With Iowa taking on Illinois this week, Daily Iowan sports editor Jordan Hansen and Daily Illini sports editor Peter Bailey-Wells discussed this week’s matchup.
Hansen: With all things considered, what’s a successful season to Illinois this year?
Bailey-Wells: If Illinois wins 6-8 games and a bowl game, that would be a successful season for the Illini. They’re already way ahead of where they should be — they shouldn’t have beaten Nebraska — and if they beat Iowa, they’re 2-0 in the Big Ten for the first time since 2011.
Hansen: What’s behind Geronimo Allison’s solid start?
Bailey-Wells: He’s a great athlete. Always has been. But he came from junior college and last season was his adjustment period. Last year he also had Mike Dudek — out with a torn ACL — to shoulder the main receiving load, so attrition is partly to blame for the offense’s heavy reliance on Allison. But he’s proven up to the task. If he keeps it up, he’s got the skills to hear his name called when the draft rolls around.
Hansen: Has everything surrounding Tim Beckman been less of a distraction than what you expected?
Bailey-Wells: It has been. When it happened, the media had a little freakout but the players have stuck to the party line and given little indication that they’re thinking about anything but football. Winning helps: being 4-1 to start the season makes a lot of people forget that the program still has an independent investigation hanging over its head. The play on the field hasn’t reflected that.
Hansen: Two-part question here: What are the best and worst positional units for Illinois?
Bailey-Wells: Their best positional unit might be quarterback. Wes Lunt runs everything in that offense and is clearly the most important player on the field. To do well against Iowa, Lunt needs his receiving corps to play well. Which, ironically, is probably the worst positional unit for Illinois right now. They’ve dropped 30 balls on the season, which has been a huge problem for them, stalling their offense drive after drive.
Now, three of their top four receivers from last season are hurt — Dudek, Justin Hardee and Josh Ferguson — but all the same, the youngsters have to step up if Lunt and the offense can do anything against Iowa.
Hansen: How does losing Josh Ferguson change the Illini offense?
Bailey-Wells: He’s a Swiss Army Knife out of he backfield. It’ll be tough to weather his loss, but the Illini have true freshman Ke’Shawn Vaughn ready to go, and he might surprise some people. Ferguson has a better knowledge of the playbook, has better hands and is probably more elusive, but Vaughn has better endurance and might be a better every-down back than Ferguson.
He has the strength to go up the middle and the speed to run on the outside. And many of the upperclassmen say he doesn’t behave like a freshman — he acts more mature — so we’ll see if Kinnick hosts his coming-out party Saturday.
Hansen: If Beathard is going to attack someone in the secondary, who’s it going to be?
Bailey-Wells: The corners. They rotate them so much that if he can catch someone in a switch, it’ll be money.
The safeties make a lot of tackles in the run game, so if the Hawkeyes can draw them in with some runs and then throw over the top to one-on-ones, Beathard may have success. But this group held Jordan Westerkamp to just one catch, and they have grown up a lot over the last few years, so this group might not be that easy to pick on this weekend.
Follow Peter on Twitter @pbaileywells and Jordan @JordyHansen.