Week 1 Previews: Howard vs. Rutgers and Eastern Illinois vs. Illinois | B1G Today

Preview: Howard vs. Rutgers dive into week one and what a great schedule it is all 18 teams play they all play nonconference games three on Thursday night including two here on the Big 10 Network Ruckers in Illinois in action we got Jonathan Smith's MSU debut on Friday 12 games on Saturday six of them on our air and we cap it off on Sunday USC and LSU in Las Vegas what a loaded weekend countdown to kickoff brought to you by Taco Bell all gets underway at 6 eastern time Thursday when ruter hosts Howard who is preparing for the match up next to me as we speak lot you got a lot of work to do got go got to go lot of excitement about the Scarlet KN seven wins last year they're most did nine years included a bull victory over Miami very favorable schedule no Michigan Ohio State Penn State or Oregon they did get a piece of really bad news this past week though they very talented linebacker mohhamad and as he's out for the year he tore his ACL second time in the last three years he suffered the same injury tray led the Scarlet Knights in both tackles for loss and sacks last year and remember their other star linebacker Tyne Pal's recovering from an ail's injury a tough blow there Yogi likely will not affect them this week against Howard although In fairness Howard did give Northwestern a pretty good game last year when they played them and it was good Northwestern team in the end as We Know but what are you looking for kind of big picture from ruter here in the opener well I think you kind of nailed it and if I was the staff I'd do exactly what you referenced you showed him the Northwestern game from last year right this isn't just your traditional non-conference opponent this team has a lot of talent when you dive into them the matchups is what I'm most interested in and then I think the offense of course right what does this new look offense look like we were there in training camp you saw different tempos you saw aan cak Manz play well you guys know how I feel about the word discernment at that position that's the number one thing I'll be looking for on Thursday night is that by him whether it's a variety of tempos whether it's certain situations because this is the type of game where yes there are expectations you have an opportunity to win more games do you have in the past you don't have you know the Giants that you've had to play every single year in in recent history in the Big 10 so how do you navigate all that because if you give Howard some time and some Breathing Room they'll do what they did in Northwestern which will scare the Daylights out of you so I look forward to it I think if my math is right it's the 1, 410th game played in program history in the birthplace of college football man so lots to be excited about and and I expect this team to be dialed and focused under Greg chano I'm going to trust Yogi's math on that I'm not just GNA go with it yeah yeah it seems right 1410 yeah he's a bright individual yeah he is I tell you this we watched C amm mantis throw the ball around in the rain while we were there in the summer and we're really impressed by it so much so he was like hey maybe it's he's turned the corner the other thing that's important here he's been named a team captain which is sign significant for a quarterback to walk into a new environment and gain all the respect of his teammates so a lot will be on his shoulders and I'm going to tell you what he'll be able to lean on that run game yeah right he should be able to they're good they they've gotten much better and more solid up front I think they'll be able to run in half success it is nice when you have the big 10 leading returning rusher and Kung gu you can turn and hand the ball to so that'll certainly be a big part of what they do Preview: Eastern Illinois vs. Illinois after that game we're going to be in champagne and we're not the only ones who are going to be there NBA first round pick Teran Shannon Jr will be at the opener trying to fire up the Eli ey fans they'll take on Eastern Illinois just the third ever meeting between those two schools which are separated by about 50 miles Yogi what interests you the most about the Alana well look they're playing a team that is top 25 FCS program so again scary game you look at what Illinois did last year I think they had five one score game so if this thing is tight how do you navigate I think immediately of course you're going to go to this offense can they control the line of scrimmage you know they want to run the football what can Luke Alm do in this system you know I often talk about discernment also you got to be able to control the ball so I want to see spot throws if Illinois who I think is another dangerous team much like Ruckers This season they'll be a tough out for everybody he's going to have to be able to hit spots so how is he what is comfortability in this offense again what is the system look like we know they have a ton of work to do defensively from last year to now but I want to see if it's a tight game how does he deal with critical moments on critical situations throughout the ball game yeah you talk about some third down situations being able to find Pat Bryan I think will be huge for them he'll be the number one wide receiver on in this on this team this year and that's going to be significant but he's got to do a much better job of taking care of the football in critical Downs 10er interceptions last year they've got to get off to a fast start offensively turnovers in general huge issue for this team last year they committed too many and did not generate nearly as many as they wanted to and that kind of speaks to the defense remember first in the scoring defense two years ago 12th in the Big 10 last year so we'll see if the defense bounces back as Yogi alluded to as well