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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Basketball practice officially starts on
October 16, Robert…so chin up, my friend.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Listen, I’m a die hard fan.
There’s nothing I want more than to see our teams succeed. But
watching Juice over the past few years I’ve made a few observations:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'><![if !supportLists]><font
size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:navy'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>-<font size=1 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
</span></font></span></span></font><![endif]><font size=2 color=navy
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>a great
deal of his completed passes are short passes that any quarterback at D1 should
complete nearly 100% of.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'><![if !supportLists]><font
size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:navy'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>-<font size=1 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
</span></font></span></span></font><![endif]><font size=2 color=navy
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>When he
does complete passes, it’s frequently just far enough off the mark that
the receivers almost never catch the ball with forward momentum, let alone in
stride.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'><![if !supportLists]><font
size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:navy'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>-<font size=1 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
</span></font></span></span></font><![endif]><font size=2 color=navy
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>He locks
in on a target and it seems like once he does, the other receivers don’t
matter (and as a result misses a lot of open ones)<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>I give Juice tons of credit for being a
tough, tough runner. He’s great at the deceptive handoff and he’s
hard to bring down. But that just isn’t enough. A 4<sup>th</sup>
year starter should be showing major improvement and Juice just doesn’t
look all that different from year to year. Given the beat downs we’ve
taken this year, I agree with the change (though I’m not convinced that
Eddie will do much better).<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>I went to the spring game with a
friend. We both saw a lot of these problems coming this year, although
not to this extreme. I think the thing that has become most glaring to me
this year is that we seem to have pretty decent athletes, but not many of them
seem to be improving on a year to year or game to game basis. That, my
friends, is a coaching issue…plain and simple. If you look back at
our Rose Bowl run, there’s are two things missing that we don’t
have. Everyone knows about Mendenhall, but everyone seems to forget about
Vince Okruch. His defensive schemes really locked down some good teams
that year, and it’s been all downhill on defense ever since he left.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>I’m always pulling for our team, but
where football is concerned, I’ve learned to keep my optimism fairly
guarded. The truth is, even with a win this Saturday (which I frankly don’t
see), this team is not likely to make a bowl game. If that’s the
case, you have a coach who has had losing seasons 4 out of 5 years…and
that’s just not acceptable. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Todd S.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Tahoma;font-weight:bold'>From:</span></font></b><font size=2
face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>
oskee-bounces@heins.net [mailto:oskee-bounces@heins.net] <b><span
style='font-weight:bold'>On Behalf Of </span></b>Robert Mingee<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Sent:</span></b> Monday, October 05, 2009
4:31 PM<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>To:</span></b> oskee@heins.net<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Subject:</span></b> [Oskee] Juice benched</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>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.<br>
<br>
>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.<br>
<br>
Sigh. When does basketball season start again?<br>
<br>
-- robert<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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