All my plays for this coming week will be in this thread:
WESTERN KENTUCKY AT ILLINOIS
This play may seem like an over reaction to WKU's ass kicking of Bowling Green. I assure you it's not. I'm just not very high on Illinois. Illinois just squeaked by FCS Youngstown St, 28-17. Illinois trailed Youngstown State, 9-7 after three quarters. Through that time, the Penguins out-gained Illinois 262-172, which included a 178-42 advantage on the ground. The Illini picked up the tempo at the start of the second half. "When you go real fast like we did at the end of the game, it will take the defense's legs away real quick," Cvijanovic said. "I think we were able to do that in the second half and the next thing you know, they're not coming off the ball." Illinois was 3-of-10 on third downs through three quarters but 5-for-5 in those situations in the fourth quarter.
In this game you don't have to worry about WKU getting worn down by the forth quarter because they are an up tempo team. The following are a couple of Quotes from their HC after the Bowling Green game.
On playing fast
"Well we didn't want to let the secret out of the bag too early. We told people we were practicing that way to get ready for Bowling Green, which we were, so there is truth to that. But at the same time we feel like nowadays that's the new thing in football: to go fast and go with a great tempo. Your players love playing that way. We practiced it all spring, all summer, all fall and our guys are in great condition. Our strength coach, coach (Justin) Lovett, has done a great job getting them in great shape. Our players love playing fast. They have the system down."
On running 97 plays and having no turnovers
"I couldn't be happier. A great coaching job by our coaches and a good job by our players. They just completely executed everything we called. They played hard the entire game, played together. They responded when the other team scored. Bowling Green scored, they got some things going. We responded. It was outstanding to see those guys do it."
I see this as being a pretty close game and wouldn't be surprised if the Hilltoppers pulled the upset.
2* #327 WESTERN KENTUCKY +7 -120