Hoosier defense battles Scheelhaase

In Illinois’s 46 previous games, they’ve had the same quarterback for 44 of them.

“Talented guy,” defensive coordinator Doug Mallory said of senior Nathan Scheelhaase. “He’s a guy that’s a dual threat quarterback.”

Scheelhaase missed two games last season because of an ankle injury. Besides that, the last time Scheelhaase wasn’t the Illinois starter was Dec. 5, 2009, when Juice Williams was running the Illini offense.

After a lackluster junior year where he threw just four touchdowns opposed to eight interceptions, the Kansas City native has righted the ship during his senior campaign.

He started this year off by throwing for a career-high 416 yards, 340 coming in the first half, in the season-opener versus Southern Illinois.

The performance earned him the Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week honor.

After his team thrashed Cincinnati in week two, Scheelhaase had thrown for more touchdowns in just seven quarters than he had in the entirety of last season.

“When things break down, he’s got the arm strength to get the ball where he needs to get it to,” Mallory said.

Scheelhaase is second in the Big Ten in total offense per game, behind Michigan’s Devin Gardner. When the Hoosier defense faced Gardner earlier this year, he had 584 total yards and five total touchdowns.

Another dual threat quarterback IU faced was Missouri’s James Franklin. He lit up IU for 404 total yards and three total touchdowns.

Despite the offense giving up 63 and 45 in those games respectively, junior safety Mark Murphy said they haven’t “struggled” against mobile quarterbacks.

“It’s just another dimension you have to defend against,” he said of Scheelhaase’s running ability.

Even though Scheelhaase has been prolific in his career, it hasn’t coincided with team success. In Illinois’ last 25 games against FBS opponents, they are 4-21 and 0-18 in conference play.

Scheelhaase has been the starter for 24 of those games, including all Big Ten action.
Illinois brought in a new offensive coordinator this season, Bill Cubit, who also coaches Scheelhaase and the rest of the quarterbacks.

Cubit coached Western Michigan for eight years, and put up prolific offensive numbers. In eight games this season, the Illini offense has seen drastic improvement.

Last season Illinois averaged 17 points per game, the worst in the conference. This season, they are averaging 29.

They have less time of possession though, averaging 28:45 a game, compared to 30:14 last year.

However, this is by design — similar to IU, they now run a faster offense.

“I don’t think Illinois uses as much tempo as they were last year,” Mallory said.

When looking at up-tempo and spread offenses, time of possession has little significance on offensive production.

For example, IU is second in the conference in scoring offense, and last in time of possession. The much ballyhooed Oregon offense is averaging 56 points per game, and is last in the PAC-12 in time of possession.

“When they get in sync, they’re a very capable offense,” Mallory said, of Illinois. “They’re very similar to us.”

Follow reporter Evan Hoopfer on Twitter @EvanHoopfer.