[Oskee] Juice benched

[John Livengood]

I don't have a lot of confidence in McGee. He does a few things better, but seems just as turnover prone. I realize Zook wanted to shake things up, but I don't understand putting Juice out there for the toughest part of the schedule and then yanking him after he actually played somewhat well vs PSU. Also ironic in that Juice just set the career total yardage record at Illinois right before he lost his starting spot.

Hopefully it works out, the rest of the schedule actually seems reasonable if we can get the offense going. It's looking like not having Iowa and Wisconsin on the schedule is a big plus, they are much better than expected.




________________________________
From: Robert Mingee <mingee at swbell.net>
To: oskee at heins.net
Sent: Monday, October 5, 2009 5:31:10 PM
Subject: [Oskee] Juice benched


I'm sure you've all seen the story by now that Juice has been benched (though curiously it is not reported on fightingillini.com).  Opinions?  Personally, I don't see how you can possibly pin the losses on him entirely, but as the team leader, he's ultimately responsible, and I can't really blame Zook for wanting to shake things up.  As with last year, consistency continues to be his biggest problem -- he's either really on or really off.  I was really shocked to read how bad his stats are, though -- it didn't seem that bad from watching.

>From a purely pragmatic perspective, this season is over before it even really started -- I don't see any way for this team to make a bowl.  Yes, they have faced tough competition, but it's not really going to get much easier, and I just don't see any spark on this team.  It's like they're going through the motions.  There just doesn't seem to be any hope of them beating a team that's better than they are, because they are so lacking in intangibles.  The defense can be exciting at times, but it's so inexperienced.  And the offense continues to be so much less than the sum of its parts, for whatever reason.  So I guess there's really nothing much to lose, except further demoralizing Juice, which really is regrettable.  He seems like a decent kid, and he's done some amazing work in his career, but he's just not getting it done.  If there's any hope for next year, it's getting Eddie some solid experience in this offense.

Sigh.  When does basketball season start again?

-- robert



      
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