Illinois offensive coordinator Mike Locksley believes freshman quarterback Juice Williams’ performance in Saturday’s upset of Michigan State offers “a glimpse of what his future will be like.”
If indeed that was a sneak preview, Williams is destined to become a fine quarterback. He outplayed one of the best in the Big Ten for the last three seasons, fifth-year senior Drew Stanton.
After only five college games and two consecutive starts, Williams has a career record (albeit obscure) for an Illinois quarterback: most touchdown passes of 65 yards or more.
Williams, who threw 76- and 69-yard touchdown passes in relief in the loss to Syracuse, collaborated with Jacob Willis on a 69-yard scoring play against Michigan State to break the record of two held by Tommy O’Connell (1951-52), Tony Eason (1981-82) and Jack Trudeau (1981-85).
Saturday’s 69-yarder to Willis and another touchdown pass to Willis of 31 yards in the loss to Iowa came on broken plays.
In the Iowa game he was running to his right and threw across his body. In the Michigan State game he dropped the ball, picked it up with his back turned, spun and spotted Williams in the clear running down the right side.
“It just happened at the moment,” Williams said. “I saw the opportunity and Jacob made a big play.”
Williams also showed exceptional poise during the game’s final three minutes.
He led a drive from his own 20 to the Spartans’ 23 that set up Jason Reda’s game-winning field goal with six seconds to play.
He also ran 8 yards for a first down on a third-and-6 situation at the Illinois 24-yard line and completed passes of 16, 9 and 8 yards to Kyle Hudson.
“Kyle is like my safety valve,” Williams said. “He did a great job getting open and keeping the drive going.”
Overshadowed by Williams’ passing (9 of 16 for 122 yards, one touchdown and an interception returned 62 yards for a touchdown) was his effectiveness as a runner (17 carries for 103 yards).
“Obviously, he has ignited their offense and not only with his very strong arm,” said Indiana coach Terry Hoeppner, whose Hoosiers (2-3, 0-1) will try to knock the Illini (2-3, 1-1) off their Michigan State high when they meet Saturday in Champaign. “When you’re facing a spread offense the first question you have to ask: `Is the quarterback a runner?’ He’s definitely a runner. By design, they run him. Juice really does give them a different dimension.”
Hoeppner also is expected to give a freshman quarterback, redshirt Kellen Lewis, his third start Saturday.
“He’s not as big as Juice, but he’s similar in that he can really throw the football and hurt you with his running too,” Hoeppner said. “By design we want to expand his package so that we can run him more.”
Illinois coach Ron Zook knows a lot about Lewis. When Zook was Florida’s head coach, Lewis was starring at Mandarin High in Jacksonville.
“We looked at him,” Zook said. “He’s a very good athlete, a guy like Juice who is going to get better every time he plays. He provides an added dimension that makes it harder on the defense. He’s not easy to prepare for.
“Looking back on what the guy behind him (junior Blake Powers) did last year says an awful, awful lot about Lewis’ ability. I thought their quarterback last year did some very, very good things, not only against us but throughout the year.”
Like the Illini’s backup quarterback, senior Tim Brasic, Powers started every game last season. He completed 212 of 376 passes for 2,305 yards and threw for 22 touchdowns, breaking the previous school record by five. In the 36-13 rout of the Illini, Powers was 22 of 35 for 198 yards and two touchdowns.
Just as Williams had some growing pains in his Big Ten debut against Iowa so did Lewis in last week’s 52-17 loss to Wisconsin. His 13 of 29 passing yielded 113 yards and he ran 11 times for 31 yards.
“We started him [against Wisconsin] because we felt that gave us our best chance to win,” Hoeppner said. “He’s young; he’s talented. The best way for young players to learn is to get game experience.”
Exhibit A: Juice Williams.
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Kids taking center stage
A look at how Illinois and Indiana freshman quarterbacks Juice Williams and Kellen Lewis have fared:
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WILLIAMS LAST WEEK LEWIS
9-16 Passing 13-19
122 Yards 113
1-1 TD-INT 0-0
17 Rushes 11
103 Yards 31
SEASON
31-78 Passing 54-110
549 Yards 643
4-4 TD-INT 2-3
51 Rushes 44
233 Yards 201
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nmilbert@tribune.com
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