Touchdown Times: Nov. 2, 2012

TouchdownTIMESA publication of The Daily Illini | Friday, November 2, 2012

Can they buck this losing streak?

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EYE ON THE ENEMY:Ohio State head coachUrban Meyer

BY ZACH GROTHSTAFF WRITER

Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer wins. The only thing more impressive than his 113-23 overall NCAA record is his 7-1 bowl record, coaching Florida to BCS nation-al championships in 2006 and 2008. Now he has his bowl-ineligible Buckeyes off to a 9-0 start.

OSU crush — Health obviously played a factor in Meyer’s departure from Florida, but the fact that he’d leave that environment, where he was abso-lutely revered, speaks volumes of his love of Ohio State football.Vulnerable? — His team’s

biggest scares this season have come in conference play. The Buckeyes have survived one-possession matchups against Michigan State, Indiana and Purdue.

Master motivator — Inspiring a bowl-sanc-tioned team has to be diffi cult. Having them ranked in the top 10 nationally has to be near impossible. Meyer has done both with ease this season.

Run, run, run — The Buckeyes are loaded with backs, and Meyer has no problem running the ball down teams throats. The team has 409 carries combined this season at a clip of 5.5 yards per carry.

GENE J. PUSKAR THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer, left, celebrates with Ohio State quarterback Braxton Miller at the end of a 35-23 win over Penn State in State College, Pa., on Saturday. Meyer has coached the bowl-ineligible No. 6 Buckeyes to a 9-0 start, and they face the Illini in Saturday’s game.

The Daily Illini | www.DailyIllini.com Friday, November 2, 20123

Undefeated Buckeyes present ‘great challenge’BY SEAN HAMMONDSTAFF WRITER

If Tim Beckman wants to sleep easier at night, he may have to wait another week. The Illinois head football coach recently said he has lost 22 pounds since this tumultuous 2012 season began, but it doesn’t get any easier this week as the Illini head to Columbus, Ohio, to play the No. 6-ranked Buckeyes.

The only team Illinois (2-6, 0-4 Big Ten) has played who is remotely close to the cal-iber of Ohio State (9-0, 5-0) was Michigan, and the Wolverines spanked the Illini 45-0. Under first-year head coach Urban Meyer, this Buckeyes squad has elevated itself to the top of the Big Ten after a disappoint-ing 6-7 finish in 2011.

“It’s a great challenge for us,” defensive tackle Akeem Spence said. “I’m not going to say it’s not. They’re undefeated, so we’re going to have to go out there and play our best game, as a defense and as a team.”

The defense will be the key for the Illi-ni. With quarterback Braxton Miller mak-ing the calls, the Buckeyes offense ranks second in the Big Ten in scoring. The unit has broken the 30-point mark in all but two of its games and has scored more than 50 three times.

As good as they are, the Buckeyes are not unbeatable. They needed overtime to outlast Purdue at Ohio Stadium and nar-rowly avoided upsets in games at Michigan State and Indiana.

“We have to set the tone early with them,”

Illinois quarterback Nathan Scheelhaase said. “Not let them feel good about what they’re doing, what’s going on. They’re just consistent. It seems like every year you play them, they make tackles in the open field and they don’t blow coverages or get out of position.”

Illinois has not fared well against Ohio State since upsetting the then-No. 1-ranked Buckeyes on the road in 2007. The Illi-ni have lost four straight in the series (although the 2010 Ohio State victory was vacated) and seven of the last eight. Oddly enough, Illinois’ last four wins over Ohio State came in Columbus.

In last year’s meeting at Memorial Sta-dium, the Buckeyes outlasted the undefeat-ed Illini 17-7 despite completing only one pass. Miller struggled in that game, but this is not the same Illinois defense that was ranked seventh nationally last year, or, for that matter, the same Braxton Miller.

“Last year, he was kind of young,” line-backer Jonathan Brown said of Miller. “Another year of experience helps out a lot. He definitely can pass the ball a little bit better than he could last year. He’s mak-ing smart decisions.”

