While the Illinois football team did struggle on Friday night, there were a few players who impressed me.
Let me first start off with the player of the game and that goes to Tarique Barnes. The 6-foot-1 linebacker didn’t have the hype that some of the other Illinois linebackers had coming into this season, but he outplayed every single one of them on Friday night.
Barnes didn’t get the start for Illinois as Khalan Tolson, Jake Hansen and Delano Ware took the reins. But Barnes quickly became a presence as Hansen went down with an injury and Milo Eifler couldn’t play in the first half.
Highlights from Madison. #Illini pic.twitter.com/jVVTZzXPsU
— Illinois Football (@IlliniFootball) October 24, 2020
Despite not starting, Barnes finished the game with 11 tackles and 1 sack, which led the Illini in both categories. The kid was all over the field. Barnes managed to get to the quarterback with great bull-rushes. He “Peanut Punched” the ball out and was able to scoop and score for Illinois’ only points of the game.
Barnes was everything I would want in a player for the Illini. This kid has earned more playing time and potentially even a start in the upcoming game. He was the best player on the Illinois football team and it wasn’t even close.
Keith Randolph stood out to me on Friday night too. We didn’t get to see too much of Randolph in 2019 as he ended up taking a redshirt. His presence on the end of the defensive line is huge. The kid is a massive human being and is going to be an asset to this program. There were multiple times Randolph swallowed up the running back and would tackle him for a loss
Illinois was missing Isaiah Gay due to a suspension on Friday. Marc Mondesir got the start. I think, moving forward, Randolph should be the primary backup to Gay and, potentially, could overtake him for the starting job. This kid is going to be special.
Really, as far as players who impressed me, that is about it. I would stick with just Barnes and Randolph. This was truly a terrible game for the Illini and one that needs to be filed away and never looked at again. Next week should be better, and I fully expect these two to continue to improve.