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A publication of The Daily Illini | Friday, September 14, 2012

THE QB SHUFFLE

Despite bad game

in Tempe, O’Toole’s

con! dence growing

Friday, September 14, 2012 The Daily Illini | www.DailyIllini.com2

SAM ROSENBAUM THE STATE PRESS

Photo of

THE GAMEEditor’s note: This page is a place to run a photo each week that is relevant in some way to the upcoming game. The photo could be from last year’s matchup or the Illini’s game from the previous week — whatever. As long as it gets you ready for this week, it’ll be here.

Arizona State’s Alden Darby (4) runs an interception for 34 yards, chased by Illinois’ Spencer Harris (80) and Justin Hardee (84) during the game Saturday in Tempe, Ariz.

One week after throwing an interception and struggling in his first collegiate start, Reilly O’Toole looks to rebound against Charleston Southern to overcome last week’s 31-point loss. Follow the Daily Illini Twitter accounts for this Saturday’s action: @di_sports amd @DailyIlliniFB.

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The Daily Illini | www.DailyIllini.com Friday, September 14, 20123

BY CHAD THORNBURGSTAFF WRITER

Saturday’s home game against Charleston Southern couldn’t come any sooner for the Illinois football team.

After a 45-14 thrashing by Arizona State, the Illini can’t wait to get back on the field and put that game behind them.

“Definitely a good feeling to get that out of the way and start a new game plan and everything against a new team this week,” running back Josh Ferguson said. “We just want to make corrections and get better.”

After struggling against Arizona State in all facets of the game, the Illini (1-1) face a much less daunting task this week against FCS opponent Charleston Southern (0-2). The Buccaneers went winless last season and haven’t won a game since Nov. 13, 2010.

Illinois is 11-0 all-time against FCS opponents, but head coach Tim Beckman said the Illini won’t be tak-ing it easy at Memorial Sta-dium on Saturday.

“Our team needs to get bet-ter,” Beckman said. “So we’re going to do what we need to do to be successful.”

Although Beckman said the Illini will not call the game any more conservatively than usual, the score could be tilt-ed in Illinois’ favor very ear-ly, which will likely lead to a rush-heavy offensive attack — an opportunity for inexpe-rienced running backs Fer-guson and Donovonn Young to continue to build on last week’s performance.

Ferguson rushed for 101 yards on 14 carries, and Young pitched in 65 yards and a touchdown.

Both running backs credit-ed their improved production — they managed just a com-bined 40 yards against West-ern Michigan in Week One — to the offensive line.

“We just got a lot of move-ment up front, and that’s what counts,” Young said. “Once we get the movement up front, me and Josh can do what we do.”

If the Illini build a big lead, the running backs — Young, Ferguson and freshman Dami

Ayoola — could see a lot of touches Saturday, especial-ly if the Illini are without starting quarterback Nathan Scheelhaase for a second straight game.

Scheelhaase sprained his ankle in the third quarter of the Sept. 1 season opener against Western Michigan and sat out in the loss in Tempe, Ariz.

The junior quarterback said he expects to play Saturday until the coaching staff tells him otherwise.

“It was a frustrating week not being able to practice as much as I wanted to,” Scheel-haase said of last week. “But through that frustration, you just have to get it treated, get it right, because it’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon. At the end of the day, missing one game is a whole lot better than missing two, three or however many more.

“That’s hopefully the last one I’ll have to miss.”

Chad can be reached at thorn-bu1@dailyillini.com and on Twit-ter @cthornburg10.

Illini plan to use FCS foe as learning opportunity

DARYL QUITALIG THE DAILY ILLINI

Illinois’ Josh Ferguson runs the ball against Western Michigan at Memorial Stadium on Sept. 1. With starting quarterback Nathan Scheelhaase’s health in question, Ferguson and the other running backs may get a lot of carries against Charleston Southern.

Friday, September 14, 2012 The Daily Illini | www.DailyIllini.com4 The Daily Illini | www.DailyIllini.com Friday, September 14, 20125

F or a quarterback who was defeated only once as a starter in high school, a 31-point loss was not what Reilly O’Toole had in mind

for his fi rst collegiate start. As the signal caller at Wheaton-Warren-ville South High School in Wheaton, Ill., O’Toole navigated his team to back-to-back IHSA class 7A cham-pionships in 2009 and 2010 .

