The Linking Illini will ride the dragon to the lost valley of warrior-kings

Camp Rantoul is under way so lets see what the MSM has to say about the team shall we?

• Volatile as a flaming arrow, Illini could win it all or... PennLive.com
  Volatile as a flaming arrow? Penn Live apparently reviews football teams with the same lyrical flourish as Meat Loaf or Dragon Force. It would probably explain why their Iowa preview is titled "The griffin's call for vengeance and the consecrated blood feud" Regardless Penn Live calls for 45 to 40 barn burners ala the last two Mizzou games every week for the Illini this season. Given that perhaps a rock n roll opera is the perfect sound track for the season.

• Camp Rantoul: Day 1 coverage IlliniHQ.com
  Bob Assmussen is reporting all over Camp Rantoul this week. Its all in here, Donsay's neck, the freshman RBs special teams drills etc etc. Of note is the competition on the offensive line which does not have the starting jobs determined as of yet. The News Gazette will be there all week, even for two a days on Wednesday.

• Destination: Rantoul - Big Ten - ESPN- Adam Rittenberg
  The one redeeming human being in the entire world wide leader will be covering today's camp practices in Rantoul. Follow along at the Big Ten blog at ESPN etc. Knowing his work ethic, he will be posting at about 3 posts per half hour, he is an inhuman machine built only for sports blogging.

• Life on the Margins: Progressing to the mean with Illinois - Dr. Saturday - NCAA Football - Rivals.com
  Matt Hinton's look at the Illini and their propensity to be as unpredictable and inconsistent as any team in football. The main concern Hinton has about the team is the turnovers that have plagued the offense for about the 10th year running. When the Illini win the turnover battle (which is not often) the steam roll the opponents, other times they can give the game away. Hinton is unconvinced that Juice can make significant strides in cutting down the INTs, but then again, how many of us thought Juice would throw for 3,000 yards last year?

• Illini QB McGee a leader in backup position -Mark Tupper
  The Bloompants has an article about the great Eddie McGee, everyone's favorite QB in the immediate aftermath of a Juice INT. I honestly think he is going to keep seeing time when Juice get whacked one too many times from going up the middle. I also happen to think that the starting job has already been promised to him next year, when he will still be able to take advantage of a pretty damn good receiving corps.