Pregame: Illinois at USF, Friday, September 15th, 6:00pm CT, ESPN

[philcon]

UCF 31
ILL 13

 

[DB11Headband]

All I want to see tonight is a competitive game. Continue to get the young guys on D valuable experience. Unfortunately, I think Flowers is going to give us fits. I'll say 28-13 USF.

 

[illinipioneer]

The interview with Tymir Oliver in the N-G was pretty nice.

When asked about being even bigger underdogs this week to USF, Tymir replied..."We're angry again"

Love that kind of fire and fight from these guys, regardless of the outcome of this game, these kids are gonna be so experienced when they are Jr's and Sr's!

http://www.news-gazette.com/sports/illini-sports/football/2017-09-15/were-angry-again.html

 

[ILL_INI]

USF's defense doesnt look all that formidable. 17 pts given up to stony brook and 22 to SJSU doesn't scream lockdown.

I believe that USF had a punt blocked in both games which led to touchdowns. That's a plus for Illinois's special teams, but their defense might be a little bit better than what the scores show.

Their offense is what scares me. Luckily it looks like getting to Flowers isn't impossible, again Stony Brook had 5 sacks and SJSU had 3.

Actually, USF had 5 sacks against Stony Brook. Stony Brook had 2 sacks. Still, your point is well taken. Flowers has been sacked 5 times in two games this year by inferior competition. He was sacked 13 times all of last year.

Yeah, I don't think SFU is as good as advertised, or their ranking. I think we're still more likely to lose - it's a bunch of freshmen playing their first road game afterall. But SFU is on game 3 of a new coaching staff, with all the attendant issues that usually means, so they're beatable.

In college football, last year's performance is the best preseason predictor for this year's performance. However, USF has not played as well as last year (about 68% of the yards per play on offense this year vs. last) and I don't think they've played well enough this year to deserve a top 25 ranking. I'm not sure if this is due to a change in coaching or what. (I definitely think WKU would have been much better if Brohm was still coaching there.)

For our D to have a chance, it's all about contain, contain, contain.

I agree, it will be a lot different than defending Mike White who is not a threat to run.

Attendance at USF games fluctuates considerably. This will probably be the least attended game we see all season. The size of the stadium will make it look empty.

I predict the home field advantage won't come from the crowd, but the weather. I'm concerned how well the Illini hold up in the heat and humidity for four quarters.

 

[Fighter of the Nightman]

Now that gameday is here, it's hard to tell if my optimism and excitement is the usual gameday jitters or an actual belief that we might pull this off ... I think we're the team we saw in game 2 MUCH more than the team we saw in game 1, but the question is can we be an even more improved team in game 3 and continue that positive trend? I want to believe, but I have too many memories of games like at ASU, at UNC, vs. UNC, etc. Since I have been let down before, I will go with a reverse psychology pick; I say reality hits this team hard in the face on the road, but we rebound after that going forward:

UI 14
USF 38

 

[Deleted member 533939]

That SI article refers to Illinois as Group of 5 and USF as Power 5. Journalism ain't what it used to be.

 

[illinipioneer]

That SI article refers to Illinois as Group of 5 and USF as Power 5. Journalism ain't what it used to be.

Hey, at least they are writing about us :noidea:

 

[IlliniMed]

Well 80 prep teams signed up to come see the game tonight for free. This could either be really good if we win or really bad if we look terrible

 

[JDHalfrack]

I'm so nervous about this game. I want Illinois to win, obviously, but I'm going to be thrilled with a less than 10 point loss.

I just want to keep seeing the improvement.

USF- 28
UI - 17

 

[icengineer]

Well 80 prep teams signed up to come see the game tonight for free. This could either be really good if we win or really bad if we look terrible

Wow! Could you imagine how great that would be if we could pull this out somehow? Or at the very least look good in a close loss?

 

[Illiini]

With 80 prep teams to be in attendance--I guess their usually Friday night games were cancelled--it's very important for the Florida pipeline. It doesn't hurt that we have so many Florida players--Tre Watson, Mike Epstein, Louis Dorsey et al.--who will be playing in front of high schoolers who are probably seeing their first Big Ten team...and thinking, man, that could be me.

We need this game.

 

[FT35]

I just read that Dunlap is available for tonight but Crawford is still suspended.

Does anyone know what is going on with Sumpter? I don't think I've seen him play this year?

 

[FT35]

I wonder if any guys from IMG will show up given the proximity to the game and the connection to Abraham. Maybe Adeoye again? .

I know one of the reasons that we got Adeoye on campus last weekend is because IMG had sent the students home due to the hurricane which is why he was available to visit. I'm guessing those guys are back at IMG?

 

[Illwinsagain]

Wow! Could you imagine how great that would be if we could pull this out somehow? Or at the very least look good in a close loss?

There is an advantage to being in a city. If we had a game at Soldier Field, I am sure we could get tens of thousands of high school kids to show up. On campus, a little harder. I hope they have a great time, except for the end result of course.

 

[icengineer]

There is an advantage to being in a city. If we had a game at Soldier Field, I am sure we could get tens of thousands of high school kids to show up. On campus, a little harder. I hope they have a great time, except for the end result of course.

I'm hoping they'll have a great time including the end result, an Illini win! :thumb: