Pregame: Illinois at Nebraska, Saturday, November 10th, 11:00am CT, BTN

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#26      
Yeah, and they started 0-6, and we were beating Penn State. Saturday could provide us with literally anything.

Yeah this one seems impossible to predict imo.

Illinois is sky high right now but was the D effort just a mirage due to extra energy?

Nebraska is certainly playing better and just went to to toe with Ohio St, but are they ripe for a surprise slug to the mouth after this weekends slugfest?
 
#27      
Haven't watched Nebraska all year. But based on their results they seem to be halfway between Purdue and Minnesota. Should be the perfect test for us.

A win would also get the team super motivated for an upset in the last 2 weeks to gain bowl eligibility against 2 rivals.

They have a lot of explosion at QB (both pass and run), at RB (Devine ozigbo is good) and slot receiver (spielman is the best slot I’ve seen other than Moore). They also can just let a bunch of drives turn into nothing.

What they really have is the most arrogant fan base in the Big Ten. They really think that it’s still the 90s. They think they’re gonna open a trap door and Tommie Frazier will jump out. Don’t believe me? Check their rivals site.

And if you win, they’ll act like it will be no time before they are back to beating schools like you with ease.
 
#28      

ChiefGritty

Chicago, IL
They have a lot of explosion at QB (both pass and run), at RB (Devine ozigbo is good) and slot receiver (spielman is the best slot I’ve seen other than Moore). They also can just let a bunch of drives turn into nothing.

What they really have is the most arrogant fan base in the Big Ten. They really think that it’s still the 90s. They think they’re gonna open a trap door and Tommie Frazier will jump out. Don’t believe me? Check their rivals site.

And if you win, they’ll act like it will be no time before they are back to beating schools like you with ease.

Their fans are crazy, but they're a credit to the conference IMO. 90k in the stands rain or shine win or lose.
 
#29      
Their fans are crazy, but they're a credit to the conference IMO. 90k in the stands rain or shine win or lose.
They draw very well, so does UM, OSU and PSU. Of course none of those programs have ever had an extended period of futility. I'd be interested to see the size of the crowd in Lincoln when they are going thru their 5th straight 3-9 season.
 
#30      

Deleted member 11196

D
Guest
Every conference win is a precious gift for Illini fans. I have been a big critic of Smith's "rebuild" of the program but they have already met two of my preseason parameters that would demonstrate progress. Getting at least four wins with at least two conference wins. One thing they have not done in my opinion is play competitively with the better programs in the conference. Clearly the offense has made a big improvement over last year. But the defense is still concerning. It was better today but still not good. To be determined is whether today was a "lightbulb going on in the head" moment or just a blip on the radar. Nebraska should be a winnable game but they are improving and they have a decent offense. I want to see Illinois finish with three strong performances, even if they lose all three. A side point..if the Illini would have accepted S. Florida's attempt to gift them game 3 of the season, Illinois would be 5-4 and we would be talking about getting bowl-eligible. Kind of amazing.

With all due respect, I don't get why many think Nebraska is a winnable game in Lincoln.... They have been getting better and better each week, and just gave tOSU a big-time run for their money. We would have to play a near perfect game, while they stumble badly... And I don't think it will happen in Lincoln. Please explain why you think this is possible... respectfully
 
#31      
I just hope we are competitive. If we are, that will be a continuation of the kind of play we saw yesterday. Of course I'd love to win, but I don't expect to.
 
#32      
With all due respect, I don't get why many think Nebraska is a winnable game in Lincoln.... They have been getting better and better each week, and just gave tOSU a big-time run for their money. We would have to play a near perfect game, while they stumble badly... And I don't think it will happen in Lincoln. Please explain why you think this is possible... respectfully

They are. Their lines are nothing to write home about at all
 
#33      

Dan

Admin
Nebraska -19.5
 
#37      

ChiefGritty

Chicago, IL
Goodness gracious

And Minny opens only +9.5 home to Purdue. It's a pure "prove it, Illinois" line.

