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| SportsSunday, August 12, 2007 11:10 PM CDT |
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ISU offensive coordinator likes challenge of directing offense
NORMAL — The offense is his and so is the responsibility for its success. It’s a challenge embraced by Jim Williams, who is preparing for his first season as the offensive coordinator of the Illinois State football team. “I did it in the spring and got adjusted there. But this is my first two-a-days with a new staff in place,” Williams said. “It’s always exciting when you have more responsibility and can make a bigger impact on something. It’s going to be fun. I’m looking forward to it.” Entering his fourth season on Coach Denver Johnson’s staff, Williams ascended to offensive coordinator when former coordinator Justin Fuente became running backs coach at Texas Christian. “I have all the confidence in the world in Jim. He’s a bright guy and a very professional coach,” said Johnson. “He’s very capable of handing the offense. He’s done a good job so far managing the staff, managing the offense and communicating with me. “He’s pulling me in the (meeting) room when I need to be in there and keeping me out of it when I need to be out of it.” While Fuente also served as quarterbacks coach at ISU, Williams remains in charge of the Redbirds’ H-backs and tight ends. Brad Cornelsen took over as quarterbacks coach. “The biggest thing is in team situations I used to just focus on my guys,” Williams said. “Now I’m looking at the whole thing and how it fits together.” According to Redbird quarterback Luke Drone, the coaching staff shuffle has not had a big impact on him. “It’s nothing really different. It’s the same system, just a new guy calling the plays,” said Drone. “Coach Williams was sitting with Fuente in the booth last year (during games). He knows what he’s doing. I know he’s going to do a great job. “And Coach Corn, I have just as much respect for him as Coach Fuente. Technique wise, we’re just as good. Coach Corn brings his own new wrinkles to things. That helps out a lot.” Williams said he and Cornelsen work well together. “I let Brad coach the quarterbacks, and he’s doing a great job,” said Williams, who was an assistant at Nebraska-Omaha before coming to ISU. “Brad and I are on the same page. Luke is hearing the same thing whether it comes out of my mouth or Brad’s. It doesn’t matter.” Williams has noticed himself becoming more forceful while taking over an offense that has ranked in the top 10 nationally in total offense the past two seasons. “I don’t know if you have to be more vocal to gain their respect,” he said, “but you definitely have to be more vocal to establish the attitude and tempo you want your team to perform.” Johnson is pleased with the early look of his offense. “This has provided about as seamless of a transition as we could possibly have,” said the Redbird coach. “The team has embraced it. There are no reservations from anybody in the program.” Scrimmage highlights ISU concentrated on goal line and red zone situations during an intrasquad scrimmage at Hancock Stadium. “I thought we got a lot done there. There were bright spots on both sides of the ball during that,” Johnson said. “We’re certainly not game ready, but that wasn’t the point of tonight. The point of tonight was to work on situations with officials.” During drives starting at the 30-yard line heading in, quarterback Preston Earl hit Eyad Salem with two touchdown passes of 17 yards. Parrish Fisher scored on a 3-yard run. Tom Nelson stopped one possession with an interception of a Kevin Brockway pass. Earl was 13 of 20 for 152 yards, Brockway completed 6 of 16 for 83 yards and Drone was 5 of 9 for 38 yards. Fisher led all rushers with 66 yards on 14 carries. Ansu Kpandeyenge added 48 yards on 18 carries and Cortes Rice had 43 yards on 18 attempts. Salem paced the receivers with six catches for 85 yards. Linebacker Pat Cucci topped the defense with nine tackles and Kye Stewart had eight. Graham Corcoran broke up two passes and Ray Sankey recorded two sacks. “I was really disappointed in our two-minute offense. We tried a little bit this morning and didn’t look very good, and we weren’t any better tonight. But the defense in the two-minute situation really looked good,” said Johnson. “I think we’re getting much better on defense. I think we’re a lot better in the back end and deeper than we’ve ever been on the defensive line.” The place-kicking was spotty as incumbent Kevin Mazur, Bobby Kelsey and Tyler Funk were a combined 4 of 8 on field goal attempts. Mazur missed from 45 and 25 yards and hit from 38. Kelsey converted a try of 26 yards and missed from 47. Funk was unsuccessful from 46 yards and connected from 31 and 21. Preseason all-Gateway Conference fullback Dave Mordis suffered a knee injury and was helped off the field. The extent of the injury was not immediately known. Middle linebacker Bill Hronec left with a stinger but said he expected to be fine. Get area high school sports scores and statistics at Varsity Sports. E-mail this story | Print this story | Search archives | RSS Show comments |  Hide comments | Hide comments on all stories |
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