Illini Football

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#103      
I mean we can take it on putting down the old staff, but we didn't have a single player drafted in the Lovie years. Now we are losing two Lovie kids who were definitely not highly rated to the draft and they were confident enough to sign agents before hearing their grade. I don't think I am being mean just stating the true events of what happened. We turned not highly recruited kids that didn't fit our program into draft pick imagine what we can do with you is a good sales pitch to some of these kids.
Just curious, who was the Head Coach when K Green was playing?
 
#105      

Illiniaaron

Geneseo, IL
I hope Kevin Warren was able to take care of tOSU, Michigan and PSU in developing this schedule. It would be a shame if they didn't get all of their specific requests granted. I mean, that is his job after all isn't it, to service those 3? (and I mean SERVICE)
I see what you did there :whistle:
 
#106      

ChiefGritty

Chicago, IL
Just curious, who was the Head Coach when K Green was playing?
Green was like the one golden example of what we thought the Lovie era could be.

Big time recruit we beat the usual suspects to get, our staff identified his potential on the offensive side when many others recruited him at DT, notably he was the only guy in that class that didn’t get thrown into the fire as a true frosh on a dead-end team, and he grew into a bruising, no nonsense cornerstone in the trenches.

I hadn’t considered that before, the only big recruit in that class that wasn’t pushed into the fray ahead of schedule wound up being the biggest development success story by a country mile. There’s a lesson there.
 
#108      
Green was like the one golden example of what we thought the Lovie era could be.

Big time recruit we beat the usual suspects to get, our staff identified his potential on the offensive side when many others recruited him at DT, notably he was the only guy in that class that didn’t get thrown into the fire as a true frosh on a dead-end team, and he grew into a bruising, no nonsense cornerstone in the trenches.

I hadn’t considered that before, the only big recruit in that class that wasn’t pushed into the fray ahead of schedule wound up being the biggest development success story by a country mile. There’s a lesson there.
This type of thing is what the Iowa's and UW's do really well. They don't play guys until they are physically and mentally ready, which keeps them from getting injured and allows them to line up experienced 5th year players against our first and second year players
 
#110      

ChiefGritty

Chicago, IL
This type of thing is what the Iowa's and UW's do really well. They don't play guys until they are physically and mentally ready, which keeps them from getting injured and allows them to line up experienced 5th year players against our first and second year players
And the think I felt we really learned in the Lovie era, it means guys grow through a system in which snaps are earned and they have role models to see what it means to grow in that way.

Because Lovie never saw a shortcut here he didn’t immediately take, we went Sam Hinkie trust the process tank-ball here almost immediately, overplaying freshmen because they were freshmen on some cockamamie theory about how accumulated starts would pay off in the end.

It was poisonous. We ended up kicking most of the most promising performers in that experiment off the team in the end, and most of the lynchpins of our minor 2019 success were transfers or the few remaining Beckman/Cubit holdovers. Handing the keys to unproven 19 year olds backfired, who could have guessed?
 
#111      

illini80

Forgottonia
You're optimistic and I dig that about you, but I think the Illini might have a difficult season next year. I hope I'm wrong but I'm looking at 3-4 wins. We are losing a lot of experience and moving in a lot of young guys.
And the schedule looks tougher next year too. 6 wins next year will be a strong performance. I know there’s lots of work to do, but I’m putting confidence in the staff to fill some holes with transfers and continue to develop guys we don’t know much about yet. A lot depends on how the QB situation plays out.
 
#112      

ChiefGritty

Chicago, IL
And the schedule looks tougher next year too. 6 wins next year will be a strong performance. I know there’s lots of work to do, but I’m putting confidence in the staff to fill some holes with transfers and continue to develop guys we don’t know much about yet. A lot depends on how the QB situation plays out.
The bad news is that 2022 is a much taller order than 2021, which was always obvious.

The good news is that the big uncertainty about 2021 was how a first year coaching staff was going to gel and get the ball rolling with their new roster, and that was resolved pretty positively, and with less reliance on the departing super seniors than might have been anticipated.

(My opinion on TP has not changed, just for the record. I am choosing to shut up and live with it, but just making a note of it. Take the positive view, 2023 is probably likely to see an upgraded OC among other benefits)
 
#114      
The bad news is that 2022 is a much taller order than 2021, which was always obvious.

The good news is that the big uncertainty about 2021 was how a first year coaching staff was going to gel and get the ball rolling with their new roster, and that was resolved pretty positively, and with less reliance on the departing super seniors than might have been anticipated.

