Coordinator corner 'Most important message for us is to learn'
· Yahoo Sports
Sep. 19—Illinois offensive coordinator Barry Lunney Jr. provides perspective from his side of the ball before Illinois faces Southern Illinois at 1 p.m. Saturday from Gies Memorial Stadium in Champaign, via beat writer Scott Richey:
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"It was all over the place. It was a couple times me. We've talked at length about that in my tenure here. There's always plays you want back as a play caller. There was one of those in a critical moment I would like back. We've got to learn from it. Adversity is part of the game, unfortunately. It is. It's all across the country. It happens every Saturday. There's teams who go through adversity and setbacks.
"The most important message for us is to learn from those because this team is unique. This is a new team, a new offensive unit, and this is the first time we really have faced adversity in the early part of the season. We have to look ourselves in the mirror — not out the window — and learn from our failures the other day and what caused them, starting with me."
"If a back's got a hot hand or a receiver does, there's certain things you kind of gravitate toward. A lot of that's happening organically through the plays calls in the offense for him. Obviously, he performed at a really high level, and good things happen when we get him involved in the game plan and get the ball in his hands.
"Him and Katin (Houser) have a great rapport, and it's my job to foster that. That's a fun part of the job is to try to figure out the way to get him the ball. Obviously, Collin is playing really well and is a central focus of what we're trying to do right now."
"We're a progression-based offense. The rules are the rules, and the reads are the reads. I think Katin is pretty disciplined when it's time to turn something down. That's important for ball security to be able to do that. If you get to the point of, 'I'm going to my guy no matter what,' you can get in a little bit of a problem. Truthfully, the pick we threw (against Duke) was a borderline conflict in that regard."
"We've got to get the play started and get to the second level and third level more. We did a couple times (against Duke) and got tackled in the open field a couple times. Our guys ran hard. We had a handful of 9-yard runs or 8-yard runs, but we didn't have anything over 10. It's important we're able to generate that because our backs are able of that.
"Any one contributing factor after one game? No, but we've got to be better in those moments. We've got to run the ball with more efficiency. Our yards per carry weren't near good enough. We had some moments where we did well, and then when it mattered most we weren't able to execute in that phase the way we need to be able to."
"I think he really settled into his own and played good football for us, played a lot of snaps. There were targets for him — probably more than you would know. Sometimes, those didn't unveil. You just don't, very often in an offense, say, 'I'm throwing the ball to this guy.' Football's complex, and the defensive schemes vary. They change coverages and change zones to mans. That's one of the reasons we're a big progression-based passing game to where you sweep read the thing.
"We were trying to get him on track a little bit and get him an opportunity to catch it. We just disconnected a couple times. They covered him a couple times. They flushed us out of the pocket a couple times. That didn't get off the ground, but I'm confident that will come with him."