brandon peters

Dantonio: "That was a long football game. I can't remember a lot of things. A lot going on."

— Chris Solari (@chrissolari) October 26, 2019

It's probably over. It's Michigan State week, and in 2019 that means surveying a program down the road that is finally reaping what it's sown. Years of operating in a virtually lawless environment caught up with MSU after their breakthrough recruiting class saw four players leave school for two different sexual assault incidents. That class is, or should be, this year's seniors. Their outcomes, in order of ranking: sexual assault, sexual assault, sexual assault, NFL, on roster, transfer, transfer, sexual assault, transfer, transfer, transfer, transfer, on roster, transfer, transfer, on roster, PEDs, on roster, on roster, kicker.

[After the JUMP: Jim Henson doesn't deserve this]

Resources: My charting, UI game notes, UI roster, CFBstats

I was all excited for this one in the preseason because they brought in Rich Rod's old QB coach last year, as well as a spate of transfers, and that resulted in one of the best rushing offenses in the country. Unfortunately for the Illini, the dual-threat grad transfer quarterback making that work ran out of eligibility, and all they could get from this year's transfer market was our Brandon Peters. Now they're probably without Peters.

The film: A rainy, chilly-because-of-the-rainy affair in Minneapolis last week. Other options were Akron (yech), UConn (barf), a loss to Eastern Michigan (lol), and the 38-42 defenseless Nebraska game that has no relation to Michigan. Minnesota's defense is somewhat like Michigan's 3-3-5 stuff, but where our edge guys are at times frustratingly responsible the Gophers shoot 'em upfield all the time, expecting their tackles to squeeze gaps using the blockers trying to block them. I judged the OTs largely on the force of their kickouts, and the OGs on their positions relative to the line of scrimmage.

Personnel: My diagram:

PDF version, full-size version (or click on the image)

Michigan transfer Brandon Peters left the Minnesota game after apparently coming down hard on his head. We're expecting him to be out. Which means Illinois is going to have to rely on whatever they could recruit and develop in-house. Which means Russell Bellomy-armed 5'10" redshirt freshman Matt Robinson is probably going to start. Which means they're gonna die. This will be a theme with Lovie Smith's Illinois: he's great at recruiting players out of other programs, who sense the opportunity to play because they've been awful at developing their own.

The opposite is true on the offensive line, where Bama transfer RG Richie Petitbon Jr. Jr. (+1.5/-6 in rushing, 0 pass rush minuses) (yes That Richie Petitbon--dad and grandpa have different middle names) is the weakest link. Oddly for a 5-star son of an NFL safety, Petitbon is kind of a lug, an odd fit for Illinois's stretch zone style. Moving laterally gets him shoved backwards, and the minutiae of zone blocking seems to elude him. That ruined a lot of good work from RT Alex Palczewski (+6/-2.5, –1), who drew a tough matchup in Minnesota's Jake Ryan-esque Carter Coughlin and came out well ahead. Palczewski has a mean first punch and quick feet, plus the length to translate that to the NFL, though at around 300 he's still short on pure mass. I liked a lot of what I saw from C Doug Kramer, a low-built gamer who got in a few reach blocks and was used often as a puller. His downside is he's irresponsible, subjecting Illinois to multiple illegal man downfield penalties on RPO pulls. LG Kendrick Green (+5/-1, –2 pass pro) is a major weapon in their ground game for his heady play, though he gives it all back in not having the athleticism for pass pro. LT Vederian Lowe (+3/-4, –0) is a prototypical pass-blocker who could use some time in the workout room.

They tried to fix tight end—which lost budding star Louis Dorsey to a transfer after giving him a suspension last year—with blue chip Luke Ford, a onetime Michigan target who took Georgia's offer instead. Ford was transferring closer to home because his mom has a serious thing, only for the arbitrary-as-hell NCAA to deny his waiver because Champaign, though the nearest FBS school by drive time, is juuuuust outside the range defined in that rule. Instead they're rolling out true sophomore TE Daniel Barker (+1/-4, –0) who looks/plays about 20-25 pounds smaller than his listed 250. The next guy is blocking-only TE Griffin Palmer (+0/-2, –0), who's 6'6"/245 and was almost certainly offered a scholarship four years ago in the hopes he'd be at tackle and about 60 pounds heavier by now.

Receiver was a disaster last year, especially once Poor Damn Mike Dudek gave in to the Angry Mike Dudek-Hating God. The only remaining holdover is WR Ricky Smalling (206 yards, 4.4 yards per target, 47% catch rate, 1 TD), who has been slipping open then dropping passes for three years now; he dorfed three big ones in this game. He also gets a full third of targets.

Help arrived in two 4.5-star USC transfers. WR Josh Imatorbhebhe (220 yards, 10.1 yards per target, 63% catch rate), is the best non-Corbin option for moving the ball. A top-150 player to 24/7 and Scout, you may recall Imatorbhebhe as the (at the time) 5-star receiver from Georgia (North Gwinnett) who was instantly interested in Michigan when Harbaugh was hired. He's supremely athletic and a work-in-progress route runner, leading the team in all the receiving categories despite being third in targets. His Trojan classmate Trevon Sidney (123 yards, 4.1 YPT, 53% CRt) was ranked a few spots higher than Imatorbhebhe and has some Jeremy Gallon in him—he was another play or two away from a dangerman star from this game—but his previous performances make that seem an outlier. He splits time with Dominic Stampley (59 yards on 6 targets), a better receiver than Sidney but not much of a blocker. Backup Donny Navarro is a Dileo-ish third down specialist who transferred from Valparaiso and has five targets so far. Tall true freshman Dalevon Campbell was a late find who looks like a hit, albeit one that won't be ready for some time.

[after THE JUMP: content about the Illinois offense]

You're gonna stay for the fourth quarter of our game against Chattanooga. This is actually not as bad as it sounds at first blush:

Saban, the Alabama football coach, has long been peeved that the student section at Bryant-Denny Stadium empties early. So this season, the university is rewarding students who attend games — and stay until the fourth quarter — with an alluring prize: improved access to tickets to the SEC championship game and to the College Football Playoff semifinals and championship game, which Alabama is trying to reach for the fifth consecutive season.

But to do this, Alabama is taking an extraordinary, Orwellian step: using location-tracking technology from students’ phones to see who skips out and who stays.

This doesn't impact anyone's ability to get student tickets for the regular season, it just sets up some bonus goals for diehards who want post-season tickets and opt-in to this program. Now, a bunch of people have pointed out the obvious flaw in which people just leave their phones with freshman pledges or whoever, but at least the idea is to prioritize attendance and dedication.

Michigan does nothing along these lines and really dumped on the idea of dedication mattering when they re-seated Crisler the instant the program got good. Michigan should have programs that reward attendance—not necessarily for students who leave early, but for people who buy tickets and don't use them.

Michigan has the power to change their relationship with ticket-holders by 1) allowing people to return tickets to the AD and 2) downgrading Victors Club points for people whose tickets don't scan. The AD can then try to sell those tickets with some sort of rush program. This would be particularly good for Crisler, which often has big swathes of empty seats even for reasonably important games.

The AD continues to focus exclusively on a bottom line that is mostly about how much money they can funnel to the water polo coach and platinum-plate their silver-plated facilities while ignoring the idea that a full, raucous stadium will probably do more for Michigan's wins and losses than the next increment of opulence.

[After THE JUMP: stay tuned for quality Illinois content! Seriously!]