(My opinion on TP has not changed, just for the record. I am choosing to shut up and live with it, but just making a note of it. Take the positive view, 2023 is probably likely to see an upgraded OC among other benefits)
We finished 96th (before bowls) in offensive sp+ rankings, yet it’s hard to predict a significant step with all the players the offense lost.
 
#115      
This type of thing is what the Iowa's and UW's do really well. They don't play guys until they are physically and mentally ready, which keeps them from getting injured and allows them to line up experienced 5th year players against our first and second year players
But it is dependent on establishing a string of winning seasons in order to be able to afford to recruit-and-hold.
 
#116      
The bad news is that 2022 is a much taller order than 2021, which was always obvious.

The good news is that the big uncertainty about 2021 was how a first year coaching staff was going to gel and get the ball rolling with their new roster, and that was resolved pretty positively, and with less reliance on the departing super seniors than might have been anticipated.

(My opinion on TP has not changed, just for the record. I am choosing to shut up and live with it, but just making a note of it. Take the positive view, 2023 is probably likely to see an upgraded OC among other benefits)
I'm with you on TP. We aren't in a bowl game because we did not score enough points. Hopefully the NW game meant something from a play calling standpoint. To me, OC Petersen seemed to call plays not to lose. Like a number of UI play callers before him, use of the middle of the field on passing plays apparently was off limits. I think some of his running play concepts were pretty good. I'm hoping Bret and the recruiting guys have laid a good foundation with the OLine recruits and I think from watching the highlight clips that Petersen chose a QB with the arm, quick release, and ability to read the field to be the guy in the next couple of years.
 
#117      

ChiefGritty

Chicago, IL
I'm with you on TP. We aren't in a bowl game because we did not score enough points. Hopefully the NW game meant something from a play calling standpoint. To me, OC Petersen seemed to call plays not to lose. Like a number of UI play callers before him, use of the middle of the field on passing plays apparently was off limits. I think some of his running play concepts were pretty good. I'm hoping Bret and the recruiting guys have laid a good foundation with the OLine recruits and I think from watching the highlight clips that Petersen chose a QB with the arm, quick release, and ability to read the field to be the guy in the next couple of years.
The thing I can't get over with TP is that he's not only the only coach who ever had Gardner Minshew looking like anything other than the hyper-accurate dart thrower that he is, he was mixing in other nobodies instead of him.

And then for most of this year he was bringing out all the bad parts of Peters with none of the good. And Sitkowski was a really poor scouting decision.

I just don't think he's up to the job.
 
#118      
Green was like the one golden example of what we thought the Lovie era could be.

Big time recruit we beat the usual suspects to get, our staff identified his potential on the offensive side when many others recruited him at DT, notably he was the only guy in that class that didn’t get thrown into the fire as a true frosh on a dead-end team, and he grew into a bruising, no nonsense cornerstone in the trenches.

I hadn’t considered that before, the only big recruit in that class that wasn’t pushed into the fray ahead of schedule wound up being the biggest development success story by a country mile. There’s a lesson there.
Was specifically responding to the post where he/she said that Illinois had no draft picks over the Lovie years. Could have also mentioned Nate Hobbs.
 
#119      
I have to believe that Coach B has a great deal of influence with the types of plays that are called. OC calls plays according to the game plan that is set up with HC and all other offensive coach’s. At this point I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Our inability to execute the plays that were called is more concerning to me. Better talent will make the OC look better.
 
#120      
I have to believe that Coach B has a great deal of influence with the types of plays that are called. OC calls plays according to the game plan that is set up with HC and all other offensive coach’s. At this point I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Our inability to execute the plays that were called is more concerning to me. Better talent will make the OC look better.
This might be a shock, but BB has had a lot of good offenses in his career. Before this year, his worst offense was low 50’s in sp+ rankings. This year it’s 96.
 
#121      
I have to believe that Coach B has a great deal of influence with the types of plays that are called. OC calls plays according to the game plan that is set up with HC and all other offensive coach’s. At this point I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Our inability to execute the plays that were called is more concerning to me. Better talent will make the OC look better.

I agree with your player execution part.

There were a handful of times that a particular play call left me wanting more from the OC.

But the times where a drive stalled because of a drop or bad throw or missed block were far more numerous.
 
#122      
The thing I can't get over with TP is that he's not only the only coach who ever had Gardner Minshew looking like anything other than the hyper-accurate dart thrower that he is, he was mixing in other nobodies instead of him.

And then for most of this year he was bringing out all the bad parts of Peters with none of the good. And Sitkowski was a really poor scouting decision.

I just don't think he's up to the job.
I think you may be right, but I hope you are really wrong. I know it was a down NW team, but the play calling was really along the lines of what I want to see.
 
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