Bad Trip: ASU 45, Illini 14
TEMPE, Ariz. — About 45 minutes before Illinois faced Arizona State late Saturday night, the fear became fact: Junior quarterback Nathan Scheelhaase wouldn't play because of a sprained ankle suffered in last week's win against Western Michigan.
What the Illini didn't know at the time was that its vaunted defense wouldn't make an appearance, either.
Arizona State carved up Illinois' defense for more than 500 total yards en route to a 45-14 victory at Sun Devil Stadium.
How dominating was the Sun Devils' offense? Arizona State scored touchdowns on four of its first five drives and fumbled at the Illinois goal line on the other. Defensive tackle Akeem Spence caused the turnover with a jarring hit on Sun Devils tailback Cameron Marshall, and free safety Pat Nixon-Youman recovered.
But that was the only bit of good news for Illinois. Arizona State quarterbacks Taylor Kelly and Michael Eubank completed their first 14 passes for 199 yards and two touchdowns.
It's not that Arizona State's quarterbacks were threading completions into tight coverage, either. Illinois consistently lost track of the Sun Devils' receivers and in particular tight end Chris Coyle, who had more receiving yards in the first half (101) than he did all of last year.
This from a unit that, after the Western Michigan rout, led the nation in rushing defense, was 14th in scoring defense, 24th in total defense and 33rd in passing efficiency defense.
The defense didn't get much, if any, help from the offense. The one thing Illinois couldn't afford to do was get off to a slow start on the road with a backup quarterback, yet that's exactly what happened. In his first career start, sophomore Reilly O'Toole had trouble getting Illinois' offense orchestrated at the line of scrimmage. The Illini were whistled for two delay-of-game penalties in the first quarter alone, and one of those came after a kickoff return.
Illinois' first-quarter passing yards: minus-3. The score after one period: Arizona State 14, Illinois 0.
Junior Miles Osei replaced O'Toole on Illinois' third possession, as planned, and provided an immediate spark. Using his legs (15 rushing yards) as well as his arm (3 for 3, 31 yards), he led the Illini on a 75-yard scoring drive that ended with a 17-yard touchdown run by sophomore running back Donovonn Young to cut the lead to 14-7.
But Osei's effectiveness was short-lived. He threw interceptions on each of Illinois' next two possessions — both to linebacker Carlos Mendoza — and the Illini trailed 28-7 at halftime.
Little changed in the second half. O'Toole threw an interception on Illinois' first possession, and Arizona State scored two plays later to take a 35-7 lead. O'Toole finally got Illinois in the end zone late in the third quarter when he hit tight end Eddie Viliunas for a 5-yard score, capping an eight-play, 80-yard drive.
O'Toole and Osei finished a combined 14 of 24 for 101 yards, with one touchdown and three interceptions.
The one bright spot for Illinois' offense was the play of redshirt freshman running back Josh Ferguson, who pounded Arizona State's defense for 101 yards on 14 carries. Ferguson broke tackles, spun off defenders and showed off a burst when he got into the open.
Illinois returns home to face Charleston Southern on Saturday. It's uncertain whether Scheelhaase will play.
Disgusting.......I'm embarrased. I've been an Illinois fan for 40 years and I never try to post anything negative. Ever. But I'm embarrassed.....It's a shame how much better they were than UI coaching-wise and execution-wise.....I'm sick and tired of being mediocre. And I'm even more sick and tired of hearing the coaches say "we'll get it corrected", which is exactly what we will hear tomorrow....Sorry Illini Nation, but there is no light at the end of this tunnel! ASU out-classed us in every phase of the sport! I'm Done. Period. Let these coaches say what they want, but that was inexcusable!!! our defensive coordinator just showed us how much of a joke he really is...Pathetic!!! I hope John Groce was watching this and realizes we are already praying he can give us something to live for.
I'm pretty sure Illinois might have a decent seaon this year, as the rest of the B1G teams are also playing very poorly. But, I don't believe anything will change for our school till we get a good coach in. I have never supported Beckman as the choice, purely to him being talked about as defensive minded, but look at toledo under him. Thomas got Butch Jones for Cinci and Beckman for us... I feel he came up short, though till we are willing to pay more for a good or great coach, we will most likely struggle to get an 8 win season. I was really hoping they would go for Kirby Smart and offer him w/e he wanted... but, I guess it's just a dream. I hope the Illini well as a fan, but i just do not see it either.
Beckman and staff have now learned what it's like to play with the big boys. The defensive performance is of most concern. Also, how's the team's conditioning going? I suspect the staff lost the best of the best. As a fan, I continue to root for the Illini, hoping for the best.
Very disappointing. Not so much that we lost, but that we werent even competitive, and our defense got shredded.
Looking to the future, we will be losing some good talent on D, so Beckman has to bring in a good recruiting class this season. Otherwise the situation will just get worse.
Disorganized. Confused. Out of shape. Laziness. Showboats. Poor Defensive Game Plan.
