As I’m sure most of you big recruiting followers already know, Illinois football picked up a huge recruiting victory today when news broke that East St. Louis wide receiver Kraig Appleton announced he will commit to the Orange and Blue on Tuesday. This story originally broke on illinihq.com with Bob Asmussen and Jeremy Werner doing the honors. Here’s a video of the incoming high school senior in action…

He is a big receiver that always looks the ball in and rounds out a class of receivers that looks to be impressive for the Illini in the next couple of years. Appleton also joins two of his high school teammates, WR Terry Hawthorne and S Tommie Hopkins, as Orange and Blue commits in the class of 2009.Even with the commitment, however, Appleton will still be taking all five of his alotted official visits in the fall even while being committed to Ron Z ook’s program. The five programs he will be visiting during the fall include LSU, Wisconsin, Notre Dame, Texas Tech and Ohio State. It’s amazing to see how far this Illini program has come now it is competing for players on the recruiting trail with programs on par with the ones Appleton will be visiting.

Appleton’s commitment tomorrow will mark the 12th verbal for the 2009 Fighting Illini recruiting class. The committed players, with Scout.com star rankings, follows:

WR Kraig Appleton **** East St. Louis, IL

RB Bud Golden *** Cincinatti, OH

OL Jake Feldmeyer ** Centerville, OH

OL Andrew Carter **** Tallahasse, FL

WR Terry Hawthorne *** East St. Louis, IL

S Tommie Hopkins ** East St. Louis, IL

QB Nathan Scheelhaase **** Kansas City, MO

WR Steve Hull *** Cincinatti, OH

CB Joelil Thrash ** Washington DC

FB Greg Fuller ** Harvey, IL (Thorton Township)

DT Lendell Buckner **** Chicago, IL (Leo)

OL Leon Hill *** Chicago, IL (Leo)

With some of the athletes the Illini staff brought into the receiving corps in the last two years, this class, and Florida transfer Jarred Fayson, the Illini will have quite a few athletes for Juice Williams to look for when he is a senior quarterback.

For those of you deadspin readers that miss UI alumnus and former editor Will Leitch, this, along with Appleton’s commit, might cheer you up:

Maybe Zook was doing this before he got to Rantoul

RANTOUL—Sunday’s Illinois Football Media Day was somewhat of a stark contrast to last week’s Big Ten Media Days to say the least, moving from the Hyatt Regency in the big city of Chicago with national media to East Central Illinois’ main metropolis Rantoul for the Orange and Blue’s version of media day on the eve of a three-week training camp. The Illini, as you should already know, are coming off their first Rose Bowl berth since 1983 to go along with their first winning season since 2001 and was just named no. 19 in the preseason coaches’ poll, and have been facing questions since spring ball in late March regarding whether or not 2007 was a fluke.

Well, regardless if last season was a fluke for the Orange and Blue, there are some things that are for sure after Sunday:

No more frantic flankers

Covering this team for the last couple of seasons has been, to say the least, a roller coaster ride of emotions. I’ve seen some emotional, breakthrough wins and many more heartbreaking losses. In the rougher times in 2006, you could constantly see a look of nervousness and, almost pain, on the faces of many of the Illini players and coaches. It was almost a chore for them to come to practice and talk with the media. When the losses piled up, it seemed like no one really wanted to be there and players would rather burrow in a hole than talk about their team’s struggles on the field.

The coaches, however, persevered on the recruiting trail and have motivated this team to believe in themselves and have brought a new attitude and swagger to everyone involved in the Illinois program. This team had struggled for so long to get over the hump, and after the 2007 season took somewhat of a weight off of the team’s collective shoulders, everyone involved with the program seems a lot more relaxed. And, as senior linebacker Brit Miller explains, the wins have helped the team’s attitude tremendously coming into Camp Rantoul.

