The absence of Tim Beckman this year means that Penn St. football fans will have to find some new machine to rage against when they host Illinois this week. Don’t worry, there’s always grist for the mill (but not Zack Mills) somewhere, even though college football’s answer to Elder Cunningham in “The Book of Mormon” is no longer around to incite incendiary rage within PSU supporters.
This series has seen an exciting back and forth between the two teams in the past half decade or so. We’ll see on Halloween if the trend continues.
TV: ESPN2 11 AM (Beth Mowins, Anthony Becht & Paul Carcaterra)
SPREAD: Penn St. football -6
Series: The two teams also met in Happy Valley on Halloween (or at least on the Saturday preceding the holiday when everyone has their parties) in 2011. It was a very close game, although it was indeed monstrously ugly. No one could score, but at least it came down to the wire. Same in 2013, when Illinois could have easily won at Beaver Stadium had then offensive coordinator Bil Cubit not taken the “I will never call a running play in a running situation/at the goal line” stance. Bad play-calling cost the Illini a W.
Illinois did win last year in a game that had a real, actual attendance of about 10-12,000. Forget what the official numbers were, take a look at the pics below, and remember that these photos were snapped during the game.
Illini football Preview:
Failing to close the deal versus Wisconsin now makes the road games at Purdue and Minnesota must-win-at-all-costs. In order for Cubit to have a genuine chance of returning in 2016, he’ll additionally need to pull out an upset in one of the three following contests:
#1 Ohio State, Northwestern at Soldier Field, at Penn State.
Even if Cubit does reach seven plus wins, there’s still the matter of his boss’ own job security. The full results of the investigation into the Illini football program are pending, and it’s thought that Athletic Director Mike Thomas will look even worse once that’s released.
In the summer, Illini football fans, alumni, boosters, media etc. were all calling for the heads of both Thomas and then Head Coach Tim Beckman. Thomas sacrificed Beckman, and in doing so saved himself for awhile by placating the Illini athletics community in the short term.
However, college basketball season soon commences and this Illini hoops team is going to be bad. They were a 9th to 11th place caliber team even at full strength, so now with all the injuries, plus the dismissal of Darius Paul, they’re 12th place-ish. Once that losing starts, everyone who cares deeply about Illinois athletics will get their pitchforks out again and Thomas may not last very long. A new A.D. most likely means a new Illini football coach, so what kind of market will Illinois have to compete with?
We explored that in detail here at this link.
So what kind of coach could Illini football actually get? We asked CBS lead college football experts Gary Danielson, Rick Neuheisel and Verne Lundquist. Here’s a link to what they said.
The Fighting Illini defense over the first six games has shown vast improvement since last season.
» The Illini rank in the top-30 nationally in six different categories, including blocked kicks (4), third down defense (6), TFLs (14), first downs allowed (18), passing efficiency defense (25) and interceptions (26).
» Through seven games in 2014, the Illini were allowing 486.6 ypg and 35.9 ppg. This season, they’re allowing 344.9 ypg and 20.3 ppg through seven games.
Penn St. football (6-2, 3-1) Preview:
It was not “exciting” last week. Escaping 31-30 versus a horrendous Maryland team is not “exciting.” Although Penn State football coach James Franklin speculated that the suspense-filled game shortened his life expectancy by five years. PSU is probably the third best team in the Big Ten East; at least in my mind. I predicted as much in the preseason.
Of course, the media loves them some Jim Harbaugh so they have to the Wolverines ahead of this Penn State football team.
Christian Hackenberg is now Penn State’s career leader in passing yards and completions last week. He also moved into a tie with Zack Mills for first place in career pass attempts last Saturday versus the Terps.
Now that the Houston Texans have cut Ryan Mallett, and Bill O’Brien will be drafting at a decent position because his team is still horrible, well, you know where I’m going with this. You can’t talk about Hack without talking NFL Draft stock. Mark it in your NFL mock draft now.
Defensively, Anthony Zettel is the pro potential guy but Carl Nassib is the DL who has broken out this season.
Nassib has sprung onto the national scene this year and leads FBS in sacks (13.5), tackles for loss (17.5) and forced fumbles (5). He has recorded a sack in each game this season and five multi-sack games. Nassib’s 13.5 sacks this season are the most by a Nittany Lion since Michael Haynes tied Larry Kubin’s school record of 15 sacks in 2002.
PREDICTION: Penn St. football 21, Illinois 19
The Illini will upset somebody this season, but I don’t think it will be this week. They’ll come close but I won’t see them upsetting this Penn St. football team.
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 television and radio talk shows all across the country. Catch him Tuesdays on KOZN 1620 The Zone.
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