Pregame: Illinois at Michigan, Saturday, October 13th, 2:30pm CT, ABC or ESPN

[Dan]

Illinois Fighting Illini (2-4, 0-2) at Michigan Wolverines (3-2, 1-0)

Date: Saturday, October 13th, 2012

Location: Michigan Stadium, Ann Arbor, MI (109,901)

Time: 2:30pm CT

TV: ABC or ESPN

Series: Michigan leads 68-23-2


B1G LEADERS DIVISION
Ohio State*______2-0___6-0
Penn State*______2-0___4-2
Wisconsin________1-1___4-2
Purdue___________0-1___3-2
Indiana__________0-2___2-3
Illinois_________0-2___2-4
*Ohio State and Penn State are eligible to win the Leaders Division, but ineligible to participate in the B1G title game and postseason play.

B1G LEGENDS DIVISION
Iowa_____________1-0___3-2
Michigan_________1-0___3-2
Northwestern_____1-1___5-1
Michigan State___1-1___4-2
Nebraska_________1-1___4-2
Minnesota________0-1___4-1

[mdonsbach]

Oh boy.

scUM - 52
Illini - 13

[illynifan34]

I'll be there. Go Illini, so more improvement I'll be happy.

[AHSIllini32]

I want to at least be in this at half with the hopes the Denard starts forcing things and we 2-3 INT's.

[Shenanigans]

48-10 Michigan. The coaching search continues....

[AHSIllini32]

Originally Posted by Shenanigans

48-10 Michigan. The coaching search continues....

As does the search for patience and understanding among a certain portion of the fanbase...

[Ransom Stoddard]

Originally Posted by Shenanigans

48-10 Michigan. The coaching search continues....

Let us know when it begins. :rolleyes:

Michigan is by far the best team we will have seen so far this season, but they're far from complete and far from infallible. If we have the same level of improvement in the next week as we did in the last, we should be competitive. It's going to be on the LBs to help get pressure on Robinson.

scUM 35
24

[Judgesmails]

patience and understanding. search for improvement.

The keys to MT's new marketing plan.

All the key elements to a Gameday.

[illynifan34]

I am so frustrated with the people who thought that Beckman would have this team humming along like OSU this year, no great coach wanted to come to Illinois, we lost 6 straight to end the year, Zook recruited like absolute crap the last 3 years and you expect Beckman to be doing better than we are right now? Give me a break, this was not going to be a great year no matter who the coach is, there was no way we would lose 6 straight last year, lose a lot of the talent on defense, gain no talent on offense and have a good year this year. Use your brain.

[Judgesmails]

add in compassion for all sentient beings,

and altruistic love for others including the opponent and the officials,

Then have good shot at persuading His Holiness the Dalai Lama to be grand marshall at homecoming

This could really turn into something big

[mattcoldagelli]

Originally Posted by illynifan34

I am so frustrated with the people who thought that Beckman would have this team humming along like OSU this year, no great coach wanted to come to Illinois, we lost 6 straight to end the year, Zook recruited like absolute crap the last 3 years and you expect Beckman to be doing better than we are right now?

It's really crazy how much this apparently needs to be brought up. Everyone talking about how much we had "returning" seems to forget that they are returning from nosediving to an 0-6 finish in the conference schedule.

Clearly, I'm not enjoying what I'm seeing - I can't imagine anyone is - but some of you are totally out of your minds.

[HsvIllini]

Originally Posted by Shenanigans

48-10 Michigan. The coaching search continues....

Did the Scout exodus bring a huge black cloud with it? Good lord people it's 6 games in... :rolleyes:

[NicelyDone]

Over the years, the Michigan game was the be all end all game for me. It was the game that I wanted to win the most out of the entire schedule. Now, I just want to see us play better than we did yesterday at Wisconsin. Just be a little better each week.

[Sure Shot]

Could be very ugly. Could be another step in the right direction. I'd guess the former.

[NicelyDone]

Originally Posted by illynifan34

I am so frustrated with the people who thought that Beckman would have this team humming along like OSU this year, no great coach wanted to come to Illinois, we lost 6 straight to end the year, Zook recruited like absolute crap the last 3 years and you expect Beckman to be doing better than we are right now? Give me a break, this was not going to be a great year no matter who the coach is, there was no way we would lose 6 straight last year, lose a lot of the talent on defense, gain no talent on offense and have a good year this year. Use your brain.

Fair enough, I'm not sure that people thought we would be humming along like OSU, but having an expectation that we would be around .500 and possibly bowl eligible was not too much of a stretch. I don't recall a lot of outlandish expectations, but I could be wrong.

[HsvIllini]

Originally Posted by NicelyDone

Fair enough, I'm not sure that people thought we would be humming along like OSU, but having an expectation that we would be around .500 and possibly bowl eligible was not too much of a stretch. I don't recall a lot of outlandish expectations, but I could be wrong.

True those aren't outlandish expectations, but for people to be calling for his job at this point is downright crazy. As illynifan34 said, I don't know what people were expecting ending the season losing 6 straight and losing players on top of it. Combine that with a new group of coaches that haven't really coached together before and things aren't going to be pretty for a minute.

