Illin's Leshoure can 'wheel' and deal
Call it Illinois' wheel of fortune.
Three times in the last two games, offensive coordinator Paul Petrino called for running back Mikel Leshoure to run a wheel route out of the backfield toward the left corner of the end zone.
All three times, including twice in the final hour of Illinois' remarkable 67-65 loss at Michigan, quarterback Nathan Scheelhaase rolled out to the right and threw back across the field to an uncovered Leshoure for a touchdown.
How does Leshoure manage to fly down the left sideline undetected every time?
“We run so much option out of that two-back set,” Petrino said. “And then you've got two guys running posts (from left to right). That's a real hard play to defend.”
Michigan couldn't be blamed for failing to diagnose the wheel, at least the first time. Petrino tweaked the formation from the Purdue game the week before.
“Different formation, but same concept,” he said.
Shake it off:
Senior defensive end Clay Nurse told the Champaign News-Gazette that there's no getting over last week's 67-65 defeat.
By surrendering so many points, Illinois went from 12th nationally to 47th in scoring defense. But Illinois coach Ron Zook said there's no choice but to leave Michigan behind.
After all, Minnesota shows up Saturday for Senior Day. If the Illini (5-4, 3-3) win, then they all but clinch the program's third bowl berth in 11 years.
“You don't have a choice but to shake it off,” Zook said. “There's no use dwelling on it. There's nothing dwelling on it is going to do except hurt us.
“The most important thing we can do is go play Northwestern uh, Northwestern go play Minnesota to the best of our ability. I haven't shaken it completely off. I just showed you that.”
While it might be tempting to ride the defense hard in the wake of the Michigan debacle, Zook believes the coaches need to take it the other way.
Illinois' defense was on the field for 92 snaps last week, so defensive coordinator Vic Koenning likely will limit the physical reps and focus on mental reps.
Senior Day:
Illinois will celebrate the final home game for 13 seniors prior to the Minnesota kickoff (11 a.m., BTN).
While punter Anthony Santella is the only senior who had a full-time role on the 2007 team that went to the Rose Bowl, nine of the seniors came to town in the summer of 2006 as part of the first class that Ron Zook and his staff recruited.
If the Illini win at least one of their final three games, then these seniors will be the first Illinois class to participate on two bowl teams since the Class of 2002 that featured Kurt Kittner.
“They've been through the good and the bad and kind of been the glue of the whole thing,” Zook said. “They've been kind of to the top of the mountain and back down and trying to climb back up there again.”