Although this game kicks off on October 3rd, it could very well be a season definer for both teams. The winner fights on to secure/solidify bowl positioning. The loser is in trouble, and finds themselves having to truly turn
For the visitors, well, this isn’t your Dad’s Nebraska football team. It’s not even your older brother’s Nebraska football team. For the home side, well, it appears Bill Cubit is an interim, just like we thought.
Saturday, Oct. 3, 2015 | 2:30 pm (2:42 pm kick) BTN
Spread: Nebraska football -7
My segment today talking Northwestern and Illinois on KOZN 1620 The Zone:
Cornhuskers football Preview:
NU just doesn’t have the playmakers and studs that they used to. Just a couple years ago, you could look at Nebraska and find at least one future NFL player in every position group; especially so on defense. Although DT Maliek Collins has high first round potential.
QB Tommy Armstrong isn’t perfect, but he’s pretty good. He’s also better than you might think he is. Armstrong set a career high with 431 yards of total offense, including 368 passing yards and 63 rushing yards, in Nebraska’s victory over Southern Miss. Threw for two touchdowns and rushed for one more, leading the Nebraska offense to scores on each of its six first-half possessions.
Armstrong had his fourth 300-yard passing game in his last five outings; how very Joe Ganzesque. (Being a Palos Heights, IL native/Stagg Charger, you knew I would force a Joe Ganz reference in here somewhere, somehow)
The weak Illini pass defense vs Tommy Armstrong and his solid grouping of receivers is a match-up NU fans should feel very good about. Especially if De’Mornay Pierson-El plays.
If I told you the career interception totals versus career starts of the Illini corners, you’d swear I was making that stuff up. To their credit, Illinois as a team has six INTs this season. In 2014 Illinois had just 7 for the whole season.
Saturday is the day that conference play truly begins in full force for the league. Here’s a really interesting survey of Big Ten football players about who their least favorite opponents are by the way. It includes Illini Linebacker Mason Monheim and OL Ted Karras.
Let’s give Bill Cubit some credit, Illinois has improved on defense this season. They made Middle Tennessee one-dimensional last week. of course MTSU was quite effective with just that one dimension.
As we said in preseason, P.J. Fleck is not the long term answer at Illinois. We went into detail on that here at this link. Western Michigan is 1-3 with a -65 point differential on the season. To be fair, the Broncos have played the #1 and #2 team in the nation already. Then again, Fleck was just 9-15 at WMU entering this season.
Moving on to Lane Kiffin, the rumors about him taking the Illini job some day, as baseless and groundless as they may be, resurfaced last week. Of course, that was the mildest and most wholesome of all the Kiffin rumors last Thursday. Lane Kiffin is not the answer in Champaign either. We’ll detail that narrative in more depth tomorrow, but the long and short of it is this:
Yes, Kiffin would make Illinois nationally relevant again, but only as a punchline. It would be Ron Zook hire 2.0 only with more risk/reward and potential baggage. Following Kiffin’s career is like tailing the path of a tornado- there’s always debris in the wake.
While Kiffin keeps failing upward he does make for great material. See Tosh.0’s sketch Kriffin’s Krimson Korner.
It’s hard to feel confident about Illinois’ chances in this game because of how they have fared versus the power five these past five years.
Take a look at this chart below. The first number is versus FCS and FBS Mid-Majors, the second number is versus the Power 5. At this point, Illini football is ripe to be a subject of one of Daniel Tosh’s Web Redemptions.”
2012 2-1, 0-9
2013 3-0, 1-8
2014 3-1, 3-6
2015 3-0 0-1
So who is the answer for Illini football? Well, we’ve got this week, and then seven more weeks after that to figure it out, don’t we?
Prediction: Nebraska football 27, Illini 17
Illinois was just a six point favorite versus low-major MTSU at home, and they couldn’t even manage cover that. They’re a touchdown dog at home this week, and although this is very much a winnable game for Illinois, it’s going to take something outrageous like Armstrong getting injured early on, or a +4 TO margin to realistically envision that happening.
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and sometimes writes The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. The website is also featured on News Now.
Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes to the Chicago Tribune RedEye. He also appears regularly on numerous talk shows all across the country. Catch him Tuesdays on KOZN 1620 The Zone.
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