Tate: Hoekstra can handle adversity

The home hopeful rubbed wrinkled brows during a half-quarter of frightful play Saturday.

It was scary. But when all returns were in, 35,000-plus recognized an Illini team that dealt with stunning adversity, overcame a quarterback's disappointing performance and unleashed significant weapons in cracking their 18-game losing streak, 48-20, against Middle Tennessee State.

It's a start. Now the schedule calls for Louisville, Iowa and Northwestern in order, and they're beatable. Strikingly so. Louisville was blitzed by Kentucky and beaten by Utah. Iowa State ripped Iowa 27-9 on Saturday. Duke ran all over Northwestern.

That's the point this column tried to make some weeks ago. The first five games offered the UI a grand opportunity. This wasn't written with the idea that Illinois might be returning to contention, but rather that the UI was presented a chance to compete against foes who fall in their own general category. As Lee Corso stated so bluntly Saturday: "Some of these teams aren't very good."

Washington State got away. But now the Illini have momentum going with a lot of athletes playing better than ever before. That's two sparklers in a row for Jeff Weisse, Garrett Johnson, Asim Pleas and Danny Clark for a defense that held the Blue Raiders to zero or negative yards on 21 of 38 ground plays. And that's two solid efforts by the UI offensive line, which opened gaping holes Saturday night for Rocky Harvey and Steve Havard.

"This team is improved in a lot of ways," defensive end Ryan Murphy said. "We're bigger, stronger and faster, and we're making plays defensively. We should be in the thick of all these upcoming games."

Quarterback remains a concern

Yes, the Illini will be in these upcoming games ... IF giant quarterback concerns can be resolved.

Senior Mark Hoekstra put his team in a 20-7 hole, and it would have been too deep against a better opponent. It wasn't just that he threw four interceptions and was way below 50 percent (6 of 18) for the second week in a row. It was the nature of those turnovers. They were telegraphed all the way.

"Mental mistakes," is what coach Ron Turner called them.

Sideliners shouted for Turner to "put in the freshman (Kurt Kittner)." Which Turner did on the last play, ending all talk of redshirting him. But Turner wants to avoid the kind of musical chairs that found him alternating Hoekstra, Kirk Johnson and Tim Lavery a year ago.

It may be a minority opinion, but the feeling here is that Hoekstra is his best quarterback. Not the way he played Saturday night. He seemed flustered after Josh Whitman fumbled his first pass and never fully recovered. He was probably self-conscious playing before a crowd that really doesn't believe in him.

He'll never be great, but he has shown the courage to rebound from the depths before, and he's still the recognized leader of the offensive unit. A change may ultimately be necessary, but not yet.

Hoekstra handles media

Hoekstra kept his head up during the difficult post-game session.

"I was struggling and the guys picked me up," he said. "In the split second when I was handing the ball off, I could see the line firing out and creating those big holes. It's great to be able to run the ball like that.

"I didn't play well at all ... too many mental mistakes. I didn't make good reads. I hope I got it out of my system. Maybe I'll come back next week and step up when somebody else lets down.

"In football, there is always adversity. If you can't come back from adversity, you can't play the game. Not everybody is 100 percent every night."

Hoekstra won't be reading this column or any other. He avoids newspapers during the season. But he hears campus talk and what radio and TV commentators say. He knows he is frequently criticized.

"It doesn't matter. I'm just going to focus on what I have to do. The coaches have faith in me, and that means a lot."

Next up it'll be Hoekstra vs. Chris Redman. Much will be made of that matchup. But Hoekstra's job is not to out-pass his Louisville rival. His job is to make use of his team-wide advantages, to refuse to allow the Louisville defense to score – no matter what! – and to execute the plays as they are drawn up. This is still Hoekstra's team, but not his to throw away.

Loren Tate writes for The News-Gazette.

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