UPSET POTENTIAL: Illinois vs. Duke Football PREVIEW - Can Walker Eget and Nate Sheppard DOMINATE?

SPEAKER_1 (0:01)

This is The Locked On Podcast Network, celebrating 10 years of your team every day.

Sunny Verma (0:11)

Duke visits Champaign to battle the Illini in a game that could mean a lot for both program.

SPEAKER_3 (0:22)

You are Locked On College Crossover, part of The Locked On Podcast Network.

Sunny Verma (0:33)

Welcome one, welcome all to another episode of Locked On Illini and Locked On Blue Devils. That's right, we have a college crossover today here for you as we discuss Illinois versus Duke week two. This episode is going to be brought to you by Kalshi for a limited time, download the Kalshi app and use the code LOCKEDON to get $10 when you trade $10. My name is Sunny Verma, host of Locked On Illini. That over there to my right is JJ Jackson, the host of Locked On Blue Devils. JJ, you ready to get down?

JJ Jackson (1:00)

Yeah, I'm so excited. I mean, look, it's week two. Everybody has tons of optimism still at this point in the season. No one's hearts have been absolutely crushed. The college football playoff dreams are alive and well for everybody. So I can't wait to kind of preview Saturday's game. I'm excited for it.

Sunny Verma (1:16)

Yeah, both teams undefeated, but I figure, you know, before we get talking about the Saturday's game, which is a 2.3 Central time, let's talk a little bit back about last year's game between the two. I mean, the game was a bit lopsided in the line I favor, but I feel like if you watch the game, the game itself was a little closer than the box score might have indicated. Duke had a lot of self-inflicted turnovers in that game. But you guys rattled off. I believe I saw four wins to end the season. You won the ACC.

Tell me what you remember from last year's showdown between these two teams.

JJ Jackson (1:53)

The same feeling, Sunny, that you're kind of alluding to for Duke fans. And I think the team would say the same thing. It felt like a game that got away from them early in the year, ended up being one of the worst games that we saw from quarterback Darien Mensah in his lone season here for the Blue Devils. And looking back, knowing where Duke ended up, ultimately in that six-way tiebreaker within the ACC, they got the math to math their way appropriately. And they got to play in the ACC Championship Game, won the thing, and then as ACC Champions, were not able to qualify for the college football playoff. Were not selected because of their poor non-conference schedule. So had a game like Illinois, or quite honestly had a game like Tulane, who ultimately was the group of six selection to get into the college football playoff, had that gone another direction for the Duke Blue Devils, they could have been in a much better spot, ultimately getting a chance to play in the college football playoff. So you never know, these early season matchups, you might think that you're going to be on the outside looking in, but it could circle back and haunt you in the other way. So I just remember being really pleased or impressed, I should say, with what Illinois was able to do on that Saturday and walking away ultimately a little disappointed that Duke turned the football over so much.

Sunny Verma (3:10)

You know, we can kind of talk about this upcoming weekend's game. You know, I feel like it's appropriate. You know, when I was taking a look at the box score from last year's game, Gary Mensah, you know, 23 for 34 through for 334 yards, two touchdowns. Obviously, there's a lot of drama regarding Mensah, and now he's the quarterback of the Miami Hurricanes and whatnot. And now you have Walter Eget in his place. I did watch a couple of highlights. I'll be honest, nothing necessarily jumped out at me when it comes to Eget. Obviously, we'll talk about the workhorse running back you guys have a little bit later. But for programs like Duke and Illinois, I think both of us, I think it's fair to say that they're more basketball dominant programs. On the football side, usually when you lose a top-notch quarterback, like both of our programs have done, you can almost expect them to fall back to the crowd a little bit. What are your thoughts, at least early impressions, on Eget and how he can impact this to moving forward?

JJ Jackson (4:10)

Yeah, it really is just so early, Sunny. I mean, obviously, you win this past Saturday against Tulane 17-3, but it was the ground game, running the football, that really told the biggest story. Walker Eget's story is interesting, right? He's in his sixth year of college football. The previous five have all been at San Jose State.