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

5. Isaiah Adams

Illinois’ offensive line has been historically bad this season. They can’t stop anyone from getting to the quarterback, and this has hindered the Illini offense from scoring points.

A really bad part of this bad offensive line is Isaiah Adams. Since moving from guard to right tackle, he has been struggling. Illinois needed help at offensive tackle, but Adams has found the transition to be quite difficult.

If Illinois wants any chance to beat Maryland on Saturday, Adams is going to have to continue improving his game at tackle.

This season, Illinois’ offensive line is allowing Luke Altmyer to get sacked an incredible 10.13% of the time. That is bad enough to rank No. 118 in the nation. This affects more than just Altmyer getting up looking out of his ear hole too.

Illinois has to pass quicker so that Altmyer doesn’t get killed. We are averaging 11.4 yards per completion, which ranks No. 84 in the nation. You can also attribute a couple of the interceptions and the fumbles from Altmyer on the offensive line not giving him time.

Adams has seen some improvement over the past couple of weeks. The Penn State game was rock bottom, as Adams had a grade of 28.8, which was near the bottom of all offensive players in the country. Since then, he has had grades of 66.5, 53.3, and 53.0 in the last three contests. Those aren’t great numbers, but they are much improved over that Penn State game.

If Adams can start getting comfortable at the tackle position, then Illinois has a legit chance on Saturday. He is such an important piece of the puzzle. Let’s get the big man going.