Beckman coached under Meyer for two years at Bowling Green in the early 2000s, and the two remain friends. However, Sat-urday will be their first matchup against each other as head coaches. Illinois will have to play its best game of the season if it wants to bring the Illibuck, one of the

more lopsided rivalry trophy games in college football, back to Champaign. But doing so would be an upset of even more staggering proportions than the one Juice

Williams and the 2007 team pulled off.

Sean can be reached at sphammo2@ dailyillini.com and @sean_hammond.

DARYL QUITALIG THE DAILY ILLINI

Illinois’ Jonathan Brown tackles Indiana’s Stephen Houston at Memorial Stadium on Saturday. Brown and the Illinois defense will have their hands full with Braxton Miller and the Ohio State Buckeyes.


PLAYERS TO WATCH

MASONMONHEIM

SAM RICHE THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

BRAXTON

MILLER


After emerging on the scene early in the season, the freshman linebacker has 52 tackles and one sack this year. Returning to his home state to face one of the nation’s best

teams offers a little extra motivation.

The second-year quarterback is thriving under the tutelage of head coach Urban Meyer. He has thrown for

1,527 yards and run for 1,093 yards and scored a combined 24 touchdowns . Despite getting injured against Purdue two weeks ago, Miller gained 277 total yards and three

touchdowns in his team’s victory over Penn State last week.


CHRIS DUNN THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

The Daily Illini | www.DailyIllini.com Friday, November 2, 20127

PORTRAIT BY DARYL QUITALIG THE DAILY ILLINIOUR PICKS

DAN WELIN FOOTBALL COLUMNIST

JEFF KIRSHMAN SPORTS EDITOR

CHAD THORNBURG SPORTS WRITER

JAMAL COLLIER SPORTS WRITER

MAX TANEASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR/

HOST OF ILLINI DRIVE

SEAN HAMMOND SPORTS WRITER

Tane(30-17)

Hammond(33-14)

Collier(28-19)

Thornburg(25-22)

Kirshman(34-13)

Welin(31-16)

No. 16 Texas A&Mat

No. 17 Mississippi

No. 21 Nebraskaat

Michigan State

Texasat

No. 20 Texas Tech

No. 2 Oregonat

No. 18 USC

Oklahoma Stateat

No. 3 Kansas State

No. 1 Alabamaat

No. 5 LSU

Illinois at

No. 6 Ohio State45-10 56-0

34-28

20-16

42-34

55-31

49-27

23-9

35-16

24-13

31-28

45-28

20-17

17-9

38-33

17-13

35-24

42-31

41-28

24-10

30-17

21-14

42-31

35-23

38-24

20-7

27-24

34-23

38-21

42-27

34-17

21-14

28-17

31-17

42-30

56-35

56-38

35-3

42-0 42-3 48-0 63-0

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In a season that continues to get worse as each week passes, a trip to Columbus, Ohio, to face No. 6

Ohio State isn’t going to offer any hope to Illini fans that, for some reason, feel a four-game winning streak to end the season is even remotely possible.

Even though his team is ineligible for the postseason, Urban Meyer has found a way to keep it motivated, and, more importantly, has molded his prize inher-itance — quarterback Braxton Miller — from a freakishly talented athlete into a polished passer and runner that is receiving dark-horse Heisman Trophy consideration as a sophomore.

Use last season’s Ohio State victory over Illinois at Memorial Stadium as proof of his maturation. Miller threw only four passes for 17 yards and ran 12 times for just 34.

This season, he’s found the end zone 24 times while averaging 170 passing yards and 121 rushing yards per game.

The Isiah Williams era came and went with a Rose Bowl appearance and a plethora of individual accolades for the Illini quarterback more commonly known as Juice.

Having a talented quarterback is an obvious must at any level of football, but a certain verbal commitment from an in-state high school quarterback will put Beckman’s rebuilding plan over the top.

A verbal promise is about as cred-ible as a politician’s guarantee dur-ing an election, but Bolingbrook High School quarterback Aaron Bailey is still on board with the Illini, even with their struggles this season.

His signature come signing day will be the biggest Illinois has had since former head coach Ron Zook somehow persuaded current NFL wide receiver Arrelious Benn to come to Champaign.

Scouts say Bailey is a more polished Juice. The hope that his interest in Illi-nois is profound.

