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The Illini are now over halfway done with the spring football season. Next week will be the last full week of spring practices before the Orange and Blue Spring Game on Thursday, April 21.
Illinois has gone through nine of its 15 spring practices and played its second scrimmage on Saturday. The Illini will not have live action football again until the spring game.
Scrimmage No. 2
Head coach Bret Bielema elevated the intensity for the team’s second scrimmage. The first-string played full, move-the-ball football with contact but didn’t tackle. Bielema said there were seven or eight guys total that wouldn’t have been able to compete if the first group went full tackle. However, the second-string played full tackle football, giving the coaches a clear view of what the offense and defense could look like come fall.
“We really had some good learning, we got over 65 plays with those twos. And with the ones, I believe it was almost 60 plays, of good move the ball football,” Bielema said. “Everything from 1st and 10 from the 25 simulating the first possession of the series, to plus 50 for red area, to backed up on the goal line. So it was really, really good work.”
The scrimmage allowed the quarterbacks to get their best work in so far this spring as they were able to move the ball and execute plays under Barry Lunney’s new offense. While QB Artur SItkwoski continues to recover from surgery, Tommy Devito, Ryan Johnson and Samari Collier all showed positive flashes on Saturday.
“Our quarterbacks continue to grow,” Bielema said. “Tommy DeVito just continues to make strides. Very, very gifted player, good passer, does some good things with his arm, just got to learn to play in our type of offense, our style. And Barry’s working really good with him. Ryan Johnson probably played as good as I’ve seen him play out there today just really…
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