Morris Virgil's calf muscles hurt. So do his hamstrings.

But he can justify the soreness — at least he's getting to be on the football field.

And besides, it's been more than three years since he's had to do so much of this backpedaling stuff.

Virgil has spent most of his Illinois career dodging defenders as a tailback, but for the last few weeks on the practice field, he's joined the former enemy. Virgil has become part of a small, young task force that is attempting to improve the Illini secondary.

"Coach thinks I'm an athlete, so he's trying to get me out here any way possible," said Virgil, who played cornerback, safety and running back in high school. "It's just my technique because I haven't done it in so long and learning the plays. Once I get that done, I'll be a natural."

The Illini can only hope.

Illinois started the year thin at defensive back after the graduation of starting corners Eugene Wilson and Michael Hall and the loss of redshirt freshman Steve Harris and Anthony Longe to departures.

Now, the Illini secondary is in its worst position of the season without two-game starter Alan Ball, who is out at least another week with a shoulder sprain, and redshirt freshman Darnell Ray, who was suspended by Turner for the rest of the season.

"Cornerback-wise, we recruited some good athletes and we had some problems there, so we don't have the numbers we would like," Illinois head coach Ron Turner said. "In some cases, things didn't work out the way we would have liked them to, and in some cases we had injury and graduation."

That's where Virgil comes in.

With three up-and-coming freshman tailbacks in E.B. Halsey, Pierre Thomas and Marcus Mason, Virgil got somewhat lost in the shuffle at the beginning of the year. He has totaled 102 yards in seven games, third on the team.

Now he'll be looking to stop some yardage. Last week, he tried out cornerback in practice. This week, he's trying safety.

"He's for sure got the talent, he's got the speed, but right now he just doesn't have the repetition," cornerbacks coach Tommy Thigpen said. "Most importantly, he's got the will. He doesn't mind covering you."

And he doesn't mind tackling either.

"I love coming up and hitting a guy," Virgil said. "It's a little different on offense because you have guys coming at you full steam ahead, so I figure if I can block that, then if I'm coming at a guy eight, nine yards with full speed, I don't think he's going to block me.

"I've showed that I can really hit and come down and tackle, so I think they like that."

But Thigpen and Turner said he still has a lot to learn, and it may take a couple of weeks before he sees any real game action.

In the meantime, redshirt freshman Sharriff Abdullah and junior Taman Jordan are doing as much as they can to step up at the cornerback position opposite starter Christian Morton.

Abdullah made his first start Saturday against Michigan State and came in second on the team in tackles with 10.

"The kid tried as hard as he could, and we just have to keep working," Thigpen said after the Michigan State loss.

Turner said Wednesday that Abdullah will likely start again at cornerback this week at Michigan.

There may also be room for a safety-cornerback switch in the future. While Turner said Tuesday that sophomore Travis Williams "is a safety," he had also mentioned Monday that he "could go over and play some corner." Williams played at cornerback for a few plays on Saturday, while sophomore Kyle Kleckner filled in at Williams' usual position.

"Kleckner went in and did some good things, so that does give us a little flexibility with Travis," Turner said.

And if Virgil proves to be a solid safety, it could free up Williams even more.

Regardless of where the Illini shuffling takes them, the road ahead should remain tough for the somewhat inexperienced Illini secondary.

After facing the Big Ten's second-best passing quarterback in Jeff Smoker last week, they move on to face the best in Michigan's John Navarre. The Illini have given up 384 yards of defense (214 passing) a game, third-worst in the Big Ten.

"On this level, it's big because a lot of times, you're playing against older kids. There's a lot of old receivers. And a lot of those guys are 6-4, 6-5," Thigpen said. "These kids are going to do fine. But every week is a challenge, everybody in this conference has two or three great receivers.

" . . . But the good thing about them is they work hard, study hard and they have a lot of good football in front of them."

Virgil will take that football at any position he can get.