Run Fast, Catch Ball, Win. Illini football: the offense.

So the Illini are done playing basketball. What is a fan to do in late March?  With my team eliminated, the baseball season not yet underway, and the Bulls circling the toilet of mediocrity for another season, what is there to watch or talk about?

Spring football of course the off season savior that we all count on to carry us through to late August. As practice starts in earnest tomorrow, I thought it might be a good time to get off of my ass, stop crying about the basketball team losing in the first round and actually do some football writing.

After the 2008 season brought us all back down to earth about what to expect out of the Illini, and simultaneously made us realize how good Rashard Mendenhall and J Leman were, we need to approach the 2009 season with more reasonable goals. Goals like hey, lets beat all non-BCS teams on our schedule, or lets make it to a bowl.

Today we take our first look at the offense, the unit that should above all else be the strength of the team. Remember the Mizzou game? maybe the Michigan game?   yeah the games where Juice put up about 40,000 yards of total offense. Well I have good news for you, Juice is back, and he has two new and better receivers than he did last year.

The Illini will be unveiling a receiver corps that will return Arrelious Benn A.J. Jenkins, and Jeff Cumberland all three legitimate deep threats, and will be adding All American Terry Hawthorne (4.5 40) and Florida transfer and former All American  Jarred Fayson (4.4 40). That doesn't even include  Fred Sykes or Chris Duvalt (4.38 40), who both made major contributions last season, even Uh-oh is returning for more 8 yard guaranteed 1st Down catches.That is a freaky crazy good set of receivers,  a set that has to be that good, because with a very young O-line and another year of Running Back by committee, Juice is probably going to be throwing even more passes than last year. Do you remember Juice's freshman, and even to some extent

Its no secret that last year Juice's passing game improved  by leaps and bounds. But the improvement was most obvious in his touch on the down field pass. You know the go routes that scored all those points against Mizzou, that nearly got us back into the game against Minnesota, crushed Michigan and Indiana? Yeah the old fashioned straight I am much faster than you receiving route. This again, barring any revelations at RB, will be the path to offensive success in 2009.

In the stereotypically slow Big Ten this should be an effective strategy, spread with 4 wide outs, there should at least be one open home run threat for Juice to pass to. With Benn and Fayson on the field at the same time, along with any of the other names on that list, there are going to be some opportunities for big plays.

All of this probably once again means, that Juice is going to be blitzed within an inch of his life again this season. Which makes me pray to the mighty Hypnotoad that Joe Gilbert, the new O-line coach is some sort of genius, because as the season went along last year, Juice's time in the pocket, plummeted.

All of this of course could change, depending on what new Offensive coordinator and QB coach Tom Schultz. If Juice makes the sort of progress that he did last year, this could be a banner year for the Illini offense. If we try and force a run centered offense, without a reliable running back we could fall into a whirlpool of suck. At the very least, it should be fun to watch.