The Daily Illini sat down with redshirt freshman place-kicker Matt Eller after Tuesday’s practice to talk about the Big Ten season opener and life outside of his hometown of Jacksonville, Fla.

Daily Illini: First and foremost, how has this year been going for you?

Matt Eller: Pretty good, it’s been very solid; a lot of good kicks, I guess.

DI: And in school too, how has everything been?

ME: (Laughs) Well, that’s another story. But, you know, I’m trying to get that together right now. It’s a little harder for me.

DI: The start of the Big Ten season, how do you feel about it?

ME: I’m excited. I think we’re ready to play. We haven’t played too well, or played to the capability we are able to. But I think we’ll step it up and surprise a lot of teams this year.

DI: Do you think this year’s Penn State game will resemble last year’s?

ME: It could come down to a close game; I still think we’ll compete. A lot of people aren’t really giving us a chance, you know, but I think we’ll come out and surprise a lot of people out there and do pretty good.

DI: Any predictions for the score?

ME: No prediction, but an Illini win.

DI: And I’ve heard this rumor that you have a tattoo … inside your lip?

ME: Yeah, it was kind of a joke, I went up there with Brit (Miller), and I decided to get a tattoo on my lip, like just messing around, randomly. I decided to get ‘cha brah’ which is like a Florida saying back home.

DI: Okay, and what does that mean?

ME: It’s just like a slang we use back home to just chill out and relax. Yeah, my mom doesn’t really know about that, I mean it’s not really a big deal, but no mom really wants to hear that their son has a tattoo in their mouth. Yeah, I got it like just as a joke for back home, it relaxes me and stuff. I guess cause you’ll see people doing this (does hang 10-hand motion) on the sidelines and stuff, saying like ‘cha brah.’ It’s just like a Florida slang thing I guess.

DI: So has ‘cha brah’ been picked up by the rest of the team?

ME: I would say a lot on field goals, I mean mostly on special teams and stuff because everyone’s got their own thing. For me, it’s more of like a chill, when I go out on the field I’m more relaxed than a lot of people, just because of my position, it’s all a mental game.

DI: Are you close to your Illini teammates who are from Florida?

ME: Troy Pollard, I played against him in high school. We’re from different areas of the city, but it’s a connection we all have, you know? So it’s still cool, we all throw up Duval County for Coach Locks during field goals, saying ‘Du-val’ which is something we have back home. It’s the county, so you’ll hear a bunch of stuff about that, it’s pretty legit.