Zooker what? Juice out at Illinois.

by witless chum on Oct 5, 2009 9:39 AM CDT

[I was just about to post something similar. On Saturday, we're playing a team that's pretty clearly in turmoil; it's nice to be on the other side of the coin for once. More analysis after the jump. --LVS]

The Zooker was apparently jealous of MSU's QB situation and decided to one up us, benching Juice Williams and starting Eddie McGee.

"Zook announced the move on his morning radio show Monday, stressing that he doesn't blame Williams alone for the Illini's 1-3 start, but saying he thinks McGee can give the team a spark. Williams is an all-purpose threat who is the Illini's all-time leader in total offensive yards, but McGee is a better pure passer."

If I'm an Illinois fan my attitude is "why not?" but this isn't the type of thing that should even remotely work. If McGee was better than Juice, he'd have beaten him out at some point in last few years, no?

Michael David Smith asserts that McGee is a better pure passer than Juice, but neither seeing him play a few times as a change of pace or his stats suggest to me that it's true. Juice's stats are here for the curious.

To my observation, this isn't such a big deal, because they're pretty similar players. I was somewhat worried that Illinois' offense would get healthy throwing against the MSU defense, but it's probably a net positive to face a less good, less experienced QB. It's not like McGee is one of these guys they'll have absolutely no film on, as he's had some significant playing time. I guess you never know when something might click, though, and Arrelious Benn is scary for anyone, much less a team that's struggled against the pass. But that assessment doesn't change with McGee throwing to him over Juice.

This is a FanPost, written by a member of the TOC community. It does not represent the official positions of The Only Colors, Inc.--largely because we have no official positions.

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Early line on the game...

…is MSU -4. O/U is OFF (probably pending the news that Juice was going to be benched).

Sagarin’s PREDICTOR says MSU by 16.5. (Sagarin was correct about the UM game score within a couple of points; IIRC, it had MSU winning by 4ish.)

by CPT Hoolie on Oct 5, 2009 1:58 PM CDT reply actions

Sargin Is A Joke

Do you see his all time basetball ranking he just came out with? They should pretty much show how bad this guy is.

"There are no next times when you're competing for big things." - Tom Izzo
Go Spartans

by msufan23 on Oct 5, 2009 2:16 PM CDT reply actions

Two different uses of statistical modeling: predictive vs. comparative.

I find his PREDICTOR to be fairly accurate; I haven’t done any in-depth study of its accuracy, but anecdotally every time I think it’s going to be wrong, it is correct.

AccuScore is another computer simulation available on the netz.. I can’t access it here at work (something about it being gambling-related; go figure) but I will look up the predicted result when I get home.

Yeah, I saw the all-time B-ballrankings and I disagreed with it as well. All-time rankings are best left to debate amongst sports fans.

by CPT Hoolie on Oct 5, 2009 2:25 PM CDT up reply actions

Accuscore shows MSU about 75% to win.

Exact predictions are premium content, but the overall is posted for free.

by CPT Hoolie on Oct 6, 2009 11:39 AM CDT up reply actions

God, Zook is retarded. He compounds the error of hiring an offensive coordinator who hammers his square peg into the round hole of their personnel (who looks at Juice Williams and Rejus Benn and says “let’s run a precision passing attack”?) and then sits the obviously more talented QB when he, surprise surprise, doesn’t fit into that new offense? Juice can run and he’s got a strong but inaccurate arm. Their offensive scheme basically ignores his strengths and requires him to do something he sucks at. And it doesn’t take advantage of Benn either.

I have a fair number of friends who went to Illinois (being from the Chicago area and living there now as well), and I feel bad for them. The offense is massively worse than it was last year and the personnel isn’t really all that different.

by Yinka Double Dare on Oct 6, 2009 10:50 AM CDT reply actions

O-Line

They Illini have been in the crapper since their offensive line coach went to South Carolina(?) two years ago.

I think McGee is actually a better QB than Williams. I think he is more accurate with the ball. Juice just played because he was such a huge dual threat and had an extra year of experience.

I was watching Illinois play Penn State last week and after it turned into a blowout I was hoping to see McGee play. Then ABC cut to the FSU BC game. That ticked me off until I found out McGee never played.

by DrDetroit on Oct 7, 2009 8:02 AM CDT reply actions