19.5 is a line we ought to cover if we're actually making progress. Purdue -9.5 seems like a lock.
 
#38      
My book hasn't dropped their lines yet but if it is Nebraska -19.5 that is.... surprising. Nebraska is giving up 4.46 yards per rush. If you can run the ball effectively you don't get beat by 3 touchdowns.
 
#39      

Illinir1

Camdenton, MO
Nebraska is 50 yds./game better than the Illini on offense and 80 yds./game better on defense. Based on these stats, plus the rule-of-thumb 3 pt. home field advantage, I'd expect Nebby to be favored by 10 - 12 pts. I'll be happy if we are competitive and can be under that kind of spread. Another 20+ pt loss would dampen all enthusiasm from the victory over the Yellow Rats.

Note: Written before I saw the post saying Cornheads -19.5 pts.
 
#40      

Deleted member 654622

D
Guest
They draw very well, so does UM, OSU and PSU. Of course none of those programs have ever had an extended period of futility. I'd be interested to see the size of the crowd in Lincoln when they are going thru their 5th straight 3-9 season.
I dont think its gonna take Frost long to turn that program around...3rd year they will bowl
 
#41      

ChiefGritty

Chicago, IL
I dont think its gonna take Frost long to turn that program around...3rd year they will bowl

They're a bowl team right now, they just took to many losses early to make it count. Wouldn't surprise me at all if that's a 10 win team next year.
 
#42      

the national

the Front Range
His will be an interesting game for us. Somehow, I think Neb let’s us hang around by their own mistakes. We can have a few takeaways and no dumb turnovers, I think we can beat the spread and make it a game. They are a good team but man, they make a lot of mistakes
 
#43      
Nebraska is 50 yds./game better than the Illini on offense and 80 yds./game better on defense. Based on these stats, plus the rule-of-thumb 3 pt. home field advantage, I'd expect Nebby to be favored by 10 - 12 pts. I'll be happy if we are competitive and can be under that kind of spread. Another 20+ pt loss would dampen all enthusiasm from the victory over the Yellow Rats.

Note: Written before I saw the post saying Cornheads -19.5 pts.

No problem with those stats.

However, here are my back-of-the-envelope numbers for your consideration:

O: 387 :: 468 :: 467 (Neb D)
D: 524 :: 438 :: 468 (Neb O)

First number is IL over first 8 games averaged
Second number is IL against MN (that one game)
Third number is stats for Nebraska flip-flopped (our O vs. their D and our D vs. their O)(averaged over 9 games)

So, depends on which IL team shows up.

I think IL will be fine as long as IL team eats IL corn.

Sources:
https://fightingillini.com/cumestats.aspx?path=football
http://www.huskers.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=100&ATCLID=211665033

BTW, IL ave, on O, went from 387 (first 8 games) to 416 (last 9 games). On D went from 534 (over first 8 games) to 524 (over all 9 games). That is "moving the needle"

Hope I got those number right.
 
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#44      

BZuppke

Plainfield
There is only one recipe for the Illini to win this year - explosive offense. If our offense can play as well as they did this week, albeit against a better defense, this can be an interesting game. Add in a few Nebraska mistakes and we can upset them. It’s fun to be excited about a November game.
 
#45      
They draw very well, so does UM, OSU and PSU. Of course none of those programs have ever had an extended period of futility. I'd be interested to see the size of the crowd in Lincoln when they are going thru their 5th straight 3-9 season.

Yeah, losing seasons really don't affect attendance that much if you have a history of being good. We sold out the entire home season in 2008 for basketball (the year we were 16-19), and most of those games actually saw close to every seat full. It's the 5+ years of being consistently hopeless that really drive down attendance. As much as people trash our fan base, I would like to see what other schools with records like we have had over the last 20 years draw per game. We rarely go below 35,000, we consistently hit above 40,000 and even when we're bad we have often drawn 45,000+ for conference games. Provide our fan base with even a LITTLE bit of hope and decent weather/gametimes, and we show up (see the sellout vs. UNC in Lovie's first year). When it is all said and done, our fan base is actually pretty amazing for how bad we have been. Give us Iowa's record over the past 20 years, and we could put 70,000+ in the stands every single week, and Grange Grove would be nationally renowned as a tailgate destination. Period.
 
