At the University of Illinois the position of Middle Linebacker has some special importance. No we don't have the long list of stand out LB's that Penn State churns out over the years, but MLB on the Illini has usually been a stand out position with some great players that have played over the years. Recently of course Brit Miller and J Leman (Real American Hero)  have occupied the position and lead the league in tackles. But Kevin Hardy and Dana Howard have won Butkus awards here,* and of course the greatest linebacker of them all, Dick Butkus himself.

The position of course is already very important, and is usually reserved for the best and most reliable LB. MLBs have to be very athletic to play pass D and stop the run, and are generally considered the quarterback of the defense. A vocal leader for the defense like J and Brit have been in years past.   So who is going to be the man with all of this pressure on his shoulders this fall.

Who will be starting? The answer of course is the player with the most tackles of all returners (73) and without question the linebacker with the most pure talent, Martez Wilson. Tez moves into the middle after his first season of playing full time at line backer and without question having  some success but not near as much as many  had expected. Tez was, along with Benn, one of the recruiting crown jewels of Zook's 2007 recruiting class. While making solid contributions and getting good stats, (3 sacks, 2.5 tackles for loss) he has not had the sort of break out performance someone with his sort of Star Rating would suggest. Dana Howard was quoted last year, questioning whether or not Tez was giving the game his all. “In the Missouri game I saw some lackadaisical things where it was almost as if he was lost. I’m not trying to dog him. He’s a great talent. But I don’t think he realizes what he really has.”

What he does have is the build and tools of an NFL linebacker. He is 6-4 240 and runs a 4.5 40. He will have an upper hand athletically over most of the players he faces this fall. All he has to do, is show that he is ready to take that step, with his assumption of the middle he will have a lot of opportunities to do so.

But there are, of course two other starting positions up for grabs. Phil Steele predicts that sophomores  Ian Thomas and Russel Ellington will likely be the outside linebackers on either side of Tez. Losing Brit and Sam Carson from last year has left somewhat of a vacuum at the LB spot outside of Martez. Thomas and Ellington both played last year as freshmen but combined for only 12 tackles in the time they did see. The lack of experience will definitely be a concern, but both Thomas and Ellington are fast with around a 4.6 40 YD time each. Ellington will be in his second year after being converted from a WR so there should be some improvement for him as he gets more comfortable at the position. If there are problems though, or he performs well at Camp Rantoul, JUCO transfer Aaron Gress could take the starting job.  Gress is a 3 Star prospect who was specifically recruited by Zook to shore up the losses to graduation among the linebackers. He will see many downs this fall, whether starting or not.

Possible Star: Do I even need to bother typing this. Martez Wilson, above all others has the potential to be all Big Ten, even All American if he plays the the potential everyone believes he has. The only gripe seems to be that he hasn't done so yet. Other factors going against him are his suspension at the end of last year at the Northwestern game, because he violated team rules, and the fact that Martez was the victim of a stabbing incident at Fubar last December. Apparently he has recovered from his wounds and will be completely fine to play this fall. Tez wants to go to the league, and he wants to go after his junior year. Up til now he hasn't shown the scouts enough to warrant the first round selection I'm sure he wants. A breakout year this year, ala Rashard Mendenhall 2007, would do the trick for his draft stock. Stat wise being in the middle is sure to mean more tackles for Tez. In a recent interview with Jim Turpin and Loren Tate, J Leman explained that the defensive scheme that Zook has in place always favors the MLB because there is very little pass coverage involved. So one way or another expect Tez's impact on the field to be much larger than in years past.

What to expect: When a unit loses 2 starters to graduation and the third changes position, you can never really be positive how things will shake out. The replacements are supposedly very athletic and could very well prove to be better than their predecessors. However all in all there is very little experience with the linebackers. Last year the team struggled at times against good running backs (Washington from  Mizzou, Beanie Wells from OSU) and mobile QBs (Pryor and Clark) having the most talented player on the defense in the middle of the action and most responsible for taking down the runner can only help us. But I worry that in the early match ups against OSU and PSU in back to back weeks the inexperience could be exploited and some very big plays could bust through. Lets just hope that these newer players learn a lot from Camp Rantoul, Mizzou and Illinois State, because they could be the key to stopping Daryl Clark or Terrel Pryor, and getting the Illini in line for a Big Ten Championship.