Week 10 Polls - Illinois #24 in AP Poll

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#3      
Illiniam1984
Mr. Tibbs said:
we really might drop out of top 25

it’s not the loss , but how we looked on national TV .

it’s okay , we have 4 games to prove we belong back in
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Staring Episode 2 GIF by The Office
 
#6      
pvaughn8
Illiniam1984 said:
I can’t edit this anymore but I’m going to take this back. After reading some projections, I think we may actually drop out this week.
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We are right in the mix. My hope is to finish the season top 25. We probably need at least 3-1 in the last 4 to accomplish that.
 
#14      
illiram
Proud of this team. Finish strong and go 10-2 or 9-3 and we will have a really fun New Years Day bowl.

If we can somehow fix the coaching on D a bit and present some different looks, they are picking us apart. it's ok to Blitz once in a while, especially on 3rd down.
 
#15      
derrick6
Our body of work looked better yesterday with Nebraska and Kansas showing well, although coming up short.

Looks like that outweighed the margin of defeat. And playing in Eugene is difficult.
 
#16      
and 69 others
illiram said:
Proud of this team. Finish strong and go 10-2 or 9-3 and we will have a really fun New Years Day bowl.

If we can somehow fix the coaching on D a bit and present some different looks, they are picking us apart. it's ok to Blitz once in a while, especially on 3rd down.
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What worries me is how poorly we closed out the last 4 games of 2022. Cannot have that happen again. We have winnable games left, let’s win them.
 
#17      
Fighter of the Nightman
Dan said:
https://twitter.com/x/status/1850601710030344229
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On this note, it is crazy JUST how much better the last couple years under Bielema have been.

- We were in the AP Poll a total of 16 weeks from 2000 to 2001.
- Then from 2002 to 2006 ... zero weeks.
- We were in the AP Poll for 11 weeks from 2007 to 2008 during the Rose Bowl season and the first few weeks of leftover hype in 2008 before we self-destructed.
- Then from 2009 to 2021, we spent exactly 5 weeks in the AP top 25 ... and all 5 came in 2011 when we infamously became the first time ever to start 6-0 and lose our final 6 regular season games (causing Zook to be fired).

So in the NINE previous seasons before Bret was hired, we didn't sniff the AP Poll one time. He has now had us ranked a total of 12 weeks in the last 3 seasons. Absolutely awesome!

EDIT: And it is also worth noting a HUGE difference between Bret and his predecessors in this regard. In the 2 years of his tenure where we were never ranked (2021 and 2023), we went 5-7 in both seasons and were within depressingly close reach of a bowl game both years. The former was his very first year of trying to rebuild, and the latter was after losing a ton of NFL talent from an 8-win team.

Our "off years" from the AP Poll used to mean going 2-10 or 3-9 for several years until we'd randomly make a BCS Bowl and then miss a bowl the following year. :ROFLMAO: It is absolutely awesome from a historical perspective that Bret's two worst years on paper here have still involved us nearly making a bowl and being competitive in the vast majority of our Big Ten conference games.
 
#18      
ChiefGritty
Fighter of the Nightman said:
On this note, it is crazy JUST how much better the last couple years under Bielema have been.

- We were in the AP Poll a total of 16 weeks from 2000 to 2001.
- Then from 2002 to 2006 ... zero weeks.
- We were in the AP Poll for 11 weeks from 2007 to 2008 during the Rose Bowl season and the first few weeks of leftover hype in 2008 before we self-destructed.
- Then from 2009 to 2021, we spent exactly 5 weeks in the AP top 25 ... and all 5 came in 2011 when we infamously became the first time ever to start 6-0 and lose our final 6 regular season games (causing Zook to be fired).

So in the NINE previous seasons before Bret was hired, we didn't sniff the AP Poll one time. He has now had us ranked a total of 12 weeks in the last 3 seasons. Absolutely awesome!

EDIT: And it is also worth noting a HUGE difference between Bret and his predecessors in this regard. In the 2 years of his tenure where we were never ranked (2021 and 2023), we went 5-7 in both seasons and were within depressingly close reach of a bowl game both years. The former was his very first year of trying to rebuild, and the latter was after losing a ton of NFL talent from an 8-win team.

Our "off years" from the AP Poll used to mean going 2-10 or 3-9 for several years until we'd randomly make a BCS Bowl and then miss a bowl the following year. :ROFLMAO: It is absolutely awesome from a historical perspective that Bret's two worst years on paper here have still involved us nearly making a bowl and being competitive in the vast majority of our Big Ten conference games.
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From Mike White's first year until Lou Tepper's last we won or tied at least 3 Big Ten games for 16 years in a row.

Then starting with Tepper's last year and continuing until Lovie's last we failed to win or tie at least three Big Ten games more than TWO consecutive years over a 25 year period. (And 01/02 and 07/08 were the only times we even did it twice in a row, both with three win declines in the second year).

Bielema has won at least 3 Big Ten games all four of his seasons here.

That sense of de-Guentherfication of the program is very exciting.

I thought the bottom was going to fall out this year, in the manner we are historically accustomed to. I was wrong and that will change my view of this staff going forward.
 
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