Illini a Complete Team, Ready for Contention

Despite Illinois’ 3-0 start, I was still skeptical about their legitimacy. Against Kansas and Central Michigan, they allowed a combined 328 yards on the ground at 5 yards per carry. Their defensive front had not stepped up yet and their secondary was living off of an impossible-to-sustain three forced takeaways per game. The Illini’s 3-0 start was impressive but certainly left room to wonder how they would fare against Big Ten teams who have been more dominant in the trenches.

And that’s why we play the game.

Illinois and Nebraska battled in a back-and-forth classic Friday night which ended in a 31-24 OT win for the home team. That questionable defensive front was a big reason why. Illinois generated 5 sacks on the evening and held Nebraska to just 48 rush yards on 33 attempts. Their depth at linebacker shined with strong performances from Dylan Rosiek, Gabe Jacas, and Alec Bryant. The secondary didn’t have three takeaways, but Torrie Cox Jr made one of the plays of the weekend when he ripped the ball away from Isaiah Neyor on what appeared to be a TD catch.

The Illini defense stepped up in ways I did not think they would be able to against the ultra-physical Huskers. They forced two key field goal attempts – one after Nebraska had 1st & goal from the 5, another late in the 4th-quarter of a tied game which was missed. They only gave up 7 points after halftime and sacked Dylan Raiola three times in overtime to seal the win.

Illinois’ defensive improvement compared to last year is nothing short of remarkable. Nebraska had allowed only one sack coming into this game and were routinely gashing opponents on the ground. But against Bielema’s defense, their interior offensive line was overwhelmed from the start.

Despite how much the defense has stepped up so far this season, Illinois is still a team that will win with offense. Luke Altmyer proved once again that he is one of the best QBs in the conference. Thanks to significant improvement to the pass protection, Altmyer’s poise has been night and day compared to last year. He hasn’t made any poor decisions, he’s been consistently accurate down the field, and has the wheels to extend plays when needed. After defending Altmyer for over a year now, it was refreshing for the rest of the country to see what he is capable of.

A lot of Altmyer’s success stems from the wide receiver duo of Pat Bryant and Zakhari Franklin. They have combined for 41 receptions, 552 yards, and 6 TDs through just four games. Franklin’s speed is a great compliment to the physicality and sharp route-running of Bryant. The two are legitimately one of the top wide receiver duos in all of college football.

The success of the Illini passing attack shouldn’t come as a big surprise, though. What is surprising is how this run game is beginning to flourish. Kaden Feagin is the clear bell-cow in the room, but there is also ample depth behind him with Aidan Laughery, Josh McCray, and Ca’Lil Valentine each showing flashes so far this season. Those four running backs have combined for 572 yards and 4 TDs on over 5 yards per carry.

Last year, this Illinois offense averaged less than 4 yards per carry. They had a negative turnover margin. They were 117th nationally with 40 sacks allowed.

This year, Illinois is winning in the trenches. They are winning the turnover battle. They are a tougher, crisper football team. Every time Nebraska punched Illinois and seemed to take hold of momentum, Illinois was able to land a counter punch.

This is a football team that can beat you through the air or on the ground. This is a football team that can turn you over and force mistakes from opposing QBs. This is a football team that can swarm the line of scrimmage and contain the run game. This is a football team that doesn’t beat themselves.

Illinois still has massive matchups against Penn State, Michigan, and Oregon before October is up. It’ll be a massive challenge for them to pull off just one of those upsets. But if Luke Altmyer continues to make good decisions and their play along the line of scrimmage continues to improve, Illinois will be a tough out for any team in the Big Ten.

Same Corn, Different Year

On the flip side of Friday’s top-25 matchup, Nebraska dropped a game they had every opportunity to win – a feeling all too familiar for Nebraska fans over the past 10 years.

Being able to close out tight games is a skill that teams need to develop, just like throwing the deep ball or mastering the option. Nebraska hasn’t won more than 5 games since 2016 and are led by a true freshman QB. It goes without saying that this team needs to learn how to win close games.

But Illinois has only one winning season since 2012. Luke Altmyer had only three career wins as a starter heading into this season. Bret Bielema hasn’t won more than 8 games as a head coach since 2011 when he was at Wisconsin with Russel Wilson. This isn’t a team littered with winning experience. So how was Illinois able to walk into a raucous environment in Lincoln and be the team to come up with clutch plays when it mattered the most?

Part of it may have to do with how each team committed to their identity. Illinois came into the game with a conscious effort to wear down Nebraska along the offensive and defensive lines. They committed to the ground game and never waivered, even though weren’t able to produce many chunk plays. They worked hard to tire Nebraska out in the trenches and it paid off when they needed it most.

