Illinois 31, Kent State 24 POSTGAME

[the national]

A couple of things:

-Their tempo really messed with our youth and inexperienced players. Our guys just seemed generally confused on defense, and not sure what their assignment was. Finally, into the second half, the game slowed down, their tempo slowed down, and we were able to instill our playing style and start to control the lines. I think Kent State started to get tired and we outlasted them.

-Our Run game saved us. Running the ball started wearing them out, and gave us more control of the tempo. That was a battle but we eventually gained control of the pace of the game.

-The defense stuck with it. They could have folded, and I was actually looking for signs of defeat, but the guys kept working at it. We eventually started making an impact, with the interception and the TFLs.

-Booing is part of the game. These kids have to know why the fans are booing, they have thick skin and know they need to step up. I dont usually boo but I can understand why the fans did. that was an awful half of football. We looked totally out scouted.

 

[blackdog]

I have felt similar for years. Pre-game festivities are improving with grange grove for football, but in-game energy and excitement for the crowd is minimal for both football and basketball. Yes, part of the problem has been we have poor records in both football and basketball. Part of the problem rest in the lack of enthusiasm from fans, myself included. They have some positives like some excellent camera work in finding dancing fans and kids, but I wish someone with some influence could talk to the athletic department about improving the atmosphere. The band needs some new songs, especially since the war chant is gone. The crowd needs some new cheers and traditions, especially since the war chant is gone (the clapping chant was one of the few things the crowd participated in). Heck, the crowd hardly responds to the ILL-INI call and respond cheer anymore. It has to be fixed. If the television audience can hear boos from the crowd, but not cheers there is a major problem and it is just not winning games.

Also, booing your own college team is just not ok.

It sucks having the students so far away from the rest of the fans. I think that really drags down the energy since you can barely see or hear them. There were a couple ties during the game where I was wondering if I was actually hearing them start an ILL chant. Didn't help having the PA playing at the same time.

 

[BRucks]

I grew up in CU and went to Illinois games from 1970 to 1992; since then I've lived in Seattle. Crowds out here commit to games, even for bad teams, to a degree very seldom seen in CU. It's unfortunate. I used to think I was the odd one expecting a crowd to be into a game to try to pump a team up. Turns out that's what they do out here regularly, even when the team's 0-12 like the Huskies were not too long ago, even when the Seahawks were 2-14. Crowds were still loud and committed. Fans expect to be part of the event here. To a degree I never saw in CU. No idea why, but it's not new.

If you attended the games between 1970 and 1992, you should have seen plenty of enthusiasm at Memorial Stadium. Each time the Chief emerged from the Marching Illini the place went nuts. There were games during the White era when the crowd was so raucous that the upper deck started to sway and they had to have structural engineers come in and inspect the place.

 

[MadSeason]

We are...not good. I originally had us at 5 wins this season I'd like to readjust that to 2-3 wins. I don't think we win a B1G game this season. Maybe Purdue on HC or Rutgers but not close to for sure.

Kent State is bad. New QB and new coach or not. They are a terrible team. Our line got smoked by a bottom of the barrel MAC team. I was watching the first half with two MAC guys and they were dying of laughter all game watching us play. The 2nd half was more reassuring but...hot dang. Maybe all the suspensions had a bigger impact than I am giving credit for, idk.

It didn't help that I went to the ND vs Michigan game after watching Illinois and was able to compare the two. Holy cow night and day difference. If we played Michigan this year, their D line would destroy us.

I suppose if you compare us to Michigan and Notre Dame, yes we will look pretty bad. I'm not as confident as you that Kent St is a horrible as you think. Even so FEI predicted Illinois at 105 to start the season and Kent St. at 116. Given the suspensions we probably outperformed advanced analytics predictions which is good.

For reference sake Michigan St was predicted at #9 and Utah St. at #81. Penn St. predicted at #16 and App St at #70.

The first half was horrible, but we won with a great deal of adversity. It's not nothing for a program looking for positives

 

[PNWIllini]

If you attended the games between 1970 and 1992, you should have seen plenty of enthusiasm at Memorial Stadium. Each time the Chief emerged from the Marching Illini the place went nuts. There were games during the White era when the crowd was so raucous that the upper deck started to sway and they had to have structural engineers come in and inspect the place.

For the Chief at halftime? Absolutely.

 

[bluemountain]

For the Chief at halftime? Absolutely.

