Look! Up in the sky!
It’s a pass from Purdue quarterback Brandon Hance bouncing off tight end Tim Stratton on Saturday and into the waiting hands of Illinois senior strong safety Bobby Jackson, who returns the ball 83 yards for a touchdown.
It’s sophomore cornerback Christian Morton picking another Hance throw out of the air and scampering 62 yards for a score.
It’s junior cornerback Eugene Wilson leaping to break up four more passes Saturday, giving him a Big Ten-leading 18 deflections this year, four more than his closest pursuer, Morton, and six more than the pinball wizard in third place, Iowa’s Matt Stockdale.
It’s senior free safety Muhammad Abdullah, who is tied with Morton for the team lead with three interceptions and is second in solo tackles with 51 and total tackles with 65, including his touchdown-saving stop on Purdue’s Montrell Lowe on fourth-and-goal at the Illini 1-yard line.
It’s clear Illinois’ air defense system has undergone a major upgrade this fall and the results have been exciting to watch.
“This year has been a lot of fun,” Wilson said. “We’re able to go out and use our ability now. We’re attacking, we’re blitzing, we’re stopping teams. That’s what I love.”
Illinois sophomore wide receiver Brandon Lloyd said there’s no question which secondary has given him the most trouble this year: his own. In practice.
“I think we have the best secondary in the Big Ten right now,” Lloyd said. “Coming off a hard week of practice against Eugene and Christian and Bobby gives me a huge advantage on Saturday.”
The defensive backfield’s attack mode has turned into a psychological advantage for the 15th-ranked Illini (6-1, 4-1), who take on rapidly improving Penn State (3-4, 2-3) Saturday in Champaign. Illinois was credited with 10 sacks, eight pass deflections and those two interceptions against young Boilermakers quarterbacks Hance and Kyle Orton last week.
The Illini lead the Big Ten in pass defense efficiency (105.9) and senior quarterback Kurt Kittner knows why.
“You saw what they did Saturday,” he said. “They kept putting pressure on the quarterback. Hance had no idea what was going on.”
Whether Illinois can create similar confusion for Penn State QB Zack Mills, who is a redshirt freshman like Hance, remains to be seen.
Abdullah, defensive tackle Brandon Moore and head coach Ron Turner said much of the credit for the secondary’s success stems from the tough tone set by first-year defensive coordinator Mike Cassity, first-year secondary coach Mike Mallory and first-year defensive line coach Donnie Thompson.
“At our first meeting,” Abdullah said, “they came in and had a lot of energy. They said they were going to bring in a blitz package and that was real exciting to us and that excitement has never left.”
Moore said the players notice all the preparation the coaches put into their game plans and are determined not to let them down.
“That goal-line stand Abdullah made was something they prepared us for,” Moore said. “That play was a testament to how hard they worked to prepare us. When Coach Cassity came in and looked us in the eye the guys started to believe in him.”
After last year’s defensive nightmare, Turner’s first choice to succeed the ousted Tim Kish as coordinator was Phil Snow, an old friend. But after accepting the job, Snow had a change of heart. Turner suspects one reason Snow pulled out was because he didn’t think Illinois had the talent to get the job done. Luckily for Turner, the well-traveled Cassity did.
Cassity, whose resume includes stops at Kentucky, Morehead State, Western Kentucky, Northeast Louisiana, East Carolina, Georgia Tech, Cincinnati, Wisconsin, Baylor and most recently Oklahoma State, has the Illini secondary playing risky man-to-man schemes the majority of the time.
“Against Purdue we ran 70 to 80 percent man-to-man,” Turner said. “But in other games it has been more like 40 to 50 percent. It’s something we do to try to keep people off-balance. We are playing more man-to-man this year because we have the players who can do it.”
Just as important, said Turner, Illinois also has players who genuinely seem excited about playing it.
“So far we’re playing pretty good defense,” he said. “I do believe we can get better, but I think our players love it. If you’re on defense you’re over there because you’re aggressive. You don’t see too many kids go out in the street or in the park and play touch football and say `All right, we’re going to back off and play a soft zone.’ Our kids want to get them, blitz and `let’s play man.’ Those are the kind of guys you want to recruit and we’re going to allow them to do that.”
