CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- With the first fall training camp under head coach Bret Bielema nearing the end, the Illini completed the second and final scrimmage on Monday afternoon. The team once again went "full throttle," working on all facets of the game.

While Bielema said there's still work to be done before the Illini's season opener, he was pleased with the progress made between the first scrimmage and the second. Bielema thought the entire team "made a nice step forward (Monday)."

"Very productive day for us in a variety of ways," Bielema said. "We did live football today. Actually, the whole scrimmage itself was live, other than some kicking plays when we didn't play tackle football. It was very situational so we started off moving the football through eight series total then we did an end of half scenario. Then we took an actual halftime, taught our guys to recover, to get off their feet, hydrate then take the field in the second half and start the second half like we would during the course of the game."

Bielema Media Availability

Situational Football

Monday's scrimmage was completely unscripted, unlike last week's which was fully planned out beforehand as the Illini were still installing their systems. However, the unscripted scrimmage gave the practice more of a real-game feel as both the coaches and the players were forced to make decisions on the fly based on the situation of the series.

While the main focus of fall camp is developing the players and establishing the team, Bielema has also emphasized the growth of his coaches. Having the live situations on Monday helped strengthen those lines of communication.

'We knew going into last week what was going to be called, what was going to be played, what was going to be done on first down, 2nd and 6, 3rd and 4," Bielema said. "So now we just put the ball down on the 25-yeard line, had officials and the coaches were on the sidelines making calls as they became live. So first down, Tony had the play call and the result was 2nd and 7. Then he had to make the next decision. It really stressed out coaches as well so it was much more interaction and communication. Force some people to interact off each other and that was really a positive."

The structure of the scrimmage also let leaders emerge, one of those being quarterback Brandon Peters.

"There were some live action moments there, end of half or end of game, where they had to know the rules of the game," Bielema said. "When we could huddle, when we couldn't huddle. Then really at the end of of half I thought BP had one of his better, cleaner scrimmage sessions just managing the clock at the end of the game to get points on the board."

Offense Catches Up

Now in his 13th year of being a head coach, Bielema knows the defense is always going to be a little bit ahead of the offense when it comes to installing the system. That difference was pretty apparent in the first scrimmage as the defense forced multiple turnovers.

But on Monday, Bielema felt the offense proved they caught up to the defense in the past week as they didn't turn the ball over once. The Illini were able to rotate all the quarterbacks through the potential starting group, giving Bielema and Tony Petersen an even look at their talent.

Bielema also saw improvements made in the run game as Chase Brown, Chase Hayden and Reggie Love all scored touchdowns during scrimmage.

"There were some routine ones, but there were also some explosive plays and some things that made you get encouraged," Bielema said. "I think we're going to be able to put together some things in the run game but I thought today it really looked good."

Fill the Stands

After reviewing the scrimmage film Monday afternoon, the focus has almost solely shifted to game preparation for Week 0. The Illini have less than two weeks to fine tune their gameplan before they kick off the entire Power-5 college football season.

With Memorial Stadium back at full capacity for the 2021 season, Bielema is especially excited for the opportunity to see Illini Nation in person for the first time as the Illinois head coach.

"To open about college football here on the 28th at noon, really the first college football kickoff," Bielema. "It's really so awesome, especially after the COVID year. Everybody's just itching to get back into college football.  Hopefully everybody in the state of Illinois or anybody that wants to come to this game is buying up those tickets and getting ready to fill this place up and see where we can get on gamely."

Moo Mobile

Illinois ended its practice with a surprise ice cream truck for the student-athletes.