“Off the bus running” is one of the two sayings most commonly associated with Illini football Coach Lovie Smith. “Rex is our quarterback” is the other, and he gave us that catch-phrase Sunday at Illini Media Day. It’s 2016 football talking season, and during it we’ve heard a huge emphasis on the running game.
Illinois QB Wes Lunt said at Big Ten Media Day that this will be a run first offense.
“We’re committed to the running game, in training camp that’s really all you can really say,” Lovie said at Illini Media Day.
“I like what we have up front. We have an excellent tailback in Ke’Shawn Vaughn. Kendrick Foster has looked good in our preseason drills. You start with that.”
“As a staff we have a commitment to it.”
Due to a season ending injury to highly rated tailback Dre Brown, redshirt freshman Reggie Corbin is now third string.
The Illini ran the ball on just 43 percent of their snaps in 2015. They ran just 44.9% of the time on “standard rushing downs” (first downs, second-and-7-or-less, third and fourth-and-four-or less). That ranked 126th in the nation. (There are only 128 teams in the country!)
Quarterback Wes Lunt was 14th in the nation with 481 pass attempts.
In other words they never, to use the cliche, “established the run.” They weren’t good at it, and they just didn’t believe in it under a Bill Cubit offense. Cubit’s teams were too pass happy and the Illini rushing attack was the weakest link of the team, ranking 110th nationally in rushing yards per game.
Obviously, things will be extremely different this season with a new staff and new priorities in place.
We recall two #5s who both rewrote the Illini football rushing record book. Vaughn said at Media Day that he was given a choice between #3 and #5, but he picked #5 because of the history behind it, and his desire to keep the legacy alive.
Vaughn said that he’s had Twitter conversations with Rashard Mendenhall, the first of the two legendary #5s who ran rampant through Champaign. Mikel Leshoure was the other.
Vaughn is off to a great start following a tremendous rookie year, but he’s got a ways to go in order to match Mendenhall and Leshoure level productivity.
His ability to get there is largely dependent on the line in front of him.
They need to get a lot better at run blocking in 2016. While the wide receivers might be the biggest question mark as a position group on this team, the running attack is the facet of the team inspiring the most concern among the fan base.
The OL returns three starters in C Joe Spencer, LT Austin Schmidt and RT Christian DiLauro. The two new incoming starters are both highly rated recruits and in-state products, LG Gabe Megginson and RG Nick Allegretti.
It’s been awhile since Illini football has had a couple really good home grown products starting up front at the same time. However, when they have had Land of Lincoln big boys plowing the way, they’ve often been very good. Some cleared themselves a path all the way to the NFL.
Names like Jon Asamoh, Jeff Allen, Tony Pashos, David Diehl and Xavier Fulton come to mind.
Keep an eye on Allegretti this season, as Smith said that he’s really committed himself to conditioning and strength.
“No one changed their body as much as Nick Allegretti,” Smith said.
“I asked him to get his body fat down, more lean weight. All of that he did.”
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.
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