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| SportsMonday, August 27, 2007 11:16 PM CDT |
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Tupper: Juice can lead victory-starved Illini to 6 wins -- maybe
CHAMPAIGN — For the first time in a long time, the University of Illinois football team drew a restful breath Sunday. While coaches will no doubt spend long hours in offices talking strategy, watching film and gnashing teeth about 11th-hour personnel decisions, players cleared their minds and rested their weary muscles and bones. But both coaches and players now have this in common: Beginning today, it’s game week. Every ounce of Illinois’ football focus swings toward preparation for Saturday’s season opener against a good and experienced Missouri team. There is a welcome new level of anticipation surrounding this Illini football team. Fans have waited — most with great patience — for coach Ron Zook’s plan to resuscitate a staggering football program to kick in and produce results. Victories have been in short supply, but Zook’s strategy to systematically restock the program with better, more dynamic athletes seems right on target, and his recruiting to that end has had people talking from coast to coast. Now, though, it’s time for the patience to be rewarded. And if not against a Missouri team that will enter this game as a clear favorite, the rewards should come throughout a season I believe can produce five, six or more victories. No player is more vital to this success than second-year quarterback Juice Williams. Zook is understandably protective when it comes to Williams, and he cringes when anyone suggests that Williams holds the key. Zook is right when he points out that Williams can’t orchestrate the hoped-for progress on his own. When Illinois improved in 1999 during Kurt Kittner’s second year at quarterback, it wasn’t just because Kittner made a giant leap forward. It was because the entire team improved along with him. That’s the template for this season. But it doesn’t take the spotlight off the impact of the quarterback, which is why the most-asked question throughout training camp has been: “How does Juice Williams look?” He looks great. Then he looks good. Then he looks confused. Then he looks good again. He is almost impossible to judge in training camp because he wears a red jersey, which means he is not subjected to contact. In a real game, however, Williams’ uncanny ability to burst from the pocket won’t be slowed by a defender’s single finger. He is a 6-foot-2, 233-pound, fast-footed ball of muscle with a rocket of an arm and an increased sense of how the college game works. He can turn negative plays into positive plays and short gains into touchdowns. He can throw the ball from the 20 into the opposite end zone on an arc that makes a rainbow blush. With any running quarterback, there’s the increased possibility that he could scramble into trouble. And into injury. But Zook has not asked Williams to lay off the running juice, so to speak. “I don’t see telling Juice not to run,” Zook said. “I know the problems it causes for other defenses. It causes you fits. “As a quarterback becomes more confident and has a better feeling, he’ll run less and less. But running the football is not a bad thing.” That said, Illinois often stumbled last season because its passing game was in a state of constant short circuit. “For us to become the football team we want to, our passing game is going to have to improve,” Zook said. So here we are. Five days until the season begins in St. Louis. Five days until the curtain goes up on what fans have been waiting for like a Broadway grand opening. Finally, it’s game week. Mark Tupper covers University of Illinois sports for Lee News Service. Contact him at mark.tupper@lee.net 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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Uncle Al wrote on Aug 29, 2007 9:18 PM:
Fortune Teller wrote on Aug 27, 2007 9:30 PM:
Me wrote on Aug 27, 2007 4:05 PM:
yeah Salukis! wrote on Aug 27, 2007 1:47 PM:
IDEA wrote on Aug 27, 2007 9:26 AM:
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