For my preview of the Illinois-Michigan game on Saturday, I’m writing about the Illini’s problems with kick coverage, which has been poor the last four years with the exception of 2007. This year they have allowed two kickoff returns for touchdowns.

In fact, when it comes to every aspect of kick and punt returns and coverage, Illinois has routinely finished in the bottom half of the country since Ron Zook’s arrival.

Here are the NCAA rankings for the last four seasons. There were 117 bowl subdivision teams in 2005 and 119 in 2006-08:

                                       KO return defense    Punt return defense    KO returns    Punt returns

2008                               114th/30.1                76th/11.1                72nd/20.3       94th/6.0

2007                                12th/18.5                 62nd/9.1                 103rd/19.1      88th/7.1

2006                                95th/22.1                 100th/11.4              72nd/19.5       111th/5.0

2005                               117th/32.1                114th/15.3              71st/20.1        112th/4.6