[Oskee] Juice benched

Tue Oct 6 10:09:14 EDT 2009

A lot of the good passes Juice throws – the ones caught in stride that actually have yards after the catch – seem to be caught by Benn. So is that because he’s so fast he can adjust to Juice’s throwing errors and other receivers can’t?

From: oskee-bounces at heins.net [mailto:oskee-bounces at heins.net] On Behalf Of John Livengood
Sent: Monday, October 05, 2009 9:30 PM
To: Fighting Illini Sports Enthusiasts List
Subject: Re: [Oskee] Juice benched

Right, but supposedly Zook left Juice in against PSU so he could "play through it", i.e. find his game on the field. So he does that, even though some of it's in garbage time, and NOW you bench him? Doesn't make any sense to me. If you're going to make that change, should have been done long ago.

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From: Todd Sweet <trsweet at ilstu.edu
To: Fighting Illini Sports Enthusiasts List <oskee at heins.net>
Sent: Monday, October 5, 2009 9:52:26 PM
Subject: Re: [Oskee] Juice benched

Well, that’s true, he did have a few good passes downfield (which I agree is one of his strengths).  But without putting points on the board, those yards are almost as meaningless as the 2 TDs were at the end of the game.

Which brings me to another issue this team clearly has…and this has nothing to do with Juice.  But the stupid penalties are driving me nuts.  And to me, that gets back to the coaching issues.

TS

ON a sidenote…it’s nice to see some chatter on the list again!!!!

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From: oskee-bounces at heins.net [mailto:oskee-bounces at heins.net] On Behalf Of John Livengood
Sent: Monday, October 05, 2009 8:39 PM
To: Fighting Illini Sports Enthusiasts List
Subject: Re: [Oskee] Juice benched

Actually, more than half of Juice's yardage came in the first half, and much of that in the 2nd quarter when they actually had him throwing the ball down field! I agree his TDs were meaningless, but disagree that he didn't play well. When he was given opportunities to utilize his abilities, he did well.

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From: Todd Sweet <trsweet at ilstu.edu>
To: Fighting Illini Sports Enthusiasts List <oskee at heins.net>
Sent: Monday, October 5, 2009 9:13:19 PM
Subject: Re: [Oskee] Juice benched

I agree with you, JL, that Eddie (like Juice) shows flashes of greatness, and then makes stupid turnovers.  I’m not sure he’s the answer either.  What I disagree with is you comment that Juice had a somewhat good game.  Many of his throws were behind the receivers.  And most of his production came in the 4th quarter.  If McGee had come and scored 2 tds late in that game, everyone would have discounted them saying he got them during trash time.  That’s when Juice got his as well.  PSU playing soft to run out the clock and probably with 2nd and 3rd stringers.

I do agree that Juice has had to deal with the toughest part of the schedule.  Maybe it isn’t fair to pull him now.  But he doesn’t look like someone ready to confidently lead this offense at this time, so maybe this will shake things up.  All I know is I’ve watched way too many football debacles since Macovic left town.  It’s embarrassing that a school with some very rich football history can’t at least muster up a mid level bowl game every couple of years.

And let’s not forget who is responsible for putting this brutal schedule together this season.  Cincy may turn out to be the best team we play all year. 

TS

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From: oskee-bounces at heins.net [mailto:oskee-bounces at heins.net] On Behalf Of John Livengood
Sent: Monday, October 05, 2009 7:59 PM
To: Fighting Illini Sports Enthusiasts List
Subject: Re: [Oskee] Juice benched

Also meant to add, I think the real problem has been not using Juice's strengths, which are running the option and throwing more down field. I realize teams are taking away the long passes by sitting back in deep zones, but the option's been working yet we don't run it much. Run that until they stop it, then see if the safeties might be vulnerable to some passes. But to keep trying to make Juice into a ball control, short passing QB wasn't going to work out.

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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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