This pretty much sums up the Illini vs Arizona State on Saturday night. Similar to the previous week vs Western Michigan, the Illini offense, which is supposed to be a hurry up offense, seemed confused by the play calling, the offensive set that was to be run and the play itself. Whoever the clown coach on the sidelines is that is signalling in the plays, make no excuses, it was HIS fault for the 3 DELAY OF GAME PENALTIES. And that is simply unacceptable. Last week I commented to friends that I could not believe how slowly the plays were being relayed in to the quarterback from the sidelines, how late they were in getting the play signaled in to the QB. I figured they would see this in films and correct it. No, nothing corrected, in fact it got worse. The sideline coach seems very, very amatuerish.....or maybe it is the guy upstairs in the booth who is relaying the plays down to the sidelines late, and then they are being signalled in. In either event, it is unacceptable Coach Beckman. This is the Big 10, let's at least coach like it.
In contrast, the ASU Sun Devil staff was gettting the plays called immediately. I noticed that immediately after an offensive play, the ASU quarterback was looking to the sidelines for his next play, getting it, and and starting his cadence. His lineman RAN back to their line of scrimmage to get the next play called, while the ILLINI lineman walked back. I do not blame this on the Illini lineman......they have not been coached to hustle back and get ready for the next play. Todd Graham, head coach of ASU, demands it. How about kickoff receiving? The Illini single safety, TWICE was confused as to whether he should run the ball out of the end zone. REALLY? Folks, this is easy stuff, it is all about coaching, and it appears after two games that the Illini staff is somewhat confused. Before the game, a number of players went to the end zone to take a knee a appeared to be praying. I have no problem with that. Let's just not showboat it by getting totally isolated from the rest of the team so as to draw attention to yourself. Do it in private, along the sidelines.
The Defensive game plan was clearly non existant on the pass game. Again, not the players fault. It looked like they had never even SEEN the offensive passing game scheme from ASU, as if the game films had forgotten to arrive. ASU receivers were wide open and no one to be found.
If this is what we are to expect from the Tim Beckman era, lets bring back Ron Zook. I am really disappointed.....Not in the team, as I think ASU is just a better team, but in the team's preparation and the coaching. This was embarassing and it was not the players fault. They came in unprepared, and that is unforgivable. Give them a chance to win , Coach. I hope this job is not too big for Tim Beckman and staff.
Interesting comparisons between coaching experience between ASU and Illinois. Both programs bringing in new coaches with basically the same rosters as a year ago. One program showed clear mental discipline and player energy and the other looked like a high school freshman team on day 1.
Yes, we can put some blame on our Zook hangover but last night was 75% coaching fault. We are paying the coach $2 million or so a year to start (big mistake - you don't pay top dollar for a rookie coach, you make him earn it) and the unprepardness and bad coaching we saw last night was a complete coaching failure and unacceptable. The Toledo defense that he has brought to Illinois gave up the most in points and yards in the MAC and now it looks like we have that to look forward to. No one really expected the offense to do much for another few years but the defensive total collapse was a shock and even worse, the mental errors and sloppy play on both sides of the ball. This looked like a repeat of the many Zook nightmares we endured. The coach might want to consider giving back to the university 1/12th of his annual salary for last nights performance. I know it takes a few years to build a new program, but coaching and prepardness should be there from the first snap even for a new coach. It was not - and that was Mike Thomas's and Beckman's loss last night, not the players. ASU got a new coach that showed what a new coach can accomplish with the same talent as last year - performing to their abilities. The Illini Nation should expect the same.
That was just tough to watch. ASU made the Illini defense look worse than pedestrian. Illini's most experienced defense in years with mostly senior starters, mostly same defense that beat ASU last year and finished among top defenses in country under Koenning looked downright awful. Both teams have new coaches but ASU's turned their team around while Illinois' coaches don't appear to be better than last year's. Last year it took the team 6 games to implode. This year it happened in the second game. Few bright spots on a poor performiong offense as well. Play calling was atrocious and both Osei and O'Toole looked like deer caught in headlights. ASU has 2 great QB's to Illinois 0. ASU toyed with Illinois all night and clearly benefited more from their coaching change than did Illinois with theirs.
The Illini football program has been consistently delivering a non-competitve product.
And, football matters. Poor performance in football significantly reduces alumni support - and that inconvenient truth negatively impacts Illinois' academic endowment fund which is bad news for everyone.
So, even if football is the last thing on your mind on a Saturday afternoon, you should still be concerned when the illini are viewed nationally as a perennial loser on the gridiron.
When I was studying to be an engineer at Illinois (67-72) I was told by one of my deans that Illinois "all but guarantees" its engineers. That's the "brand" name we strive for in academics and it should be the brand name we strive for in athletics.
As an engineer I think the Illinois' needs to think outside the box of traditional Athletic Department thinking and solutions. The standard approaches haven't worked. Rather, I think we need to view this challenge as a business and engineering problem and approach it in a scientific businesslike way.
By that Imean utilize the wide range of expertise and talent available at a prestigious university like Illinois. How about challenging Illinois professors and students to come up with ideas for improving the performance of football football using principles learned in operations research, kinematics, game theory, statistics, computer simulations, communications, sociology, psychology, systems science, etc, etc. Turn the job over to graduate students in the Beckman Institute.
