Hardeman, Illini secondary determined to fix mistakes

Donsay Hardeman sat with his head down after the Illini's disappointing season-opening loss to Missouri. The loss was disappointing for everyone in orange and blue, but Hardeman knew he had a particularly rough game.

"I'm very disappointed in my performance," he said. "I made some bad plays ... I'll make sure that, in all my will, that type of performance will never happen."

But the senior safety said last week that can't take all of the responsibility for players open downfield, even when it may look like he is to blame.

"We've been working on ... getting off the hash," he said. "It comes along with the corner giving me help. If you get in a jam, it looks bad on my behalf. But if you don't get in a jam, help me out, you know. It all goes together as one."

Hardeman pointed specifically to a first-half touchdown against Missouri, in which he and cornerback Tavon Wilson were beaten down the sideline by receiver Wes Kemp.

"That looked like my fault, but it wasn't all on me," Hardeman said. "The corner's got to give me help, you know. We've been working on that, we've been getting better at that."

With all of these problems, the bye week certainly came at an opportune time for the secondary. The Illini abstained from watching tape and preparing for Ohio State last week, instead looking inward.

"The corners have to do a better job of rerouting, and the safeties have to stay deep and take good angles, all things that are correctable that we've been working on these last two weeks," defensive backs coach Curt Mallory said. "You can't make a small mistake back there, or it's a touchdown."

As far as the missed tackles, Hardeman knows that he has to temper his big-hitting tendencies in order to bring his man to the ground.

"Everybody knows that I'm a big hitter, and sometimes I have to remind myself, it's not always about the big hit," he said. "Just get the guy on the ground. But I'm human, I'm going to miss tackles, and I'm going to try my hardest not to."

Hardeman has been lauded for his work ethic when faced with adversity. He was kept out of spring practice with a neck injury and told that he may not be able to play this season. The senior was back for camp, though, and isn't feeling the effects of the injury. Now Hardeman's facing a different kind of adversity, and Mallory said he's working his way through it.

"He's gotten better these last few practices, he's got a good attitude," Mallory said. "You see him out here, he's doing some of the same things, he's working on it extra, and he needs to get better, so we think he's going to be good."

Hardeman and his teammates know that they need to fix these mistakes this weekend against Ohio State.

Cornerback Tavon Wilson left little doubt as to the confidence of the defensive backfield.

"The secondary's not going to be a problem," he said. "We're going to play better."