But it was a different story at Ari-zona State last week when O’Toole completed just 10 passes for just 54 yards , threw a touchdown and an interception , and was sacked four times .

O’Toole, who did receive some playing time as the backup to fi rst-string quarterback Nathan Scheel-haase in 2011, hadn’t been on the football fi eld that much since defeat-ing Glenbard West to cap a perfect senior season with a championship at Memorial Stadium.

“It’s different being out there so early in the game,” O’Toole said Tuesday. “I haven’t played that much in a while. It was fun being back out there, but at the same time, you want to do well.”

Until Scheelhaase injured his left ankle in the Sept. 1 season open-er against Western Michigan , it didn’t appear O’Toole was going to see much time on the fi eld in 2012. Unlike former Illini head coach Ron Zook, Tim Beckman made it clear before the season that the quarterback position belonged to Scheelhaase.

Beckman brings a spread offense unlike the pro-style attack Zook used. Scheelhaase’s mobility and experience were central to the deci-sion to stick with him over O’Toole. But even in the victory over West-ern Michigan, the Illini offense was unimpressive.

O’Toole played in 10 games for the Illini last season, complet-ing nearly 60 percent of his passes , although struggling to fi nd a rhythm at times. A lot has changed since 2011 — including the entire offen-sive coaching staff — but O’Toole feels like he has made strides since his freshman year.

“I feel like I’m a lot more confi -dent out there,” he said. “I feel a lot more comfortable in the huddle and playing the game. I feel like the game’s slowed down just a little bit. It’s still moving pretty fast , but it’s slowed down.”

O’Toole’s play on the fi eld has not refl ected his self-described confi -dence. Against Arizona State, he showed poise at times but was often fl ushed out of the pocket with the ball still in his hands. After watch-ing the fi lm, he said he needed to release the ball quicker.

Even though O’Toole is less mobile than Scheelhaase, the coach-ing staff has been adamant that the game plan does not change with O’Toole at quarterback. The stats refl ect this as he carried the ball 12 times against the Sun Devils.

With the possibility that Scheel-haase won’t be 100 percent against Charleston Southern, there’s a chance O’Toole may see signifi cant time Saturday. Against an FCS oppo-nent on a 14-game losing streak, there will be few excuses for a poor performance. And despite last week’s struggles, his teammates are not losing confi dence in No. 4.

“It’s tough any time you lose,” wide receiver Ryan Lankford said. “It was tough for me, and I wasn’t quarterback. He did what he could do. It wasn’t a quarterback thing that let the offense down. It was a total offense thing.”

Scheelhaase has had a chance to get to know O’Toole since he arrived last year and says he enjoys competing with him in practice.

O’Toole is a soft-spoken guy, who Scheelhaase says was easy to get along with from the begin-ning. He admitted he learns as much from O’Toole in practice as O’Toole learns from him. Scheel-haase thinks O’Toole’s confi dence is as high as it has ever been, and he didn’t think his backup would be fazed by the debacle at Arizo-na State.

Scheelhaase compared O’Toole’s game to those of the fi ve NFL rookie

quarterbacks who started in Week One: With the exception of Red-skins quarterback Robert Griffi n III, none of them had particularly impressive numbers.

“I remember my fi rst start,” Scheelhaase said. “My fi rst start I threw three interceptions. I didn’t have the day I wanted to have, for sure.”

Scheelhaase’s fi rst start was a 23-13 loss to Missouri in St. Lou-is. He was a four-star recruit com-ing out of high school, according to Rivals.com. He had started 27 straight games for Illinois until last week .

Although not as highly touted as Scheelhaase, O’Toole was seen with more of a pocket presence at the quarterback position and a proven winner.

His abilities will be tested in the coming weeks, especially if Scheel-haase’s injury lingers. Unlike high school, O’Toole’s fi rst loss at Illinois likely won’t be his last.

Sean can be reached at sphammo2@dailyillini.com and @sean_hammond.