Just because it's football is a game doesn't mean it can't become the focus of legitimate research. Think of the spinoff benefits and potential patent rights that could be generated.
Might be surprised at what the geeks might come up with.
Face it, the Athletic Department has been stuck in a do-loop of traditional thinking. What we've been doing for over 50 years hasn't worked. We've hired and fired a lot of coaches over those years. We've tried a lot of offensive and defensive strategies and still the same result.
Time for a change.
Denbert
Many Illini appeared slow footed. Recruit speed, and you'll see a vast difference.
Our 310-pound-average linemen were like the Maginot line; ASU's 257-pound-average linemen ruled the field.
When Mike White's Illini played UCLA in the Rose Bowl, one west coast fan said the Big Ten played elephant football... just side-step them and they couldn't adjust. That certainly applied last night.
It may be a couple of ugly years ahead. At least it's unlikely to get worse than last night.
I made the comment last week on here that I was really concerned about our secondary getting picked to pieces by Wester Mich. in the second half of that game. A "eugene" immediately disagreed with me.....(where are you eugene?) Well last night it was ASU shredding our secondary in the first half for over 240 yards. ASU had more passing yards than the Illini had total yards in the game. When you consider that ASU only garnered 7 points off of the 3 interceptions, the game result rests squarly on our inability to defend the long passes. This is going to be an extremely long hard season to watch unless something drastically happens to change this problem.
Not the long passes, but rather the short ones. From my seat it looked as though ASU was picking on our safeties (we had a shortage of experience there) and on one particular linebacker (the tight end caught a ton of passes). I am one of the most loyal and traditionally optimistic of Illini backers, but even I find myself bewildered and discouraged at how thoroughly we were beaten in every aspect of last night's game. I just hope that the players have not lost all confidence because it is by and large the same defense that, prior to the debacle at Minnesota, was as good as any in the country.
Ripping the coach is not my thing, I'll leave that for the simple one's. That being stated, If Sheehaase was'nt going in Beckman should of had a single player ready to back up the starter. It's what every winning coach does. Evaluate your best chance to win with the players that you have and put them in a position to win. He made a mistake with his first choice he also made a misstake in game-planning. Backups not ready - dumb down the offense, chew the clock, keep it close and give yourself a chance to win. Anything else is either bad scouting your own players or the other team or a combination of the two.
Football is fun and we as ILLINI fans are not getting our share.
Hope things will be different but it seems that they are going to stay the same.
Good Luck next week.
go illini !!
Saturday night was the most inept Illini performance since Gary Moeller tried to coach the U of I (1977-79). Forget the lasagna dinners, bean bag tosses, baths in the ice tub, taking stripes off the helmets and prepare these guys to play football.
Oh, and Thank You, Oregon State!
What an embarrassment. ASU fans were laughing at how pathetic we looked with the delay of game penalties etc. There are still elements of the Zook era evident especially the showboating for no reason. ASU was crisp, well coached, disciplined, everything we weren't.
One thing both myself and other fans at the game were wondering was why not use Davis? The guy looked bigger than most of the ASU lineman yet was a non-factor.
The one thing we were all laughing at was that we the fans were all told that the practices were closed to media/fans etc cause "we didnt want to show our opponents what we have.....". The only thing we all could think of at the game was that they were all sitting around eating lasagna cause it looked like there was ZERO preparation for this game.
Saw Mike Thomas at a pre-game event and said to him that with all the Illinois transplants in the valley you need to continue this series...his response was "I don't know about that, the time change is a killer". This set the tone for me going into the game that we were going to lay an egg.
One drunk ASU student told me at halftime, "man you guys really suck". Told him to buy me a beer.
Not sure why people bring up Zook. He had nothing to do with the game last night. Unless you want to talk about talent and recruiting, fair enough, but remember that we beat ASU with a very similar team last year. And our best talent is on D (ask the NFL scouts), yet our defense got steamrolled. Some of that has to reflect on the coaching.
Bottom line is that if we cant get better performance from this roster, then Beckman has to start bringing in much better recruiting classes. Otherwise we will be looking at years of this.
like I tell my two boys who play football, if you have an ounce of fear or just dont play hard then you dont belong out there on the football field. give someone else a chance who does want to play hard for their team. when you are scared and dont play hard because you are lazy or dont have the talent or whatever, you waste everyones time from the coaches to the parents to the fans! I could of went fishing instead of watching a team play who never wanted to be there in the first place! I would much rather be fishing then at an illini game where there is nothing going on and i mean nothing oh yeah there is something going on, they are being slung around the field like rag dolls because they are weak.
1st Big Test of Beckman's Illini Career = Fail
Let's see how Illinois does the rest of the way
I'll give him until the end of the season to prove himself
If other coaches like Graham can do it quickly so can Beckman
It's not like Beckman didn't inherit a boatload of talented players on this team
The talent level will drop next year and the year after and then what?
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