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College football analyst praises Illinois for culture of ‘player leadership’

Spenser Davis

By Spenser Davis

Published:

College football analyst Joshua E. Perry is high on Illinois’ player-led culture.

The Illini are in their first fall camp under new coach Bret Bielema, but the players seem to be equipped to handle the transition. According to Perry, he saw numerous examples of “player-led leadership” at a recent practice.

Perry said he observed players being engaged through meetings and making sure they were proactive with helping each other master new techniques in between reps on the practice field.

“When you look at football teams, when nobody leads, that’s a really bad team,” Perry said. “When the coach is the leader, that’s a good team but when you have a player-led team, that’s when you can start to reach greatness.

“Obviously there are a lot of factors that go into the outcomes on the field but just from a starting point, this player leadership is a really good thing.”

Here’s his full comments:

Illinois is coming off a 2-6 campaign that ended the Lovie Smith era in Champaign.

The Illini begin the 2021 season on Aug. 28 against Nebraska.

Spenser Davis

Spenser is the news manager at Saturday Road and covers college football across all Saturday Football brands.