On the flip side, Nebraska seemed quick to abandon the run and put the game on the shoulders of their 18-year old QB. The Huskers handed the ball off 25 times Friday night. Only 8 of those came in the second half and overtime. More often than not in that second half, Nebraska was dropping back to pass on 1st & 10 or 3rd & short.

A perfect example of this came at the end of regulation. In a tied game with 3:00 remaining, Nebraska faced a 3rd & 3 at the Illinois 21-yard line. At the very least, a 1st down would allow Nebraska to kick a go-ahead field goal and give Illinois the ball back without any timeouts or the two-minute timeout. They brought out a jumbo set and lined up in the i-formation only to run a play-action pass. Raiola missed a wide open Luke Lindenmeyer in the end zone. They had to settle for a field goal which was missed.

Yes, Nebraska runs a spread offense. Yes, they like to pass the ball just as much as they like to run. And yes, Dylan Raiola is not playing like a typical true freshman. But Matt Rhule’s identity in just over a season with Nebraska has been toughness and physicality along the line of scrimmage. And in one game, Illinois seems to have robbed Nebraska of that identity.

I said before the game that this would be won in the trenches. I just didn’t think Nebraska would be the one getting dominated where it mattered the most.

Listen, this doesn’t mean it’s time to sound the alarms. Matt Rhule’s rebuild of Nebraska is far from over. Anyone who thought the Huskers would reach the pinnacle of college football in Rhule’s second season was over-zealous. Nebraska is still a much better football team than they were before Rhule took over. They still have a bright future and should be able to celebrate their first post-season appearance in 8 years when this season wraps up.

But if you’re a Nebraska fan, it’s hard not to feel a little uneasy after Friday’s defeat. Collapsing in close games is an issue that plagued both Scott Frost and Mike Riley before Rhule arrived. Sixteen games into his tenure, Rhule is now 1-7 in one-possession games. Is it possible that this issue could collapse yet another attempt at a Husker rebuild? I don’t think so.

But the fact that this question needs to be asked at all is definitely concerning. With games against Indiana, Rutgers, Ohio State, USC, and Iowa still on the schedule, Nebraska is sure to find themselves in another tight four-quarter battle at some point this season. Matt Rhule and his squad will need to figure out a way to pull out a couple wins in those situations. Otherwise, the pressure may rise to insurmountable heights heading into 2025.

The Michigan Way Prevails For Now

Heading into the game, I said Alex Orji would need to make a big-time throw at some point in order for Michigan to pull off the upset over USC at home. Welp, Sherron Moore and the Wolverines certainly made me eat my words.

Michigan beat USC 27-24 despite Alex Orji completed 7 of 12 passes for 32 yards and 0 TDs.

In a stark contrast of offensive ideologies, Michigan’s ground-and-pound attack prevailed. They racked up 290 rush yards on over 6 yards per attempt while keeping USC under 100 rush yards. An offensive line that was inconsistent at best through their first three games stepped up and man-handled USC’s undersized front. The offensive line was called for only one penalty all game and they helped pave the way for three key 4th-down conversions.

Alex Orji didn’t test the Trojans downfield but, most importantly, he didn’t make any mistakes either.

The Wolverines saw similar dominance along their defensive line too. They tallied four sacks, eight TFLs, and were able to harass Miller Moss seemingly at will. Mason Graham and Josiah Stewart were virtually unblockable. Graham bottled up the interior line and came up with two key stops in short yardage situations, while Stewart had USC’s tackles grasping at air.

Michigan won this game by owning their identity. They dominated along the line of scrimmage like they have so many times over the past three seasons. They took care of the football and did not beat themselves.

Saturday in Ann Arbor proved what I was preaching all off-season: Michigan is good enough on both lines of scrimmage to have a shot at 10 wins without needing a legitimate downfield passing attack. Alex Orji’s threat to run can freeze linebackers just long enough to open up holes for Kalel Mullings and Donovan Edwards, much like an effective pass game does.

The ‘Michigan Way’ of running the blood out of the football was good enough to beat USC at home – just barely, but good enough indeed. They won’t blow many teams out playing this way and won’t always be a treat to watch, but Michigan is fully capable of beating teams like Minnesota, Washington, and Michigan State without a legitimate downfield passing attack.

But against teams with more balanced offenses and bigger defensive lines, this formula will not work. Relative to the best teams in the Big Ten, USC has a deficit along both lines of scrimmage. Michigan was able to expose that. But I would expect upcoming matchups against Oregon and Ohio State to play out more like their game against Texas rather than what we witnessed on Saturday.

