It’s still Peters — for now | Sports | news-gazette.com – Champaign/Urbana News-Gazette
CHAMPAIGN — Tony Petersen delivered the answer Monday to the question on the mind of every Illinois football fan after another loss at Purdue and a winnable home game coming Saturday against Charlotte.
The Illini are sticking with Brandon Peters at quarterback. But Petersen was quick to mention that “no position is safe,” and Illinois coach Bret Bielema is the final arbiter on who plays.
“We’ve got a guy in the backup spot that’s already played 2 1/2 full games, really three games,” Petersen said of Art Sitkowski, who replaced an injured Peters early in Week 0 against Nebraska. “If that came up and he decided to make that change — the quarterback position is a unique position — Coach B. always talks to me about it, but at the end of the day, he’s going to make the decision on who’s going to play.”
Bielema understood more questions would follow about quarterback play during his weekly press conference Monday afternoon at Memorial Stadium. Peters completed 14 of 26 passes for just 100 yards against Purdue.
It was better than his 10-of-26 showing for 185 yards and an interception the week prior against Maryland — at least from a slight efficiency standpoint.
But Peters has struggled since his return from the AC joint sprain in his left shoulder that sidelined him for two full games and most of another.
Bielema didn’t say Peters wouldn’t start for Illinois (1-4) in its 11 a.m. Saturday nonconference game with Charlotte (3-1). But his answer to a question about making a change at quarterback two days after he said he didn’t consider it mid-game against the Boilermakers wasn’t clear cut.
Essentially, what happens in the Smith Center and on the practice field is going to stay in the Smith Center and on the practice field. Bielema’s not telling.
So just like Deuce Spann’s move from quarterback to wide receiver and Seth Coleman moving up the depth chart at outside linebacker to pass Isaiah Gay and become a starter were kept a secret, so will Illinois’ quarterback situation.
“I would tell you BP probably right after the game and also on Sunday when I had a conversation with him to where we are (Monday), he knows he wants to get better,” Bielema said. “Everybody has to get better. Even though we’ve had a little bit of success in certain phases for certain phases of the game, to get a Big Ten ‘W’ or a ‘W’ this weekend in a nonconference game, we all have to be better.”
Petersen expressed a similar sentiment about Peters. If you’d just ask him, the sixth-year quarterback and three-year starter in Champaign knows he has to play more consistently. The asking is the hard part.
Peters was available to the media the first day of fall training camp and the Tuesday before the season opener against Nebraska.
Since his return from injury? Illinois has yet to make Peters available despite multiple requests from reporters. The Illini offense has stalled the past two weeks save for the run game. Chase Brown and Josh McCray both played well in the loss to Maryland, and McCray had a breakout performance at Purdue with 24 carries for 156 yards.
Relying on the run game — the 6-foot-1, 240-pound McCray’s physical style in particular — was the game plan against the Boilermakers. That won’t necessarily be the case against Charlotte, as the 49ers shift between three- and four-man defensive fronts and take an aggressive tact in the secondary.
Bielema’s goal of complementary football between all three phases needs to make an appearance in just the offense. While Peters was slightly more efficient against Purdue — he averaged just 3.8 yards per pass attempt — the vertical passing game was nonexistent, with just one of Peters’ 14 completions going for more than 15 yards.
“You’ve still got to take your shots — especially when people are going to load the box and play one-on-one with us,” Petersen said, which was exactly what the Purdue defense did. “You’ve got to take your shots. If you take seven or eight of them and only get one or zero, that’s not going to be a good football day out there.
“You’ve got to figure out different ways to set those one-on-ones up, try and get more separation at the receiver position and then the quarterbacks make those plays. If you take seven or eight shots and you hit two or three of them for touchdowns, it changes the game right there and takes (the defense) out of those heavy boxes.”
Illinois needs its offense to make similar improvements as the defense. A week after the Illini gave up 42 points to Virginia, they held Maryland to 20 and then Purdue to 13. The Illinois offense — good for 30 points against both Nebraska and Texas San Antonio — has scored just 40 combined points in the last three games.
Petersen echoed Bielema that improvement has to come from each position.
Wide receivers have to get open.
The offensive line has to block effectively whether it’s run or pass.
But the quarterback, for now still Peters, has to make the plays.
“We always talk about making great decisions and throwing the football on time,” Petersen said. “Then at the end of the day, you’ve got to make the throw. If he can get a little bit better at all three of those, as he starts improving in those, our production and our points are going to pick up.”