5. The Illini don’t have depth defensively
I put full blame on what we saw on Saturday afternoon on the coaching staff. Aaron Henry did not have the Illinois defense ready for what Washington was going to bring.
With that being said, I also realize there are some limitations to the Illinois defense. Like I said earlier, this defense doesn’t have that NFL talent that the first few seasons of the Illini had under Bret Bielema.
Illinois doesn’t have any depth in the secondary, and that is my biggest issue right now. Even if we had Xavier Scott healthy, he is only one player. Teams would go away from him and torch the Illini. Once you get past Scott, the secondary is pretty bad.
The fact that the Illini are starting Tanner Heckel is a massive red flag. I am not sure how we got so thin or why the coaching staff didn’t load up the secondary in the transfer portal this offseason.
During the Indiana game, you could blame injuries for most of the points. Illinois had numerous defensive backs out in that game. But against Washington, everyone was a full go. The lack of depth reared its ugly head, and it resulted in 42 points by the Huskies. The fact that Illinois doesn’t have depth rests on the shoulders of the coaching staff.