The Associated Press
Fresno State has just five days of practice to prepare for a familiar””and not-so-friendly””attack in its last home game of the 2010 season.
In his regular Monday press conference, head coach Pat Hill compared the Illinois defensive front his young offensive line will face on Friday to a team that ‘Dogs got “manhandled” by just 12 days ago.
“This will probably be the second-best defensive front we’ve played against this year… The best front we’ve played to date is Boise, and watching this team on film, this is going to be that kind of challenge,” Hill said. “[They are a] big, physical defensive front that can really run.”
In Fresno State’s 53-52 thrilling victory at Illinois last season, the Bulldogs’ offensive line controlled the game up front, racking up 233 rushing yards and allowing no sacks on quarterback Ryan Colburn. But through 11 games, the Fighting Illini defense has piled up 20 sacks and allowed just two teams to rush for over 200 yards in a single game all season.
“Get here for [the] pregame stretch because you’re going to see some good-looking bodies,” Hill said of Illinois. “This is a good-looking football team. I thought it was a good-looking football team last year. They’re physically a very strong looking team.”
Across the board, the Fighting Illini front four average 6-feet-2-inches and 283 pounds in Illinois’ 3-4 defensive scheme. But in comparison, the Bulldogs’ offensive line, made up of three seniors, a junior and a freshman, averages 6-feet-5-inches and 312 pounds.
But against athletic and physical fronts this season, the Fresno State offense has taken its share of lumps. In week three, Hill also compared Ole Miss’ defensive front to Boise State’s. The Rebels stifled the Bulldog run game to a season-low 30 yards on the ground. If Fresno State is going to reverse its fortune against talented defensive lines Friday night, center Joe Bernardi says the battle in the trenches will be won in practice.
“You have to have good technique, that’s what we come to practice every week for, but you have to make sure you work hard on your technique and use your hands,” Bernardi said. “You want to make sure you obviously know your assignment and the technique to execute that assignment. It’ll play a big role.”
The physicality of the Fighting Illini defense is mirrored on the other side of the ball, as Illinois presents a barrage of offensive firepower ranging from the spread option to a power run game.
Lead by dual-threat redshirt freshman quarterback Nathan Scheelhaase, the Illinois rush offense ranks third in the Big Ten behind Michigan and Wisconsin. Illinois’ biggest threat comes from its powerful junior running back Mikel Leshoure, who was named to the All-Big Ten team this week for his 1,371-yard, 16-touchdown campaign so far this season.
Together, the Scheelhaase-Leshoure duo has given head coach Ron Zook plenty to add to the playbook this season, presenting defenses like Fresno State on Friday a plethora of weapons to game plan against.
“There’s a lot to prepare for with this football team,” Hill said. “They have an outstanding running back, No. 5. He’ll be as good a running back as has been in this stadium for a long time to play. We’ve had some great ones come here, one of the greatest was [LaDainian] Tomlinson, but this guy is a downhill, big running back.”