What Needs To Happen: Western Illinois

The Kent State game was a tale of two halves. The first half demonstrated the Illini are a long way from being competitive in the Big Ten. The second half, however, showed promise for both the offense and the defense. Any win is great but the uneven performance left a bad taste in the mouth of Illini fans. Now, it’s time to sweeten that taste, but, in a game against an FCS school, how exactly do the Illini make their fans feel better about the overall direction of the program?

Offense

Despite some sloppiness, Game 1 showed that this offense is structurally sound. From the beginning it was evident that offensive coordinator Rod Smith designed an attack that took advantage of quarterback AJ…