“Now, we’re coming in here expecting to win. Camp’s going to be a lot of fun. People are looking forward to it,” Miller said. “It’s three weeks, and there’s not even a lot of grunts and groans out here and people are looking forward to playing football this year. We know what we’re capable of, and it’s a lot better feeling coming out knowing we’re going to compete with the best in the nation.” Read the rest of this entry »

Collegefootballnews.com, part of the Scout.com network, predicted that Illinois would finish eighth in the Big Ten. This is quite a different opinion than the media, including The Daily Illini, which picked Illinois to come in third in the conference, behind only Ohio State and Wisconsin, respectively. Last season, Illinois surprised almost everyone by finishing second and garnering a Rose Bowl berth. Though they lost Rashard Mendenhall and J Leman, the faces of the 2007 team, Ron Zook’s recruiting success has brought a healthy stash of reserves to replace the departed.

Overall, the Illini are predicted by CFN to finish 6-6 with a 3-5 conference record. The scouting company even thinks Illinois will lose its final game of the season against Northwestern. Whether that’s a testament to the program Pat Fitzgerald is building, a slap in the face to Illinois’ 2008 team or an over-confidence in what home-field advantage could mean for the Wildcats, it still seems like a leap.

Either way, it’s sure to make great locker material for Zook to keep his players humble, who have had a lot of hot air blown their way following their success in 2007. And, to put things in perspective, CFN guessed Illinois would finish 5-7 last year.

CHICAGO—Friday marked the player and coach one-on-one interview day at the Hyatt Regency as a part of the second day of Big Ten media days. This pretty much means a lot of older reporters run around a room wearing their outdated sweaters (or ugly and outdated jackets if you’re lucky) to talk to 22-year-olds about football. So, it’s a good time. Here’s some tidbits from Friday’s media session.

Miller is at ease in the heart of the Illini D

Coming off a 9-4 season with a Rose Bowl berth, a lot of people are wondering how the Illini will fare this season after losing NFL first round pick Rashard Mendenhall at running back. But the Illini defense lost quite a bit as well, including veteran safeties Kevin Mitchell and Justin Harrison. But arguably the biggest loss was emotional leader and middle linebacker J Leman.

Replacing Leman in the middle is former strong-side ‘backer Brit Miller. The senior from Decatur played the position his freshman year and has been questioned since spring football started even up to now with how he is handling the transition.

Miller explained on Friday that, as an experienced player, he is at ease and feels at home in the middle of the defense and that the game slows down for him.

“Everything you see starts making sense. You know when you first get there freshman or sophomore year you see the lineups and formations but you can say ‘yeah, this is that formation, but why?’ You start to answer those questions in the blink of an eye,” Miller said, “and I don’t mean to rhyme like that…There are certain tell-tale signs where you’re like ‘This is an obvious run play.’ I don’t see why that is but you’ve seen the lineup so much you see how these guys kind of dig in…It’s a whole different game when you’re sitting out there.” Read the rest of this entry »

The following article was written by DI staff writer Wes Anderson

CHICAGO–Once again, a new college football season has brought with it another salvo of rule changes from the NCAA.

Among the most notable tweaks for this year are the elimination of the 5-yard facemask penalty (Any form of twisting or pulling the facemask with be a 15-yard penalty), more stringent rules against helmet-to-helmet contact, and the addition of field goal attempts as reviewable plays.

While these rules have generally been well received, the changes to the college football play clock have been abrasive topics.

For the 2008 season, college football has adopted a play clock system that resembles that of the NFL in many ways. At the end of a play, a 40-second play clock will start instead of using a 25-second clock that began running after the ball was spotted by a referee.

David Parry, Coordinator of Big Ten football officials, said the changes are meant to speed up the game while providing more rigid time intervals between plays.

On Thursday, Wisconsin head coach Bret Bielema was receptive to the change.

“It really hopefully is going to make things more consistent and you’re going to eliminate the issues with the clock,” Bielema said. “It’s good to make things more consistent overall and a better game.”

