Coordinator corner | 'We've risen to the occasion'
Nov. 11—Illini offensive coordinator Barry Lunney Jr. provides perspective from his side of the ball, courtesy beat writer Scott Richey:
What can John Paddock's performance at Minnesota do for him if he gets the start Saturday?
"It just reinforces, I think, everything everybody believed and thought about him and had seen even in limited action we've seen him this year. He's a fearless competitor. Very confident in who he is and what he is. You can just see he's really, really experienced. Even though he didn't start a lot of games, he started a full season at Ball State. He carries himself like he's a sixth-year player. Nothing really surprises him and nothing really fazes him. That's how he always practices and prepares."
How much do you try to rally around the way you finished last week's win at Minnesota?"There's been two games this year where we've had fourth-and-got-to-have-it and if we didn't, the game is over. We've risen to the occasion.
"We make things interesting, that's for sure. The one thing about it is our guys are really comfortable in those scenarios. We practice those a lot. We talk about them — about end-of-game scenarios, end-of-half scenarios. I think it's just another thing to reinforce in our culture what we talk about and how important those situations are. I think an incredible amount of confidence comes from those moments when the game is on the line."
What do you see from the offense you're able to move the ball well?
"It is a rhythm. One thing that continues to show up for us through 10 weeks now is we're very comfortable when we're in a rhythm.
"Most offenses are like that. That's not unique to our offense. When you're getting first downs and not having to play first, second and third — when you skip third down during a series — that's a big thing. It's tough playing first, second and third, first, second and third, first, second and third. When you get a first down on second down or a first down on first down, it allows you to jump into a rhythm.
"Our guys are very comfortable playing with pace. The game is about offensive rhythm. That's what football is about. It's about being in a flow and a feel as a play-caller and as an offense. Our challenge is to try to sustain that rhythm for four quarters. Right now, we haven't been able to do that. There's moments in quarters where we disappear a little bit."
How has Luke Altmyer progressed in the last few weeks?"He keeps getting comfortable. I've been really pleased with the way he's progressed. Do I want more from him? Absolutely. It's my job and our job to push him to reach his full potential on a consistent basis. He is giving us everything he's got and is really into it. You just look back from the Penn State game on, and I think he's played pretty well for us. He hasn't played perfectly, but none of us have. None of us have called it perfectly. That's part of football, and I've talked about it all the time. You're going to make mistakes, but I think he's kind of mitigated some of those and has distributed the ball pretty well."
What challenge does Indiana's defense present?
"Multiplicity. Last week was not like that. It's interesting. Each week is so unique in our league. Last week was like, 'Here's how they're going to play. This is what they're going to be in.' (The Hoosiers) are very multiple on the back end in the way the approach things. They try to create a lot of chaos for the quarterback in the way they fit things in the back end. I see a defense that plays really hard and understands their scheme really well."
