CHAMPAIGN – Things are locked up tight around the Memorial Stadium football complex these days.
Want to get a little detail or just talk football with an Illini player? Don’t even bother going there.
There’s a typical, scripted answer when it comes to any X’s and O’s chatting about scheme or changes from a year ago.
“You’re just going to have to wait and see,’’ said tight end Daniel Barker one day during fall camp.
It’s the answer everyone is getting when trying to investigate just how the Illini will go about the challenge of winning in the Big Ten Conference under coach Bret Bielema. He has a history of Big Boy Football during his days as coach at Wisconsin and Arkansas, but perhaps his time as an assistant in the NFL has changed his way of thinking.
The NFL is a passing league, so maybe he’ll stray from those three-yards-and-a-cloud of-Field-Turf and integrate the passing game more, even if he bristles in any talk about old school football during his days as Badgers coach.
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