FALSE STARTO’Toole still has much to prove after Arizona State

BY SEAN HAMMOND

STAFF WRITER

“I feel like I’m a lot more confi dent out there. I feel a lot more comfortable in the huddle and playing the game.”REILLY O’TOOLE,quarterback

Friday, September 14, 2012 The Daily Illini | www.DailyIllini.com6

BY JAMAL COLLIERSTAFF WRITER

As Jack Cornell watched the 2012 NFL Draft in April, he saw teammate after

teammate realize his dream of being drafted to play professional football. First, it was Whitney Mercilus, fol-lowed by A.J. Jenkins, Jeff Allen and Tavon Wilson . He watched and wait-ed, still hanging on to the chance that his name may be called.

But it wasn’t. The 6-foot-6, 315-pound former

Illini offensive lineman didn’t let that sway his hope and determina-tion to play in the NFL. So when the Baltimore Ravens called him two weeks after the draft , Cornell was ecstatic for the chance to play at the next level.

Four months later, Cornell has offi -cially made the Baltimore Ravens practice squad.

“It doesn’t really matter how you get there,” Cornell said in a phone interview. “I was just fortunate enough to get a call and take advan-

tage of every opportunity I can get. That’s what got me to this point.”

Cornell has made the most of his situation throughout his football career. He played only sparingly at Illinois his fi rst two years before playing in all 13 games in his junior year, helping the Illini to the top rushing attack in the Big Ten. He became a team captain his senior year and started every game for the fi rst time in his Illini career, receiv-ing the Red Grange Award for dedi-cation. He calls himself blessed, say-ing it has all been a whirlwind with just how far he’s come in his career.

He still keeps in contact with play-ers like former Illinois offensive line-man Jeff Allen and current linemen Hugh Thornton and Graham Pocic, who mentioned the two talk at least every other day. Cornell still feels like they are all brothers.

“He’s having a great time, and he’s really worked his ass off,” Pocic said. “He deserves it.”

Cornell played right guard for much of his time in college — all 19

of his starts in college were at that position — but injuries to the Ravens offensive line shifted him to right tackle, allowing him to line up with the Raven’s fi rst-team offense, an experience that he called humbling.

“To run with the ones and block for (Ravens quarterback) Joe Flac-co, or make holes for (running back) Ray Rice, it defi nitely makes you step your game up. It forced me to focus in on every little detail of my job.”

It gave him a chance to line up next to right guard Marshal Yanda at times, the teammate the Ravens play-er development program assigned as Cornell’s mentor in his rookie sea-son. Yanda hasn’t just taught Cornell about technique on the football fi eld, but many things off the fi eld, from taking care of his body to carrying himself around the locker room. And Cornell said he’s trying to emulate the type of player Yanda is.

As a member of the practice squad, Cornell is presented with a different challenge — trying to match up against the likes of line-

backer Ray Lewis and the vaunt-ed Ravens defense. It’s something that even the most veteran of line-men struggle with, and Cornell said he’s had the chance to see a lot of Pro Bowl defensive lineman Halo-ti Ngata.

“I just want to take advantage of it,” he said, with a reminder that if he’s not getting better, then he’s get-ting worse. “Getting to learn how to play professional football against the best in the world at what they do, I really try to focus on my tech-nique, and it makes me work that much harder.”

Even though it may not have looked like it months ago, Cornell is doing exactly what he’s been doing his whole life at this time of year: playing football.

“My entire life, all I wanted to do is play in the National Football League,” Cornell said. “And now I’m living it. It’s so awesome.”

Jamal can be reached at collie10@dailyillini.com and @JamalCollier.

SECOND CHANCE IN THE NFLPHOTO COURTESY OF THE BALTIMORE RAVENS

“I was just fortune enough to get a call and take advantage of every opportunity I can get. That’s what got me to this point.”JACK CORNELL,former Illini and Ravens right guard on the practice squad

The Daily Illini | www.DailyIllini.com Friday, September 14, 20127

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PORTRAIT BY DARYL QUITALIG THE DAILY ILLINIOUR PICKS

DAN WELIN FOOTBALL COLUMNIST

JEFF KIRSHMAN SPORTS EDITOR

CHAD THORNBURG SPORTS WRITER

JAMAL COLLIER SPORTS WRITER

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HOST OF ILLINI DRIVE

SEAN HAMMOND SPORTS WRITER

Tane(7-3)

Hammond(6-4)

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Welin(5-5)

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Playing easy FCS teams doesn’t help Illinois

P aycheck games are stupid.A paycheck game is when an FBS

team pays an FCS team to come play at its stadium, basically creating an easy victory for the FBS team.

