Watch: Tom Allen Previews Illinois

On embracing the word of the week "now" in practice...

"The sense of urgency we understand is at stake. We kind of put that challenge out there to them. That's one of our players one word. That's our theme for the whole week. It seemed very appropriate to me. Our guys understand that the clock is ticking. We have a senior class here that has done a lot of awesome things for our program. They deserve to finish well and that's what we expect to do."

On getting the run game going...

"It's always important but that doesn't cease to be the case this week. We have to establish that early and that's the plan. To be able to run the football well, stop the run, and then you have to throw it. It's about being balanced more than anything."

On defending a young Illinois quarterback...

"He's a different skill set than they've had there. Athletically, he can hurt you with his legs for sure. Not necessarily on the design runs, just him creating on third downs or whenever he drops back to pass. You have to account for that, which makes a difference. You have to have two different mindsets in the way you defend each quarterback. They both have good qualities and have to be ready for any one of them."

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