Pregame: Illinois vs Ohio State, Saturday, October 11th, 11:00am CT, FOX

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#376      
21ChampaignSt
The pop of Champaign said:
And since then we’ve had 0 identity. At least we have the William tell overture /s. The western Michigan game was dull, dreary, and quiet for a sold out crowd, because it took forever for the team to give us something to be amped about. Additionally, we don’t have much of anything anymore that’s uniquely us. The music, the war chant, would certainly inspire me more as a fan compared to our current approach of filling the void with what feels like placeholders for a long time now.
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The difference is the War Chant kept fans engaged. The new filler stuff just tries to keep fans entertained.

It's more noticeable in basketball when breaks in the action bring any crowd noise or momentum to a screeching halt. In my lifetime, football has always had more of a "Saturday out with the family" vibe so knowing when to get loud, getting loud, and staying loud has never been a particular strength of our fans anyway. But the War Chant at least got them doing something.
 
#377      
logjam
SeattleSlim said:
May get a Texas National Guard flyover.
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Altmyer_Air_Attack_1.jpg
 
#378      
RML
I dreamt last night that, as time was running out, Beatty did a sweep around the right end, incredibly speeding past every OSU defender, and breaking free for an easy touchdown. Approaching the end zone, he extends the ball in celebration. No, Hank would never drop the ball early... But he does intentionally flip it out at the one to allow us to burn clock.

I spent the rest of the night fighting and debating everything that could go wrong from there.
 
#379      
Second place is 1st loser
Back to the game for those who want to focus on our weak Chancellor and Board of Trustees that folded like a cheap tent.

We know our defense is going to let up points. Most do vs OSU and USC. It's going to drive people nuts, but AH needs to come in with a similar mindset. Understand we are out manned at every single position on the field and just keep the OSU receivers in front. Make the game as short as possible. 5 to 6 minute drives are fine, 35 second ones are not. The first keeps us in the game and the second gets us blown off the field. We just don't have any answers defensively.

On offense, we're in the same boat. They have NFL players all over their roster. HAVE TO find a way to run the ball and pick up first downs to keep the clock moving. If we're in 3rd and longs, they have the talent on their D Line to get to LA only rushing their down linemen. No blitz needed and as good as a guy like Beatty has been, these corners are a different animal.

I don't see us being able to get both done enough to win, but we can stay in the game.

OSU. 35
Good Guys 17

For the gamblers out there, OSU covers and really look at the over. That depends on how much we can shorten this thing and if we can get some unlikely turnovers.
 
#380      
BZuppke
Random Facts about Illibuck


• Ohio State students fastened a muzzle for Illibuck for his first trip to Illinois.


• The halftime hand-off of Illibuck has to happen with Illibuck passed backwards over each representative’s head and Illibuck must not touch the ground in transition.


• Illinois apparently couldn’t get enough of Illibuck and attempted to have a similar turtle trophy with the University of Chicago. That never took off.
 
#381      
joeybcrazy13
I dont care if you chant or freaking cuss... be there for our boys!!! Lets gooo win this thing!!! ILL
 
#383      
Krombopulos_Michael
BZuppke said:
Random Facts about Illibuck


• Ohio State students fastened a muzzle for Illibuck for his first trip to Illinois.


• The halftime hand-off of Illibuck has to happen with Illibuck passed backwards over each representative’s head and Illibuck must not touch the ground in transition.


• Illinois apparently couldn’t get enough of Illibuck and attempted to have a similar turtle trophy with the University of Chicago. That never took off.
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i like turtles GIF
 
#385      
thefalcon5
Toews said:
Like others have said the war chant was the most annoying tradition related to the Chief and the thing I miss the least. Never timed well with the play.
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Worst take of the day, was a cool piece of music and really cool when the stadiums were filled with everyone clapping. That being said, it’s not as big a deal that they “banned” it.
 
#388      
DeonThomas
RML said:
I dreamt last night that, as time was running out, Beatty did a sweep around the right end, incredibly speeding past every OSU defender, and breaking free for an easy touchdown. Approaching the end zone, he extends the ball in celebration. No, Hank would never drop the ball early... But he does intentionally flip it out at the one to allow us to burn clock.

I spent the rest of the night fighting and debating everything that could go wrong from there.
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Amazingly, I had the same exact dream —- although mine was a nightmare, because we were down 8 pts at the time of said “flip”.
 
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#389      
MikeTisdale
Dkayak said:
Nothing says either team has those 50:50 odds of bad or great performance. Stumbling or not isn’t a binary thing. Neither is having a great game. Both occur on a continuum.

I’m just offering a mathematical rationale for what folks were suggesting, i.e. 15-25% odds of a win. It’s very plausible. Great teams stumble (relatively) all the time, allowing weak ones to beat them with better than expected performance. Every weekend offers many such examples. We might serve one up Saturday..

My gut says we have 20% chance of a win, 60% chance of a “competitive loss”, and 20% chance of an uglier loss. Should be a great gameday overall . . . weather, atmosphere, and a reasonable shot at upsetting OSU.
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Asking GPT-5 to do one thousand simulations gives Illinois a 14% chance to win.

Which is actually lower than the implied winning odds of a +470 money line (17.5% chance to win).

