This all feels familiar: 3rd year coach, won a total of 2 Big Ten games his first two years, team shows promise in year 3 before getting crushed at Homecoming to an unranked team to fall to 3-3. Next game is on the road against a ranked opponent, and the Illini are 24.5 point underdogs.
Everything in the above paragraph also applied to the 1999 Illini team, including the spread! That next game was against #9 Michigan, and the Illini came back from 27-7 to shock Tom Brady and Co. and start a run that ended in their first bowl game in 5 years.
1999 Illinois-Michigan recap
Can history repeat itself? Probably not, but I do think the team will regroup and put up a fight. Wisconsin 38, Illinois 27.
Damn, you actually just sparked a tad bit of hope in me, haha. I totally discount Lovie's first year, and I only marginally judge him for last year; it was essentially another free pass. I have actually been rather pleased with the team's performance this year until we laid down vs. Purdue. That just can't happen, and I hope it's a huge learning experience.
Playing Wisconsin tough would do a lot for this team's confidence before we head into a string of winnable games. I will also throw out that I think I was wrong about Purdue, and they might be a top 25 team the way they're playing. If they can upset OSU Saturday and we still win two games or more down the stretch, literally no one will remember that game. There was really only one blowout loss in 2006 and we don't have the same talent level, but let's not forget this was our season a year before going to the Rose Bowl and beating #1 OSU in Columbus:
W 42-17 vs. Eastern Illinois (finished 8-5)
L 33-0 at Rutgers (finished 11-2)
L 31-21 vs. Syracuse (finished 4-8)
L 24-7 vs. #14 Iowa (finished 6-7)
W 23-20 at Michigan State (finished 4-8)
L 34-32 vs. Indiana (finished 5-7)
L 20-17 vs. Ohio (finished 9-5)
L 26-12 at Penn State (finished 9-4)
L 30-24 at #18 Wisconsin (finished 12-1)
L 17-10 vs. #1 Ohio State (finished 12-1)
L 42-31 vs. Purdue (finished 8-6)
L 27-16 at Northwestern (finished 4-8)
We showed promise, and we were fun to watch, but I am SURE there were some people griping about Zook at that point. (This is NOT a discussion about post-2008 Zook, BTW, it's just to make the point that a Rose Bowl was in our immediate future after that NU loss, and very few would have predicted it.) However, despite being a scrappy team with potential, there is no way to describe being 2-10 other than "we suck." I am hopeful we can still scrap together 5 wins. Nebraska is entirely beatable, and thankfully I think they'll get that coveted first win vs. Minnesota this weekend. Then you just got to beat one of Minnesota, Maryland and Northwestern. Hard to do, certainly, but not impossible. 5 wins going into next season would be important.
Back to the game this weekend, I think we look better than we did against Purdue but still lose by a lot. I will say we hang with them the first quarter (maybe 10-7 Wisconsin?) and trail by 7-10 at halftime. It's the third quarter that terrifies me, LOL.
