Illinois Football: Illini fans should be excited about the position changes
Last season was a struggle for the Illinois football program, and much of the past decade has felt the same.
Putting together a winning program is what the Illini fanbase has been yearning for since the 2000s when they made the Sugar Bowl and Rose Bowl. While new head coach Bret Bielema is trying to build the team by recruiting better talent, he is also realizing the current roster is already filled with some skilled athletes.
Since taking over the program, Bielema has changed the roster around quite a bit. He has some of those skilled athletes now playing different positions, which should help the team win games this season and beyond.
It is time to get excited about some of the bigger position changes on the Illinois football team.
Some of the changes Bielema made to the roster won’t have an effect on the team this season. I imagine Cooper Davis moving from defensive end to tight end will help us down the road but won’t have much of an impact in 2021.
But there are a handful of changes that have been made which will help this team win games this fall. The most obvious changes come at wide receiver.
Quarterback Isaiah Williams and defensive back Marquez Beason both switched to wide receiver for the upcoming campaign. Beason played a lot of wide receiver at the high school level, so this won’t be much of a transition for him. Williams was a quarterback so he is familiar with what it takes for a wide receiver to be great.
Both Williams and Beason are tremendous athletes who need to be playmakers for this program. The position for them to make the most impact is at wide receiver. They now team up with the great pass catchers we already have on the team to form one of the best wide receiver corps I have seen in years.
For the first time in a long time, I am actually excited about our linebacker corps. Illinois has been extremely thin at linebacker for the past decade, but that has all changed with some adjustments by Bielema.
There was a mass transition from defensive end to outside linebacker for the Illini. Seth Coleman, Ezekiel Holmes, Isaiah Gay and Owen Carney Jr. all moved from the end of the defensive line to the linebacker position. All four players are great athletes, and I expect Carney to start and be one of the best players in college football this season. Depth is finally there at linebacker, though. That is the most important thing.
I want to keep an eye on the defensive backs for the Illini as well. Having Tony Adams switch back to his normal cornerback role is going to benefit the Illinois secondary greatly. I am most intrigued by how much of an impact Coran Taylor can have in the defensive backfield.
Taylor has been a quarterback at Illinois for the past two seasons but has now switched to defensive back. He is a great athlete out of Peoria, so he can probably pick up any position quickly. It wouldn’t shock me to see Taylor getting a decent number of snaps in year one and, potentially, even some starts.
A lot of changes have been made to the Illini roster for 2021. I love what Bielema is doing with the program and look forward to seeing other changes in the future. It is time to get excited about Illinois football.