Illinois second year starting quarterback Luke Altmyer’s obvious and subtle body language was so different Friday night in Lincoln, Nebraska leading to his best performance in an Illini jersey.

Matt Stevens, IlliniGuys Staff Writer

September 23, 2024

LINCOLN, Neb. — Luke Altmyer went into a different mental and emotional mode on Friday night inside Memorial Stadium at Nebraska.

Don’t believe me, ask Altmyer’s friends on this Illinois offense and they’ll point out specific examples. On his way to what was a performance that led to the second-year starter being named Big Ten Co-Offensive Player of the Week following his four-touchdown effort in what was arguably his best effort in an Illini jersey, IlliniGuys.com is going to take a look at some specifics into what made Altmyer’s performance a next-level special ordeal.

Altmyer, who his parents Chad and Besty would happily categorize as very deliberate and cerebral in practically everything he does, spent an entire offseason trying to build a better emotional connection with himself and his teammates through therapy sessions with a sports psychologists and team pastor Jason Epperson.

On Friday night, as he compiled 215 passing yards and four touchdowns against a very aggressive Nebraska defense in a 31-24 overtime victory, the first score of the game signaled Altmyer’s confidence level being more noticeable than at any point in his collegiate career.

On the first touchdown of this game, which was critical to Illinois maintaining momentum in a charged atmosphere in Lincoln, Nebraska during the program’s 400th consecutive sellout, Altmyer went tempo in the first drive of the game allowing the fourth-year player, who will turn 22 years old next month, to make subtle changes to the play calls coming from his helmet radio communication. Before the snap, Illinois senior wide receiver Pat Bryant believed his quarterback uses his mind in a short, subtle way to not only signal to arguably the Illini’s most dangerous receiver that the Nebraska coverage is still in an aggressive man-to-man with little to no help from the safety over the top.

Before the snap of the ball, Altmyer appears to look over once to get Bryant’s attention and then yells a verbal count and then briefly looks over again at Bryant before claps his hands for the snap. Altmyer already has the attention of his favorite target on the first look but whether this was the intention or not, the second look triggers Nebraska cornerback Marques Buford Jr. to actually take two further steps closer to the line-of-scrimmage. Buford Jr. knows the Nebraska call is a blitz coming up the middle and his thought is if Altmyer is trying to use Bryant as a hot route blitz beater on a quick stop route, slant or a curl route toward the sideline, the Cornhuskers cornerback is going to jump that route for an interception. However, the subtle looks by Altmyer to Bryant prove both players are in sync on what they’re doing as the Illini call is a run-pass option and Bryant knows to never stop running during the play-action fake to Kaden Feagin. Altmyer knows that Buford Jr. has no help over the top (something I’m not sure the Nebraska defensive back knows or doesn’t know).

“I’ll tell you that Luke and I kept looking at each other and I know we were both thinking the same thing,” Bryant said after the win. “I’m just thinking to myself ‘I can’t believe they are going to play me with such tight press man coverage’ and Luke and I just have this subtle look where I know he was thinking ‘Can you see this press coverage? The ball is coming to you’. They took it off after a while but I’m thinking man, did these boys watch any film at all?”

Once the middle blitz is picked up just a little bit, Altmyer and Bryant both knew they had a touchdown. In fact, you can see on the playback that Altmyer actually puts his arms in the air and turns to the Nebraska sideline to talk some trash (something the Starkville, Miss. native almost never does) way before the ball lands in the arms of Bryant.

“I’m passionate about this game for sure,” Altmyer said. “Ever since I was a little kid, I’ve dreamed of being in this position right now and so it’s hard to contain certain feelings yeah. Everything was in place so yeah, I guess you could see a fire in that moment. I just care about what I’m doing, care about winning and care about my teammates.”

This 27-yard touchdown to put Illinois up 7-0 is the third straight game where Illinois (4-0, 1-0 in Big Ten Conference) has scored points on its opening drive signaling that Illinois offensive coordinator Barry Lunney Jr. has developed confidence in the opening script of plays he’s written out and practiced throughout the week with his skill position players.

“Look, one thing about us this season is we’ve done a good job of scripting openers,” Altmyer said. “Coach Lunney is so good at figuring out what is going to work early. We go over and over and practice constantly these opening plays that it’s hard for us to not execute them well.”

The second way you can tell Altmyer is different mentally leading to physical success is the way he’s dealing with pressure in the pocket. Unlike last year when he was a first-year permanent starter at the collegiate level, Altmyer isn’t holding onto the football too long and second-guessing his decisions nearly as much.

According to Pro Football Focus, Altmyer was an impressive 12 of 14 for 144 yards with three touchdowns, two sacks and nine first-down plays with just one turnover in the 18 snaps where Nebraska brought a blitz. No longer can defenses assume that bringing pressure to Altmyer will cause an indecision by the Illini quarterback. PFF data suggests that Altmyer, who was named to the watch list on Monday for the Davey O’Brien Award given to the nation’s best quarterback in college football, is the 11th most efficient Football Bowl Subdivision quarterback when facing a blitz this season and fourth most efficient in the Big Ten Conference behind Indiana’s Kurtis Rourke, Oregon’s Dillon Gabriel and Nebraska’s Dylan Raiola.

