110The - College Front Page

TIMES
TOUCHDOWN
IOWA
(3-0, 0-0)
ILLINOIS
(1-2, 0-0)
MEMORIAL STADIUM
11:00 A.M. WCIA
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2006
THE DAILY ILLINI
WWW.DAILYILLNI.COM
The fight
for the
field
See JUICE, Page 2TDT
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY BECK DIEFENBACH
Juice: a longterm
quarterback solution
Quick, when was the last time
the Illinois football team had a
dominant quarterback? And no
the answer is not Jeff George
back in 1989. You only have to
look back to the Kurt Kittner era
to fi nd that answer. Remember
the days when the Fighting Illini
always had a chance to end the
season on top of the Big Ten?
Those days are long gone and
one of the main reasons is Illinois’ struggle to fi nd a replacement at quarterback that lives
up to Kittner’s legacy.
A quarterback is a football
team’s general. The coach and
the team as a whole must be able
to place 100% of their trust in
the man under center.
In Saturday’s press conference, head football coach Ron
Zook addressed Illinois’ quar-
TROY
MURRAY
Football
Columnist
terback problem. Zook said that
if the team plays well, too much
credit is given to the quarterback. If the team plays poorly,
too much blame is placed on the
quarterback’s shoulders.
That might be true, but a quarterback can change the outcome
of a game with one mistake or
with a string of completions.
A good, quality quarterback
holds the key to a team’s success and has a mixture of sev-
See MURRAY, Page 2T
110
BY THE NUMBERS
The
number of seasons of
Big Ten football Illinois
has participated in after
this weekend’s Big Ten
opener against Iowa.
99
The
number of yards
Illinois drove down the
field on their way to
scoring a touchdown
against Syracuse last
weekend. It tied the
longest drive in school
history and resulted in
a Kyle Hudson 69-yard
touchdown catch. It was
the third time in Illini
history that Illinois has
had a 99-yard drive, and
the first time since Oct. 7,
1989 vs. Ohio State.
9
The number of
consecutive losses the
Illini have suffered
against Big Ten
opponents. Illinois’
last win in a Big Ten
Conference game came
against Indiana, 2622, on Nov. 6, 2004 in
Champaign. The Illini are
just 1-23 in Big Ten play
the last three years.
16
The number of
consecutive games Illini
junior wide receiver
DaJuan Warren has
caught a pass, dating
back to Illinois’ victory
against Indiana in 2004.
Your regular Daily Illini Sports section inside
INSIDE
2TDT Player of the week Quarterback “Juice” Williams
3TDT Information on keys to tomorrow’s game
3TDT Position-by-position breakdown
4TDT Starting lineups
“We’ve got a good
football team coming
in here, and the only
chance we’ve got
is to play loose and
let her go. If we go
out there and play
tight, it’s gonna be
a long game,”
“It’s so hard for (Juice)
to come in and do
what he is doing.
I give him a lot of
respect because he is
doing a lot of things
that most freshman
quarterbacks
can’t do,”
RON ZOOK,
head coach
DERRICK MCPHEARSON,
wide receiver