Penn State’s three things: What to know about Illinois

Penn State will travel to Champaign this weekend for a cross-divisional Big Ten matchup with Illinois. The Fighting Illini have stumbled out of the gate in 2023, sneaking past a solid Toledo team and falling at Kansas last Friday. The Kansas score finished 34-23, but the Jayhawks dominated and were up 28-7 at halftime.

So what should Penn State fans expect from the Fighting Illini on Saturday? We poked around for some themes to explore heading into the weekend.

This is not 2021 Illinois

Penn State fans are scarred by what Illinois did to them on the ground at Beaver Stadium two years ago. The nine-overtime 20-18 abomination should trigger a gag reflex for every Nittany Lions fan who had the bad fortune of watching it. Despite the ineptitude of Penn State’s offense that day being the reason the Nittany Lions didn’t register the win, it’s the defense that gets hung out to dry when looking back on that game. Illinois did only score 10 points in regulation — a number that should have been low enough to get a win, at home, against a 2-5 conference opponent — but the way that Bret Bielema’s team did it left a salty taste. Three-hundred-fifty-seven yards on the ground will do that to you.

Now that we have that out of the way, it’s time to say that this Illinois team is far different than the one from two years ago. Chase Brown is gone and if it wasn’t apparent just how good he was when he was playing in Champaign, this year should highlight it. Reggie Love is now the main back, but he doesn’t have the punch that Brown had. He also doesn’t have the offensive line. When talking to a source on the Illinois side this week, they flat-out said that the Illinois offensive line is the root of the team’s offensive issues. That’s odd to hear for a Bielema-coached team.

Illinois wants to be run-first, but game scripts have not been friendly in that aspect. It wouldn’t be a shock if Illinois made some changes up front coming out of week two. The group has guards playing tackle and that’s not a good thing. Kansas beat them up pretty good last week.

The running threat will come in the form of a quarterback for the second time in three weeks. Ole Miss transfer Luke Altmeyer has picked up chunks on the ground, mostly while running for his life. Penn State struggled to contain Garrett Greene scrambling against West Virginia, so that could be an issue this weekend as well. He has kept Illinois and games so far this year, even if he hasn’t been great.

Find No. 1 on every play

Illinois slot receiver Isaiah Williams is the team’s best option for not only a big play, but also to move the sticks. He’s yet to find the end zone through two games, but Williams has been Altmeyer’s favorite target so far and he’s hauled in 11 catches for 150 yards. It wouldn’t be surprised if they try to get him involved in the run game with some jet sweep action.

Illinois has had trouble getting separation on the outside, so Williams has also become some sort of a security blanket along with tight end Griffin Moore. Penn State’s man coverage on the outside with Kalen King and Johnny Dixon should tie that group up on the perimeter, so the expected return of Daequan Hardy to lineup at the nickel could be especially big this week.

Highway to the zone zone

That header is not a typo, by the way. Illinois came out with the hope of playing man coverage over the first two weeks. It ended up showing just how much they lost to the NFL draft last year. Kansas was able to find matchups where Illinois lacked speed and exploit them. So tight ends and running backs should be a factor for the Nittany Lions this week once again. On top of that, Mike Yurcich will be calling the game against a defensive coordinator calling his third game.

Expect multiple looks from Illinois, but also expect the Illini to fall back into zone to try to confuse first year starter Drew Allar. Illinois defensive line gets all the pub for the defense and rightfully so. There’s just not a ton behind the front three, both in depth, and in terms of the back eight. Kansas was able to gash them in the first half last week, mostly because those defensive lineman did not keep the linebackers clean. This will be the third straight week with an odd front look for the Nittany Lions. There should be running room there if Penn State can make it to the second level.

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