(This post sponsored by EA Sports NCAA Football 11)

While this is not my formal prediction for the Illini season ahead, it is a taste. I do not at this moment have everything I need to come to a real conclusion about the season before us. I swing back and forth, I'll read the preview magazines, read Phil Steele, wondering if he is hitting the adderall especially hard when he predicts the future for the Illini, and then read him over and over again. At the very least, there are some things we have to feel both good and bad about coming into this season. First, the bad.

1. RS Freshman quarterback, backed up by a true freshmen, with the player with the most snaps under his belt running receiver routes.  As stables of quarterbacks go, I would say the situation at Illinois is sub optimum. Teams are very reliant on how well their QB handles pressure and noise, and the first true road test that Nathan Scheelhaase will have is in front of 100,000 plus in Happy Valley. If he gets hurt, or turns out to be no good, then we have to either reconvert Eddie McGee to QB or have a true Freshman in Chandler Whitmer come in. Yikes.
2. The defense is still up in the air, it was a team that gave up yards on the ground and through the air pretty routinely last season, and has only lost pieces, in Josh Brent and Donsay Hardeman although with the inconsistency we saw last year, turnover might not be entirely a bad thing.
3. The schedule looks fairly daunting  as we look at it in July, with Mizzou, Ohio State  Penn State and Michigan State looking like for sure losses. In order to make a bowl the Illini will have to sweep their non OSU home sched and then steal a win from Northwestern or Fresno St, a scenario which has the Illini beat fully four teams they lost to in 2009

But all is not completely grim, and not all should be assumed as lost in 2010, because there are still some hints about how the Illini just might turn it around this year and surprise just about everyone.

1. A major offensive retooling, with new OC Paul Petrino (half of the famous Flying Petrino Brothers trapeze act) the Illini have taken their offense in a dramatically different route than in recent years. Gone is the spread option and returning is a more traditional style, though perhaps relying still on more of the run than the pass. Petrino has stood in the shadow of his brother Bobby for some time, but if past evidence from Louisville and Arkansas are to be believed, he can dramatically and quickly change and improve the offense, just look at how effective Arkansas is now with the passing attack, given what it was just a couple years ago under Houston Nutt. Hopefully the working relationship of Zook and Petrino goes better than that of Zook and Schultz.
2. A new defensive coordinator. Not perhaps as major an overhaul as on the other side of the ball, but as significant in what it means for the team, as it will be a new voice and a new approach to a defense that has seemingly been laden with talent but unable to translate that into play. Vic Koenning is the first real independent defensive coordinator the Illini have had in some time, and hopefully the change of voice and approach will translate into smarter play, fewer penalties and  most importantly more turnovers.
3.  Though the Illini are not helped by a great influx of young talent on either side of the ball this year, the talent that has stuck around should be more than experienced enough to, if given the opportunity, be successful. Mikel LeShoure and Jason Ford are still very good backs, and LeShoure in particular has shown he could be another Mendenhall ready to explode. Eddie McGee proved he might be even more important as a receiver as he was a backup QB by running great routes and doing everything that was asked of him and more last year. A.J. Jenkins and Jared Fayson are both very talented and if they demonstrate that talent this year we should have a very good set of three receivers. On defense, Martez Wilson is still here, and if he can keep himself healthy we may finally see what he can do with all of that raw power, but even if we don't the likes of Clay Nurse, Corey Liuget and Ian Thomas all returning should give us something to look forward to. Oh, and Terry Hawthorne just might be the best player on the team, no matter what side of the ball he is playing on.

Optimism and realism, I am an Illini fan and that is where I come from.