[Oskee] Juice benched

Tue Oct 6 12:14:31 EDT 2009

I think you'd find a lot of people that agree that it should have happened
long ago, JL.  Honestly, I think that if Zook had his way, Juice would still
be the starter.  He's that locked in on Juice.  If there could have been a
fly on the wall, I would bet that Schulz had a lot to do with this change
and Zook went along reluctantly.  I felt like there were plenty of games at
the end of last year that warranted the possibility of a change, but it
never happened.

I think we all agree that the team has a lot more problems than just QB.
That's just one that seems like a change may help.  You're right about the
defensive problems, I'm right about the stupid penalties, others are right
about the O-line.  Let's face, there are just a lot of deficiencies on this
team.  Some of them are talent limitations.  Others, though, boil down to
coaching and player development.  Juice may be the one falling on the sword
this week.  But the rest of the problems aren't going to disappear and that
puts this entire season in a dire mode.  And at years end, that can only
fall on the coaching staff.

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 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.

  _____  

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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