Illinois 24, Charlotte 14 Postgame

#76      

pruman91

Paducah, Ky

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The boo birds came out at halftime as Illinois headed into the locker room trailing Charlotte at home Saturday.
Chase Brown gave the Illini faithful something to cheer for after the break, scoring two touchdowns and finishing with 26 carries for 257 rushing yards — the fourth-most in a single game in program history — to lift Illinois to a 24-14 victory.
One of the players Brown passed on the all-time list is Illini legend Red Grange. The college and NFL Hall of Famer has a statue outside of Memorial Stadium that Brown walks past every game day.
“When I first came to Illinois, I knew I wanted to be part of those big name guys that played here before me,” Brown said. “The fact that I was able to come out (Saturday) and put on the performance that I did, I’m grateful. I feel really blessed.”

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great game by....................

Chase Brown
OLine
Defense in second half

We needed a win , good , bad or ugly

This was good , especially in the second half

Go Illini
 
#77      

pruman91

Paducah, Ky

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Two weeks ago, defensive lineman Keith Randolph Jr. was sidelined with what he initially thought was a torn right ACL. Saturday he highlighted Illinois’ dominant second-half defense with his first college interception, which just happened to be overshadowed by a historic performance from Chase Brown.

Randolph wanted to get in the end zone, too, by turning his fourth-quarter pick into a pick six. He just needed a little help.
“If Johnny (Newton) would’ve blocked better, it would’ve been to the crib,” Randolph said, laughing. “I tried to hurdle (a Charlotte player), but I gotta realize that I’m 300 pounds now. It don’t work like that no more.”

Randolph intercepted a pass from 49ers quarterback Chris Reynolds at Charlotte’s 30-yard line and returned it all of two yards. Newton, a fellow defensive lineman, said Randolph’s short return was exactly what he expected.

“Keith told me he was gonna house it. He told me I didn’t block for him, but I knew Keith wasn’t going nowhere. He too slow,” Newton said, laughing. “But that was an amazing pickoff.”

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defense has really turned their game around since the UVA game...................................we needed their effort in the second half....congrats

Go Illini
 
#78      
It was tongue in cheek. But considering we were hanging on by a thread or losing until late, I declare us a basketball and engineering school.
I have never understood the accuracy or value in proclaiming ourselves a basketball school. We have 5 national football championships, 0 in basketball. We are a decent basketball program but, unlike football, have never been elite (as measured by championships). I support Illinois basketball as I do all of our teams and want them all to excel. That said, football is king and frames the success of a college sports program. It diminishes our overall athletic brand to call ourselves a basketball school.
 
#79      
Careful what you ask for. Not that BP is lighting it up lately, but Sitkowsky has been extremely lucky not to have had more interceptions. Not sure who the better option is at this point.
BP is no bargain. We all know that. But neither is Art at this point in time. We all agree that we need an ungrade in the QB position. Most likely through the portal. However, there is no guarantee we will get one. Is it possible that CBB is withholding Art so that he can observe/grow in ability this year without losing his confidence and support in the remaining B1G games? We all know how fans will crucify him if he fails to meet their expectations.
 
#80      
I mean it's kind of moot since by the nature of football versus basketball there's no such thing as an Ayo.

The point is, Underwood was just straight up failing his first year and would be gone by now if major changes to the way we play hadn't happened. What we're seeing with Bielema is disappointing, below expectations, but it's following the path we knew we'd be traveling. Keep running the ball, keep preaching sound football, keep making gains in the weight room.
You lost me a little with that one. That is all that Lovie did (was run the ball). It is the reason that I wanted him gone. He ran it and ran it, no matter how many touchdowns we were behind. Now we have a new coach that wants to do the same thing even though he will throw it when we get behind. But, he still kills his O with that philosophy. Yesterday was the first game that he allowed his OC to throw the ball the first couple of series of the game. Amazing! It allowed Illinois to not have to face 8 and 9 man fronts and go 3 and out to start games.
 
