Illinois Football vs Kansas 2024 Preview

[Music] welcome to the IL ini segment of the coach Steve podcast where this segment we discuss everything in athletics with the University of Illinois champagne her bana so make sure you hit the like button subscribe button to the coach Steve Show YouTube channel find the playlist to find the IL segment again where everything Illinois Athletics related will be found there we also have a Bleed Blue segment which discusses everything in Eastern Illinois University athletics Bear Down segment where co-host Zack cman comes on weekly to discuss the Chicago Bears and then we have other episodes out there discussions with high school football coaches college football coaches and just other things so there's something out there for everybody so make sure you like And subscribe to the coach Steve Show YouTube channel this is the IL I segment Illinois is set to take on the Kansas Jayhawks Kansas will be traveling to Champagne orbana ranked number 19th in the nation Illinois is still on ranked both teams are 1 and0 after week one wins big week one wins for both of them Illinois looks to try to get quote unquote revenge on Kansas after last year last year Illinois traveled to Kansas and Kansas won 34-23 after Kansas scored 14 points in the first quarter and 14 points again in the second quarter we are going to discuss Illinois's keys to the game to try to come out of champagne with a victory over Kansas and start the season 2 and0 some people think that Illinois can only win five to eight games and this is one that they feel like they could lose and they want to win this game obviously for their record and then compete in the Big 10 because then next week they have Central Michigan and then they start their big 10 play at Nebraska which everybody thinks Nebraska is a playoff team this year uh thanks to the new coaching staff and it just never gets easier from there Penn State Purdue Michigan Oregon Minnesota Michigan State Ruckers and finish off the season with northwester so Illinois is going to be hosting Kansas j-hawks it is sold out this is the first sold out game since I believe 2016 at the University of Illinois which is fantastic give credit to coach buma and the athletic staff there to bust out sell some tickets and make this a great home environment that will be a great home environment when they kick off at 6 PM Central Time at champagne orbo Eastern's coming off Illinois is coming off win over Eastern Illinois University in week one and Kansas is also coming off a win um over Lenwood and Eastern will be playing Lightwood later on in the year small world there but they both are coming off one 45 victory over Eastern and then 48 to3 victory over lynen wood um last year it did not go very well for Illinois and you listen to press conferences they do refer to last year but like I talked about on the Bleed Blue segment if you check that out I said last year as last year you could have the exact same players on the exact same team come in and call the exact same first play that you did last year and it will go different something will go different Kansas lost a couple players one of them is actually on the Bears for the defensive end um but they do have Daniels back at quarterback and he is the guy that makes the Kansas offense go when he is healthy they are a juggernaut of an offense Kansas lost their offensive coordinators so be very curious to see how the offense adapts uh coach Li has done a great job coming there from Buffalo and Resurgence of Kansas they're getting a brand new they're adding on to their stadium and upgrading some things so Kansas is known as a basketball school they are now if they can keep this rolling can now maybe be known as hey we can compete in football as well but last year uh Kansas came out and punched Illinois in the mouth listening to these press conferences to these coaches uh they still remember last year and I think they'll show some clips of last year's game and show them how not ready we were for the game and how we did not take them as seriously because Kansas ever since 2009 I believe or six somewhere in there they went to the Orange Bowl they were 11-1 or 12-0 they they had a really good season they just haven't really been that team and now they are very much comp I mean they're ranked number 19 in the nation so last year Daniels was 21 of 29 277 yards and two touchdowns and one interception um Neil they running back at 10 carries for 120 yards and one touchdown they just came out and punched Illinois in the mouth um Luke almeer did not play well he was 19 of 28 202 yards one touchdown to two interceptions and then you know it's not a good game when Luke alme is your leading rusher he had 70 yards for two touchdown rushes that was the only way they could stay in the game their leading receiver for Illinois in that game Isaiah William who was now gone had six receptions for 99 yards and a lot of that stuff did not come until second quarter and especially the second half Illinois scored none in the first last year seven in the second eight in the third and fourth or eight in the fourth eight in the third as well and so that stuff didn't really come in until you know they were down by you know 20 some points so they showed some life in that game they I think they're going to show clips of the mistakes they made and say hey we this is not a normal Kansas team that we're used to seeing and we cannot afford these same mistakes we cannot turn the ball over as well so they are looking towards this game is going to be a very tough game right now Kansas is favored by five and a half they've only played each other in football six times it is tied actually three and three last year Kansas was nine and4 and and the or in the guarantee rate Bowl they beat UNLV 49- 36 Kansas is looking to try to see if they are going to compete in the Big 12 and somehow someway sneak into the playoff that is their goal coach Lance lipold has done a fantastic fantastic fantastic job they are put back on the map they are someone to be talked about um yes here it is is the first soldout game at Illinois since 2016 um and Li holds 39 games as a coach Kansas J Hawks have piled up 500 or more total yards 13 times so the big matchup is going to be the first matchup and the first keys that we're going