So, a question for Michigan fans: is going 9-3, losing to Ohio State, and narrowly missing out on the CFP good enough? For this season, probably. But at some point, Wolverine fans will expect their team to get back into the playoff and compete for a national championship. No matter how great Michigan is along the line of scrimmage, they will have to be able to throw the ball downfield in order to get there.

The Michigan way prevailed on Saturday and delivered a key victory to the Wolverines. But if Michigan wants to return to the glory we witnessed over the past three seasons, Sherron Moore will have to invest more into this passing game.

Schiano’s Second Symphony

On Saturday, Rutgers walked into Blacksburg, Virginia and defeated the Hokies 26-23. It was a game that Rutgers dominated. They outgained Tech by over 100 yards. They won the 3rd-down battle, the turnover battle, and dominated time of possession with over 39 minutes. They committed only four penalties for 20 yards and averaged nearly 11 yards per passing attempt.

Despite all that, two missed field goals and a questionable 4th-down call let the door open for Virginia Tech. Two quick scoring drives and two-point conversions led to a tied game late in the 4th and it looked like Rutgers was about to one-up Iowa’s performance vs Iowa State in the “who is the best at blowing games” sweepstakes.

But Ian Strong took a quick-out off of play-action 63 yards to the Virginia Tech 12 which set up a go-ahead field goal. The Scarlet Knight defense stepped up with their third takeaway of the game, and Rutgers left Blacksburg 3-0. Rutgers’ performance as a road underdog confirmed one thing in my eyes: Greg Schiano’s second rebuild of Rutgers is nearing completion.

In 2001, Greg Schiano took over a Rutgers program that had won 11 games across the previous five seasons. He brought the program to new heights which included six winning seasons in seven years and five bowl victories. But not long after Schiano left New Jersey to try his hand at the NFL, the Scarlet Knights fell back into a similar place of irrelevance. In the five seasons leading up to Schiano’s triumphant return, Rutgers won only 13 games.

At the surface, this was a very similar rebuild to what Schiano did before. But now competing in the Big Ten during an era of extreme change for the sport with the emergence of NIL and the transfer portal, this rebuild was actually nothing like what Schiano put together 20 years ago. Turning Rutgers into a nationally relevant football brand in the year 2024 is far more impressive than anything Schiano has done in his career.

When Greg Schiano returned in 2020, his priorities were instilling a fundamentally sound defense and a punishing run game. Year over year, Rutgers has improved tremendously in those two areas. They rarely had the best athletes on the field, but they also rarely beat themselves.

But in order to make the jump from middling-bowl team to top-25 caliber team, Rutgers had to make drastic improvement in the passing game. Schiano whiffed on 4-star prospect Gavin Wimsatt in epic fashion and needed to find a competent quarterback to lead this offense in 2024.

Athan Kaliakmanis was another former 4-star prospect who didn’t appear to be living up to his rating after an abysmal first season as a starter at Minnesota last year. But as the old adage goes, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Kaliakmanis is the biggest reason why Rutgers is 3-0 and has a legitimate path to 10 wins.

Schiano has built this program from the inside out, establishing strong lines of scrimmage and rushing attacks. He started to win recruiting battles in New Jersey, which is one of the most underrated havens for high school talent in the country. He has retained talent and built a senior-laden team which has been impacted minimally by the transfer portal. And now, he finally has his quarterback that can run this simple yet effective offense built on a down-hill run attack and play-action.

Outside of road trips to Nebraska and USC, Rutgers should legitimately be favored in every game the rest of the season. Sure, Big Ten schedulers helped them out a bit after spending a decade in the gauntlet that was the Big Ten East. But this Rutgers team is no fluke. Greg Schiano has rebuilt this program from the ground up and will have them in the thick of the Big Ten race this season – a feat that was unthinkable before he took over five short years ago.

Walters’ Wisdom Wavering

Ryan Walters needs to get a grip on his team and he needs to do it fast. Despite going 4-8 last year, Purdue never appeared to play without energy. Until the final snap of the season, I saw fight from these Boilermakers. But just three games into Waters’ second season, that passion and effort seems to have vanished.

Getting dominated at home against a vastly superior team like Notre Dame is forgivable. Getting dominated against an Oregon State program who is in full rebuild mode after losing their head coach and most of their best players is not.

Purdue possessed the ball for less than 20 minutes on Saturday. For the second straight week, Hudson Card completed less than 50% of his passes. He has virtually no one to throw the ball to, with TE Max Klare being the only one to haul in more than five catches through three games. Nine of Purdue’s offensive drives failed to surpass four plays. After a promising opener, OC and play-caller Graham Harrell is once again failing to get this offense into any sort of rhythm or give them an identity.