Illinois quarterback Nathan Scheel-haase and the rest of the offense are beyond repair at this point. The unit’s current holes used to be fi lled by tal-ented players — Mikel Leshoure, A.J. Jenkins, Jack Cornell and Jeff Allen to name a few.

Seeing the offense’s woes this year as a result of a lack of talent and experi-ence, mainly at wide receiver and offen-sive line, make it seem like Scheelhaase never had success in his fi rst two sea-sons as starter. And while he does seem to have a run-fi rst instinct, Scheelhaase still is running for his life more than he should.

Change doesn’t happen overnight.

Many thought it would, given the tal-ent on the defensive side of the ball, but the pieces are just not falling into place.

Maybe some coordinators will come and go during the offseason, but Beck-man and his philosophy will be here for the next couple of years.

Every coach would love to start his fi rst season 9-0 with a new team like Meyer has, especially someone that shares his ideologies and knows how to do it.

But change is coming to Cham-paign, and that starts with Bailey making his commitment offi cial and signing on the dotted line Feb. 6.

All Beckman needs is to get one domino to fall and then the rest will follow suit.

Urban Meyer is already making an impact with the talented ros-ter he inherited and will continue to improve in recruiting.

Beckman may never achieve BCS bowl status at Illinois, but he needs his guys to start developing a win-ning culture.

So when you see Miller carving up the Illinois defense Saturday, think of what Aaron Bailey can do for the Illini in the future.

Dan is a senior in Media. He can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @WELINandDEALIN.


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Bailey could provide Beckman with building blockDAN WELINFootball columnist

Illini Drive

THREE AND

OUTIllini Drive goes “three and out” every Monday on WPGU. Here are the highlights.NATIONAL QUESTION — Of the top four teams that are undefeated in the BCS ... if they go undefeated, all four, which two would you take in the national title?Thomas Bruch — If all four of those teams go undefeated, Notre Dame’s strength of schedule has to put them in the national championship. It’d be them and Alabama. ... This is BCS Armageddon, especially with Notre Dame involved fi nally.

BIG TEN QUESTION — The lone Big Ten team ranked in the BCS poll is Nebraska. So is Nebraska the new favorite of the week?Max Tane — Yeah, they’re the favorite. But here’s a red fl ag, you’re going to Michigan State next weekend, (a team) that just beat Wisconsin in Camp Randall in overtime. I really don’t know what to expect with this conference.

ILLINI QUESTION — Over/under: 3.5 total Braxton Miller touchdowns.Jamal Collier — For Braxton, I’ll go with four. Four is a good number. Someone will get touchdowns, right? ... They’ll probably have a pick-six, they’ll probably have a punt return touchdown, they’ll have different touchdowns. They won’t get them all from Braxton. They’ll share the wealth.

Illini Drive can be reached at [email protected] and on Twitter @IlliniDrive.

Friday, November 2, 2012 The Daily Illini | www.DailyIllini.com4 The Daily Illini | www.DailyIllini.com Friday, November 2, 20125

ALL IN THE FAMILY

BY CHAD THORNBURG STAFF WRITER

Teddy’s grandfather and three of his great-uncles started the tradition more than half a century ago. His father and uncle maintained it in the ’80s, and now the spotlight is on Teddy, a redshirt freshman starting at right guard for the Illinois football team.

“I’ve wanted to play in the Big Ten my whole life,” he said. “I love it. It’s a very fickle business. You win, you’re in; you lose, you lose. I’ve learned a lot about life from the game of football.”

Teddy worked for a football schol-arship from an early age, but it wasn’t a certainty that he would play football in college, let alone join his family in the Big Ten. His father, Ted Jr., said it wasn’t until Teddy’s junior year at Cathedral High School in Indianapo-lis, where he won two state titles and earned two all-state honors, that he grew into the player he is today.

“He really started dominating,” Ted Jr. said.

Teddy received over a dozen schol-arship offers and considered schools such as UCLA and Oregon in addition to Big Ten schools: Purdue, Indiana, Northwestern and Illinois. Tradition ultimately won out, and he committed to Ron Zook at Illinois.

