Illini Football 2021
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What a breath of fresh air listening to him talk vs Lovie or Beekman.
Why isn't any new Illinois apparel available on Fanatics?
DReq
Always Illini
- Central Illinois
We don't want Nebraska to know what we will be wearing...
illini80
- Forgottonia
He will and I just hope it’s because he turned us into a defensive powerhouse.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
I'm genuinely torn between thinking we're really underrated this year versus thinking it's going to be a total disaster.
As wide of a spread of possible outcomes as we've had in many years, IMO.
On the one hand it's a first year coaching staff inheriting a roster with a really low overall talent level and an ingrained losing culture playing against an annoyingly, kinda deceptively hard schedule.
On the other hand it's a really good and well crafted staff inheriting a team that is insanely experienced, even relative to the competition who will also have a number of super seniors, and the places the roster looks relatively good and deep, OL, RB, TE, DL, seem like a really good fit for the kind of football we're going to want to play.
As wide of a spread of possible outcomes as we've had in many years, IMO.
On the one hand it's a first year coaching staff inheriting a roster with a really low overall talent level and an ingrained losing culture playing against an annoyingly, kinda deceptively hard schedule.
On the other hand it's a really good and well crafted staff inheriting a team that is insanely experienced, even relative to the competition who will also have a number of super seniors, and the places the roster looks relatively good and deep, OL, RB, TE, DL, seem like a really good fit for the kind of football we're going to want to play.
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altenberger22
- South Carolina
The "realist" in me is starting to set in. I just saw this ranking from Bill Connelly (ESPN) which purports to significantly weight returning talent into the formula for predicting 2021 NCAA football success. That one predicts us as #81 in the nation, and 13th in the Big Ten ahead of just Rutgers. In fact, only three Big 10 schools ---- NU, ILL and RUT --- are ranked worse than #52 Purdue. Here are his criteria:
1. Returning production. As I wrote last week, I have updated rosters as much as possible to account for transfers, graduation and the announced return of many 2020 seniors. The combination of last year's SP+ ratings and adjustments based on returning production generally makes up more than two-thirds of the projections formula.
Since February, however, I've made one noteworthy, and hopefully temporary, change to how returning production is weighted. The more I thought about it, the less I was able to reconcile the idea of valuing returning production equally among teams that played a pretty full schedule last season and teams that, like an Ohio or Arizona State, played only three or four games. So I set up a sliding scale: If you played 10-plus games, returning production adjustments count as they would under normal circumstances, but if you played less than that, those effects were diminished, and the projection factors below were factored a bit more heavily.
2. Recent recruiting. Returning production aims to tell us what kind of talent and experience a team is returning. Recruiting rankings inform us of the caliber of the team's potential replacements in the lineup. They generally make up about one-quarter of the projections formula. This piece is determined not only by the most recent recruiting class but also, in diminishing fashion, by the past three classes.
3. Recent history. The previous year's ratings are a huge piece of the puzzle, but using a sliver of information from previous seasons (two to four years ago) gives us a good measure of overall program health. It stands to reason that a team that has played well for one year is less likely to duplicate that effort than a team that has been good for years on end (and vice versa), right? This is a minor piece of the puzzle, but the projections are better with it than without.
Maybe not “cellar dweller” level of talent, but “peaking our head out of the basement,” level of talent. It’s why it’s a tough call for the season as a whole, do we have enough to coach up to eek out 6 wins? A Week 0 win would do wonders for the Bielema Era.
I saw a stat where we have I think 9 guys returning who were Big Ten honorable mention or better. So if we show poorly it'll be for other reasons besides talent imo. I think a lot of the predictions for this season are based on our bad year in 2020. But if we hadn't been forced to play our 3rd and 4th string qb for multiple games last year, and weren't so maddeningly predictable on defense, we would've had a better record. Both those things look to be corrected this year (2 Big Ten-experienced QBs and some decent depth, and a defense that will look and act nothing like last year scheme-wise). In other words, there's hope!
The kids weren't the problem, the coaches had 'really low overall talent'
Just having a system/ game plan that keeps us in the game would be huge. Our offense is probably going to be pretty conservative and boring but not turn the ball and hopefully keep the defense rested/fresh.
The biggest change will be having a defense that teams actually have to work to plan, attack, and beat is going to be huge. Every team we faced in the Lovie era knew exactly where and what our coverage was and that made it very hard to get stops that weren't turnovers.
We are 0.500 team but we should be competitive!
The overall talent is better this year. Many are a year older. A much better coaching staff, Miles Smith vs Andy Buh. No comparison. What will tell is on the field. I believe BB knows he has so many seniors that this year will be different from other ILL football years. You cannot beat having a QB with all his experience. The RB room looks very good, and our O line has great experience. One side-note. I bet Lovie would have wished for all the seniors to play his first year on staff. I hope when the clock strikes 0 we will beat Nb for the second straight year. I hope someone will do an analysis of Nb returnees and depth at each position.
I'm pretty sure this is the stat you saw from the BTN video Dan posted earlier. Doesn't really scream advantage Illinois when you look at the numbers.
But I agree that a non-Lovie Smith defense which can defend a modern college offense can make this team look so much better.
mhuml32
- Cincinnati, OH
Should be 8 guys unless I'm missing someone (Brown, Carney, Epstein, Hayes, Kramer, Lowe, Perry, Hansen). Green was the only graduate. To provide a comparison to some other lower-ranked B1G teams by SP+: Rutgers has 10 and Purdue has 8. Not sure how that top graphic was assessing all-B1G (no media? non transfers?) or I just can't do basic math (probably the latter).
Dan
Admin
Six Illini Named to Reese’s Senior Bowl Watch List - University of Illinois Athletics
Daniel Barker, Sydney Brown, Jake Hansen, Doug Kramer, Vederian Lowe and Brandon Peters were picked for the watch list. Illinois' six players is T-6th in Big Ten
fightingillini.com
Tabel Named to Mannelly Watch List - University of Illinois Athletics
It is the second time Tabel has earned a spot on the list after being named to it last preseason
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West Named Director of On-Campus Recruiting - University of Illinois Athletics
West will work with the Illini recruiting and operations staffs as well as handle administrative and scheduling duties for head coach Bret Bielema.
fightingillini.com
The other thing is, these guys are sick of losing and sick of being the laughingstock of the Big 10. They have a lot of motivation to come out and prove themselves
McCourt was named an honorable mention by both coaches and the media.
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