Sunday’s football practice ended in an unusual way.

Junior wide receiver Ryan Lankford said the Illini offense had to get on the ground and roll down the length of the field and back as a punishment for off-the-field missteps.

“A couple guys weren’t taking care of things they needed to do,” Lankford said. “Showing up late to meetings and things like that. When you’re trying to be great as a team, the little things count and that’s something that we really hold true here.”

When the offensive coaches ordered the players to line up on the goal line, Lankford thought they were in for some running.

“But they said lay down, and I’m thinking, ‘OK, are we going to have to do up-downs or push-ups?’” he said. “And they’re like, start rolling. Then I saw the guys start rolling and I’m like, oh my goodness.”

After it was all said and done, Lankford would have preferred to run.

“Would have rather done anything else in the world,” he said, adding that some players vomited after the 200-yard roll. “You get about 30 yards in, you start to get dizzy, and it’s a tough situation from there.”

Lankford, the only offensive player available to the media Monday, said recovering from the dizzying 200-yard roll wasn’t an easy feat either.

“Forty-five, 50 minutes after the fact, I was still in my shorts, not showered yet, just in my locker just trying to get my mind back together,” he said. “The message was received.”

Defense seeing colors

Two weeks ago, Arizona State’s up-tempo offense “shredded the Illini defense”:https://www.dailyillini.com/article/2012/09/illinois-defense-a-liability-against-arizona-state for 510 yards and 45 points. After the game, several Illinois players and coaches cited communication issues as reasons for several defensive breakdowns.

The Illini are again preparing to face a team with a similarly high-tempo offense in Louisiana Tech, and the coaching staff is looking to simplify the play calling process as time between plays will be scarce.

“What they force you to do with their speed is limit what you’re doing,” head coach Tim Beckman said. “You’re not going to be able to do a whole bunch of things because you want to make sure that everything that’s put in, is put in correctly.”

Rather than waiting for various hand signals from the coaches on the sideline, the Illini have streamlined the process by implementing color cards after the Arizona State loss in which each color corresponds to specific call.

“We actually told the coaches to stop trying to signal in calls when (the opponents) go in that route, going that fast,” STAR Ashante Williams said. “Everybody knows this color means a certain type of defense, so we’re going to resort to that a lot this week.”

Tight-lipped

Per usual, Beckman declined to elaborate on the status of any “injured players”:https://www.dailyillini.com/article/2012/09/injuries-stacking-up-for-illinois-football for this week’s game against Louisiana Tech.

Six starters were held out of Saturday’s “win over Charleston Southern,”:https://www.dailyillini.com/article/2012/09/illini-roll-against-charleston-behind-play-of-otoole_0917 and Beckman only revealed that quarterback Nathan Scheelhaase, who missed the past two games with an ankle injury, practiced Sunday night.

“We’re not being cautious with anybody,” Beckman said. “He just wasn’t ready. We’re not going to put anybody out there that’s not ready.”

In addition to Scheelhaase, center Graham Pocic, linebacker Houston Bates, running back Josh Ferguson and safeties Supo Sanni and Steve Hull were among the starters who missed Saturday’s game. Kicker Nick Immekus and wide receiver Darius Millines both left with injuries.

“You saw all the guys dressed in shirts and shorts on the sidelines,” he said. “This is the most (injuries) that I’ve ever been around in my entire life.”

Recruiting to play

While the players who sat out Week Three are a cause for concern, the players who replaced them did their best.

Twenty-two players have made their Illini debut this season including six true freshmen. Four in particular stood out against Charleston Southern: running back Dami Ayoola, defensive back V’Angelo Bentley, wide receiver Justin Hardee and linebacker Mason Monheim.

Ayoola ran for 55 yards and one touchdown, Bentley broke up three pass attempts, Justin Hardee caught five balls for 99 yards and Monheim hauled in his first career interception.

Beckman and the coaching staff have talked about young players needing game experience to build depth, but the early playing time for freshmen and sophomores has an added benefit.

“If I’m a high school football player, I’d love to go some place where I know I can play right away and not watch,” Beckman said. “When we’re out on the road and we’re able to recruit and talk to the young men on the phones, those are things that we talk about doing is coming in and being a starter and having that possibility like a Mason Monheim has.”

Chad can be reached at [email protected] and @cthornburg10.