The College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin conducted its second-annual football coaches Internet chat on Aug. 5. Here's the “Q and A” with Carthage head coach Tim Rucks:
Question: Give everyone a brief overview of your thoughts on the upcoming season along with a brief description of what you expect from your team this year.
Coach Rucks: I expect our defense to be much improved, as we have most everyone back from last season and from injury. I think we will be very athletic on that side of the ball. With a quarterback like ours, I think you will always have a chance, and I like our receivers. They have gotten a lot of practice and game experience. We have three holes to fill in the offensive line, and that's our questions mark. I like the make-up of our team and how they go about things.
Question: What are your thoughts on the incoming class for this season?
Coach Rucks: As in all freshmen classes, you wait and see. You hope you do not have to rely on too many of them in their first year. We really like ours. I think on paper, it may be one of our best. I'm most excited about our offensive line as a group. If they hang together, they could do some good things together. Overall, the recruiting class has accomplished a lot at the high school level and are good students. We're excited about them.
Question: Do you see your running game developing at all this fall after ranking second-to-last in 2009?
Coach Rucks: We thought we got where we wanted to be in the last three games of last season, when in each game, our quarterback threw for 300 yards and we had a 100-yard rusher. We will do what we have to do, and a lot of that is dictated by game situations. We are happy to run the ball if we have to and feel we have the people to do it. I was happy with our running game in weeks eight, nine and 10 last season.
Question: Do you expect big things out of your kicker this year? Do you think he might kick your way into the playoffs?
Coach Rucks: Tyler Funk is a great kicker and also a great punter, maybe the best in the country. You cannot rely on a kicker to get yourself in the playoffs, but it does add a dimension that helps your play calling. He's a definite asset.
The CCIW football coaches picked North Central (6 first-place votes, 48 points) to win the 2010 title, followed by Wheaton (Ill., 1 first-place vote, 41 points) second, Augustana (Ill., 1 first-place vote, 33 points) and Illinois Wesleyan (33 points) tied for third, Carthage (28 points) fifth, Millikin (21 points) sixth, Elmhurst (13 points) seventh and North Park University (seven points) eighth.
