New Illini football coach Lovie Smith had a debut that went about as well as anyone could have wanted. Illinois wasted no time pouncing on lowly FCS opponent Murray State, forcing turnovers on the Racers first two drives and the score was 14-0 before a lot of people had even reached their seats. The 52-3 final matched Bill Cubit’s debut as Illini head football coach versus Kent State in the season opener last year.
The Illini out-gained the Racers 515-165 for the game and held Murray State to -10 yards rushing. This week’s opponent though, is light years better than a bad, even by FCS standards, team.
Now they’re facing a North Carolina Tar Heels team that entered the season nationally ranked, and gave national runner-up Clemson all they could ask for in last year’s ACC Title game.
“Look, good against remotes is one thing. Good against the living? That’s something else.” ?Han Solo.
Spread: North Carolina -9, just one more point favorable to Illinois than last year’s pregame spread.
TV: BTN 6:42 pm Central kickoff Saturday, Eric Collins & J Leman on the call
Illini Football Preview:
First some notes and quick hits on this Illini football game.
https://twitter.com/PaulMBanks/status/772857535778922496
Lovie Smith is now tied with Vic Koenning for the highest winning percentage ever among #Illini football coaches.
— The Tomfoolery of Professor John Frink (@Frustrated_Fan) September 3, 2016
https://twitter.com/PaulMBanks/status/772858408953319424
Getting Spencer back is a nice boost; Illinois has yet to disclose what his injury was/is. Yes, Lovie Smith is now tied with former Illinois Defensive Coordinator Vic Koenning (2010-11), who is 1-0 all time, good for 100%, as Illini football head coach. He won the 2011 Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl, then went on to be UNC’s DC.
His 2014 Tar Heels was one of the nation’s worst and thus he was terminated. He now plies his trade at Troy.
Carolina has replaced him with a pretty big name, Gene Chizik, and their situation has improved drastically on that side of the ball.
Coaching changes, staff changes, assistant changes, it’s all been a very common, reoccurring theme with Illini football in the 2010s.
And this game might give us a very early glimpse into where Lovie might take the Illini this season, and beyond in the overall big picture. We asked six of the leading national college football pundits/announcers (FOX’s Joel Klatt, Matt Leinart, Robert Smith and CBS’ Verne Lundquist, Gary Danielson, Rick Neuheisel) for their take on the future of Smith’s Illini.
You can read all of the analysis and opinion over at this link.
We do know this already, Smith has renewed excitement in the program, and ticket sales have already increased. Also, the atmosphere for this one should be charged. It’s “Hail to the Orange” night, as the school is encouraging fans to come dressed in orange.
A few thousand of the early arrivals will receive orange flags and orange t-shirts.
“Night games are a chance to show more people what you have as a team,” Smith said. “We’re excited about this night game. We’re excited about the game-day atmosphere. We keep talking about having a home-field advantage here. It should be a special one this week.”
North Carolina Football Preview:
The Heels entered the season ranked #22 but lost a very competitive game, 33-24 to No. 18 Georgia. If running back Elijah Hood played for say, Florida State or Auburn, instead of North Carolina, he might have been in the preseason Heisman conversation. He’s one of the top ten, maybe top five backs in the country, and has some legitimately high valued NFL Draft stock.
Fellow RB T.J. Logan is really good too. now’s the time to see if the DL, the strength of this Illini football team, can live up to the preseason hype. They looked awfully good in week one when you consider that their best player, Dawuane Smoot, had a very unimpressive box score yet they still dominated.
Also look out for out WR/RS Ryan Switzer, no relation to Barry, who can change the game in two phases. He leads a potentially explosive WR corps that has a likely favorable match-up against an Illini secondary that returns just one of four starters. (More on that here)
QB Mitch Trubisky is the real deal too; or at least his preseason hype was. He drew “mixed reviews” to put it mildly after the opener. A lot of that is on his receivers though, who just didn’t seem to be on the same page much of the time.
Defensively, UNC is really nothing special, especially up front. Cornerbacks M.J. Stewart and Des Lawrence are the two most talented amongst the XI on that side of the ball. Their run defense is legitimate severe vulnerability, and they finished 10th or worse in the ACC last year in sacks, rush yards allowed and third down conversions allowed.
As we said in the summer, Smith will make Illinois an “off-the-bus-running” kind of team this year. Here’s a golden opportunity to establish that.
Coach Larry Fedora isn’t going to beat anyone through his defense, as the offense will carry the load in Chapel Hill this fall. That said, if he doesn’t realize this week that he needs to give the ball a lot more Hood than he did in week one, he’s in real trouble.
There is a carolina blue print to an Illini football upset here, but it’s not going to happen unless UNC continues to make poor choices in their offensive play-calling.
Score Prediction: North Carolina 28, Illini football 17
It won’t be hideously ugly, like last year’s 48-14 debacle down on Tobacco Road. Illinois will hang with the Heels for about three quarters or so, but ultimately, they just don’t have the talent right now to match up. As the legendary Verne Lundquist said:
“It’s been a very tough spot for a long long time, and I think it would be significant, for the B1G to have Illinois relevant again. I know he’s succeeded at the highest levels, and it’s all about getting the young athletes committed to coming to Champaign-Urbana, and if he can do that, and I think he can, he’s going to be very successful there. “
Play this B1G-ACC Challenge next year, maybe a different result. Play it again in two years, and I would pick the Illini.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes regularly to the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye publication and Bold Global.
He also consistently appears on numerous radio and television talk shows all across the country. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram and Sound Cloud.