Illini CB & Co-Captain Nate Hobbs Back On Practice Field Tuesday
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- The Illinois defense could be getting back its most experienced defensive back and Lovie Smith might have the opportunity to play its secondary exactly the way he wants.
A photo released Tuesday afternoon by the Illinois football recruiting Twitter feed showed senior cornerback and co-captain Nate Hobbs back on the practice field in full pads on the first day this week the Illini were physically back to work.
A photo released Tuesday afternoon by the Illinois football recruiting Twitter feed showed senior cornerback and co-captain Nate Hobbs back on the practice field in full pads on the first day this week the Illini were physically back to work. Minutes later the photos and tweet were deleted.
Hobbs, who is a fourth-year starting cornerback and a 2019 All-Big Ten honorable mention selection, was seen in the photo during practice without a non-contact jersey on suggesting he could be set to return to game action Saturday when Illinois (0-3) plays at Rutgers (1-2) for an 11 a.m. kickoff.
Minutes after it was released, the Illinois football recruiting Twitter feed deleted the tweet and the four photos associated from the tweet were deleted. Illinois head coach Lovie Smith has declined to confirm Hobbs’ status or the status for any of the injured Illini players.
Hobbs was inactive for the 41-14 loss to Minnesota last weekend due to what Illini head coach Lovie Smith said was a shoulder injury and his absence forced Tony Adams to move back from safety to cornerback and Derrick Smith to get his second start at safety.
Lovie Smith, who also serves as the defensive coordinator, has said his secondary is much better with Adams at safety and this idea can be confirmed based on the 12 passing plays of 20 yards or more given up by the Illinois defense.
“In an ideal world, you want a guy to play corner or safety and it’s hard to make that transition to playing both,” Lovie Smith said Tuesday. “That kind of tells you where we’ve been, where we’ve had to make those moves. (Adams) is probably our best player in terms of instincts and playing the ball.”
Rutgers quarterback Noah Vedral, a transfer from Nebraska, is coming off a game where he completed 22 of 33 passes for 168 yards and did not have a turnover, which was a difference from the four interceptions he’s thrown in the first two games.
Illinois currently sits 11th in the Big Ten Conference and 98th nationally in pass defense after giving up 278.3 yards per game through the air. Opposing quarterbacks are completing 79.5 percent of its passes and averaging 10.1 yards per attempt. Devon Witherspoon, who has started each of the last two games at cornerback, said Tuesday the biggest problem with the Illini secondary has been “eye discipline” issues that have confused the players in coverage with play-action or RPO actions before the throws.
“We need to pay attention to the routes and stop looking to see after he makes his break is the ball thrown to him. We’ve got to focus on our man,” Witherspoon said. “We need to be quicker in looking for the ball instead waiting until after (the receiver) looks.”
Defense, which has always been a calling card of success for Smith until he arrived at Illinois in 2016, has been a frustrating struggle for the Illini in the first three losses to Wisconsin, Purdue and Minnesota. Currently Illinois ranks in the bottom 10 percent of college football teams in the statistical categories of total defense, scoring defense, rushing defense, passing defense, opponent’s third down percentage, turnover margin and time of possession.
Lovie Smith hinted at defensive personnel changes Monday that could include moving around his safeties Sydney Brown and Derrick Smith, who have been poor so far in 2020 in pass coverage. However, if Hobbs is healthy Saturday, Lovie Smith may likely decide to just move Adams back to the safety spot opposite of Brown. In that scenario, Illinois could have Witherspoon and Adams as the cornerback and safety on the other side of the field.
“We react to anything bad that we feel like we need to change," Smith said. "We immediately react to it, try to get a plan for that and that’s what we’re doing right now. We’ve evaluated the video. Things I feel like we need to adjust, change, we’re going to do that. There’s no panic. We’re disappointed in three games we’ve played and we need to play better this fourth game of the football season. There’s a lot of football left to go."