The Morning Haul: 9/10

More on the Illini, as you might expect leading up to Saturday’s game…

Stories Especially Worth Reading:

The News Tribune has a first look at Illinois along with the game notes from the Illinois perspective, which includes a depth chart. Oh, and the Washington game notes and depth chart as well, though just about nothing has changed for the Huskies. Still Cory Littleton at rush end and still an “or” dual-starting listing for Jaydon Mickens and John Ross at slot receiver. Obviously both will see the field often based on what we saw against Boise State.

A preview of the Illinois offense from our friends over at the Dawg Pound. It’s pretty much all Scheelhaase, which is pretty much how it’s gone for Illinois on the field. His number one receiver so far is a running back, and the run game hasn’t been a huge asset so far. It’s all about the passing game to a variety of different targets.

No Husky fans should ever claim a lack of love from Miller and Gemmell over at the ESPN Pac-12 Blog. They’ve both posted their Week Two Top-25 votes. Miller has the Huskies at 13, Gemmell at 12. I don’t think that high of a ranking is unwarranted for the Huskies, but based on the normal speed with which successful teams normally ascend the rankings, it could be quite some time before the Huskies move up to #12 in the AP or Coaches polls. If they had a major ranked opponent in the next two weeks and beat them, that would do the trick, but even blowout wins against Illinois and Idaho State would probably move them up from #19 to around #15 or #14. A big win at home on September 28th over the Arizona Wildcats, however, would likely boost what would be a 4-0 Washington team up to Miller and Gemmell levels of esteem. Coach Sark and his team will be favored in all three contests, but only Idaho State should be even close to an easy victory.