martez is going to smack that kid right in the mouth next year in Champaign. I am JACKED UP for August 30th.
Obviously it doesn't effect us as much as it did Michigan and Penn State, but we have played OSU well over the past couple years and with the exception of Zook's first year, played them well for about the past 10 years. The thing with Tressel though, is that he seems to adapt his offense to the players he has. He won with Krenzel who was more like Boekman and won with Troy Smith who seems to be similar to Pryor. All in all it's our guys against theirs, no matter who they are and we proved last year that we can beat them. Yeah, the road goes through Columbus, but since they come to our house this year, I say the road leads thru Champaign! Dufrene will step it up in place of RUSHhard, but all the guys that were freshman and sophomores last year will also step it up. Look for Juice to be even better than last year, but we don't want him to stop running and become a drop back passer. I'm afraid he will try that to prove to NFL scouts he has potential at QB there. Any thoughts on that?
I do agree that he is most dangerous running the ball. Everyone is expecting him to break out and become a true duel-threat this year. In saying that, he needs to be more consistent and improve his TD/INT ratio. I just do not see Isiah as an NFL QB. He has the players around him now to show that he can be the complete player. However my concern is that he will not have as dominant rushing attack to keep the defenses honest. Thus, Juice will be called on to throw more in longer down situations.
In the years to come, I believe Zook would prefer to have an offense that was pass first. Our recruiting classes should dictate that.
In Illinois' second spring scrimmage, Juice Williams threw for 222 yards and 3 touchdowns on 17 completions of 31 attempts. I didn't see them play though I wish I had.
