Illinois opened the season with such high hopes, but the Fighting Illini have simply quit on their coach at this stage giving Michigan an easy cover in this Big Ten tilt.
The Illini have looked very much like a team that has quit on their coach and their season over the course of the past month. Instead of competing for the Big Ten title, as some predicted prior to the season, they’ve lost every single lined game in 2009 by ten points or more.
And like most dismal football teams, the best place to bet against them is at home, where there is virtually no home field edge at all, yet the pointspread still factors it into the equation.
Illinois is a train wreck on both sides of the football these days. Their inexperienced defense ranks dead last in the Big Ten in rush defense, pass efficiency defense, total defense, sacks and tackles for loss. They rank next to last in turnovers forced.
Defensive tackles Josh Brent and Corey Liuget have both been major disappointments. The linebacking corps is extremely young, constantly out of position. Their veteran safeties are injured; the youngsters replacing them are not good.
Offensively, Ron Zook is going to play ‘quarterback shuffle’ again this week, alternating senior Juice Williams and redshirt frosh Jacob Charest.
"I don’t know what exact role Juice is going to be in. But there have been a lot of teams that have had two-quarterback systems," Zook said. "Is that the ideal thing? Probably not."
The Fighting Illini have scored a grand total of nine touchdowns in their six games against FBS opponents.
My clients and I cashed a ticket betting against Michigan last week, as Penn State’s powerful defense held Michigan to their season low in both yardage and points scored. Facing a weak defense that is short on both effort and execution, look for Michigan to hit the gaps hard and create big plays in both the running and passing games. Illinois’ sputtering offense simply doesn’t have the firepower to compete, or to rally from behind.
Free Pick: Michigan -7 (-110)