3. Barry Lunney called a masterful game for the Illini
Just two seasons ago, I hated having Barry Lunney as the offensive coordinator. I thought he was calling bad plays, and his decision-making didn’t seem to be on point.
Over the last two seasons, I have softened on him, though. Lunney did a great job developing Luke Altmyer last season, and he is doing some masterful work when it comes to the play-calling for the Orange and Blue.
In a close game, Illinois had the ball in the Duke red zone. What used to happen is that Illinois would line up and just run right up the middle. These plays didn’t have much action, and everyone knew what was coming.
On Saturday, Lunney changed things up. Illinois worked in some motion to the play. We had a tight end come in motion, which signaled that maybe the Illini would run a play-action dump to the tight end. We still ran it up the middle, but it softened the defense for the Kaden Feagin touchdown.
Little plays like that is what I am talking about. Lunney has progressed as an offensive coordinator. He isn’t vanilla, or as vanilla, anymore. I loved what he did against Duke, and I can’t wait to see what is in store for the rest of the season.