Bret Bielema may not be giving anything away about the QB battle, but that won’t stop Illinois OC Barry Lunney Jr. from discussing it. Lunney commented on how the team is going about it, and what separates the frontrunners per Jeremy Werner of 247Sports.

It looks like the battle is between Artur Sitkowski and Syracuse transfer Tommy DeVito so far, with Ryan Johnson taking backup reps. Lunney stated that the team wants to feel like they can at least 3 guys ready to play when the season rolls around. For now, they are splitting all of the QBs up.

“We’re splitting them up,” said Lunney. “They’re certainly both being in there with the ones a fair share amount. We’re still trying to figure that out and still kinda going through the competition phase to a large degree, and we feel like we need to be able to have three guys getting ready for us to go play.”

What is great about the Illinois offensive system is how it allows for both Sitskowski and DeVito to play well in it, according to Lunney. While the 2 quarterbacks have their differences in play style, the system should benefit them both.

“They are different,” said Lunney. “Art’s kind of a big, powerful guy. Tommy, he’s obviously not as big but a little quicker and twitchier. Art’s powerful and like a prototypical quarterback. Tommy’s a little bit shiftier maybe to some degree. They’re very different, but the thing about our system — and any system really — is those guys both fit very well with what we’re doing and we can play around them.”