CHAMPAIGN — The three sacks last Saturday against Purdue were a single-game career high for Illinois defensive end Owen Carney Jr.
By an extraordinary margin.
Carney’s three sacks against the Boilermakers also doubled as a single-season career high for the senior out of Miami, topping his 2 1/2 sacks in 12 games in 2018 in one fell swoop.
Illinois coach Lovie Smith called it the “best game” of Carney’s career.
“It’s supposed to happen like that,” Smith said. “Owen’s a graduate. He’s smart. He’s got size. He’s got speed. He hadn’t been able to put it all together, but he was involved and made plays this past week.”
The 6-foot-3, 260-pound Carney said he realized what he had accomplished by sacking Purdue quarterback Aidan O’Connell three times.
That he had more sacks in a single game than he’s had in single seasons. That his three sacks in one game also nearly matched his career total of 4 1/2 through the three previous seasons.
“That kind of amazes me a little bit how far I’ve come,” Carney said.
Carney finished Saturday’s 31-24 loss to Purdue with six tackles (also a career high), 3 1/2 tackles for loss (also a career high) and forced his first career fumble for good measure. But he wasn’t focused on his individual success against the Boilermakers in the aftermath of Saturday’s game.
Carney turned his attention instead to his mistakes.
The two other possible sacks where he couldn’t get O’Connell to the ground. The three penalties he committed. Two offside infractions. A flag for roughing the passer.
“The great game a couple people are telling me that I had, I’m just looking at is as a ‘What if?’ moment type of thing,” Carney said. “What if I would have made those other two (sacks) that I missed? What if I made that tackle in the backfield that I missed? I’m really not feeling so much shine. I’m trying to correct those errors that I made so I can become a better player.”
That’s been Carney’s approach since his high school days at Miami Central, where he won a state title in 2015 as a junior and left as a top-500 recruit in the country. Focusing on his mistakes has always been his path forward to improvement, and that took on more importance once he arrived at Illinois.
“After games, I try not to reflect on the good that I’ve done,” Carney said. “I know I have all offseason to look at that. I really spend my nights thinking in the back of my mind, ‘Hey, O, you just missed that sack. Hey, O, you just missed that TFL. Hey, O, you must missed that batted ball.’
“Those type of things haunt me. Saturday and Sunday I was really thinking about that — a lot. People said I had a good game — three sacks, yeah, whatever. I also had three penalties, and I could have had more sacks and more TFLs to better set myself up.”
Carney said he developed that approach based off games where he wasn’t filling up the stat sheet. Where his only possible stats might have been a tackle or sack that he missed.
“Stuff like that creeps up on me all the time,” Carney said. “I get flashbacks from my freshman or sophomore year — even last year — me missing plays and the game stat line not ending with three sacks or three TFLs.”
Carney played immediately as a true freshman at Illinois in 2017 after arriving that spring as an early enrollee. His role grew in 2018 to where he made eight starts in 12 games and then shrank again in 2019 after the arrival of Southern California transfer Oluwole Betiku Jr.
Betiku’s decision not to return to Illinois for the 2020 season opened the door for a renewed role for Carney. He knew it, and upped his offseason workouts with strength and conditioning coach Lou Hernandez accordingly. Before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, at least.
Carney continued to work on his own after campus was closed in March, and again with Hernandez when the Illini returned to town this summer. All with an eye on being ready to grab that starting defensive end spot.
“He understands it’s his last year,” Smith said. “He understands everything that’s happened before. You work hard in the weight room, which he’s done. He’s studied the game more. You hope you play better based on your preparation. That’s what he’s doing.
“He’s been around here a while. He’s supposed to play well now. When you get to your senior year, everything that you’ve learned should be on display each week. What he’ll talk to you about is that he can definitely go another level. He can definitely take another step. That’s what I’m excited about.”
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