“It was a dream come true,” Teddy said. “I was thinking as a kid, I didn’t know what I would do if I didn’t get a D-I scholarship. I was obsessed with it.”

Family traditionThe Karrases are proud of their Big Ten history.When Tony Karras was being recruited out of

Hobart High School in Indiana, he scheduled vis-its at Ball State and Northern Illinois, but when his father, Ted Karras Sr., found out, the plans changed.

Ted Sr., who played four years at Indiana and won a championship in 1963 with the Chicago Bears, can-celed the visits, explaining: “The MAC was created for those who can’t play in the Big Ten. You’re a Big Ten guy from a Big Ten family.” Tony went on to join his brother, Ted Jr., at Northwestern.

“I remember like it was yesterday,” Tony said. “I apologize to all my MAC friends, but we’re Big Ten elitists.”

The first generation of Karras men grew up in Gary, Ind., at a time when recruiting hadn’t yet developed into a national spectacle. The Big Ten was the premier conference in their eyes.

Ted Sr. played at Indiana, his younger brothers Alex and Paul played at Iowa, and his older broth-er Lou played at Purdue. Ted Sr.’s sons Ted Jr. and Tony played at Northwestern in the ’80s, and Ted Jr.’s son Teddy is currently at Illinois.

“The Big Ten is next to professional football,” said Ted Sr., 77. “That’s the big organization. You get a lot from it when you go and play and get your college degree.”

Although Teddy was born after all of the other six Karras men’s football careers had come to an end, Ann Karras, Ted Sr.’s wife and Teddy’s grandmother, said he still has that same Karras look on the field.

“I might be just in their genes, but they were just good at what they did,” Ann said. “They all have that intensity and they’re very competitive.”

Growing up Big TenThe seven Karras men not only shared a confer-

ence, but they’re also all lineman.Alex, Tony and Ted Jr. all played defensive line,

while Paul, Lou and Teddy are offensive linemen. Ted. Sr. played both at Indiana.

“We come from a bigger family, I guess,” Ted Jr. said, laughing.

He added that their size and ability is likely part genetics but also part upbringing. The Karrases were raised around the game, and while they weren’t pres-sured to play football, they were cer-tainly trained as athletes from an early age.

They always had football on their minds, and Ted Sr. had Ted Jr. and Tony jumping rope and running on the soft, white sand along Lake Michi-gan by preschool.

“You’re not always thinking about the training aspects when your dad says go run two miles on the sand or when he puts a jump rope in your hand and tells you go to three min-utes, but it’s in you,” Tony said. “It’s your lifestyle, really. It’s your way of life.”

Still, the Karras men insist there was no pressure from family members to play foot-ball, though there was certainly pressure from them-selves. Seeing the history and the success of the pre-vious generations was motivation enough.

“It was just kind of a given: Males in our fam-ily play college football,” Teddy said. “It’s just what I thought you do in my family.”

Maybe more so than any of the other Karras athlete, Teddy grew up with the game. His father coached at St. Xavi-er University, Rose-Hulman and Marian University, where he is still the head coach. Teddy was around as much as he could be, sitting in the front row for meet-ings and watching practice.

“ E a rly on he was very aggressive — you could tell he was going to be some-thing,” Tony said.

T e d d y didn’t play o r g a n i z e d football until third grade, but his father, like his father

had done for him, stressed the importance of phys-ical fitness when raising his son. Teddy said he was doing 100 pushups in sets of 10 at age 3, already with college football on his mind.

“My dad would come home and if I didn’t get my pushups in as a football player, he’d get mad at me and tell me someone else was going to take my schol-arship,” Teddy said. “It just helped me develop. It’s what my dad had me do, it’s what his dad had him do. It seems to be working.”

Rough patchTeddy’s first season in the starting lineup hasn’t

gone quite as planned.The Illini are 2-6 coming off a loss to one of the

Big Ten’s worst teams in Indiana and are heading into a road matchup with unbeaten Ohio State.

But if Teddy learned anything from the many Kar-ras men who have come before him, it’s that things don’t always go your way in football.

“There’s been great seasons and there’s been terrible seasons,” Teddy said. “You win and you lose. We’ve got to get it right. I go to work every day to try to get better.”

