There are things that you can’t teach that he has: poise, confidence, and a calm demeanor. He’s almost the complete opposite of Spencer Sanders in this department. Don’t get me wrong, I really like Spencer and want him back immediately. But, sometimes I’m not sure he knows his own mistakes and I have questions about his poise in big moments, and… he might be injury prone! There were also some concerning things about his play in the first two series.
Illingworth came in with the game hanging in the balance as a true freshman and immediately provided a spark. He never looked nervous. He resuscitated an offense that simply was not good enough to win that game. As a true freshman with little practice in two weeks, I was beyond impressed by that.
Can he run an offense for four quarters? We’ll find out. Probably on Saturday. But… If he shows more of what we saw on Saturday and OSU wins, he will push Sanders to get healthy quickly or risk having a potential problem on his hands.
I am just surprised we don’t have a mobile backup QB somewhere in the depth chart (or do we?). It is an extra challenge to have to fundamentally swap play calling strategy when losing your starting QB. I am not talking about going more “safe” due to inexperience. I am talking about a changed skillset.
Let’s say Sanders nurses this sprain for a few weeks. The schedule is WVU, @KU and @ Baylor. Not exactly a murder’s row. Let’s say Illingworth leads them through that stretch unscathed and continues to look the part.
Obviously, you have to roll Sanders out there if he’s healthy, but if ball security issues start popping back up or the “leap” he supposedly made in the offseason is more like a baby step, then this season will end with a quarterback controversy going into next season. Mark it down. Having Illingworth on the roster and playing well as a freshman could either be a great thing or a terrible thing for Spencer Sanders. It will be extremely interesting to see how the next few weeks go.
Going to say it again: we’re going to be treated to a Trevor Lawrence-Kelly Bryant situation of our own…
Illingworth is a 6’6" dude who doesn’t need legs to bail him out, that’s the beauty of being able to see over the defense. And yeah, he didn’t get to throw the ball a ton, but TU’s d-backs were pretty aggressive all day, and maybe that was a good idea, given Illingworth hadn’t practiced much coming in.
The raw talent is clearly there, though. And there was a very measurable shift in the team’s energy when he entered the game. As I said in the beginning, we might get a QB battle. If Illingworth has a line of 20/25, 250 yards, 2-3 TDs, I bet Spencer doesn’t come back right away…
Gundy is extremely loyal. At 100% Sanders is the starter, at 90% he is the starter, hell I bet at 80% he’s still the starter. For Trill to really make Gundy think about who should start he’s gonna need to play lights out and probably throw 4 TDs. At that point maybe Gundy let’s him play against KU, but I would be shocked if Sanders doesn’t come back by Baylor.
Well originally Kenny Hill asked to be called Kenny Trill after 1 good game. From there anyone whose name can be close to trill becomes Trill. So Illingworth becomes Trillingworth (and I think this started when he initially committed).
