Well at least i supposedly have a meal now without being interrupted by coaching staff news right? Yes after a long night of uncertainty the University of Illinois finally made official its hiring of Vic Koenning  as the new defensive coordinator. There was of course the late push by Georgia to steal away his services, but nothing came of it in the end.

I am a bit reserved about how excited I should be over this hiring. For one, Koenning will not be bringing in all of his own assistants apparently and I have no idea how much of a free hand he will have in running the defense. Zook was essentially the DC last year, with his two closest assistants basically carrying out his system. Those two assistants are still here, but will supposedly now be answering to Koenning, who in turn will be answering to Zook.

The other worry is about personnel, two of the players who would figure to have a large impact next year are coming back from major injuries (Martez Wilson and Miami Thomas) and we have yet to see how the transfers/player defections will finally shake out.

I have hope at the very least that Koenning can cut down on two things, players being out of position in the secondary and defensive penalties. This team supposedly has the athleticism to play with anyone, but these two problems have ruined way too many defensive stands.

There is a lot yet to learn here, and we wont even start to get real answers until spring ball. At the very least, this might be the last piece of major football news for the rest of the winter.