illinidarrin
- from parts unknown
We are #20 in the coaches poll.
I'm surprised we did leapfrog Texas and that we didn't leapfrog Cincinnati.We are #20 in the coaches poll.
I refuse to acknowledge that loss.Cincy beat Indiana and we didn't I guess fair is fair.
The further we get into the season the more I feel like that was the perfect loss for us at the perfect time. As long as that bad taste lingers we're going to be playing the right kind of football with the right attitude.I refuse to acknowledge that loss.
The further we get into the season the more I feel like that was the perfect loss for us at the perfect time. As long as that bad taste lingers we're going to be playing the right kind of football with the right attitude.
I think you might be right. My no-so-hot take at the time was that the IU loss made it less likely to get to 6 wins but somehow MORE likely to get to 8 or more. Wait— what? Yeah, I can’t justify the math to anyone other than my own internal monologue, and I know it sounds like mindless fan optimism and cognitive dissonance after a loss. But my thinking was that if Illinois was tracking to be a middling, mediocre team, then every win counts and every loss hurts. But if Illinois was on the road to something special, then that loss could be the final secret ingredient.The further we get into the season the more I feel like that was the perfect loss for us at the perfect time. As long as that bad taste lingers we're going to be playing the right kind of football with the right attitude.
I don't know the methodology, but somehow Minnesota went up 2 spots in FPI (19th to 17th) and Illinois, despite starting much lower, only went up 3 spots (38th to 35th).I was looking for the new AP rankings and stumbled on ESPN’s rankings. Their methodology:
“ESPN Football Power Index (FPI) college football rankings and computer prediction model are a measure of team strength that predicts a team’s future performance.
“Rankings and scores predictions are based on 20,000 simulations of a team’s season, using a combination of analytics, including scores to date, quality of opponents, and a team’s schedule.”
Week 8 results include Illinois unranked and Minnesota at #17. I knew I shouldn’t have clicked that link. ESPN continues to be a hot mess of an organization and not worth the few seconds I spent on their website.
I was looking for the new AP rankings and stumbled on ESPN’s rankings. Their methodology:
“ESPN Football Power Index (FPI) college football rankings and computer prediction model are a measure of team strength that predicts a team’s future performance.
“Rankings and scores predictions are based on 20,000 simulations of a team’s season, using a combination of analytics, including scores to date, quality of opponents, and a team’s schedule.”
Week 8 results include Illinois unranked and Minnesota at #17. I knew I shouldn’t have clicked that link. ESPN continues to be a hot mess of an organization and not worth the few seconds I spent on their website.
The part I really like about this comment is you understand that Norte Dame is no longer a legacy generational power and being ranked ahead of them is nothing to get excited about.What do the following football teams have in common?...
Texas
Baylor
LSU
Arkansas
North Carolina
South Carolina
Mississippi State
Pittsburgh
Central Florida
Answer: Two things. First, they are all legacy generational football powers.
And Second? The Illini are ABOVE all these teams in the current Coach’s Poll.
Illini fans are just going to have to get comfortable with Success. A great basketball program... and a rising football program.
Success is fun. Embrace the Joy. Winning never gets old.
The part I really like about this comment is you understand that Norte Dame is no longer a legacy generational power and being ranked ahead of them is nothing to get excited about.
this is the keyFor a program... it all grows from the top down. You got the right guys at the leadership positions... and success is going to be the result.
I bet the math of it isn't so much that a bunch of voters shot us up in their ballots, it's that now we're on everybody's ballot whereas last week we were rated by some people but also had a lot of 0's.Up 6 spots in the AP poll. We’re the biggest positive mover in the week 8 polls.
I'm not sure that we have administration that cares a lot about athletics so much as an AD that knows how to play the game with admin.this is the key
for way too many years, we've had a President, Chancellor and AD who paid lip service at best (if that) to the notion of really caring if varsity sports mattered at all
in fact, we've had more than a few people in upper admin over the last 50 years , that really (albeit quietly) didnt like the distraction of sports and yearned to be like U of Chicago and the Ivy League . What we got was the direct result of that.
We saw what Wiscy (and then Northwestern) could do when admin really cared and people were held accountable .
It takes two to tango.I'm not sure that we have administration that cares a lot about athletics so much as an AD that knows how to play the game with admin.
While I agree with your general sentiment, saying we “deserve” to be a football power is way overstated. That comment would get jeers talking to football fans not associated with our school. We are 50+ years from any meaningful sustained success, did not pop even one year into serious national title consideration, nor come from a football hotbed state (Site I looked at showed Illinois 21st in players in the NFL). There would be a host of schools more deserving. I can get behind that statement for basketball though. We’ve had prolonged stretches of success the last 50 years, have had a couple teams in contention for best team in the country, and illlinois has the 5th most players in the NBA.To continue that thought... yesterday both Alabama and Southern California also go down to defeat. But that's not as notable as the rise of the Illini.
The old legacy powers will always attract talent just by their name plate, but the overall landscape is changing. Teams like the Illini and Kansas and Kentucky and Duke (and maybe even Indiana to an extent - all roundball powers by the way) are moving up in the gridiron World as well. The Portal is evening the field and more teams now have a legitimate chance at success and rapid improvement from year to year.
A legacy power has to work really hard to fall off that high perch. Michigan and Tennessee fell off for a while but got themselves way back up again. And today, Nebraska is still trying to figure out what went wrong and how to get back to respectability after 25 years of program slippage.
Illinois deserves to be football power. There was no good reason why Wisconsin and Iowa and Michigan (all neighborhood States) should be consistently successful while the Illini were so long trying to close that gap. (Yes, it goes back to leadership but that still left the question of why those States had that and not Illinois). And the State of Illinois has plenty of local talent.
For a program... it all grows from the top down. You got the right guys at the leadership positions... and success is going to be the result.
While I agree with your general sentiment, saying we “deserve” to be a football power is way overstated. That comment would get jeers talking to football fans not associated with our school. We are 50+ years from any meaningful sustained success... We need to go 10+ years without a losing record (at a minimum) and win a west title or a few to be taken seriously.