Bielema’s critique was regarding the new out-of-bounds rule. Unless there are two minutes remaining in the half or the game, an out-of-bounds play that would normally halt the game clock will instead only pause it until the ball is spotted.

“For that clock to start and then start again, I think, its really going to change the game. If I’m a head coach and I’m down by three scores going into the fourth quarter, that basically takes that away from us,” Bielema said.

Read the rest of this entry »

Note: This story was written by DI staff writer Wes Anderson

CHICAGO–While attending Big Ten Media Day (a misnomer given the event’s two-day length) in downtown Chicago is a welcome privilege of writing for the Daily Illini (read: an opportunity to hoard free stuff that will inevitably find the bottom of a garbage can soon after), that doesn’t mean the day’s activities don’t often stray towards the monotonous.

The steady progression of coaches waxing poetic about the unfaltering greatness of their team, their university, and their undying optimism for 2008 (contrary to what the coaches may say, every team cannot win the Big Ten in one year) can leave a reporter drowning in sports clichés.

Lucky for us, though, the fraternity of Big Ten coaches is full of personalities. Here now, a look at the more attention-grabbing moments from today’s round of head coach pressers:

- All was jovial for Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema’s press conference until a rather vindictive reporter took his best shot at the Badgers’ somewhat shaky non-conference matchups:

Q: Your out-of-conference schedule includes Akron, Marshall, Fresno State and Cal Poly. Isn’t this below what’s to be expected of a program that’s been to 13 bowl games in the last 13 years and that is a perennial contender for the conference championship?

Bielema: Do you want to answer your question, or can I?

Read the rest of this entry »

CHICAGO–Just a couple of quick things from the Hyatt Regency that haven’t been mentioned yet in today’s blog coverage:

Conference Announces Preseason Awards
The media (DI staffers included) that was polled by the conference has chosen its preseason favorites to win the Big Ten. And the results are:

1. Ohio State Buckeyes

2. Wisconsin Badgers

3. Illinois Fighting Illini

Also, the preseason player of the year awards were given out today. The Buckeyes swept those just like the top spot in the preseason poll with tailback Chris “Beanie” Wells taking the offensive honors and linebacker James Laurinaitis defended his title as the defensive preseason player of the year.

Your 2008 Big Ten Preseason Defensive Player of the Year Read the rest of this entry »

College football, much like the NFL and other pro leagues, has proven to be a copycat league over the years. If something works well on either side of the ball, other teams quickly take it up and start using that strategy. Starting with George Halas’ man in motion with the T formation in the 1920’s and cutting midriffs on jerseys in the eighties (Thanks Doug Flutie) to the present-day practice of taping offensive linemen’s jerseys to their pads (nothing to grab here), everyone in football wants to gain an edge with the newest wrinkle set on by an innovative coach.

One big example that has lately swept both the nation and the Midwest is the spread offense. The spread offense is usually centered in three or four receiver sets with the quarterback five yards behind center, or in the shotgun, and is designed to spread the defense wider to force them to cover more area of the field. This type of offense is being used at just about every level—from Pop Warner football and high school to the New England Patriots of the NFL—and almost everyone adds their own wrinkles to the offense with option packages (see Illinois and new Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez) or an all-out ariel attack (see former Hawaii and new SMU coach June Jones and Texas Tech’s Mike Leach). I apologize for some of the cheesy music in those videos, but they do a good job of showcasing the spread.The Big Ten has a pioneer in the spread offense in outgoing Purdue coach Joe Tiller. Tiller was the first coach in the Big Ten to spread out his receivers and throw the ball a majority of the time in the former run-happy Big Ten. Tiller brought his spread offense from Wyoming to the Midwest and now eight of the 11 teams in the Big Team run the spread offense or a variation of it as their primary offensive formation. Wisconsin, Iowa and Penn State are the three schools that don’t.

So, being that the spread offense is the talk of the town (maybe I’m exaggerating a bit), it was a big topic of discussion in Thursday’s coaches press conferences. Here’s some of the tidbits from Big Ten coaches.

