FanHouse EddieMcGee

Back to the old drawing board. Ron Zook's plan to spark the Illinois offense by benching quarterback Juice Williams in favor of backup Eddie McGee didn't exactly yield the desired results Saturday as the Illini fell to Michigan State, 24-14.

McGee was ineffective, going 2-for-11 for just 32 yards and an interception before being pulled in the third quarter. Williams came in to relieve McGee. He wasn't a world-beater, but Williams was just enough better to get the Illini on the board.

As for Michigan State, for the first time all season, it played just one quarterback until garbage time.

Illinois coach Ron Zook has benched four-year starting quarterback Juice Williams and replaced him with junior Eddie McGee, making a major shakeup on a team that has been a major disappointment this season.

For much of the 2007 season, Illinois found itself with a quarterback controversy. Juice Williams - supposed to be one of the Big Ten's best - started losing snaps to backup Eddie McGee during back-to-back losses to Iowa and Michigan.

Then, on a mid-November afternoon, Williams put on a show at Ohio State. He completed just 12-of-22 passes, but four of those connections went for touchdowns, helping the Illini to a stunning win in the Horseshoe. Illinois went on to make the Rose Bowl and started 2008 with high expectations, which were raised even higher by a five-TD showing by Williams against Missouri to start this season.

One little problem, though: Despite the occasional explosion, Williams is still a relatively average QB.

And in case you don't believe me, just check today's scoreboard: Western Michigan 23, Illinois 17 - a game capped off when Williams threw four straight incompletions from the WMU 18 in the final minute.

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.