[Sure Shot]

Originally Posted by illynifan34

I am so frustrated with the people who thought that Beckman would have this team humming along like OSU this year, no great coach wanted to come to Illinois, we lost 6 straight to end the year, Zook recruited like absolute crap the last 3 years and you expect Beckman to be doing better than we are right now? Give me a break, this was not going to be a great year no matter who the coach is, there was no way we would lose 6 straight last year, lose a lot of the talent on defense, gain no talent on offense and have a good year this year. Use your brain.

I mean, "humming along like OSU" is a gigantic strawman.

No Big Ten team should look the way we looked from week 2 through week 6, period, end of story. We were an embarrassment, not because the final scores were lopsided, but because we failed to execute even the most basic elements of football.

That those sort of performances happened repeatedly, at any point, with any talent level, is a massive indictment of what the coaching staff had done, to that point.

Now, we improved dramatically this week. It's not as if we played fantastic, but we were organized, relatively disciplined, and we at least forced the other team to beat us. There were certainly some mistakes and we didn't play 60 minutes of quality football, but it was truly night-and-day from the previous few weeks. Can we keep this up, or more importantly make strides from here? That's what we ought to be watching for.

There's no question many people's preseason predictions did not reflect reality. Even my 5-7 pick seems ambitious in retrospect. Quite what happened to our offensive line from 2010 to 2011 (and continuing now) is beyond me, but we are utterly talentless at the offensive skill positions and at several key spots in the defensive back 7. That will take time. But there is a clear distinction between losing because of your limitations, or because of lack of familiarity with a scheme, and losing because you are playing crappy football. The latter goes on the coaching staff whether it's game 2 or game 50 or game 300. And we had been doing the latter in spades.

Here's hoping yesterday's step in the right direction is followed by another.

[NicelyDone]

Originally Posted by HsvIllini

True those aren't outlandish expectations, but for people to be calling for his job at this point is downright crazy. As illynifan34 said, I don't know what people were expecting ending the season losing 6 straight and losing players on top of it. Combine that with a new group of coaches that haven't really coached together before and things aren't going to be pretty for a minute.

But it could be said that much of the angst is 20+ years in the making. There has been a lot of pent up frustration among Illini Nation since Mackovic left for Texas. We have had a lot of flawed coaches on our sidelines oh these many years so when it looks like we are going to see the same movie again people are going to get very frustrated and say some foolish things.

Let's just start playing better, which we did yesterday, and perhaps the rhetoric will change.

[HsvIllini]

Originally Posted by NicelyDone

But it could be said that much of the angst is 20+ years in the making. There has been a lot of pent up frustration among Illini Nation since Mackovic left for Texas. We have had a lot of flawed coaches on our sidelines oh these many years so when it looks like we are going to see the same movie again people are going to get very frustrated and say some foolish things.

Let's just start playing better, which we did yesterday, and perhaps the rhetoric will change.

Oh, I know exactly what you mean - I was there during the Mackovick to Tepper transition. I have been as frustrated as anyone. I just don't think it's fair to the new coach to have his head on the chopping block 6 games in with the situation he came into. And like you said, if we start improving and playing better, hopefully people will ease up a little bit. Easier said than done I know.

[Groundhogday]

Originally Posted by HsvIllini

Oh, I know exactly what you mean - I was there during the Mackovick to Tepper transition. I have been as frustrated as anyone. I just don't think it's fair to the new coach to have his head on the chopping block 6 games in with the situation he came into. And like you said, if we start improving and playing better, hopefully people will ease up a little bit. Easier said than done I know.

They key for Beckman will be to keep the team together psychologically, playing hard, competing, and improving through next week. Indiana and Minnesota are winnable games at home, but only if Beckman hasn't lost the team. Even Purdue and Northwestern aren't completely out of reach (both were brought back to reality this past weekend). In that regard, the Wisconsin game provided some positive news.

[HsvIllini]

Originally Posted by Groundhogday

They key for Beckman will be to keep the team together psychologically, playing hard, competing, and improving through next week. Indiana and Minnesota are winnable games at home, but only if Beckman hasn't lost the team. Even Purdue and Northwestern aren't completely out of reach (both were brought back to reality this past weekend). In that regard, the Wisconsin game provided some positive news.

Isn't that the truth. I felt bad for Hull after seeing that tweet he posted.

[Groundhogday]

Originally Posted by mattcoldagelli

It's really crazy how much this apparently needs to be brought up. Everyone talking about how much we had "returning" seems to forget that they are returning from nosediving to an 0-6 finish in the conference schedule.

I think a lot of fans are remembering only the bowl win against UCLA and not the final game collapse in Minneapolis. Putting the bowl game in context, UCLA entered the bowl game with a 6-7 record and interim head coach after Neuheisel was fired. It was an ugly game between two teams that didn't finish the season strong, hardly a battle of the Titans.

[Shenanigans]

Originally Posted by HsvIllini

Isn't that the truth. I felt bad for Hull after seeing that tweet he posted.

I missed that tweet. Mind sharing?

[HsvIllini]

Originally Posted by Shenanigans

I missed that tweet. Mind sharing?

Steve Hull ‏@SteveHull5
Im sorry team and #IlliniNation. I let my you both down tonight w a poor performance and mental errors. It will NOT happen again. #MyWord.

https://twitter.com/SteveHull5

[Dan]

Michigan opens a 21-pt favorite over Illinois