It was announced on Tuesday, October 18 that coach Bart Millers Offensive Line would be one of the few named to the “Mid-Season Honor Roll” list for the Joe Moore Award, that recognizes the “Most outstanding Offensive Line unit in college football.”
The Joe Moore Award annually recognizes the nation’s Most Outstanding Offensive Line Unit that best displays toughness, effort, teamwork, consistency, technique, and “finishing”. According to JoeMooreAward.com. “The voting committee is comprised of college football experts, especially people who played or coached the offensive line position, including all of the current offensive line coaches at the Division I/FBS level as well as former players, coaches, colleagues of Coach Moore and select media”
The units starting 5 is made up of LT Julian Pearl, LG Isaiah Adams, C, Alex Pihlstrom, RG Zi Crisler and RT Alex Palczewski. Adams and Crisler transferred into the program from Junior Colleges during the off season, while Pearl, Palczewski, and Pihlstrom were originally recruited into the program. The O-Line has been stellar all season, quickly working out some of the rust of a new unit, and getting players like Chase Brown the protection he needs to be able to carry the ball 30+ Carries a week. Brown is currently in talks of the Heisman Race, while the Illini currently sit at 6-1 in mid-October, meaning this Unit has certainly helped its team take a massive step forward.
The development of Quarterback Tommy Devito, is probably the most important position upgrade we have seen out of the offense this entire season at a single player. Devito has seriously raised the ceiling of what this team can be, and was supposed to be. Tommy, much like Chase, has given a ton of credit to his offensive like unit, and refers to them as his “Security Detail.” It has been said by Devito before that he himself has never had this much protection from an Offensive line, and is shocked by how much more he is able to make plays. If you watch Tommy’s film from Syracuse, you can quickly find out he was not well protected at all. According to Devito’s twitter page, as celebration of being named to the Mid-season honor roll, Tommy treated his unit to a steak dinner at Hamilton Walkers. “Gotta take care of the guys that take care of me!” Says Devito. “What better way to repay than steaks?”
Bart Miller is the second year leader of this Offensive Line, and has created a great culture inside that Unit. Miller was brought back to his home state to coach from University of Wyoming in 2020 following Bielema’s hire. Before spending time at Wyoming, Bielema had a strong connection with Coach Miller who was his former assistant at Wisconsin and believed he was the man to put Illinois back in the mix of the best Lineman in the Big Ten. He has done just that, and put Illinois on a really nice offensive growth trajectory. As Miller knows, it’s not always about who you play, it’s how you play . This line is not only mean and physical, but athletic as well. This Line is consistently able to block well not only at the line of scrimmage, but in the 2nd level (Linebacker level) as well. This allows for Chase Brown to be patient with runs, and use his quick burst to create big plays once the second level is taken care of, which we have seen all season. This has been a large part of Barry Lunny Jr. and Illinois offensive success, and will be critical to winning a game against a big, physical, and well coached team such as Michigan who the Illini face in week 11.
Needless to say, the O-Line or “The Bigs” as I like to call them have been outstanding thus far this season, and are deservedly in the hunt for the best unit in the nation. I couldn’t quite tell you yet if they are the “Best” unit in college football, but they have certainly made a greater impact on winning than any other unit in college football. but they have certainly made a greater impact on winning than any other unit in college football.
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