Click here to register.
Sign up for our daily Illini football newsletter here
CHAMPAIGN – Bret Bielema planned to check in with Josh Kreutz the day he underwent surgery on his left knee earlier this month, but a busy day at training camp got in the way.
The Illinois football coach didn’t get home until around 11 p.m. and decided it was too late to contact his center. He didn’t want to wake him up, so Bielema spent some time with his wife and walked his dogs before calling it a day.
Then Kreutz’s text comes into play.
“Hey, do I have my green jersey tomorrow?” Bielema said in the text message. “I was really laughing, so I called him and said, ‘Bro, how are you?’ He said, ‘I’m serious. I think I can walk.’ The next day he came with crutches. I said, ‘Let’s use these.'”
Kreutz still doesn’t have his green jersey as Illinois enters its final week of practice before its season opener on Aug. 29 against Eastern Illinois.
His clearance to return is still pending and the Illini’s newly appointed captain is more than just frustrated.
“I want to be out there,” Kreutz said. “If it were up to me, I’d be training now. I’m just trying to feel better, make progress and get ready for that first game.”
“For me now, first of all, it’s about getting my knee fixed, getting ready for the game and getting my body ready to play. Secondly, I have time now to study. I can study what Eastern is going to do. I have a lot of time. We’re here all day. I’m not training. I’m not doing anything with the guys.”
Illinois coaches had to make sure Kreutz didn’t go too far and play too fast.
Or even able to do so.
Bielema had his center watch Wednesday’s practice game from the press box at Memorial Stadium to give him a different perspective on the offense and the opportunity to put his leg up if needed.
Kreutz had a seat in the box next to assistant offensive coach Byron Bell, so he could hear all the calls and then follow them from a bird’s eye view.
“I think they put me there mainly to keep me off the sidelines,” Kreutz said. “It was cool to be in the box. Of course, all the other coaches were there too. I could see it from that perspective. You could see different things up there and now with the iPads you have instant feedback. That was cool. But I think they just did it to keep me off the sidelines.”
Kreutz was on the sidelines during practice at Memorial Stadium on Saturday. Although he was unable to participate in the last truly physical workout of training camp, it was still valuable to work with TJ McMillen, Kevin Wigenton and Brandon Henderson as they shared the majority of the reps at center.
“I heard him yelling at TJ for delaying a back block,” Illinois offensive line coach Bart Miller said. “Another time on a screen. I hear Josh correcting him over there. There’s more to it than just what’s in a playbook. There’s playmaking and how to play the game. That’s what he really understands. Just to provide that kind of presence for some of these guys who haven’t played yet is very valuable.”
Kreutz expects to be healthy in time for the week leading up to the season opener against EIU. He started all 12 games at center last season — earning honorable mention All-Big Ten honors in his first year in that role — and intends to continue his streak of starts against the Panthers.
“He’s improved from the learning experiences of the last year – the ups and downs – and really taken ownership,” Miller said. “He and I have a good relationship now. It’s a collaboration. He asks, ‘Can I do this? I’ve seen this. What do you think?’ It’s a lot of give and take.”
Because of that experience, Kreutz has higher expectations for himself in his second year as a starter and his third year in offensive coordinator Barry Lunney Jr.’s system. He intends to dominate from the middle of Illinois’ offensive line.
“For me, that means I look at the film from last year to know where I’m weak and try to get better there,” Kreutz said. “I take it into practice and work on the things I didn’t do last year and that I can do better this year. When we get to the games, we’ll obviously know more, but dominate is exactly the right word.”
