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The Illini wrapped up week two of spring football practices on Saturday afternoon. Illinois still has three more weeks of practices ahead of the team’s spring game which has been moved to 6:30 p.m. CT on Thursday, April 21.
Illinois has completed six of its 15 spring practices and capped off the second week with a scrimmage on Saturday.
New Look Offense
With a lot of new pieces on the offensive side, including a new offensive coordinator in Barry Lunney Jr., the Illini are getting adjusted to a new pace of offense. Head coach Bret Bielema said Lunney has stayed true to his “tempro” style of offense he teased in his opening press conference.
“We do a little bit of everything, we really do,” Bielema said. “We’ve huddled, we’ve done no-huddle, sugar huddles. I think Barry is very, very clear about the tempo that we want to play at. I think the tempro that we said in his opening presser is a true. It’s a pro-style offense played the tempo. And sometimes it’s very fast, sometimes it’ll be huddle slow. So I think whatever gives us the best chance to win we can play.”
In week two, Bielema has been able to see more guys on offense grow. He has been impressed with running back Chase Hayden’s production along with wide receivers Shawn Miller and Brian Hightower.
Sixth-year senior Alex Palczewski is also excited about the offensive line’s growth in the last couple weeks. His position group had some of the most turnover from last season as longtime starters Vederian Lowe and Doug Kramer graduated. However, Palczewski has embraced being the “old man” on the line who can be a teacher for the younger guys.
“It’s been great, just seeing all the guys getting better every single day just truly working on the technique of fundamentals,” Palczewski said. “We have a lot of time until game one so the guys, get to play around with positions, just…
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