VIDEO: Monday Game Week - Illinois DB Tony Adams - Dec. 1
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Illinois senior defensive back Tony Adams addressed the media via a Zoom video conference call on Monday, Dec. 1.
The Belleville native, who had 10 starts last season at cornerback and nickel of Lovie Smith’s defensive scheme and has gone back and forth between cornerback and safety.
During the 2018 season, when Adams was a sophomore, the 6-foot and 205-pound defensive back got played in eight games with seven total starts split between safety (five starts) and cornerback (two starts). Therefore, Adams is initially confident that another positional flip-flop in the Illini Tampa-2 defensive scheme won’t be a massive switch.
“I’ve done it before so it’s all good being back there (at safety) being kind of like a general,” Adams said. “It’s allowing me to express my voice a little bit more.”
Last season Adams had 39 tackles, three tackles for loss and arguably two of the most remembered interceptions of the 2019 season. He was the first Illini player with interceptions in back-to-back Big Ten Conference games since Vontae Davis and Kevin Mitchell both did it against Penn State and Wisconsin in 2007. Adams had a 13-yard interception return for a touchdown at Purdue that was a week after a fourth-quarter interception vs. then-No. 6 Wisconsin that led to Illini’s game-winning field goal in one of the biggest upsets in league history.
“At cornerback, you’re on an island but you know what you’re going to get but at safety you got to everything in front of you and you got to make people (line up) right so I think that is the biggest thing for me,” Adams said.