Pregame: Illinois vs USC, Saturday, September 27th, 11:00am CT, FOX

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#226      
Indy Illini Fan
BrownTown said:
For my money, the best Offensive Line Coach in the B1G...Happens to be from Tuscola, Illinois.

Dream steal away from Iowa. Kind of move that would make waves across the B1G. Prove we aren't okay with mediocrity.

247sports.com

George Barnett, Offensive Line Coach (FB), Iowa Hawkeyes

George Barnett is the Offensive Line Coach for the Iowa Hawkeyes
247sports.com 247sports.com
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There’s a good chance he would be open to it after the season …
 
#227      
joeybcrazy13
In 47 years I'll say 1 thing Illinois as a program is bad in the big game!!! You can't wish it away you can't ignore it!!! But the one glimmer of hope I'll tell you is that they keep fighting..... ILL!!! 31 to USC 28
 
#229      
joeybcrazy13
I'd fight and die with a smile on my face with my Family... give me 7 and 5 or 6 and 6 versus all the laurels an accolades of a fan base that act like animals... Least I love my team and our coaching staff... I only wish I could bleed for my boys.... I hate seeing them hurt and their heads down.... No matter the final score they are all winners in my book!!
 
#232      
Illini2010-11
Fly Illini Fly! said:
Iowa has the best OLine in the country.
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Yeah. Iowa has never had a problem with the OLine going back for quite some time. It is almost crazy how inefficient their offense has been over the years, given they produce NFL caliber line year in and out, as well as producing some of the best tight ends on an annual basis.
 
#234      
Point-Illinois
Illini2010-11 said:
Yeah. Iowa has never had a problem with the OLine going back for quite some time. It is almost crazy how inefficient their offense has been over the years, given they produce NFL caliber line year in and out, as well as producing some of the best tight ends on an annual basis.
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This is what’s baffling me.

We always here “you have to win the trenches” and if they were winning the trenches, what happened to their O?

Was it all Brian Ferentz?? I mean…I wouldn’t doubt it. Or maybe they’ve been just one QB away from top 10 teams? What an odd set of variables.
 
#236      
Point-Illinois
Illini1977 said:
Still no work on Clark? Supposed to have been coming back every week since week 1
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He’s missed 1/3 of the season.

He could play in half the rest of the season and still redshirt. (If redshirts still exist next year)

I wonder if/when they start having that convo.
 
#239      
gary?
BrownTown said:
As you can see...Bart has been consistent over the entire time he has been here. 😒

How can we possibly attract a good QB in the portal with this hanging above our head? We can't even keep a guy upright!

Averaging 4 sacks a game so far and we PAID 2 of those teams to play us. 😡💩
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re-upping this in light of the bart miller video. here is the accompanying image @BrownTown posted:

1758649023498.png
 
#240      
BrownTown
gary? said:
re-upping this in light of the bart miller video. here is the accompanying image @BrownTown posted:

View attachment 43874
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Call it body language or reading too far into what he was saying...

But did anyone else get the feeling he is holding some animosity towards the play calling/play style? Not that I've been perfectly thrilled with everything Lunney has done so far but...maybe I expected a more "buck stops with me" approach to the early line struggles.

He seemed to kind of dance around it before taking responsibility.

Just my take though. Always interesting to see how others read it

(Side note) Dixon seemed like the only one who has internalized the game and is ready to move past. Hopefully Arkin is just not great with media...for a 2X Captain his interview didn't exude "We are past the loss and we are going to beat USC" energy.
 
#241      
STLflyinIllini
BrownTown said:
Call it body language or reading too far into what he was saying...

But did anyone else get the feeling he is holding some animosity towards the play calling/play style? Not that I've been perfectly thrilled with everything Lunney has done so far but...maybe I expected a more "buck stops with me" approach to the early line struggles.

He seemed to kind of dance around it before taking responsibility.

Just my take though. Always interesting to see how others read it

(Side note) Dixon seemed like the only one who has internalized the game and is ready to move past. Hopefully Arkin is just not great with media...for a 2X Captain his interview didn't exude "We are past the loss and we are going to beat USC" energy.
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yeah I don't think he really took accountability either. Blamed the entire offense and kept saying the OLine has been good in the 2nd half up until Indiana..then went on to say how they all need to own it, after not owning it himself. Maybe it's just my disgust from how bad the last game went and how often our QB has been sacked consistently for years, but I'd be OK if he moved on.

If Stepp/Ward were interviewed, I would guess they would talk about what areas the WR's/RB's need to improve or be prepared instead of just saying the whole offense stinks.
 
#242      
BrownTown
STLflyinIllini said:
yeah I don't think he really took accountability either. Blamed the entire offense and kept saying the OLine has been good in the 2nd half up until Indiana..then went on to say how they all need to own it, after not owning it himself. Maybe it's just my disgust from how bad the last game went and how often our QB has been sacked consistently for years, but I'd be OK if he moved on.

If Stepp/Ward were interviewed, I would guess they would talk about what areas the WR's/RB's need to improve or be prepared instead of just saying the whole offense stinks.
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Call it my overreaction...

