Illinois football has a huge area to attack on Eastern Illinois defensive depth chart

Eastern Illinois comes to Champaign on Thursday night to take on the Illinois football program.

The Illini have the horses to put the Panthers away, but we can’t be too lax entering this contest. Eastern Illinois has a good offense with a lot of experience. Their defense isn’t too bad either. In some areas, Illinois can attack the Eastern Illinois defense, though.

Here is the Eastern Illinois defensive depth chart vs Illinois football

DE Nicholas Oliveira-Chace (GR)

• 11 starts in 2023
• 35 tackles, 3 fumble recoveries, 2.5 sacks, 1 forced fumble

DT Jaron Hacha (SR)

• 2 starts in 2023
• 18 tackles, 0.5 sacks

DT Tre’jon Lewis (GR)

• 7 starts in 2023
• 14 tackles, 0.5 sacks

DE Joel Barrows (GR)

• 10 starts in 2023
• 32 tackles, 4 sacks, 3 forced fumbles, 1 fumble recovery

LB Anthony Shockey (GR)

• 11 starts in 2023
• 55 tackles, 2 pass deflections, 1 interception

LB Phoenix Porter (JR)

• 0 starts in 2023
• 34 tackles, 3 sacks, 1 pass deflection, 1 forced fumble

CB NiJhay Burt (JR)

• 0 starts in 2023
• 16 tackles, 3 interceptions, 1 pass deflection

CB Moses Alexander (JR)

• 0 starts in 2023
• 11 tackles, 1 pass deflection

S Nick Coates (SR)

• 9 starts in 2023
• 31 tackles, 3 pass deflections

S Kaelin Drakeford (GR)

• 1 start in 2023
• 23 tackles, 4 pass deflections, 2 fumble recoveries

S Mark Aitken (SR)

• 10 starts in 2023
• 40 tackles, 1 pass deflection, 1 interception, 1 forced fumble

Takeaways

Eastern Illinois’ front six have a lot of experience. Coming into the season, I was hoping for Kaden Feagin to have a big year, but week one might rest on the shoulders of Luke Altmyer.

Altmyer should be able to fling the ball around against the Panthers. Their secondary didn’t have a ton of starts in 2023. On top of that, Eastern Illinois only ranked No. 69 in the nation in pass defense last season. With most of that talent departing, I imagine their pass defense has worsened.

With the Panthers having the No. 30 rush defense in 2023 and most of that talent returning, I figure this is going to be a big day for Altmyer. Let’s keep pushing the ball down the field and break the Eastern Illinois defense over the top. Look for Altmyer to have over 300 yards and three touchdowns on the day.