to talk about is the Illinois defense and I've brought this up a million times the defense is not what it was a couple years ago it's not going to be I don't know if it ever will be at all but I think that the defense this year is going to be way more ready to go than they were last year uh coach BMA talked about his press conference they went to Kansas last year and it was a very loud environment he had coached at Kansas versus Kansas since he was at Kansas State and so it was just this eruption that he was like even he was like oh my gosh uh coach Aaron Henry it was his first time being a defensive coordinator last year that was the first hostile like environment he'd been in uh the players uh he he basically said the players weren't didn't come out pumped up and fired up right to play which is no excuse and it's inexcusable um so that going to be a key matchup can the speed of the Illinois defense keep up with the speed of Kansas Jayhawks and Daniels looks like he's going to play he's had some injury problems they are going to have to game plan around him he can throw the ball really well he commands the offense really well and he can also run and so the speed of the linebackers are going to have to come into play and they are going to have to get pressure they are going to have to try to do their best to make him uncomfortable and what I mean by uncomfortable is he has to move out of the pocket with like one 1.5 seconds like it has to be something quick they're going to have to disguise some things last year in the game Kansas was using different funky formations and different runs different shifts and motions now they have a different offense coordinator so I'm curious to see if the offense is going to look similar to what it was last year for Kansas um Illinois's defense last year uh they gave up 24 points nine times and they were prone to a lot of penalties uh during Eastern Illinois they showed a lot more Poise I don't believe if they had penalties it was very less at all and they showed a lot of life and you know we discussed that on the postgame so Illinois right now has a little bit of confidence in their defense can they come out there and say we we cannot allow last year to happen and we're going to come out there and we can play a lot more man coverage if we go Zone we're gonna be able to tackle the quarterback because you gotta be careful playing man defense if you you're going against Daniels if he can run and use his legs to make some plays and you're in man coverage you don't see him take off unless you have a spy uh set against him on a linebacker spying him then you got to trust that the linebacker is going to be able to tackle him if he takes off that's why the speeds of the linebackers and our secondary are going to be so important I think the defensive Line's going to be fine they have a decent number of them and they can rotate in and they're very physical we saw that on display last week but as long as the linebackers and the secondary are able to do their jobs they have to to keep up with Kansas's offense and then they cannot allow Kansas to have big plays over their heads everything's got to stay in front and I think as Illinois fans we have to be okay watching this defense giving up plays and them getting first downs I would rather them have move I'd rather give up a lot of yards and less points and I know that would go against the statistics oh what about you know a couple years ago when Illinois gave up very little yards and very little points we just don't have that defense anymore so we have to be okay giving up yards but giving up less points as they get close to the Red Zone it becomes a lot harder to score so we cannot allow these big chunk plays these big runs you have to make them nickel and dime you down the field keep everything in front and you got to hope they make a mistake and you got to hope that your speed on a play takes over and if you're Illinois defense you have to sit there and say okay we forced interception last year we're going to have to try to force two turnovers two turnovers to try to switch the momentum it's in our house it's it's sold out out it's going to be a loud environment for Kansas and that it's not the same team right you know you have different coaches you have different players um but they have to be able to do that because one of the key people that we've already mentioned it was Jaylen Daniels quarterback coach be call Daniels a quarterback the Alli need to treat as a running back like I just alluded to you have to make sure he does not run all right um like I said last straight through for 277 yards two touchdowns that's a big factor here for Illinois and the defense when you switch over to Illinois's offense Luke almeer has to play way better like we said we talked about his numbers in the last game he had four touchdown pass against Eastern Illinois which was a career high for him he has to continue that type of play he has to make good decisions with the football he has to once in a while use his legs to get a first down which he is fully capable of but I think Illinois is going to have a much better run offense they have the one-two punch and they have Josh McCrae back there they didn't really use him against Eastern but they they're talking about he's probably going to get used versus Kansas so if you have all three of them you have Josh McCrae which is big and powerful and fast Kan Fagan's big and powerful and fast then you have Lowry he is your speed guy you use the other two boom boom boom to get your to get some hard runs and you put him in now he's got a different speed the defense isn't used to it that's going to be a big big key factor and then again kind of the wos of Illinois's offense last year and I think part of the wos for them to try to come back last year was Isaiah Williams was the only guy he had almost 100 yards receiving and I love Isaiah Williams he's just not your tall typical receiver where it's crunch time and You Gotta Throw It Up to him right Illinois has different receivers now that can do that you have Pat Bryant you have zakari you have these guys that can come in there and they have to pick one to stop right so Pat Bryant I think is gonna have to have a big game he had two touchdown catches last week versus Eastern Illinois he has 