As with many matchups of the like, Charleston Southern’s trip to Champaign has Illinois fans asking, “Who are the Illini playing, again?”

This Saturday makes it seven years in a row the Illini have played an FCS team during the regular season, and as I’m sure you could assume, Illinois is 11-0 all-time in those games.

In each of the last two seasons, the Illini fi nished the regular season with 6-6 records and went on to play in a bowl game.

One victory from each of those 6-6 seasons came against an FCS opponent ! 35-3 over Southern Illinois in 2010 and 56-3 over South Dakota State in 2011.

Illinois is also scheduled to play the Salukis again in 2013, Youngstown State in 2014 and Western Illinois in 2015.

According to the USA Today, Michigan paid Delaware State $550,000 in 2009 to basically forfeit a conference game to play the Wolverines in Ann Arbor. That

payday was equivalent to two seasons’ worth of football revenue that Delaware State dispersed throughout the rest of its athletic department, according to that same article.

If you’re an FCS school and can gener-ate an astronomical amount of revenue for one measly road trip, you’d be stu-pid not to go.

This doesn’t affect the Michigans and Alabamas of the world because those are the same teams that tend to win more than six games each season.

As far as Illinois is concerned, until it can win six games against FBS-level competition ! something the Illini have only done once in the last 10 years (2007 Rose Bowl season) — they should keep FCS opponents off the schedule.

At the same time, Illinois would be stu-pid to do that as long as the NCAA keeps the current bowl eligibility requirement of six wins in place.

To put the past two seasons in per-spective, the 2010 victory over Southern Illinois took the place of close losses at Michigan and at Fresno State, as well as the embarrassing loss at home to Minne-sota. For 2011, the lopsided win against South Dakota State helped relieve the Illini in their 0-6 fi nish to the season, which was capped off with another embarrassing loss to Minnesota.

What the NCAA should do is change the eligibility requirement to six victo-ries over FBS opponents.

That would thin out the list of bowl-eligible teams and further validate the teams that qualifi ed for the postseason with wins over stronger opponents.

Until that’s done, paycheck games will continue to happen, as these agreements benefi t both parties involved.

What doesn’t make sense is how head coaches react when they are asked about the lesser competition they’ll face in the FCS opponent.

“Why? Why would you do that?” head coach Tim Beckman said when asked if the Illini would play more conservatively against Charleston Southern. “We’ve got to get better as a team, so we’re going to do what we need to do to be successful and help ourselves achieve those things. We’re not to that level yet.”

They should really be outraged that they are in a meaningless game that their players can get injured in. Not to men-tion the dip in ticket sales and the overall boredom fans have to stomach.

The victory FBS schools record does little for their program. If it makes the news, then something went wrong. Ask Michigan or Colorado what that’s like.

If the Illini scheduled opponents to actually better themselves, fans wouldn’t need to research their opponent to fi nd out that Charleston Southern hasn’t won a game since Nov. 13, 2010.

Dan is a senior in Media. You can reach him at welin1@dailyillini.com and @welinanddealin.

Illini Drive goes “three and out” every Monday on WPGU. Here are the highlights.

NATIONAL QUESTION — What is your opinion of these “check games”? (These are) teams bringing in lower FCS opponents to beat up on.

Thomas Bruch — I mean, it’s kind of the way this business goes. I don’t know how much resistance there is to not happening. The Savannah States like doing it because they get paid. And they need money. And if they are willing to go get kicked all around and up and down the fi eld, it’s fi ne.

BIG TEN QUESTION — Can it get much worse (for the Big Ten)?

Jamal Collier — The Big Ten has just looked awful. Michigan gets embarrassed on a national stage against Alabama. (The Big Ten) goes 0-3 against the Pac-12. Michigan just kind of looks suspect here. They just cannot compete, at all, against rest of the world. ... They want to get their kicking game and running backs (in order). Hey, this is 2012, it’s all about offensive points here. And the Big Ten is way behind the curve. And you’re embarrassing me.

ILLINI QUESTION — Which position group needs to most improvement this week?

Max Tane — I’m going to go with the group that didn’t have a bad game but still has room to grow and get better, and that’s the offensive line. Four delay-of-game penalties (against Arizona State), and that goes back to the communication with the quarterback and the center.

DAN WELINFootball columnist

Illini Drive

THREE AND

OUT