Illinois Football: Illini quarterback situation is taking shape

The quarterback position is one that I will be focusing on a lot this season for the Illinois football team.

Honestly, whenever the Illini struggle in a season, you can usually track it back to bad quarterback play. The years they actually have a capable quarterback, the team is in the hunt for a bowl game or sometimes they even get to a BCS Bowl. The Illini haven’t had a capable quarterback the last few years, though.

As we start approaching the start of the 2018 campaign, I can’t help but get excited for the potential of having a solid starting quarterback. I continue to read the great work from the writers who have boots on the ground at training camp and they are to blame for my excitement.

Eli Schuster of the Daily Illini broke down the quarterback position after the first few days of training camp. If you want to read the entire breakdown, you can find him on the Daily Illini Sports page. I am going to start with his breakdown of the quarterback position.

It looks like through the first few days the starter this upcoming season is going to be either Cam Thomas or AJ Bush. This doesn’t come as a surprise to many. Thomas was the only quarterback on who was on scholarship this past spring and Bush is an incoming graduate transfer who is seasoned to some extent.

Schuster says those two quarterbacks are getting the most snaps. Thomas has also improved his arm strength, which was crucial after what we saw last season. I would still worry about short to intermediate passes from both quarterbacks, but the fact they both can run and throw the deep ball is a step in the right direction.

I expected MJ Rivers to see some snaps and he is. I wouldn’t doubt if we see him in uniform this season take some snaps in live game action. He is a really talented player who could shock some people.

There were a few surprises in Schuster’s assessment of the quarterback situation. The fact Matt Robinson is taking snaps surprises me. He wasn’t rated very high – sub-2000 – but he is getting some looks as a top-four backup.

Another thing that surprises me is the fact Coran Taylor is taking the least amount of snaps. He was the highest rated quarterback coming in from the class of 2018. I am going to guess that Illinois has a plan to redshirt him anyway. They want to see what they can have as a backup this season, though. They are going to stash away Taylor for the future.

The quarterback situation continues to be exciting. Illinois finally has some competition behind center and it will only make the team better. I can’t wait to see who emerges as the starting quarterback. Right now, it looks like Bush has the lead.