Pregame: Illinois at Indiana, Saturday, September 20th, 6:30pm CT, NBC

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#51      
cookie86
Yeah I predict 41-13 Indiana…..I just think Indiana is that good
 
#53      
Scoregasm
gary? said:
i am still waiting for the supposed brilliance of ol coach bart miller to show. i guess if coach bielema is satisfied, that works for me, but o-line play has been surprisingly bad since he's been here.

don't get me wrong, i love what bielema's done here. just a glaring/surprising weakness so far.
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OL starts out slow every year. Seems the coaching is common denominator here.
 
#54      
cuillini
rdk573 said:
Wasn't the return of the starters of the offensive line suppose to be our strong point his year and why we were ranked so high to start the season?? I bet the coaches did too and had Bielma dreaming dominating the offensive line of scrimmage , establishing a solid running game early, setting up the passing game for Luke.

Unfortunately, After the first 3 quarters against Duke and the first half against an underweight defensive line of Western Michigan, our offensive line has been brutal...As such, we have had to adjust, and add more blockers to control the blitzes and have a pass first mentality in order to open up the run. Thank god for our coaching adjustments (shout out to Barry Lunney Jr) and a huge shout out to Luke Altmyer and his performance during our last two games. (IMHO our MVP this year).

I can only imagine that Indiana coaches have been watching the game tape and will stack the line (like WM) and we will be blitzed a lot. Hopefully we make a lot of pre-game adjustments to account for this. On defense, I have not been overly impressed and see Indiana scoring a ton of points on us. Thankfully, from what I have seen of their games (Indiana St is a highschool team), Indiana's defense has not been impressive either

The end result, I see a shoot-out with unfortunately us on the losing end...52-49 Indiana.. My best bet is pick the over for this game and make a ton of money..
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IU only scored 27 on ODU, and I have to believe our defense is way better than ODU. I see a 31-27 Illini win.
 
#55      
skyIdub
If our first half defense vs WMU is our fully installed looks….which I’m 60% sure its not…38-35 Illinois in OT.

If that defense was less than 50% of our defensive looks…..35-20 Illinois.

Indinia is good, Illinois is better. 🧡👊🏿

Also the corn in Illinois leans east because Indiana sucks and Iowa blows. :illinois:
 
#60      
IlliniFaninHoosierLand
Joel Goodson said:
not wrong:
https://twitter.com/x/status/1967061474729488696
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To be fair though, the schedule next week is pretty meh in general. Fox is going to Texas Tech/Utah. Auburn/OU is a top 25 matchup but Gameday was just there last week. Battle of Columbia (SC/Miznoz) is out there too but isn't probably as attractive if Sellers can't play.

Not the worst idea to go to a rivalry game like Florida/Miami even if the Gators appear to be down.
 
#61      
OrangeBlue98
hooraybeer said:
i wouldn’t hate if we’re underdogs
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I feel like all the pressure is on Indiana. To be totally honest, even last year they had the makings of a paper tiger. They’ve been great flat track bullies beating up on minnows, but they haven’t beaten anyone of major substance under Cignetti depending on how good you felt Michigan was.

Home game, national audience, under the lights. If there is a time for them to prove the doubters wrong, next week is that chance. Illinois has done it already.
 
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#62      
DeonThomas
OrangeBlue98 said:
I feel like all the pressure is on Indiana. To be totally honest, even last year they had the makings of a paper tiger. They’ve been great flat track bullies beating up on minnows, but they haven’t beaten anyone of major substance under Cignetti depending on how good you felt Michigan was.

Home game, national audience, under the lights. If there is a time for them to prove the doubters wrong, next week is that chance. Illinois has done it already.
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Agree with this. Zero wins over ranked teams in 2024 and (thus far in) 2025.
 
#64      
altgeld88
Fkfootball said:
Indiana fan here. I don't know what outcome to expect next weekend? But this Indiana team is far more talented than last season. Their OL is miles better. The QB is far more talented. The RBs are a lot better. The WR room is a year older. They brought back 3 Pre-Season All Americans on defense. Probably the most athletic defense we've ever had. I agree we've cleaned up on some cupcakes but Old Dominion just blew out Virginia Tech yesterday and is probably the best team in Virginia and Kennesaw State lost to Wake Forrest by 1 point. Maybe the ACC just sucks? There is no question in my mind that we would beat the living crap out of Duke. So we'll see what happens Saturday. Safe travels if you're coming here. I'll be there.
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I can assure you, as a local who pays close attention, that "the best team in Virginia" is presently a fairly low bar.

As of this morning Jeff Sagarin ranks Kennesaw State #174. It beat a Wake team that ranks even with Purdue at ~ 90, which is itself a Big Ten bottom-dweller. Old Dominion is indeed decent this year, approximately as good as Duke. Virginia Tech, I can tell you from firsthand knowledge, is a train wreck. [EDIT: immediately after posting this I noted the news that VT has fired Brent Pry.]

You're playing us at home. Sagarin rates Indiana #14 nationally and Illinois #22. If your side fails to win this one it will be by definition an Illini upset. As I noted in a comment earlier today, we can't sleep through the first half this week and expect to have a shot to prevail. We require four solid quarters.