“That meeting time where we’re together to prepare for things is just not enough time honestly to get everything done,” Lunney said. “He’s got a really good routine, which he had last year, that he trusts to get that extra preparation and work in on his own. I honestly can’t specifically tell you what it involves entirely because he’s so cerebral that he likes to work through his preparation of opponents on his own. But yeah, it works because by game day he knows things that I know about the defense that I’m not sure we went over time and time again.”

Finally, Altmyer has simply dealt with adversity better than in any of his nine starts in the 2022 season. The Illinois quarterback had several instances in a tough environment where he could’ve found reasons to question himself or doubt his talent - whether it was the missed facemask on his fourth-down scramble or the strip sack fumble with eight minutes and 47 seconds left in the game. Bielema suggested Friday night and again on Monday afternoon that the radio communication went out in Altmyer’s helmet for a large portion of the fourth quarter and Illini assistant quarterback coach Art Sitkowski was forced to signal in the plays from the sideline.

“Whether things are going well or poorly, I feel like I have to maintain my composure because I’ve learned everybody is watching me even when I think they’re not,” Altmyer said.

Altmyer will obviously face a challenge on Saturday night at No. 9 Penn State (3-0) as PFF data suggests only one starter in their secondary and linebacker units are allowing more than 50 percent completion rate against them through three games against West Virginia, Bowling Green and Kent State.

TeRah Edwards’ Superhuman Effort on Friday Night

I’ll have more on this later in the week but Illinois nose tackle TeRah Edwards is a major factor to why the Illini defensive line has been playing way above the expectations for such an inexperienced group in terms of playing together in this 2024 season. On a night in Lincoln, Neb., where the heat was 80-85 degrees even on Friday evening with a humidity near 100 percent, Edwards managed to play 60 of Nebraska’s 69 plays - something that is, quite frankly, unheard of when talking about a player at 305 pounds. This kind of stamina and effort to maintain consistency through the game despite not being on the sideline much at all is similar to the amount of work put in last year by Illinois All-America selection Jer’Zhan Newton. In fact, Bielema has a rule of thumb that any player over 250 pounds shouldn’t be asked to play more than 35-40 snaps per game in order to maximize their productivity. However, Edwards - who Bielema is trying to get NFL scouts to pay attention - produced his job when being double-teamed on 56 of his 60 plays.

Lunney Dials Up Creativity for Pat Bryant in Overtime

I wanted to highlight the game-winning touchdown for the Illini in overtime. Lunney confirmed on Monday afternoon that Illinois wanted to run this big package set in the previous week against Central Michigan, but the Illini were flagged for a pre-snap motion penalty and elected to keep this play call secretive until the final week.

Pat Bryant gets the play call from Altmyer and knows he’s the H-back on this set and after the win admitted that he was trying to crouch down in his set position so nobody in the back of the Nebraska could see it was him. However, you can see Cornhuskers safety DeShon Singleton pointing that Bryant is the lead back in the backfield and Singleton is screaming to his linebackers and cornerbacks that he’s likely to be the target on a play-action fake. Buford Jr. takes the one outside receiver and Nebraska outside safety Isaac Gifford is slightly bumped by a slightly limping Zakhari Franklin over the middle and cornerback Malcolm Hartzog makes the drastic mistake of handing off Bryant to absolutely nobody behind him because there’s no way Hartzog can get to the Illini senior wide receiver in time.

It’s a brilliant play call and these types of quick hitters while using your talented skill position players is why Lunney is directing an offense that is currently a perfect 16 of 16 in red sone conversions with 11 touchdowns.

“Every start of a camp, whether it’s spring camp or preseason camp, we spend the first three days devoted to just being down there and getting things right,” Lunney said. “At that point, it’s all about dressing things up and making sure our guys feel comfortable with it. You’re always looking to add stuff, tweak things or steal stuff. That’s just the life of an offensive coordinator.”

Illini Offensive & Defensive Snap Counts at Nebraska (via Pro Football Focus)

Offense - 70 total snaps

QB - Altmyer - 70

RB - Feagin - 34

RB - McCray - 20

RB - Laughery - 11

RB - Valentine - 5

RB - Anderson - 1

WR - Bryant - 69

WR - Franklin - 41 (Injured but did return late)

WR - Dixon - 39

WR - Elzy - 25

WR - Beatty - 13

WR - Wilcher - 5

WR - Hollins - 2

TE - Arkin - 60

TE - Carson Gooda - 12

OL - Kreutz - 70

OL - Gesky - 70

OL - Davis - 70

OL - Priestly - 69

OL - Crisler - 60

OL - Henderson - 11 (not all of his snaps were as a TE in jersey 94)

OL - Kevin Wigenton II - 10

OL - TJ McMillen - 3

Defense - 69 total snaps

DL - Briggs Jr. - 57

DL - Bray - 21

DL - Farrell - 21

DL - Holmes - 15

NT - Edwards - 60

NT - Warren - 8

NT - McCollum - 2

LB - Rosiek - 56

LB - Meed - 22

LB - Kreutz - 17

LB - Odeluga - 2

OLB - Coleman - 59

OLB - Jacas - 50 (Also played at DL)

OLB - Bryant - 27

OLB - Barna - 16

OLB - JoJo Hayden - 8

CB - Terrance Brooks - 37

CB - Patterson - 35

CB - Cox Jr. - 28 (Also played at Nickel)

Nickel - Xavier Scott - 69 (Also played outside CB)

Nickel - Tyler Strain - 12

Safety - Bailey - 69

Safety - Miles Scott - 67

Safety - Resetich - 1