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The Illini offense will look much different in 2017 than last year’s product with Chayce Crouch at quarterback.

The old adage is that it takes time for a new coaching staff to reach its potential until its roster is filled with players that fit their system.

No position represented this sentiment more than quarterback for Illinois football in 2016.

Offensive coordinator Garrick McGee, fresh off a two-year stint as assistant coach/offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach at Louisville, has had success in the past with dual-threat quarterbacks — the polar opposite of last year's starter Wes Lunt. As a freshman in 2015 under McGee's tutelage, Lamar Jackson was like a baby Xenomorph that just hatched: Very dangerous, but not the full-fledged killing machine he became during his 2016 Heisman campaign.