I'm "nervous" for this one because Toledo is a good football team, but not in the way I would be truly nervous in years past ... I have no doubt Bret and Co. will have our boys ready to play and will not take Toledo lightly in any way, shape or form. We have a tough trip to Lawrence coming up six days after and a massive home game against PSU a week after that, so I think everyone knows how important it is to start this season off strong.
Illinois 31
Toledo 14
I also hope we can give the staff and the team a nice gesture by having over 45k in the stands. While having below 55k or so for the home opener is still well below "big boy program" levels, it takes time to reengage the fanbase, and 45k would represent a very big (nearly 20%) increase from last year's crowd vs. Wyoming. Not sure if our boy
@IlliniInBuckeyeState has seen any movement on the sellout tracker, but it looks like as of now the west side will be pretty much full, East Main will be decently full but will have splotches of empty areas, the Horseshoe will be full at the bottom and empty in the last several rows and the East Balcony will be quite sparsely populated. For reference of where I feel we should be getting back to as a respectable program, here are past home openers vs. non-Power Five opponents:
2022: 37,832 vs. Toledo
...
2016: 48,644 vs. Murray State (Lovie's first season created an uptick)
...
2011: 45,154 vs. Arkansas State
2010: 52,217 vs. Southern Illinois
2009: 62,347 vs. Southern Illinois (above current capacity but not quite a sellout in 2009)
2008: 60,131 vs. Eastern Illinois (see above)
2007: 48,301 vs. Western Illinois
2006: 45,444 vs. Eastern Illinois (for a 2-10 Illini team that was 2-10 the year before)
...
2004: 46,106 vs. Florida A&M (for a 3-8 Illini team that was 1-11 the year before...)
2003: 56,304 vs. Illinois State
2002: 46,258 vs. Arkansas State (pretty bad showing coming off Sugar Bowl season)
2001: 45,674 vs. Northern Illinois
So, moral of the story I guess is that while it will take time to reengage even more fans and the nature of attending a game vs. watching on TV has drastically changed in recent years, even a bad Illini team should be putting 45k+ in the stands every game. There are just too many people in the C-U area, Central Illinois and at least SOME able to travel from Chicago, St. Louis or wherever not to have that many in attendance (i.e., it just speaks to apathy and nothing else). For years where we have a bit of hype like 2008 or 2009, it seems we can easily get above 50k.
So - getting close to 50k for this opener would be a pretty meaningful statement that our fan base is fully behind this staff and team!