You obviously didn't go to any games during the 80's. I've been to games all over the country and nothing compares to the environment at MS during the White era

 

[lexwaldez]

With regards to Saturday, I expected a LOT more out of the first half offense having been to most of the practices this fall. The second half is EXACTLY what I had been expecting to see. I didn't boo, but I couldn't blame the crowd for doing it, and I don't think they were booing the players. I felt, at least where we were sitting, that we were all frustrated with the play calling. We have a stable full of amazing running backs, we have a mobile QB that can run, we have trouble providing protection in the pocket, so we drop back and try passing on first down. Again. and again? AND AGAIN? The running was working fine and they just refused to stick with it. Good lord that was frustrating to watch. We suck at third and long and we put ourselves in third and long over and over and over the first half. You want to try a bomb for six? Great, do that on 2nd and 3 or something. How about some easy passes and establishing a rythym and getting some confidence instead of trying to do the opposite? Brutal. So glad we adjusted eventually in the 2nd half and went with up tempo.

When I think back on the defense I think of two or three things. Our secondary looked over-matched. We had blown coverages and there were times when their receivers were all alone in an empty field. I wondered how that could be happening (I mean I knew we had a couple questions at linebacker but I didn't know we were starting all those freshmen at the time). And while our defense got gashed plenty on Saturday, they DID come through with some very key stands and grabbed some turnovers to boot. Those guys have a LOT to be proud of, especially when you think of how long those Fr had to practice and prepare with the 1's. And 7 of 11 were Fr and So with 3 tru Fr? That's nuts. Kent St was better than expected and our young D learned a lot and fast. Please bring back the starters for at least the second half this Saturday.

My takeaways were something like Rod Smith needed to get to know his kids and he did. Adjustments were made, the kids answered the call and we got a W (I mean if we lose that game almost everyone and I mean almost EVERYONE loses their #$@@ on this board and people are screaming hotseat). That W wasn't that big of a deal, but an L would have been catastrophic imho. I'm so sad to have learned Dudek is out. Nothing but respect for that young man. I wish him the very best. Williams or Stampley ready to pick up the slack?

Hope our D is back for game 2 and the youngsters can learn from a comfortable lead this time. That was a helluva an opener. BTN was nothing but complimentary which kind of freaked me out. I'm guessing none of them watched the game. =)

 

[Second and Chalmers]

You obviously didn't go to any games during the 80's. I've been to games all over the country and nothing compares to the environment at MS during the White era

The very best atmospheres elsewhere exceed what I've ever seen in Champaign, but MS can get rockin' pretty good when it matters.

But 11AM games against nobodies suck everywhere, including the SEC.

Let's be honest, when was the last game we played at home that mattered? That had any real juice in terms of a win actually doing something for us?

The Ohio State and Michigan games in 2011 would be the most recent you could possibly argue, IMO. The Arizona State game earlier that year was lit. Even considering the fanbase had totally given up on Zook by that point.

 

[Spanky]

The attendance is quite troubling.

31,898 paid attendance vs Kent State. Last year's opening attendance (vs Ball State) was 42.505. I've gone back as far as I can, and this 31,898 is the smallest September crowd for a football game at Memorial Stadium since at least the 1970s

 

[Deleted member 643761]

I grew up in CU and went to Illinois games from 1970 to 1992; since then I've lived in Seattle. Crowds out here commit to games, even for bad teams, to a degree very seldom seen in CU. It's unfortunate. I used to think I was the odd one expecting a crowd to be into a game to try to pump a team up. Turns out that's what they do out here regularly, even when the team's 0-12 like the Huskies were not too long ago, even when the Seahawks were 2-14. Crowds were still loud and committed. Fans expect to be part of the event here. To a degree I never saw in CU. No idea why, but it's not new.

Part of this is just a population factor. When you have a lower population within a drive of the school, it's going to make it that much tougher to get a large crowd. For someone to get a to a Washington game, literally a million people can get on mass transit to do that. We have millions that have to travel 2-3 hours one way.

I'm not trying to make excuses, but the percentage of Illini fans within one hour of the stadium that we need to fill it up is much higher than with many other teams.

Bottom line, we know we can get great crowds with exciting winning football. Hopefully we'll get there

 

[WeatherfordForMVP]

The DLine was my biggest concern coming out of this game. After watching the first time, I was pessimistic about their performance, as was Robert and many here. Then Rees Woodcock was high on the DLine. Now, Rees is overly optimistic anyway, but he went out of his way multiple times to praise the DLine. I decided to investigate by analyzing each play of the second half. Didn’t care to look at the first half...every unit was awful.

