Duke could challenge Illinois' early defensive weakness
· Yahoo Sports
Sep. 8—CHAMPAIGN — The 85 defensive play calls Illinois made in its season opener against UAB were distinct in a notable, important way.
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None of them matched, in a one-for-one way, anything the Illini defense ran a year ago.
There were certainly some similarities, including a base 3-3-5 formation used frequently last fall. But the overall schematic changes brought by new defensive coordinator Bobby Hauck put a defense filled with either newcomers or returning players in vastly different, larger roles executing play calls that were entirely foreign eight months earlier.
Mixed results in game one were expected.
Pressure on UAB quarterback Ryder Burton — particularly in the second half — was a positive. Tackling wasn't, and that was reflected in the Blazers' ability to move the ball in the run game.
A learning experience that will require quick fixes with Duke coming to town this weekend boasting an offense that, through one game, looks nothing like what Illinois saw a year ago in Durham, N.C.
Duke built its 2025 offense around transfer quarterback Darian Mensah. Now that he's transferred again — to ACC rival Miami, no less — the Blue Devils have pivoted away from Mensah's replacement, San Jose State transfer Walker Eget, to running back Nate Sheppard.
Eget completed 13 of 26 passes for 131 yards in Duke's 17-3 season-opening win against Tulane.
Sheppard out-touched him, rushing 35 times for 227 yards and two touchdowns.
Hauck noticed.
"Obviously, we have the data and the film from the Tulane game and know exactly what they did in that game," the Illinois defensive coordinator said. "Will they continue that this weekend? They aren't telling us. If they would, that would be great. They won't, so we have to plan for what they have done previously to this season and be prepared for that, as well as what they did last week against Tulane."
What Duke did against Tulane was steamroll the Green Wave with its ground game. That stands as a challenge for an Illinois team that struggled making tackles in its own season opener.
Neither Hauck nor Illinois coach Bret Bielema expressed concern about tackling being a long-term problem. Bielema cut off live tackling during the Illini's training camp, and NCAA guidelines recommend just one live contact day per week during the season.
"As we play live, I think that will improve," Hauck said. "I think our guys' effort level and pursuit were pretty dang good. I anticipate we'll be a good, physical tackling defense before it's all said and done."
Bielema saw some of that happen during Thursday's game against UAB. Fifth-year safety Matthew Bailey, who hadn't tackled since last year's regular season finale, missed his first tackle and then lit up three Blazers on his next three attempts. Fifth-year nickel back Xavier Scott had a similar turn of events in the opener after missing most of last season, and so did sophomore linebacker Grant Beerman after missing all of spring practice and dealing with an illness in camp.
"Nobody does live tackling," Bielema said, referencing a rule change the NCAA made ahead of the 2021 season to limit teams to two training camp scrimmages and cut the number of full padded practices.
"There's been intermediate times where we've tackled some of our younger guys," the Illinois coach continued. "You can do that for 25 percent of a practice on three different occasions. There's some very specific rules that limit tackling, so you'll probably find across the board people have struggled with that a little bit. ... It's just something that can get corrected in a short amount of time."
Illinois will have to see the game one to game two improvement both Hauck and Bielema expect with Duke up next. It's a specific point of emphasis following the debut of a defense the Illini coordinator felt was otherwise sound.
"I thought we operated pretty well," Hauck said. "There were some situations we let them get back on track, and that's my fault more than anybody else. We had them in a disadvantage position in terms of down and distance on second down, and we let them get back to some third-and-manageables on numerous occasions. That was bad by me. I thought our guys really handled, for the most part, a lot of different things. The mental part was pretty good by our guys."