I overheard a sports writer in the press box at the Illinois-Missouri game telling a fellow scribe that he thought Juice Williams was one of the most overrated quarterbacks in college football.

And I will admit that  early in that game I…

When Ron Zook met the media this week, he started talking about the Illini’s upcoming bye week before mentioning Louisiana-Lafayette, Saturday’s opponent in Champaign. That’s not to say Zook is looking past the Ragin’ Cajuns, but mere suggestion that the…

Players can be pretty forthcoming when it comes to admitting mistakes or poor play. There was plenty of that going around after Illinois lost to Missouri with many of the Illini saying they could have done things better and detailing…

Walking through the massive construction site that is Memorial Stadium in Champaign, it’s hard to imagine that on Saturday the place will be ready to host the first Illinois home game of the season.

Huge murals for the great halls were…

The new leader of the Illinois defense evaluated the damage and didn’t wait long to be held accountable for the 52 points Missouri scored (actually 38 against the defense).

Brit Miller is being held to high standards this season as the…

It looked like the Juice Williams of old on the first two Illinois possessions Saturday night. First he fired over the head of Arrelious Benn on third-and-15 and on the next drive missed Will Judson, who had found a wide-open spot downfield…

It isn’t often the Illinois beat writers are afforded an hour-long sitdown with athletics director Ron Guenther, in fact, Thursday morning marked the first such occasion during my three-plus seasons covering sports at the school.

But when Guenther talks, he offers plenty…

Ron Zook was admittedly nervous every time an Illinois player was slow to get up during Monday night’s scrimmage at Rantoul High. This was the site of last year’s scrimmage disaster when Arrelious Benn suffered a shoulder injury that hampered…

Linebacker Brit Miller typically played about 40 snaps per game as a junior. In 2008 he expects to be on the field about twice as much as he moves to middle linebacker for J Leman.

So Miller went about dropping some weight…

When the Big Ten Network approached Ron Zook about documenting the Illinois football season for its behind-the-scenes, reality-type program, his initial reaction was to run very fast in the opposite direction.

Zook is a coach who has declined TV requests to wear a…