Your new starting quarterback - Eddie McGee!

In a surprising move, Ron Zook has named Eddie McGee the starting quarterback for Illinois this weekend against Michigan State. My girlfriend is in full support of the change, but I worry that McGee won't really add anything to the offense. I am well aware of Juice's flaws but he also hasn't gotten enough credit for his fine junior season because of the team's 5-7 record. Despite losing Rashard Mendenhall to the NFL Draft (who, might I add, ran for 162 yards and 2 touchdowns on national television last night), the Illinois offense scored more points and gained more yards per game in 2008 than in 2007. This was largely because the passing game was much improved, as Juice averaged 8.3 yards per pass attempt and threw for 3173 yards.

All that said, Juice's numbers are down this year (5.8 ypa) and Eddie McGee forever won the hearts of Illinois fans when he came off the bench and was a goal-line interception away from leading a big comeback against an 11-2 Missouri team in 2007. My main concern is that although McGee has been very good for a backup, he appears to be the same kind of player as Juice:

Over the last three years McGee's production when he has played has been comparable to Juice's. What concerns me is that while McGee, like Juice, has been productive in terms of generating yardage, he shares the same proclivities for low completion percentages and high interception rates. In fact, although the sample size is small, McGee's completion percentage has been lower and his interception rate higher.

Given McGee's nice career yards per attempt figure, a QB switch isn't a totally crazy idea. But I fear that if McGee is no more or less productive than Juice has been, it will undermine the leadership of this team. The question is whether Illinois at 1-3 is already at the point where they need to try something radical to salvage the season. Despite my qualms, the answer may be yes, but I wonder if Zook is pulling the plug on his productive senior starter too soon.

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