#46      

illini80

Forgottonia
Yeah, losing seasons really don't affect attendance that much if you have a history of being good. We sold out the entire home season in 2008 for basketball (the year we were 16-19), and most of those games actually saw close to every seat full. It's the 5+ years of being consistently hopeless that really drive down attendance. As much as people trash our fan base, I would like to see what other schools with records like we have had over the last 20 years draw per game. We rarely go below 35,000, we consistently hit above 40,000 and even when we're bad we have often drawn 45,000+ for conference games. Provide our fan base with even a LITTLE bit of hope and decent weather/gametimes, and we show up (see the sellout vs. UNC in Lovie's first year). When it is all said and done, our fan base is actually pretty amazing for how bad we have been. Give us Iowa's record over the past 20 years, and we could put 70,000+ in the stands every single week, and Grange Grove would be nationally renowned as a tailgate destination. Period.
Agree. Fans are starving for a winner, but tired of being beat down time and time again. Build a winner and we will be talking about how to add more seats to MS.
 
#47      

Dan

Admin
Update- Nov. 17th Iowa game time won't be announced until this weekend (Nov. 10th or 11th).
 
#48      
Update- Nov. 17th Iowa game time won't be announced until this weekend (Nov. 10th or 11th).

BOOOOO, DELANEY! This is a bummer, though, I am traveling with a crew who's more in it for the partying than for the football, and a 2:30 pm game time would be ideal. :) I'd rather know sooner than later, too!
 
#49      

Dan

Admin
Lovie Smith press conference
https://twitter.com/srrichey
Lovie: You don't win games just on Saturday. It's what you do the week before, and we had a good week of practice. #Illini

Lovie: Reggie Corbin was outstanding. Whenever you're the Big Ten Player of the Week it says a lot with all the good offensive players in the conference. #Illini

Lovie: Defensively the guys really showed up. A lot of improvement. We needed to. Guys took it to heart what happened the week before. Up front set the tempo. #Illini

Lovie: Disappointing when you give up a couple of big plays at the end of the game. That's not who we are. We'll keep working on that. #Illini

Lovie: Kenyon Jackson ... we'll continue to evaluate (his injury). #Illini

Lovie: Nebraska has been playing very good football of late. #Illini

Lovie: Calvin Avery is playing hard. I get upset when a guy jumps offside or after a play if you get some type of penalty. In between, sometimes your aim may be a little off. We don't have any major complaints (with Calvin's penalties). #Illini

Lovie: I thought our home crowd was outstanding. ... They let the officials and everybody else know, "Don't do that to our football team. That's a bad call against our team" We heard it. The opponent heard it. #Illini

Lovie: Scott Frost is an excellent coach. Nebraska is one of those traditional programs where you expect a certain type of play and certain type of athletes. #Illini

Lovie: When you're building, it takes a while. It's not a finished product right away. There's a process you have to go through. As you watch (the Cornhuskers') play, they've gotten better and better. ... We're saying the same thing about our program. #Illini

Lovie: We love being three-touchdown underdogs going into an environment like that. #Illini

Lovie: Records aside, we're trending in the right direction. We've been that way for a while. Good to get a win to confirm that for the people outside. ... Eventually you get over the hump and start winning consistently. #Illini
 
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#50      
With all due respect, I don't get why many think Nebraska is a winnable game in Lincoln.... They have been getting better and better each week, and just gave tOSU a big-time run for their money. We would have to play a near perfect game, while they stumble badly... And I don't think it will happen in Lincoln. Please explain why you think this is possible... respectfully

2-6 with one of the two wins over small school Bethune-Cookman.
 
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