The Illini wrapped up week two of spring football practices on Saturday afternoon. Illinois still has three more weeks of practices ahead of the team's spring game which has been moved to 6:30 p.m. CT on Thursday, April 21.
Illinois has completed six of its 15 spring practices and capped off the second week with a scrimmage on Saturday.
New Look Offense
With a lot of new pieces on the offensive side, including a new offensive coordinator in Barry Lunney Jr., the Illini are getting adjusted to a new pace of offense. Head coach Bret Bielema said Lunney has stayed true to his "tempro" style of offense he teased in his opening press conference.
"We do a little bit of everything, we really do," Bielema said. "We've huddled, we've done no-huddle, sugar huddles. I think Barry is very, very clear about the tempo that we want to play at. I think the tempro that we said in his opening presser is a true. It's a pro-style offense played the tempo. And sometimes it's very fast, sometimes it'll be huddle slow. So I think whatever gives us the best chance to win we can play."
In week two, Bielema has been able to see more guys on offense grow. He has been impressed with running back Chase Hayden's production along with wide receivers Shawn Miller and Brian Hightower.
Sixth-year senior Alex Palczewski is also excited about the offensive line's growth in the last couple weeks. His position group had some of the most turnover from last season as longtime starters Vederian Lowe and Doug Kramer graduated. However, Palczewski has embraced being the "old man" on the line who can be a teacher for the younger guys.
"It's been great, just seeing all the guys getting better every single day just truly working on the technique of fundamentals," Palczewski said. "We have a lot of time until game one so the guys, get to play around with positions, just keep on working to get better every single day. It's been a great week two."
Newcomers Impress
The Illini had nine early enrollees this semester, bringing in nearly 40% of their 2022 recruits for spring practices. Bielema has been impressed with how much the young guys have already pushed themselves in a short couple months to get prepared for the spring.
On the offense, running backs Aidan Laughery and Jordan Anderson have been early standouts. Anderson, along with teammate Malachi Hood who also enrolled early, are coming off a State Championship with Joliet Catholic Academy.
Both Chase Brown and Josh McCray were limited during Saturday's scrimmage, giving Laughery and Anderson opportunities to get snaps and showcase their improvements.
Palczewski has seen a lot of growth in offensive line newcomers Isaiah Adams and Zy Crisler. Adams transferred in from Garden City Community College after ranking as the No. 5 junior college offensive tackle in the nation in 2021. Crisler is another JUCO transfer, coming from Mississippi Gulf Coast.
"Isaiah Adams came in, he's a little bit undersized when he got here, but every single day is working out, getting better," Palczewski said. "He's put on a lot of muscle and he looks great. I'm just really happy for how far he's come. Zy, Big Zy, he just came in here, young guy, but I mean, he's been just getting after it every single day. You can tell he just loves the game, the way he works, the way he practices. I'm really excited to see what he does in future."
On the defensive side, Terah Edwards has stood out. Edwards, a defensive line transfer from Northwestern, said his new teammates have already taken him in, helping him learn the playbook, showing him around campus and helping him adapt.
"I came here for strictly business, so it's been making sure I'm locked in on the playbook and watching film and making those sacrifices to take my game to the next level," Edwards said. "I feel like I've spent a lot of time here these past few weeks. it's spring ball, but I feel like it's camp right now. Coach B always mentions what I do now is going to affect me in the fourth quarter so I can't waste any days, make the most out of opportunities and just elevate the room."
First Spring Scrimmage
Illinois scrimmaged for the first time this spring on Saturday, giving Bielema an early look at his 2022 team.
Up until Saturday's practice, Bielema and the staff had been spotting the ball and working on specific downs and situations. But on Saturday, the team was able to play through a couple downs to get into the flow of a real game.
"I thought Barry, from the sidelines, calling it for the first time to our players in a game like situation, we had officials out there," Bielema said. "So just the tempo really showed up today, which I thought our guys handled, we definitely got better. Defensively, it's very, very clear in the back end with Quan and Sydney, we got some good players. Spoon made an unbelievable play today. So we got to get a good players continue to play good and then get some of these young guys show up."
After nearly five months without putting on the full pads, the Illini were excited to get as close to a real football game as possible. Palczewski said one of the best parts about spring practices is being able to see what each position group has once scrimmage starts. He said it's nice to be able to watch film and see what each person can individual work on.
Bielema was pleased with how the scrimmage went as the Illini were able to move the ball a little and teach the younger guys about the tempo of the game.
"Our guys, I gave him a lot of kudos this morning. A lot of times when I get in front of them, I got a short amount of time because I got a time constraint on the number of hours spent with these guys," Bielema said. "So I have a tendency to overload on the on the negative, Like we got to do this, do this better, but they're doing so many things positively. You guys always ask me , What do you see that's good? What jumped out to you? And I realize that I never really say that to my team. And these guys, they work, they're tough and they're smart, they're dependable. All the things we believe in the core DNA, they really have embody that. And I never get any pushback on that now. And that's fun to be a part of."
"ball" - Google News
April 04, 2022 at 05:15AM
https://ift.tt/7zNysAI
Illini Cap off Week Two of Spring Ball With Scrimmage - University of Illinois Athletics - Fighting Illini
"ball" - Google News
https://ift.tt/mPI8TNi
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update
No comments:
Post a Comment