Kent State ran 43 plays from scrimmage in the second half. 12 were designed tailback run plays. There were no tackles for loss by the DLine. Two went for less than 4 yards with a tackle by a DLineman, one by Roundtree on 1st and goal at the end of the game and an impressive tackle by Carney. 5 were up the middle for 4 or more yards. 5 went immediately to the outside with tackles by a linebacker or DB.

Kent State ran 7 designed QB runs. Two went for 3 yards or less with a tackle by the DLine, but one of those was 4th and inches and they got the first. A third was a Hansen tackle on 2nd and goal at the end of the game, but it was good pursuit/containment by the DLine. Three involved some big holes and gains by Barrett. The seventh was on third and goal at the end of the game. It appeared to be a designed run for the QB but he had nowhere to go and ended up throwing an incomplete pass.

Kent State drew up designed pass plays 24 times in the second half. For 10 if them, the pass was too quick to allow for much pressure. For 9, there was enough time but the Illini got no meaningful pressure, meaning that it did not disrupt the QB’s rhythm. (For some of these, there was some pressure coming, but it was too late to disrupt the play). 6 of these 9 went for 10+ yards. Ouch. One of these 9 was deflected by Roundtree or Oliver and incomplete. One more incomplete, and the last complete for 6 when Kent State needed 16.

Four plays involved meaningful pressure. One by Oliver resulted in a high pass which was tipped by the receiver and intercepted. Another which was a real team effort resulted in an interception on 4th and goal at the end of the game. In another Isaiah Gay got in there resulting in an incomplete pass, and Roundtree was held, so 10 yard penalty. On the fourth, Gay had the drop on his man. Looked like he was held to me, no call, pass complete for 10 yards.

Only one sack. Play never developed for Kent State downfield, and whole line got off their blockers as Barrett scrambled to his right. Avery got their first to slow down Barrett, then Carney and Jackson combined for the sack.

While most of the units went from awful to good/great at halftime, my impression is that the DLine went from awful to average at best against a young, MAC OLine. It did contribute to both interceptions and it did come up big at the end of the game with the goal line stand. There just weren’t a lot of other impact plays from a unit that was supposed to be full of playmakers. Obviously the return of Milan should help (but when?), but that would seem to be a troubling performance from a unit that is supposed to be strong this year.

 

[Second and Chalmers]

I'm not trying to make excuses, but the percentage of Illini fans within one hour of the stadium that we need to fill it up is much higher than with many other teams.

I don't think that claim would hold up to scrutiny. A lot of big time colleges are in the middle of nowhere. Penn State and Clemson spring to mind.

Any time Illinois football has been any good at all we've easily sold out whatever the capacity at MS was for every game against a real team, save for the occasional strange Thanksgiving situation.

The attendance data suggests that this is a fanbase that is well aware when they're being fed garbage, and is desperate for anything but.

Selling out that UNC night game Lovie's first year is about as telling as it gets. There is an army of people just waiting for the abject, historic, unprecedented and totally nationally singular ineptitude to end. It's a miracle there are still 31,000 people who want to watch this. Illini fans are the very best.

 

[EyeoftheIllini]

1-0

 

[Jtepn87]

Not sure if this belongs here but I believe there is a clip of AJ Bush saying that the suspended players will be back for the Penn St game. Don't know if anyone else caught that.

 

[Illinibatt]

I've rewatched the game several times now and am convinced that Woody Barrett is really good.
Like really really good.
Would not be surprised if Kent State is a surprise team this year in the MAC.
As long as Barrett is healthy, I don't think they are bad anymore.

 

[mhuml32]

I hate the retrospective look back on a singular play but............that drop on the first pass to Smalling was a massive miss. Great pass by Bush, great route by Smalling, just didn't make the catch (nerves? tough angle?). Would have been a 3-and-out for Kent State followed by an immediate TD for Illinois.

 

[champaignchris]

Re: the crowds, both size and enthusiasm...

What do you want? Really? 15 years is the only history that matters to college football. Any longer ago than that is outside the memory of both the students playing the game and the students watching the game in the stands. And over the last 15 years, Illinois is the worst program in BCS conference football.

Illinois has the worst record. Worse than Duke, Indiana, Vanderbilt, Kansas, Iowa State. Every single program in the big five conferences has been better than Illinois during the living memory of every single college aged person.

Add to that the nasty, embarrassing Beckman scandal. And the turtle slow handling of the investigation and eventual firings of Beckman and Thomas, followed by the turtle slow hiring process that eventually landed Whitman, but not before the awkwardly timed extenstion of Cubit.

