Practice Summary (via Illinois Athletics)

The Fighting Illini moved to Camp Rantoul on Sunday night and held their first practice at the former Chanute Air Force base on Monday morning. The Illini hit the practice fields at 10:45 a.m. in full pads for the first time this season. Illinois worked extensively on special teams fundamentals for the first portion of practice, then moved into individual drills, 7-on-7 and team situations on a humid, overcast morning.

Following practice, the Illini have an afternoon filled with film study and meetings, treatment with the first two-a-day session of Training Camp looming on Tuesday. The Orange and Blue will practice at 9:45 a.m. and 5 p.m. on Tuesday.

Practice Notes

- The BTN Bus Tour made its first stop in Rantoul on Monday and the BTN Live crew interviewed players and coaches throughout the day. You can click here to see a great writeup from Tom Dienhart; he stated that Illinois "finally looks like a Big Ten team."

- Ted Karras, Joe Spencer, Christian DiLauro, and Austin Schmidt took just about every first team rep on the offensive line. Left guard will be up for grabs throughout camp, but these four will definitely start against Kent State should they each stay healthy. Speaking of left guard, Chris Boles took reps with the first team on Monday.

- Scouts from the Houston Texans, San Diego Chargers, and Jacksonville Jaguars were at training camp on Monday. It sounds like they were primarily focused on Jihad Ward and Ted Karras.

- Reggie Corbin (offense) and Julian Jones (defense) were the first two freshman to be 'de-striped' this year. All of Illinois' first-year players begin camp with a single white strip down the middle of their helmets; as they're taken off, it signifies that they're no longer considered a newcomer.

- After practice, Beckman noted that freshmen Ke'Shawn Vaughn, Reggie Corbin, and Sam Mays have made a great early impression after five days of practice.

Players sitting out with injury:

• OL Gabe Megginson (suffered minor knee injury during the Summer)
• DL Kenny Nelson (lower extremity injury; precautionary)
• LB Mike Sventina (minor foot injury)
• WR Mikey Dudek (ACL)
• RB Dre Brown (ACL)
• DB Cameron Watkins
• DL Joe Fotu
• RB Kendrick Foster

Josh Ferguson Post-Practice Interview

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