Big Ten Media Days 2018

#6      

FeelYourPaign

FeelYourPaign
So Cal
FeelYourPaign
Assume that is 2 reporters per Big Ten school? And they all pick us last. Ouch.
One more year as the whipping boy, before we begin to see the gains, apparently.
 
#7      

Illiini

Illiini
In the land of the Nittany Lion
Illiini
FeelYourPaign said:
Assume that is 2 reporters per Big Ten school? And they all pick us last. Ouch.
One more year as the whipping boy, before we begin to see the gains, apparently.
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They get to predict. They don't get to determine the outcome. That's why they play the games.

Remember, these are the same guys who are saying that Lovie is on the hot seat. I suspect these guys spend a lot of time analyzing the top teams and not so much those who are/were at the other end of last year's standings. That said, Illinois has to earn respect, and it will be fun proving these guys wrong. "...shouting defiance, Oskee-wow-wow!"

Pass the Koolaid please.
 
#12      

Deleted member 631370

D
Guest
Deleted member 631370
Illiini said:
They get to predict. They don't get to determine the outcome. That's why they play the games.

Remember, these are the same guys who are saying that Lovie is on the hot seat. I suspect these guys spend a lot of time analyzing the top teams and not so much those who are/were at the other end of last year's standings. That said, Illinois has to earn respect, and it will be fun proving these guys wrong. "...shouting defiance, Oskee-wow-wow!"

Pass the Koolaid please.
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I don't know. I, like most of these guys, spend most of my time watching the likes of Penn State, Ohio State, and Michigan, but I also watch the other teams. And Illinois really sucks.

Another 2 or 3 win season, and the "Lovie is on the hot seat" chorus will get a bit louder. Ultimately only JW gets to determine how hot that seat is, but you can't keep losing and expect anybody outside of the kool-aid drinking circle to believe.
 
#15      

DrewD007

DrewD007
Woodridge, IL
DrewD007
Hoppy2105 said:
Yet.

(And I do still have faith in the rebuild)
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Yep. He’s safe regardless of on field performance this year, but if he puts up another 2-3 win season, his seat will be hot going into 2019.
 
#16      

Sizzler22

S
Sizzler22
DrewD007 said:
Yep. He’s safe regardless of on field performance this year, but if he puts up another 2-3 win season, his seat will be hot going into 2019.
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No it won’t. Look at the players coming in after this season. How long does a rebuild take in your opinion?
 
#17      

DrewD007

DrewD007
Woodridge, IL
DrewD007
Sizzler22 said:
No it won’t. Look at the players coming in after this season. How long does a rebuild take in your opinion?
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I guess I did not articulate my point well. He can survive a 2-3 win season this year, but if he has only 3-4 wins in 2019 I think Josh Whitman has a difficult decision to make. I don’t imagine this being a problem though.

As far as how long a rebuild should take, I think it always depends. Generally though I think by year 3 (fwiw I consider the upcoming season to be Lovie’s second), you should be close to bowl eligibility.
 
#19      

Dan

Dan
Admin
Dan

Lovie at the podium summary:
Year three of the overhaul for us is on the way. We established some things we needed to take care of — one being facilities. Really excited about our state of the art facility we'll be moving into at this time next year. #Illini

Lovie: A lot of exciting things are happening as we talk about Year 3 of the rebuild. When you start 15 true freshmen and one redshirt freshman that tells you about where you're at with your program. #Illini

Lovie: Year 3 will produce results. #Illini

Lovie: Also excited about some new additions to our staff (Rod Smith, Cory Patterson, Austin Clark, Gill Byrd). #Illini

Lovie: We realize we haven't won enough football games. #Illini

Lovie: We're excited about our schedule. When you only leave the state of Illinois one time until late October, you have to be excited about that. We need to get off to a good start. #Illini

Lovie: We have some legitimate training camp battles starting with who will be our quarterback. #Illini

Lovie: Last year I don't think (new redshirt rule) would have changed much. We felt like we needed to play those freshmen who gave us the best chance to win. Odds are we're going to play more (young guys) this year, but we have options. #Illini

Lovie: We need to be able to keep our guys in our state as much as anything. #Illini

Lovie: I don't think you should ever say this is how many wins we have to have. I just know behind the scenes (young players) have gotten so much better. There were about 3 games we didn't have a chance to win last year. The rest of the time we played competitive ball. #Illini

Lovie: I just know we're a better football team right now. With my history, that will show results through the course of the year. #Illini

Lovie: Mike Dudek is an excellent football player. Mike's had an excellent offseason and is completely healthy now. #Illini

Lovie: As we came into our program we evaluated it. We needed to upgrade the talent level. We're doing that. In an ideal world we wanted to have more wins, but I like where we are. #Illini

https://twitter.com/srrichey
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#20      

ILL in IA

ILL in IA
Iowa City
ILL in IA
Desert Illini said:
SInce when do the bookies/bettors determine B1G rules/guidelines? Do we make a dime off of their business? No. Why pander to them?
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Do you think Delaney would just pander to them for the sake of being nice? He sees a way for the B1G to get a cut.
 
#21      

dbeverly26

dbeverly26
dbeverly26
ILL in IA said:
Do you think Delaney would just pander to them for the sake of being nice? He sees a way for the B1G to get a cut.
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There are other reasons to do this, too. The more transparent teams are about stuff like this, the less of an opportunity big-time gamblers will have to manipulate the players and staff. Having an athletic trainer on the take in exchange for inside information isn't on par with point shaving or anything, but you just don't want to give those guys any way to get closer to your team.
 
#23      

Second and Chalmers

S
Second and Chalmers
DrewD007 said:
I guess I did not articulate my point well. He can survive a 2-3 win season this year, but if he has only 3-4 wins in 2019 I think Josh Whitman has a difficult decision to make. I don’t imagine this being a problem though.
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The worm is gonna turn publicly with another bad season in a way I'm not sure people in the bubble are prepared for. And it's not just reading irritating sports columns, it presents a risk in recruiting too.

This is an important year.

On a lighter note, is Lovie going to keep the beard for the season? The people have spoken and they want the LovieBeard!
 
#24      

Deleted member 631370

D
Guest
Deleted member 631370
Sizzler22 said:
No it won’t. Look at the players coming in after this season. How long does a rebuild take in your opinion?
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We can argue about whether he will or won't be on the hot seat, but that really depends on JW and the pressure he's feeling from a variety of sources. Another 2 win season, and you can guarantee that discontent will increase. Enough to create a hot seat scenario? Probably not. But rising discontent, nonetheless.

As for the players he's bringing in......Beason and Williams are a great tandem, but our 2019 class doesn't feature a single kid in the top-800 outside of those two. Our 2018 class was the #12 class in the Big Ten, and we're probably going to fall outside of the top 10 in the Big Ten for the 2019 class as well. We are light years behind the upper tier of the Big Ten, lagging behind the likes of Iowa, Minnesota, and even Purdue, and probably on par with the likes of NW recruiting-wise.

In terms of trajectory based on talent, we are headed for maybe a 4-win season in 2019. If Lovie can only point to 10 or 11 wins in his first 4 seasons combined, you can believe the seat gets pretty hot.