Illinois Football: 5 key players for the Illini to beat Maryland

2. Luke Altmyer

I have such a love-hate relationship with Luke Altmyer. There are times when he slings the ball around and looks like a top Big Ten quarterback. But then there are times he makes backbreaking mistakes, and I want him pulled.

If you just look at Altmyer’s stats for the season, you would think he is a terrible quarterback. He has thrown for 1,365 yards, six touchdowns, and eight interceptions. But most of the bad numbers came in the first few games of the season.

Over the last three games, Altmyer has thrown for an average of 265 yards per game and has three touchdowns and just one interception. He also has a 64.8% completion rate in this stretch of games.

I don’t think the Illinois football team is using Altmyer right, though. I will get to that more in the next slide, but I believe Altmyer can help the Illini win games.

Illinois can take down Maryland on Saturday if we use Altmyer as more of a game manager. This style would help prevent turnovers through the air, which would enable our defense to give up fewer points.

At the end of the day, I don’t need Altmyer to go out and win us games single-handedly. I just need him not to lose games. I need him to help facilitate the offense, and when the opportunity is right, strike downfield. The ability is there for Altmyer. He’s a good quarterback who isn’t being used right.