Juice Williams To Keep His Job...For Now

It's not exactly the most covered quarterback controversy in the country, in fact most didn't even realize there was one, but the Illini had a question to answer this week. After Juice Williams was knocked out of Illinois' season opening loss to Missouri, his backup Eddie McGee came in and played pretty well. Nearly leading the Illini to victory in the fourth quarter.

McGee's performance had many Illinois fans wondering if maybe Juice Williams was the right man for the job. McGee appeared to be more accurate, and could move just as well as Juice. The problem was McGee's Grossman-like tendency to commit turnovers at the worst times.

He had one fumble at the goal line that Missouri safety Pig Lewis returned 100 yards for a touchdown. Then, in the fourth quarter, as the Illini were driving to take the lead McGee threw a game ending interception.

All of which means that Juice Williams isn't going to lose his job.

"Juice got his eye dinged up, but he's fine,'' Zook said. "He had as good a practice (Monday) as he has all summer. There's no problem there.''

Zook said Williams will play Saturday against Western Illinois despite a solid effort by backup Eddie McGee against Missouri.

However, that doesn't mean that this possible controversy has been squashed.

Ron Zook was also asked about the possibility of McGee getting more playing time, even if Williams is healthy. Zook was very non-committal in his response.

"We're going into the game to win, and whatever that takes we're going to do,'' he said. "If it comes down to where we need to play Eddie or can play him, that's great.''

Juice Williams is one of the more exciting players in the Big Ten, but that shouldn't assure him of his starting position. After all, this is a guy who completed only 39% of his passes for a team that won only two games last season.

I know Zook is known as a better recruiter than coach, but it's nice to see he's not stupid enough to be convinced that Juice is the right quarterback for his team. If Juice doesn't come out and play well, I don't think Zook will be shy with the hook.