And while Illinois’ right guard often opts to keep things to himself, he isn’t lack-ing for support through tough times on the field.

“Having played at North-western in the ’80s, I can definitely relate to a los-ing streak,” Tony said. “Every down counts, every down matters, every play is an opportunity. And you have to play every play like

it’s your last and let the cards fall where they may.”All the Karras men who played in the Big Ten

played on the lines, and in terms of the Xs and Os of the game, Tony believes the older generations can offer timeless advice to Teddy.

“These kids are a lot bigger, stronger, faster than when we played, but it’s still the same thing,” he said. “You’ve got to be aggressive, you’ve got to play until the whistle blows and pay attention.”

Consequences of the gameOn Oct. 10, the Karras men lost one of their own. Alex Karras, arguably the most accomplished in

the family, both for his on-field talent and his off-field career as an actor, passed away.

Alex suffered from dementia for several years

before his death and was among 3,500 ex-NFL play-ers engaged in a lawsuit with the league regarding a connection between concussions and brain inju-ries. Alex’s brother Ted Sr., has been suffering from Alzheimer’s for nearly seven years, and while the disease runs in the family, Ted Sr.’s wife, Ann, said his doctor believes there is likely a connection to his football career.

“I played nine years in the National Football League and my brain doesn’t function really good as far as memory goes,” Ted Sr. said in a phone interview. “But that’s my fault, I guess.”

Despite seeing the consequences a long football career can have later in life, Teddy said he doesn’t worry about the effect playing football can have on

him down the road.“It’s part of the game,”

Teddy said. “You get a little window to

do what I can do. I’m on bor-

rowed time. I’m 19, the average player plays until he’s about 23, really, and then if you get any time in the NFL, so I’m going to go as hard as I can and not worry about it.”

Teddy said he is fortunate to have never been diagnosed with a concussion and noted that the improved modern helmets are a luxury his grand-father and great-uncles didn’t have while they were playing. “I could sit here and worry about it, but that would make me less of a player if I worried about it because, as an o-lineman especially, you use your head every single play,” Teddy said. “I think I was put on earth to play this sport and I want to play it.”

Next in lineTeddy is the seventh Karras man to play in the Big

Ten, but the Karras pipeline might not end with him.Tony’s son Luke Karras is shaping up to be an

athlete already at age 4.“He might be the biggest out of all of us,” Ted-

dy said.Luke is playing soccer because football isn’t

offered at his age yet, but even on the soccer field, his football potential is evident.

“He’s running his soccer player friends over and making them cry because he’s so solid,” Tony said.

“I don’t want to put too much pressure on him, but he definitely could be next because he’s

fast and can take over a soccer game at his young age.”

Tony jokingly added that he’s think-ing about getting Luke ready to start

jumping rope and do pushups, but in the Karras family, it’s never too early to start working for a Big Ten scholarship.

Chad can be reached at [email protected] @cthornburg10.

GREAT-UNCLE ALEX KARRAS

GREAT-UNCLE PAUL KARRAS

GREAT-UNCLE LOU KARRAS

GRANDFATHER TED KARRAS SR.

UNCLETONY KARRAS

FATHERTED KARRAS JR.

TED “TEDDY” KARRAS

KARRAS FAMILY TREE

offensive guard and redshirt freshman at Illinois

defensive tackle at Iowa from 1954-58

offensive guardat Iowa from 1957-58

offensive tackle at Purdue from 1946-1950

defensive tackle and offensive guard at Indiana from 1952-56

defensive tackle at Northwestern from 1984-88

defensive tackle at Northwestern from 1983-87DARYL QUITALIG THE DAILY ILLINI

Illinois' Ted Karras (69) defends Indiana's Larry Black, Jr. (97) during Illinois’ 31-17 loss at Memorial Stadium on Saturday.

“I’ve wanted to play in the Big Ten my whole

life. I love it. It’s a very fickle business.”

TEDDY KARRAS,redshirt freshman, offensive guard

T he Karrases are a Big Ten family. Through three generations, the Karras

family has produced seven Big Ten football players, and the lat-est in the lineage is Illinois’ Teddy Karras.

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Touchdown Times: Nov. 2, 2012