11 touchdowns uh in his whole career tying for number 12 on the list um he'll jump up to number seven uh with a next touchdown um another key thing is Illinois has not beat Illinois has not beaten A ranked non-conference opponent since Arizona state was ranked number 22 in 2011 so this is another stake here where if you're Illinois and you have not beaten A non-conference ranked team since 2011 and right now you have the opportunity to do that being Kansas this is the first time Kansas has gone to Illinois since 1968 they won that game 47 to7 um Luke just they have to get the receivers going too Run game has to be there but then the RPO play action game off of that is going to be deadly and so I think those are the key factors and the offensive Line's gonna have to come out and be very physical and I know there's a lot of keys to this but I don't think you can beat Kansas with one of those units not doing their job you can kind of overcome if the offensive line isn't being very physical if they're pass protecting well you're going to pass more but I watching them last week versus Eastern Illinois you saw a big difference in the physicality and you saw them able to adjust Eastern Illinois took some things away with the inside Zone Illinois wants to run inside Zone they took that away so they became a GT team they were pulling guard and Tackle they were passing it a little more they went to a little bit of outside Zone with it they have to come out and play physical uh Kansas is going to have a physical defensive line and they got to make sure Luke Alm uh has plenty of time this is going to be a lot of punches thrown in this game this is not going to be a Illinois beats him by 20 and I don't think it's going to be a Kansas beats Illinois by 20 I don't think Kansas is that same team as last year and Illinois is going to be a much different team this year obviously if you watch watch the game against Eastern so a lot of key factors in this game and this is a game that we cannot take lightly I know there's probably some fans saying oh look it's Kansas and they're coming to our place we can win not the same Kansas team so if they come out Illinois has to execute they cannot turn the ball over and I do think they're going to have to force some turnovers and we have to be okay with them giving up yards and less points that is the only way Illinois would pull out the win and I think it would and the two biggest factors are the entire defense in the speed versus Kansas and adjusting to any shifts motions and funky uh formations that they might come into contact with and Luke Alm and the wide receivers and I I guess it could be technically three but I think Luke Alm has to play much better than what he did last year and the receivers are going have to get very more much more involved and I think now that you have different threats that you could throw the ball up to it will open up everything it will make Luke almire more comfortable it's third and three you actually have a couple options you go to one of your running backs you have the receivers to throw it up to so those are the keys to the game for me I think Pat Bryan's going have to play well I think sari Franklin's gonna have to play really good also along with Luke almeer like he can kind not he cannot afford to miss throws we cannot afford to throw interceptions we cannot afford to have any fumbles we cannot turn the ball over and we're gonna have to force some turnovers and again I think another part of this giving up less points and more yards I think we have to be okay if Illinois would give up you know 17 to 21 points we have to be okay with that as long as we go out and score 28 while we give that up that's totally fine I don't think Illinois would be is going to be a team necessarily to always like blow out a team and win 45 nothing all the time maybe next week versus Central Michigan that's not 100% either but as you go through the schedule it's not going to happen these are going to have to be grinded out you got to make less mistakes you've got to become prepared ready to go and talking to to Illinois sta they had a lot of guys come back especially on the o line and D line they feel like they have unfinished business and I think if they keep that mind set and they go into this game with it want to put on a big show don't even think about the big crowd yeah it's awesome you when you go out there you can look around and soak it in for a second but you cannot afford to have the pressure of what we got like if we're not playing well in front of this crowd and you tense up and you decide not to play well or or your body is not doing it your mind's going quicker than your body that that stuff cannot happen and if if you're Illinois looking at your schedule you cannot afford these type of losses if you're hoping to be in the conversation for the Big 10 and I know they want to make the playoff there's a big opportunity with 12 teams but you but you're looking at right now to compete in the Big 10 and a bowl game playoff that's the the order you want and I think if they're able to spread the ball around use the speed of their defense to their advantage to to keep up with Kansas's speed and their you know unique way of calling offense they will be just fine those are the keys to the game for me for ill inois versus Kansas I think it's going to be a good game it's going to be a muchat game I never thought you would say that about Kansas football but they have done a really really really really good job there and Coach BM I think still contining doing a great job at Illinois and as long as they have confidence and can play they are going to be just fine uh going against Kansas so those are the keys to the game for me for Illinois to to walk away with a win there so again like And subscribe to the coach Steve Show YouTube channel this is the IL segment everything with University of Illinois Athletics we have B blue which is about Eastern Illinois Athletics we have bear down where Zach common joins me and we discuss the Chicago Bears throughout the regular season about their games coming up and post games and then check out uh there's also geek Corner which talks about a lot of Marvel movies Logan comes on and we talk about that my friend Logan 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