Perhaps even more concerning than their disconsolate offense is their defense. They were gashed once again, giving up nearly 350 rush yards on over 6 yards per carry. Ryan Walters came to Purdue as a defensive guru after being the ‘architect’ behind Illinois’ elite defense in 2022 which featured future NFL stars Sydney Brown and Devon Witherspoon, among others.

He brought a hybrid 3-4 scheme which was supposed to cause confusion and wreak havoc. A complete defensive scheme change is nearly impossible to successfully implement in one season, but there were enough positives last year to think they could take a big step forward in year two. Dillon Thieneman was one of the best freshmen in America last year. Kydran Jenkins was a force in the backfield. They brought in a litany of transfer additions in the back-end. But so far, this unit looks to have taken a significant step in the wrong direction.

With a lot of departures from last year’s team and a brutal schedule, not a lot was expected of Purdue in 2024. Even so, the Boilers have found a way to under-perform more than any team in the conference through four weeks.

The defense is not disciplined and lacks the athletes in space or size up front to make up for their missed assignments. The offense is void of play-makers and an identity.

Purdue still has home matchups against Nebraska and Oregon as well as road trips to Wisconsin and Illinois before they reach their bye week. If Ryan Walters doesn’t change something drastic very soon, the Boilermakers may not have another win left on their schedule. As much as I believed in Walters heading into this season, a 1-11 or 2-10 campaign will be hard to defend.

Kaleb Johnson, MVP?

After a promising first six quarters to start the season, the Hawkeye passing attack has slowed down to a pace we are all much more familiar with. Iowa beat Minnesota 31-14 on the road Saturday night, but almost none of the credit can go to Cade McNamara or his receivers. McNamara went 11/19 for 62 yards. Backup TE Addison Ostrenga was the team’s leading receiver with two catches for 20 yards.

Iowa faced a 14-7 halftime deficit and passed the ball only six times in the second half, yet outscored Minnesota 17-0 in the final two quarters. How is that possible? Look no further than my early favorite for the Chicago Tribune Silver Football Award (and possible Heisman Trophy candidate), Kaleb Johnson.

Johnson ran for 206 yards and 3 TDs on just 21 carries. He’s leading the nation in rushing yards with 685 yards. Despite missing the whole first half of the season opener, he is accounting for 45% of Iowa’s offensive yardage. As a running back. That’s absurd. For reference, Ashton Jeanty is the nation’s second-leading rusher but accounting for just 36% of his offense’s total yards. Omarion Hampton is the nation’s third-leading rusher but accounting for 32% of UNC’s offense.

You could argue that there isn’t an offensive player in all of college football that means more to his team than Kaleb Johnson means to Iowa – including quarterbacks.

Kaleb Johnson is on pace for 2,133 total yards and 27 TDs by the end of the regular season. Putting up those kinds of numbers in an offense as anemic as Iowa’s deserves more recognition than he is getting.

Iowa has a bye week to prepare for their visit to Columbus and could very well be favored in every single game after that. Despite their epic collapse against Iowa State a few short weeks ago, Iowa could very well find themselves in the thick of the CFP race at the end of the season. If there is one person Iowa fans can thank for that, it’s Kaleb Johnson.

This is Going to be Fun

After a sluggish first half in the opener vs Akron, this Buckeye offense is starting to find its rhythm.

TreVeyon Henderson are each top 10 in the country in yards per carry. The duo has put up 575 total yards on 64 touches – that’s 8.98 yards every time they touch the ball. They’ve hardly hat to break a sweat, either, hopefully ensuring their health throughout the long season.

The elite receiving trio of Jeremiah Smith, Emeka Egbuka, and Carnell Tate are starting to heat up too. They’ve combined for 39 catches for 714 yards and 6 TDs. Smith & Egbuka are each averaging over 19 yards per catch.

Quarterback Will Howard has only been sacked once in three games and has committed one turnover. He’s averaging nearly 11 yards per attempt while completing 69% of his passes. He’s shown off his wheels on a few occasions, being the first Buckeye QB to rush for a touchdown since Justin Fields in 2020.

What’s scary about this offense is they haven’t asked Will Howard to use his elite speed as a runner much at all. They have had Henderson & Judkins on the field at the same time only once – for a QB sneak into the end-zone. We haven’t even begun to scratch the surface of Chip Kelly’s offensive genius and the Buckeyes are seemingly scoring at will.

Ohio State’s offense will finally get a few tests with a road trip to East Lansing and a home game against Iowa before traveling to Eugene for what might be the game of the year, so we will know in short order just how crazy this offense can be. But through three games, it’s hard not obsess over this unit’s potential.