A whole new year for Illini
Illini look sharp, determined this spring


by Michael Drapa
Assistant sports editor

Leslie Harms The Daily Illini

Junior tight end Brian Hodges blocks senior linebacker Robert Franklin in the Orange and Blue Football Scrimmage at Memorial Stadium on Saturday. The Illini split into two squads, the Blue and White teams.

Last season, Illinois head football coach Ron Turner came into spring practices like a lamb and went out a lion.

And with good reason.

After working for two weeks to rebuild after a dismal 3-8 campaign in 1998, Turner claimed that his players, for lack of a better word, quit on him in last year's Orange and Blue Scrimmage.

"I guess they decided that Thursday (final day of practice) was the last day because today was not football," said an irritated Turner following the 1999 game.

"The thing I was upset about last year was that we talk a lot about finish, it's on our wall out there, but we

didn't finish," Turner said Saturday about last spring. "We had 14 really good days, but we let the 15th get away."

Fast forward to this season and Saturday's spring game at Memorial Stadium.

Turner watched in delight as Illinois' first-team offense (Blue) rolled up 386 yards while the defense held the second-team offense (White) to just 107 yards in a 27-0 Blue victory.

"It was a good game today ... good concentration, good focus," said a beaming Turner, who has now seen the Illini through four springs since taking over the program in 1997. "It was a good way to finish it up."

The game didn't start so smoothly, though. After the White team went four-and-out after gaining just four yards, Blue had a tough time getting started.

On third-and-five, quarterback Kurt Kittner dropped back, pumped, then floated a pass down the left sideline into the outstretched arms of sophomore flanker Brandon Lloyd, who came down with the ball between two defenders.

"I think we played good defense, but we gave up a couple long plays that helped them put some points on the board," said sophomore linebacker Jerry Schumacher, who led White with eight tackles.

What followed Kittner's best, and longest, pass of the game were a number of throws the junior QB wouldn't mind having back.

With Illinois driving at the White 29-yard line, Kittner worked free of the blitz, ran up in the pocket and fired downfield to a wide-open Josh Whitman.

What would have been a sure touchdown pass instead sailed high over the leaping senior tight end. Kittner short-armed a pass to Whitman on the very next play and overthrew sophomore wide receiver Aaron Moorehead on third down.

The once-promising drive stalled and Illinois was forced to kick. Despite a stiff wind, junior Steve Fitts, in his first spring as the Illini placekicker, sank the 46-yard effort for Blue's first points of the game.

On the next possession, Kittner was more consistent. Following a 2-of-6 effort on the opening series, Kittner misfired just once on the next drive, capped off by a diving six-yard TD grab by Whitman.

But the ever-critical Kittner was quick to talk about the drive's only incompletion, which he gunned over the head of sophomore tailback Antoineo Harris.

"For the most part, I had very good reads; obviously, you're not going to make every throw," said Kittner, who passed for 2,707 yards and 24 touchdowns to lead Illinois to the highest-scoring offense in school history last season. "I made the right reads. It's just (a matter of) dropping the ball in there."

After the game, Kittner went as far to say that he cost the team three potential TDs on missed throws.

"The thing I keep telling Kurt, and hopefully he'll understand, is he's not going to be perfect," Turner said. "I don't want him to be perfect, I don't expect him to be perfect. He's going to miss some throws and he's going to miss some reads. That's going to happen every game."