Does the issue truly get fixed if he thinks the issue lies somewhere else? My whole reason to overanalyze his answers.
 
#243      
Illini2010-11
STLflyinIllini said:
yeah I don't think he really took accountability either. Blamed the entire offense and kept saying the OLine has been good in the 2nd half up until Indiana..then went on to say how they all need to own it, after not owning it himself. Maybe it's just my disgust from how bad the last game went and how often our QB has been sacked consistently for years, but I'd be OK if he moved on.

If Stepp/Ward were interviewed, I would guess they would talk about what areas the WR's/RB's need to improve or be prepared instead of just saying the whole offense stinks.
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As far as I am concerned, the only individual who needs to take full accountability for the shortcomings is Coach B. He put together the staff and recruited the players. The way to show that accountability is to make necessary staff changes/upgrades in recruitment where necessary. Unfortunately, this is hard to do after the 4th game of the season. The O-Line is virtually the same as last season, but seems to have taken a step backward. That is a combination of coaching and lack of development in player personnel. We seemed to out scheme the opposition last season, which was able to overcome some of these shortcomings. We got exposed last week against top-tier competition, and we are likely to continue to get exposed.

It is going to take quite a coaching job to right the ship after Saturday, but Coach B has shown able to do that over his tenure here. I fear that the bag of tricks, however, is going to be limited though.

We really need to hope that USC comes out flat Saturday morning and makes many mistakes the way that Duke did against us. IU played a relatively clean game and were able to expose all of the Illini weaknesses. I fear that USC will be able to that as well.

The team really needs a bye week to collect themselves, but it is not coming until after Ohio State. I think the collective view going into season was that the Purdue game would be almost like a bye week, but that is far from the case. My fear going into season was that the bye week would be too late in the season if we suffered a setback. I really hope that I am wrong there.
 
#244      
Fighter of the Nightman
Future Insider said:
Lose big to South Carolina last year and beat Indiana this year…… or vice-versa.
What ya taking?
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It's difficult to see this IU loss being ANYWHERE near deflating as it was if we don't beat South Carolina in the first place. People are forgetting this now given last week's pathetic performance, but that Citrus Bowl victory absolutely shattered the narrative that we were just getting by beating mediocre teams, limping our way to 9 wins through luck and not able to hang with good teams ... the Gamecocks were considered one of the hottest teams in the nation, and almost no experts were giving us a chance. It was an absolute statement win for our program. If we lose to SC last year, I don't think we enter the preseason polls above #20-23 at best, and thus there would have never been these dreams of a CFP berth. All just conjecture and my subjective opinion, of course, but I think it was the expectations that led to this Indiana loss being so heart breaking and sickening.

With that said, let's imagine we finished last year 9-4 and still returned everyone. We could have been into the top 20 by the time we traveled to Bloomington, and a win would catapult us easily into the top 15 and sitting pretty at 4-0. I hesitate to give up a Citrus Bowl win, though.
 
#246      
Illini2010-11
Fighter of the Nightman said:
It's difficult to see this IU loss being ANYWHERE near deflating as it was if we don't beat South Carolina in the first place. People are forgetting this now given last week's pathetic performance, but that Citrus Bowl victory absolutely shattered the narrative that we were just getting by beating mediocre teams, limping our way to 9 wins through luck and not able to hang with good teams ... the Gamecocks were considered one of the hottest teams in the nation, and almost no experts were giving us a chance. It was an absolute statement win for our program. If we lose to SC last year, I don't think we enter the preseason polls above #20-23 at best, and thus there would have never been these dreams of a CFP berth. All just conjecture and my subjective opinion, of course, but I think it was the expectations that led to this Indiana loss being so heart breaking and sickening.

With that said, let's imagine we finished last year 9-4 and still returned everyone. We could have been into the top 20 by the time we traveled to Bloomington, and a win would catapult us easily into the top 15 and sitting pretty at 4-0. I hesitate to give up a Citrus Bowl win, though.
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I 100% get where you are coming from, and I completely agree. The way the OP laid out the question is interesting though.

If the Illini get blown out vs South Carolina in the bowl game, at least you could blame issues like opt outs, etc. There are no excuses to be found after Saturday night. The whole primary goal of the season was making the CFP, but I agree that those goals would have been tampered without the Citrus Bowl win. It is so difficult having high expectations as an Illini fan, when we have not even had back-to-back winning regular seasons in nearly three decades. Makes watching IU have back-to-back successful seasons in the making so much more difficult to stomach.
 
#249      
TGB
The OC play calling needs to adjust to the pressure our QB is under most of the time. Also. My wife calls up the middle for no gain on first down most of the time, and she would be right 70-80% of the time. Brady lasted so long in the NFL because he threw quick short passes and the players would get yards after the catch. He was seldom hit because the ball would already be out of his hand. Slants, play action, screens are all made to protect the QB and can be used to check the pass rush. We usually have two downs to get 10 yards, since our 1st down calls are so predictable.
 
#250      
altgeld88
Future Insider said:
Lose big to South Carolina last year and beat Indiana this year…… or vice-versa.
What ya taking?
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Why not beat both of them, or at worst get edged out in Bloomington? That's where we want to be. And we aren't.
 
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