Why on earth would anyone expect or even reasonably hope for a large, raucous crowd? It’s not happening. Not until the school and the program earn that crowd back.

 

[Deleted member 19448]

As to the atmosphere, it is very dead in MS these days. Have been to lots of games & seen some really good crowds when the team is good. 2000 vs Michigan (though a crappy ending) was the best sporting event atmosphere I have ever seen. Crowd stood virtually the whole game. The place can rock when there is a good product on the field.

Speaking for myself, it is just hard to get excited these days. The program has been moribund for a while & I always am expecting the oncoming freight train around every corner. It is just hard to really get into the games. I go & cheer but get why the atmosphere kind of sucks.

 

[BananaShampoo]

I hate the retrospective look back on a singular play but............that drop on the first pass to Smalling was a massive miss. Great pass by Bush, great route by Smalling, just didn't make the catch (nerves? tough angle?). Would have been a 3-and-out for Kent State followed by an immediate TD for Illinois.

Somebody with DVR mentioned that it was missed PI penalty given that the DB pulled his arm behind him about a second or two before the ball arrived to him. If not for that I'm sure was a 90% chance he would have caught it.

 

[ChiefIllini]

Illinois has the worst record. Worse than Duke, Indiana, Vanderbilt, Kansas, Iowa State. Every single program in the big five conferences has been better than Illinois during the living memory of every single college aged person.

Agree completely on the whole crowd issue. Excluding extreme circumstances, wins have to come before crowds. That's true for all of sports.

I quoted you because I thought you were probably guessing, I thought to myself no way we have a worse record than any other P5 school since 2003. I did the math. You're right. Some are relatively close (~5 games more, which is a third of a win per season more), but almost all those schools (minus Indiana, in fact, their mediocrity is crazy to me, didn't realize how many 4-6 win seasons they've had recently) has a good period of sustained success. Crazy to think our best back to back seasons might have been 10-11, which, ironically, happened to be right before we fired our HC.

 

[Second and Chalmers]

Agree completely on the whole crowd issue. Excluding extreme circumstances, wins have to come before crowds. That's true for all of sports.

I quoted you because I thought you were probably guessing, I thought to myself no way we have a worse record than any other P5 school since 2003. I did the math. You're right. Some are relatively close (~5 games more, which is a third of a win per season more), but almost all those schools (minus Indiana, in fact, their mediocrity is crazy to me, didn't realize how many 4-6 win seasons they've had recently) has a good period of sustained success. Crazy to think our best back to back seasons might have been 10-11, which, ironically, happened to be right before we fired our HC.

Every program in FBS has had back-to-back winning regular seasons more recently than Illinois.

I think that speaks a lot to attendance issues, because the bitterness and fatalism of our fanbase is probably more driven by the 2002's than the 1997's. Lots of schools have sucked, few (none?) have so farcically collapsed from brief, exciting heights like Illinois.

 

[RedRocksIllini]

Agree completely on the whole crowd issue. Excluding extreme circumstances, wins have to come before crowds. That's true for all of sports.

I quoted you because I thought you were probably guessing, I thought to myself no way we have a worse record than any other P5 school since 2003. I did the math. You're right. Some are relatively close (~5 games more, which is a third of a win per season more), but almost all those schools (minus Indiana, in fact, their mediocrity is crazy to me, didn't realize how many 4-6 win seasons they've had recently) has a good period of sustained success. Crazy to think our best back to back seasons might have been 10-11, which, ironically, happened to be right before we fired our HC.

The fact that we have fewer wins in the past 15 years than Kansas is too depressing for words. Makes it really impressive that we can get this many responses on the post-game thread. Actually, it's impressive that anyone even cares enough to boo at this point.

 

[TexasIllini]

Ummm, hell no! That game against Kent State showed the program has a long way to go. Yeah a win is a win, however, good teams don't have to wait until the second half to put away bad teams.

Did you see the Penn State game?

 

[Second and Chalmers]

Did you see the Penn State game?

Right. The question is why did we play poorly and what can we improve going forward.

I am confident the real AJ Bush is the one we saw in the second half, not the first-start-of-his-career happy feet guy from the first half.

The total mess defending every passing play I am more concerned about. There are personnel reinforcements coming, hopefully that can get us a lot of the way there.

 

[Illwinsagain]

Ummm, hell no! That game against Kent State showed the program has a long way to go. Yeah a win is a win, however, good teams don't have to wait until the second half to put away bad teams.

I don't know, we hung around in games last year, and I think we were a bad team. Just sayin'