Recent content by Madco Illini

I don’t disagree with much here, but it’s all based on feelings. It’s a results based industry and 4 or 5 wins simply isn’t going to cut it. We need to go bowling the next 2 years. Bielema “didn’t come here to go 5-7”.

Why are you this confident? Did you blackout for all last years games?

What’s 5 wins to you? IMO that puts you in a tough spot. Pop quiz, who was the last Illini coach with 3+ years here to miss a bowl in both years 3 and 4.

You’re using rebuilds from 2-3 decades ago. A lot has changed in Cfb. All the bad programs that turned things around had big years 4 and 5. If we miss bowls in 1 of those 2 years, then things probably aren’t going to work realistically. That’s why last year was huge. It could have provided a...

I was sky high last year, but reality slapped me in the face. Getting run off the field by Kansas and going 0-3 vs first year coaches really killed the vibe. To make matters worse I was talking up Bielema/Illinois to some Mizzou buddies of mine. Ouch.

Much of the negativity is based on missing expectations in year 3 by a lot. Jeremy Werner was at 8 wins, and he’s normally conservative. Years 3-4-5 are the judgement years for football and we just took a step back after a lot of talk last offseason. It’s absolutely critical to make a bowl this...

We are on message boards after a 5 win season. I’m not sure you know what a fair weather fan is.

Recent history says other otherwise. If we take a step back from last year, then we are just a bad team with 90% of Bielema’s hand picked players. Trust me, I don’t want to start over.

Bielema has overachieved on player development, and underachieved on the field. That’s uncharted territory for us, because normally we suck at both. You’d think they would be very closely correlated. Hopefully things come together next year.

The trend is great, but the problem is we aren’t going to feel that 2024 recruiting class bump until 2026. Years 2024 and 2025 will be the judgement years for Bielema, so he’s going to need the portal to hit and his bad initial recruiting class to drastically over perform. Excellent work though.

Based on other challenging rebuilds, Bielema will not be successful long term unless he has 6+ wins the next few years. 7-8 wins is the average for most successful P5 rebuilds in years 4,5 and 6.

What’s your expectations for the team the next 2 years? To me, years 4 and beyond are judgement years for rebuilds.

Any coach who takes over will have 5 full recruiting cycles of their players by year 6. Everything is where it should be by year 6 or it’s unlikely to work. 4-5 years is about the max amount of time a coach should expect at any job, regardless of how big the rebuild is.

If we need to replace Mizzou with a cupcake to “hope to sniff a bowl”, then BB won’t be here. That’s year 6 of the rebuild. You have to be good sometime or you don’t get to coach anymore. That’s how college football works.