#81      
Careful what you ask for. Not that BP is lighting it up lately, but Sitkowsky has been extremely lucky not to have had more interceptions. Not sure who the better option is at this point.
Spann
 
#82      

Go Nats 88 Illini

Fairfax, VA
Careful what you ask for. Not that BP is lighting it up lately, but Sitkowsky has been extremely lucky not to have had more interceptions. Not sure who the better option is at this point.
Not sure if Sitkowski is an upgrade, but he definitely will be a better option than BP next year. And he was more than servicable in his couple games plus one half. If BB thinks BP can get us to a bowl game, then maybe keep this up. I don't see that as an achievable goal (hope I am wrong) and think finding out what we have so BB can make a good evaluation for next year and beyond is worth the switch.
 
#83      

ILLINIShox24

Orange Krush '04 & '05
I have never understood the accuracy or value in proclaiming ourselves a basketball school. We have 5 national football championships, 0 in basketball. We are a decent basketball program but, unlike football, have never been elite (as measured by championships). I support Illinois basketball as I do all of our teams and want them all to excel. That said, football is king and frames the success of a college sports program. It diminishes our overall athletic brand to call ourselves a basketball school.
We haven't won a football championship in 70 years. We've had 2 consensus all americans in the last 25 years. We have only gone to 19 bowls in the past 72 years and we are 8-11 in them. We've won the Big Ten 4 times in 57 years. If football frames the success of our college sports program, we are horrendous.
 
#84      
We haven't won a football championship in 70 years. We've had 2 consensus all americans in the last 25 years. We have only gone to 19 bowls in the past 72 years and we are 8-11 in them. We've won the Big Ten 4 times in 57 years. If football frames the success of our college sports program, we are horrendous.
It was the big 2 and little 8 for many years and remains a "haves and have nots" situation today. I agree that our football program has been abysmal. That said, I simply believe we should not deflault to calling ourselves a basketball school. It does nothing for us in the overall scheme of things. We need to rally around the football program and use our collective energy to drive it forward. My opinion. You may disagree if you choose to.
 
#86      
Careful what you ask for. Not that BP is lighting it up lately, but Sitkowsky has been extremely lucky not to have had more interceptions. Not sure who the better option is at this point.
Agree. But playing time on the field is the best way to figure that out. That was actually my point. I'm fine being conservative this way when we need to in order to ensure the win. We really need one of these two to step up to the next level to get some extra wins this year.
 
#88      
We actually ran some play action on first down yesterday. Didn’t capitalize on the pass, despite open receivers.

I’m almost kind of bothered we did it against Charlotte, because I can’t tell if it was effective at freeing our receivers due to breaking our tendencies or due to the fact that we were playing a lower level opponent.

Edit: I wanna give love to our defense. Doing their best and holding teams that have explosive potential under 20 after being shredded a couple games in a row. Tremendous adjustments and trusting of the process.
 
#89      
Ryan Johnson
Next year my friend, it will be an open competition between him and Art and we will see who wins. We are saving Art so that he can develop and so that fans aren't pissed if he loses the job next year. If he starts this year the expectation will be he will start next year and starting Art this year will mean that we will get more of the same instead of him learning and growing this year.
 
#90      
I’d love to see us get a pro style qb (since that’s what we want) who just happens to be a naturally fast runner. So he will still have the patience and instincts to sit in the pocket and pass down the field the way BB wants, but if things break down he can gain you 10+ by accident just cause of how fast he is.
 
#91      
Next year my friend, it will be an open competition between him and Art and we will see who wins. We are saving Art so that he can develop and so that fans aren't pissed if he loses the job next year. If he starts this year the expectation will be he will start next year and starting Art this year will mean that we will get more of the same instead of him learning and growing this year.
I have seen both and neither is the answer. I have no issue putting Johnson in the game to see what he has.
 
#92      
Next year my friend, it will be an open competition between him and Art and we will see who wins. We are saving Art so that he can develop and so that fans aren't pissed if he loses the job next year. If he starts this year the expectation will be he will start next year and starting Art this year will mean that we will get more of the same instead of him learning and growing this year.
Sitkowski and Peters are not the answer. Lets look to the future now.
 
