Illinois Football: Chase Brown is the man in the Illini backfield

Illinois football is entering their first season under the tutelage of Bret Bielema and his coaching staff.

A coaching change needed to happen, and this adjustment to the Illini leadership should help the program win games on a more consistent basis moving forward. There will be a number of players who will benefit from the coaching change. One player to keep an eye on is running back, Chase Brown.

Brown had a solid 2020 campaign. During his sophomore season, he rushed for 540 yards, which was No. 5 in the Big Ten. He also averaged 5.2 yards per carry, which ranked No. 79 in the nation.

This solid performance for the Illini in 2020 has Brown at the forefront of some national pundit’s minds. Mike Farrell of Rivals published his list of the top 10 Big Ten spring breakout players. No. 1 on the list was Michigan safety, Dax Hill.

If you look down a little further, at No. 7, you will find Brown on the list. He is looked at as a breakout player from the spring practices, which means he is someone that the national media is keeping an eye on. I don’t believe this will change anytime soon either.

Brown’s will steer the Illinois football bus this fall

It has been a long time since Illinois has had a workhorse in the backfield. For much of the past two coaching staffs, their mentality seemed to be running back by committee. That might all be changing in 2021.

Brown started carrying the rock more and more in 2020. He had 104 carries compared to the second place running back, Mike Epstein, who had 69 carries. I imagine that gap of carries will increase this season as well.

Illinois’ running back situation is a little murky right now. I don’t believe Epstein has officially returned to the Illini, but I might have missed something in the past few weeks. As of right now, though, he is still down in Florida deciding whether or not to return to the program.

In the spring game, Brown took the lead for the orange team, which were composed of the first string players. Behind Brown was Reggie Love and then it was Chase Hayden. Jakari Norwood was the starter for the blue team as well.

So, from what I took from that spring game, and from what Brown did last season, I believe he is going to be the lead back once again and Illinois should lean heavily on him. Brown is the man in the backfield with a rotation behind him. We might have the best running back since Mikel Leshoure.