But stats and odds are for nerds - Illinois is going to win by 10, i feel it in my bones
 
#392      
21ChampaignSt
Curbelo Fanboy said:
Shoulda seen the Chief in it's day. Was an incredibly cool 4 minutes of halftime. It was our "dotting the I" kind of thing. Something you didn't want to miss.
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A not small contingent of fans would come to games just for the Chief. I spoke to a Minnesota fan once who said they wanted to go to a Big Ten road game and they chose to drive down to Champaign because they wanted to see the Chief at halftime.

Although he's gone, the Chief is still one thing that unites most of our fan base. I will never not get chills when the stadium yells "Chieeeef" in unison at the conclusion of the 3-in-1.
 
#395      
SuperintendentChalmers
21ChampaignSt said:
A not small contingent of fans would come to games just for the Chief. I spoke to a Minnesota fan once who said they wanted to go to a Big Ten road game and they chose to drive down to Champaign because they wanted to see the Chief at halftime.

Although he's gone, the Chief is still one thing that unites most of our fan base. I will never not get chills when the stadium yells "Chieeeef" in unison at the conclusion of the 3-in-1.
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I remember a basketball exhibition game against an Australian team on which one of the star players went to Iowa. Don't know if it was his doing, but they actually stayed on the court at halftime to watch the Chief.
 
#397      
Fighter of the Nightman
21ChampaignSt said:
A not small contingent of fans would come to games just for the Chief. I spoke to a Minnesota fan once who said they wanted to go to a Big Ten road game and they chose to drive down to Champaign because they wanted to see the Chief at halftime.

Although he's gone, the Chief is still one thing that unites most of our fan base. I will never not get chills when the stadium yells "Chieeeef" in unison at the conclusion of the 3-in-1.
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I REALLY wish we marketed the Three-in-One more. I know they give the speech before it starts, but the university should be much louder in its general "marketing" efforts to remind not just the nation but our own fans that we have this cool tradition. Considering how much of our OTHER traditions we have purposely eliminated (whether or not one agrees it was necessary is irrelevant), it seems crazy we don't practically scream about one like that that's still around! I've also been an extremely vocal proponent of us doing a much better job at highlighting the history of Memorial Stadium. Folks here are right when they highlight that we have a uniquely "plain" gameday experience compared to many of our Big Ten rivals, and it's staring us RIGHT in the face that we have the stadium with easily the coolest backstory, and we do shockingly little to highlight that.

I can tell you that it is a straight-up FACT that your average Big Ten fan has no idea that Memorial Stadium is a memorial for Illinois veterans or that we have literal veterans' names on each of the columns. That is just frankly unacceptable from a branding perspective...
 
#398      
Greensboro
ChiefKingfisher said:
No way we’re gonna drop 42 on their defense. Ohio State has only allowed 2 TDs all season. If we win this game, it will take a strong defensive effort to keep it low-scoring.
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to me it sort of depends on how you want to look at or spin the probabilities here.
...I think if you look at our defense, it is pretty easy to see OSU scoring 40+ on us, so from that view we need to score more than that to win.
...By the same token, if you look at OSU's defense and what they have done it is pretty easy to see us not breaking 20, so you can say we need to hold them to under 20 to have a chance.
We are 2 touchdown dogs for a reason...we need to do something way better than the first half of the season predicts from our defense or overcome there offense; with the wildcard being turnovers and getting points off turnovers...to win i think we likely need to overachieve expectations in all 3 categories.
 
#399      
CharliedonSurf
My family and I will be in attendance at the game. No plans to line up to get into grange grove or get there super early with young kids, but curious to check out grange grove scene and big noon. Any thoughts on how crowded /crazy it will be throughout the morning for a family to walk around there. I know we have one point of reference thus far.
 
#400      
Greensboro
WhereDoWeStandWithStorr? said:
10-2 Illinois will not be rated ahead of a 10-2 Michigan.
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true, but we also likely aren't 4th in B1G at that point, since Michigan's extra loss is out of conference.

quick look at B1G standings & most significant games left - my conclusion is 10-2 and plenty of room to be left out of playoff
Indiana2-05-0@ OREG, @MD,@PSU
OSU2-05-0@ILL,PSU,@MI
Oregon2-05-0IND, @IA, @WASH
Mich2-04-1@USC,WASH,@MSU,@MD, OSU
ILL2-15-1OSU,@WASH
USC2-14-1MI, @ND, @OREG
PSU0-23-2@IA,@OSU,IND,

For CFP, assuming the Top 3 do there job, loser of IND/Oreg ends up in 3rd with 1 loss & all 3 are in playoff (top 2 should even be gold with an unexpected loss & even if loser of IND/Oregon drops 1 they end up 10-2 & likely above us.

So fight for 4th Place - Mich beats OSU or USC gets by everyone else they are 10-2; but only 1 conference loss (which shouldn't really matter, but who knows) - if it is OSU I think they are a lock, USC and we are getting in the weeds

USC has there shot with MICH, @ND, @OREG - if they win 2 of those 3, they are 10-2 & I'm not convinced are head to head is enough.

PSU has to win @OSU & IND, if they win out that puts them in the playoff; I would argue that if they beat both @OSU & IND, I wouldn't rule out jumping a 10-2 Michigan/Illinois/USC

Still 1/2 a season to play & much can happen, but we need to get to 10-2 first, then I think USC over MI would put us in the driver's seat as 4th best B1G team & hopefully sneaking into the playoffs.
 
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