#93      
Could it be the playbook? Im over bp as much as anyone and still think art has the a chance to be above average qb with another year learning the system. Im no expert by any means but feel like the offensive struggles in the passing game are just as much play calling as poor qb play.
 
#94      

altgeld88

Arlington, Virginia
We haven't won a football championship in 70 years. We've had 2 consensus all americans in the last 25 years. We have only gone to 19 bowls in the past 72 years and we are 8-11 in them. We've won the Big Ten 4 times in 57 years. If football frames the success of our college sports program, we are horrendous.
It's indisputable that we have the widest range of football season outcomes in the BT since the early '60s. ~ 15 years ago I had a book of Big Ten football history. When I looked at the bar charts of W/L for each program over its history we had the wildest swings from 1965 onward. Occasional strong seasons/titles and long stretches of abysmal performance. Not even NW, Minnesota or Indiana could touch us there. (IU's last Rose Bowl, IIRC, was in '68; it has been generally mediocre, but not awful, with iron consistency. Minnestoa? '62. Same observation.)

However, none of this is magic. It's about coaching. Purdue has had, since the '70s, for example, Jim Young and Joe Tiller for 17 seasons, and some strong, exciting teams as a result. Iowa sucked when I was a kid in the '70s. It didn't finish higher than 6th and was usually 8th-10th. Then it hired Hayden Fry in '79 and, boy howdy, things changed quickly. Same with Wisconsin when it hired Alvarez in '90. In the early '80s when I was in high school there existed serious discussion about kicking N'western out of the conference because its revenue sports teams were so consistently awful. Then Gary Barnett showed up in the '90s.

In the late '80s I would have bet (had I possessed it at the time) a large sum against the chance of EITHER of NW or Wisc going to the Rose Bowl before 2000. Betting on BOTH OF THEM going to the Rose Bowl before 2000? Heck, the odds of getting hit by a meteorite were higher at that time.

But, hey, both earned trips to Pasadena before the decade was even half over. Why? Alvarez and Barnett.

Our coaches over the past 30 years have been middling to poor with occasional flashes of enough brilliance in several areas of coaching/recruiting that we managed to have breakout seasons a handful of times at best. But that's it. The reason why our football program was fairly strong in the '80s came down to Mike White and John Mackovic, who were much-above-average coaches.

It's not magic. We've needed a strong, creative, smart, mature coach who can recruit and manage a staff that develops a complete team. These guys are few and far between. Acknowledging my limited expertise on the subject, it seems to me indisputable that we are in a better position on that front than we've been since Mack left for Austin in Dec. '91. That's what we've got to hang our hats on at this point.
 
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#95      
Next year my friend, it will be an open competition between him and Art and we will see who wins. We are saving Art so that he can develop and so that fans aren't pissed if he loses the job next year. If he starts this year the expectation will be he will start next year and starting Art this year will mean that we will get more of the same instead of him learning and growing this year.
I have a very hard time believing BB is “saving Art” and if he was that it would have anything to do with the fans. I think he’s much more worried about the players than the fans, and that “strategy” sounds like a perfect way to lose the team.
 
#98      
It is difficult to build a winning program, there's no magic answer to finding a good coach.

For every home run hire, there are flame outs with similar pedigrees.

That being said there's still the dream fantasy of Nate coming home when he's ready and taking us to the top.
 
#99      
Could it be the playbook? Im over bp as much as anyone and still think art has the a chance to be above average qb with another year learning the system. Im no expert by any means but feel like the offensive struggles in the passing game are just as much play calling as poor qb play.
Based on what the announcer was saying during the game, it sounds like Peters is just missing reads. At least 3-4 times he talked about watching the tape. Plus he missed a sure fire TD to Spann who probably had his DB beat by 3-4 steps. It’s almost like Peters has a version of the Yips or something
 
#100      
Based on what the announcer was saying during the game, it sounds like Peters is just missing reads. At least 3-4 times he talked about watching the tape. Plus he missed a sure fire TD to Spann who probably had his DB beat by 3-4 steps. It’s almost like Peters has a version of the Yips or something
missed IW at least twice wide open- once for a TD (when he lofted the throw to DJB) and second 15yd out route when he forced to Ford in the flat