Football columnist Troy Murray sat down with offensive line coach Ed Warinner and defensive line coach Tom Sims to talk about how the illini are progressing on both sides of the football.

Question: How did your three seasons at Air Force and two seasons with Kansas compare with your time at Illinois?

Answer: The programs are in different places. It was very similar in Kansas, you know a nice Midwestern town like this. (Kansas was also) a real good university with a program they were trying to build. Air Force was a little different just because they had been on top of the Mountain West Conference and the WAC for many years. So, their program was in a different place than we are here.

Q: Head coach Ron Zook has continued to praise the offensive line, saying it’s the “most improved” unit on the team. Why is that?

A: I think there’s some experience there with a few positions. You have some new talent with a guy who transferred in (from Oklahoma), (Akim Millington), and a guy who was moved from the d-line (Charles Myles). All of them have had great increases in strength in our weight program and they understand the system. The additional talent has helped us out with our depth.

Q: Tim Brasic and Isiah “Juice” Williams are both very mobile quarterbacks. How does that affect the offensive line? Does it make it any easier?

A: I think it gives us more options on offense. I think it gives them some ability to escape defenders while in the pocket. So if they drop back in the pocket and they can’t find an open receiver and (a defender) starts to leak through the protection, they can make something positive out of it, which they have both shown they can do well. I think that’s good.

4 Questions with Defensive Line Coach Tom Sims

Q: How did your four seasons with Minnesota compare with your time here at Illinois?

A: My first year at Minnesota we went through similar growing pains. You’re talking about going into a more established situation where they had been there and had gone to a Bowl game (the year prior). But we struggled that first year. We were further along there because it was more established. But it’s similar in that you have to keep hitting the rock. You have to put your head down and keep hitting the rock and sooner or later it’s going to break. You’ve seen it time and time again in this conference.

Q: How’s it been last year and this year with Zook? How’s your relationship with him?

A: It’s been fine. It’s a growing experience, getting out here and learning a lot of football. You also learn a lot about yourself because we are going through a lot of hard times.

Q: How does the defensive line contribute to the old adage “defense wins championships”?

A: I think any championship is a total team effort and any total team effort is everybody from the scout team to the managers, coaches, everybody doing their part. We’re trying to get our people to believe in that. If they do their job to the best of their ability on every snap and if you get all 11 people doing that then you’ll see improvement. Soon, the improvement will turn into victories.

Q: You played seven years in the NFL before starting your coaching career. How does that experience effect your coaching?

A: I’m not sure how it effects my coaching but I do have a different view of the game. I think it gives me some insight that some guys may not have, I don’t think it’s necessarily an advantage, though. What it comes down to is whether your players perform, no matter what you did in the past.