Illini Coach Ron Zook: When I first became a head coach, one thing most of my experience was on the defensive side of the football, and the one thing I wanted to do is I wanted to run an offense that I hated to see the most as a defensive football coach. Any time they spread out you’ve got to be able…to stop the run, and the more field that you have to cover sometimes the harder that it is, and I think once again it gives people an opportunity that maybe we’re — personnel-wise you may not be quite as good as others it maybe levels the field a little bit, and plus I think it’s a front offense. Read the rest of this entry »

The following was written by DI Senior Writer Daniel Johnson

CHICAGO–One of the last people to see Illinois’ loss to USC at the Rose Bowl was ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit. The former Ohio State quarterback was announcing the game for the network and was in Pasadena and Los Angeles for the week leading up to the game.

Herbstreit was also at Big Ten Media Days getting a glimpse of both coaches and players. The Daily Illini spoke with him on Thursday morning about Illinois and the Big Ten.

Daily Illini: Since you last saw Illinois at the Rose Bowl, what has changed most for the team in your eyes?

Kirk Herbstreit: I think it’s the experience of that game that has changed them the most. It’s funny, people are saying, ‘Well, Illinois got killed,’ and I’m like, ‘If you really go back and study that game, USC was on their way to blowing out Illinois, but they started to make some stops. All of the sudden (Rashard) Mendenhall gets loose on a couple of plays, then they get the ball back and they just start driving up and down the field at will, and they’re inside the 10-yard line. If they score that touchdown (instead of Jacob Willis fumbling,) it’s a seven-point game. But (Willis) fumbles going, SC on the next series fumbles themselves, but Joe McKnight being Joe McKnight picks it up and goes 75 yards and it’s pretty much over.
But I think what’s going to change the team is that experience of that is only going to strengthen them when they go to play Chase Daniel in Missouri. They’re not going to be like, ‘Wow, this is a big game,’ they’re going to be like, ‘Let’s go do this.’ The natural maturation of the program is kind of on the incline.”

DI: When you look at Illinois playing Missouri last year versus this year, what do you think is the different between the mindset of the players?

Herbstreit: I think there’s nothing more important to this team, a frustrated and young team, than focus on the next year, after having a great year, in its first game. If you’re playing a 1-AA team or a MAC (Conference) opponent, it doesn’t grab the players’ attention, but when you play Missouri and they’ve got Chase Daniel and they’re going to be a preseason top 5, top 7 team. It’s easy for (strength and conditioning coach Lou Hernandez) and Coach Zook to have the team ready for (Missouri,) because they know it’s coming.DI: With Rich Rodriguez coming to Michigan and changing the culture there from their traditional pro-style offense to a spread, what’s the difference going be in Ann Arbor?

Herbstreit: I think it’s bigger to the fans, guys like me and you are so used to seeing Elvis Grbac, John Navarre, Todd Collins; close your eyes and you envision a 6′4″ or 6′5″ just lumbering on the scramble, like a Tom Brady. I think for the casual fan it’s going to be like ‘wow, that’s weird,’ but the players will be fine, players adjust. But, it’s going to take some time, you don’t go from a power-running game to spreading them out and throwing. They did it some in the bowl game, but they had (Chad Henne) that started 40-some games. Now, you’re going to have a quarterback not prepared, I think this year’s going to be a tough year, they’re going to have to find a quarterback to run that system. They’ll adjust, but the spread is the kind of way of life now in college football, not just in Michigan, it’s every where.

Read the rest of this entry »

CHICAGO–So Big Ten football season is starting, and the DI has you covered with full coverage of the Big Ten Media Days right here on the DI Sports Blog!

Ron Zook started the day off as the first coach to speak and we have an audio wrap on his press conference below.Enjoy and look for more today and tomorrow.

The story can be found here at Dailyillini.com with the full audio wrap-up.