Fact: IU hasn't played a road game, let alone one again a credible opponent. ODU at home was the closest comp to us, and you won by merely 13 points, seven of that margin via punt return for a TD.

The Illini, in contrast, sputtered through 2-1/2 quarters AT Durham a week ago. And still "beat the living crap" out of Duke on its own field to the extent that with slightly less than 10 mins remaining I was sitting in a stadium that was 80% Illini fans, the Duke partisans having departed in despair, and the Duke players and coaches arguing among themselves openly on the sidelines.

I look forward to my trip to Bloomington later in the week and the undoubted kindness I'll enjoy all day at the table of our Hoosier brethren. Such is the deep, abiding well of goodwill between our camps.

1757870349821.png
 
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#65      
gary?
cuillini said:
IU only scored 27 on ODU, and I have to believe our defense is way better than ODU. I see a 31-27 Illini win.
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good point. still don’t see this as a win, but this makes me feel a little more hopeful
 
#66      
DERV64
I hope im wrong, but i dont have much confidence in the OL, feagin (I know he pulled off 100 yards somehow) is too slow or gets going to slow to be a feature back, Luke has been holding on to the ball and been indecisive. Not impressed with LB play, DBs give too much space to inferior WRs I really dont want to see a real wr room like indiana or USC to be given this much space in order to just keep everything in front of them.

If what ive seen from the first 3 games stays consistent, Im feeling its going to be a painful watch
IU 38
ILL 24

I would love to be wrong on this, so feel free to hate my take.
 
#67      
Ga65
HailtotheChief said:
I honestly feel lU really had 1 signature win all last season vs Michigan at home. Maybe you can consider the win at Washington. But they didn't play Oregon, PSU, or ILL and lost to OSU. That's why many felt Ole Miss or SC who we obviously beat should've been in.

This yearvthey lost 13 starters off that team and have beaten no one significant either. Now I think we should take them seriously because they did beat some middle tier B10 teams last season but they dropped to barely in the top 25 for a reason and are quite possibly highly over ranked. It not like OsU where they lose 13 starters and put in future NFL guys right back in. Let's prepare take our team that has faced a more difficult schedule over the past 1 1/2 years and twice as many returning starters and show them why the coaches picked us ahead of IU. IU lost a lot on a team that had some good wins but best win was home vs Michigan by 3.
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Thought IU looked good yesterday. Not tough opposition but don’t think this will be easy game. Would love to be wrong.
 
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#68      
HailtotheChief
Ga65 said:
Thought they looked good yesterday. Not tough opposition but don’t think this will be easy game. Would love to be wrong.
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I think the MAC is underrated and a quality mid Major opponent. Ohio State was close similar to us until half and then depth kicks in. I just don't feel it's easy to measure Indiana. They ost 13 of 22 starters and did reload I hear in the portal but they play low level teams in non conference and dodge 3 of the top 4 in the B10 last season. I don't know what they are because they haven't played good teams much at all
 
#72      
jamie13197
Hey Coach Lunney. Start game in no huddle hurry up for 2 or 3 series, PLEASE! Seems to work for entire offense starting 3rd quarter. CoachB mentioned getting Luke and men in better rhythm last night. Don't get off the bus after halftime, game will be over. I have full confidence in Staff and players. Not the officials at all. Beat Loosiers so bad, Referees can't steal game. I have nightmares of our game there 2 or 3 years ago.
 
#74      
Fkfootball
rdk573 said:
Wasn't the return of the starters of the offensive line suppose to be our strong point his year and why we were ranked so high to start the season?? I bet the coaches did too and had Bielma dreaming dominating the offensive line of scrimmage , establishing a solid running game early, setting up the passing game for Luke.

Unfortunately, After the first 3 quarters against Duke and the first half against an underweight defensive line of Western Michigan, our offensive line has been brutal...As such, we have had to adjust, and add more blockers to control the blitzes and have a pass first mentality in order to open up the run. Thank god for our coaching adjustments (shout out to Barry Lunney Jr) and a huge shout out to Luke Altmyer and his performance during our last two games. (IMHO our MVP this year).

I can only imagine that Indiana coaches have been watching the game tape and will stack the line (like WM) and we will be blitzed a lot. Hopefully we make a lot of pre-game adjustments to account for this. On defense, I have not been overly impressed and see Indiana scoring a ton of points on us. Thankfully, from what I have seen of their games (Indiana St is a highschool team), Indiana's defense has not been impressive either

The end result, I see a shoot-out with unfortunately us on the losing end...52-49 Indiana.. My best bet is pick the over for this game and make a ton of money..
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I can't speak for Illinois but Indianas defense is 9th best in the country in YPG. Now, they haven't played anyone real formidable. But Bryant Haines defenses are always good. They had to give him 2 million dollars a year to stay here. It's not an overly blitzing defense. They do a lot of stunting and twisting with their DL. Mikail Kamara was an All American last season, basically IUs version of Gabe Jacas, and he really hasn't done much yet. We are still waiting for him to get off the 2025 mat.
 
#75      
jamie13197
Didn't ODU just go to Virginia Tech and spank them. Tech fired their coach today. ODU is a heck of a team.
 
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