Why QB Brandon Peters ‘means everything’ To Illinois Football in 2020
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- While sitting in the coach’s offices in Illinois’ new football facility, Brandon Peters was understandably angry.
On the Monday before the season finale game against Northwestern, the Illinois quarterback was told he would be on the inactive list as a precaution. Sources confirmed to the Illini Maven/Sports Illustrated that Peters was initially unhappy with this decision because he’d already passed concussion protocol and was medically cleared for physical contact.
Illinois head coach Lovie Smith, who promised to Peters’ family that he’d take care of the Michigan transfer and had already seen him suffer a concussion earlier in the season, was willing to risk a loss to an in-state rival in order to protect the safety of his starting quarterback. And Illinois did lose.
Peters was mad. He wanted to play and wasn’t used to or didn’t understand coaches trying to protect him for precautionary reasons. What Peters didn’t understand at the time was in Smith’s world, you protect your most coveted assets - and that’s exactly what he considers Peters now and in the future.
“He means everything,” Lovie Smith said. “To be able to accomplish that much the first year is saying an awful lot. As we go forward, I think there’s an awful lot to build off.”
Before the start of the 2019 season, 23 quarterbacks transferred into Football Bowl Subdivision programs and that number is expected to be higher before the 2020 opening week games. In the era of the transfer portal, the moment quarterbacks get upset with their coaches, the thought of leaving and finding a new place to play right away is a knee-jerk response. Not Peters. Not now. Not ever.
The transfer process for Peters wasn’t one he longed for and if he were being honest with himself, not one he enjoyed at all. Having said following the 2019 Redbox Bowl he wasn't sure at all how this transfer process would play out, Peters is sure now.
“The journey’s been everything. I never expected to do this well, honestly. Coming in just like a month before the season started, everything played out amazing,” Peters said. “The guys on the team really helped a lot through this process. I feel like I have a solid home now.”
With his agonizing decision to leave Michigan being later than normal in the recruiting process, the graduate transfer from Michigan with two years of eligibility remaining wasn’t seeing the immediate interest from major Power 5 Conference programs. Despite starting four games including a bowl game for the Wolverines, Peters wasn’t seeing much promise at potential starting roles from other than Mid-American Conference programs.
“Everyone wants to know about the quarterback first,” Smith said. "We felt like we had to go out and bring a little bit more experience. All I knew is that we liked everything about him. We liked his history.
Purdue, a Big Ten Conference school in his home state where he won the Indiana Mr. Football award in high school couldn’t offer him a chance to compete for a starting role.
“We did recruit him but at the time, we had Elijah Sindelar projected to start and we Jack Plummer set to compete as a backup so we were interested in adding to the depth at the position but we had to be honest with him and we couldn’t promise him a chance at the starting job,” Boilermakers head coach Jeff Brohm said during the week before Illinois’ 24-6 win at Purdue.
With the 2019 campaign being critical for Lovie Smith to show improvement, Illinois could and had every reason to offer Peters more than a legitimate chance to start behind center. Just short of six months following Peters’ arrival for fall camp at Illinois, the Illini football program is using a fourth-and-17 scramble play of the 6-foot-5 quarterback as a symbol for the 2020 season.
“We’re going to go into next season with that play that Brandon tried to make,” Smith said following the 35-20 Redbox Bowl loss to California.
Smith has been touting for months the potential that lies in Illinois’ 2020 roster and the highest priority issue is the return of the quarterback for the first consistent presence behind center in Smith’s tenure with the Illini.
From 2006 to ’16, Isiah “Juice” Williams, Nathan Scheelhaase and Wes Lunt occupied the quarterback position at Illinois and produced quality numbers. In the program’s first bowl game since 2014 and without any of his top four receiver targets, Peters completed 22 of 37 passes for 274 yards with a touchdown and one interception in a 35-20 loss to California, one of the best defenses in the Pacific 12 Conference. Peters, who was seen before he arrived at Illinois as a thrower but without much of dual-threat running ability, also added a team-best 68 rushing yards on eight carries.
“Why is it so laughable though?” Peters said with a smile when asked in November about his running ability. "Is it because I'm so tall? Especially with how good our run game is, the QB run game has opened up a lot lately and I've never questioned my athleticism."
Illinois is expected to return four offensive linemen, six receivers who started a game in the 2019 season and the trigger man of an offense led by Peters and offensive coordinator Rod Smith.
“He said he thinks he’s found a home here,” Smith said. “ Everyone wants to know about the quarterback season. He’s found a home here for sure. I can’t wait for him to be in a leadership role for an entire season.”