Washington 42, Illinois 25 Postgame

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#276      
Illini in Italy
The Dying Illini said:
Hmmm reminds me of 2023... when we should have fired Henry the first time.


Fun times reminiscing. Nothing like going into 2025 and wasting our only CFP QBs opportunity to shine by employing a DC who is quite literally the worst in P4.

Hope once we get to bowl season he is relieved of his duties to just rip the bandaid.
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While Henry is an issue, you can't uncouple the fact that our defensive players are below average. Outside of Jacas (who many believe is being schemed out of production) and X (out injured), I don't believe we have another defensive starter who would see the field for any top B1G team this year. While the DC's job is to implement a scheme that emphasizes strengths and minimizes weaknesses, we're not capable of being more than a mediocre defense at best. IMO equal responsibilities need to be laid at the feet of Henry and his players (with ultimate responsibility lying with Bret). Changing the DC without changing the players is likely to get us more of what we've seen this year. Having said that, I'm enjoying this year more than most years of Illini football, and believe we'll end up with a good, not great year in the books.
 
#277      
Rebounding Dog
CoachHooleyHoo said:
I hear what you're saying but without him, this game would have been ugly. Under duress all day but made some amazing throws to keep the chains moving. He was the leading rusher. The interception on the pass to Beatty was as good a throw as you can make...just couldn't come down with it. Without a run-game, and knowing we had to score 50 pts to win, I don't know what else he could have done.
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That interception came as we were again moving the ball. It may have meant a 14 point swing. We get 7 and they don't, could have changed the outcome.
 
#278      
FloridaMan
Illini in Italy said:
While Henry is an issue, you can't uncouple the fact that our defensive players are below average. Outside of Jacas (who many believe is being schemed out of production) and X (out injured), I don't believe we have another defensive starter who would see the field for any top B1G team this year. While the DC's job is to implement a scheme that emphasizes strengths and minimizes weaknesses, we're not capable of being more than a mediocre defense at best. IMO equal responsibilities need to be laid at the feet of Henry and his players (with ultimate responsibility lying with Bret). Changing the DC without changing the players is likely to get us more of what we've seen this year. Having said that, I'm enjoying this year more than most years of Illini football, and believe we'll end up with a good, not great year in the books.
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This is where the argument falls apart for me. I totally understand what you and others are saying about the talent level. But Henry has been here 5 years with BB, and he has not exactly lit the college football world on fire with recruiting. Good recruiter, yes. Not great, and the results are speaking very loudly this season. By all accounts and appearances Henry is a fantastic guy and great representative of the university. Unfortunately, a coordinator has to be even more, espcially given the investment the university has made in the staff.
 
#279      
Indy Illini Fan
BashCtIllini said:
I think the transfer portal crap makes it hard for most teams to have depth. 2nd string guys don't stick around to develop, they transfer to a new school. That means you have either inexperienced or under-talented guys in your backup roles, and if you get to 3rd string, woof. We have been to 3rd string in our secondary.

I also think Henry has done a poor job. If you know your secondary is a liability, you've got to get some pressure on the QB, and we don't do that either. I don't think we have the horses this year, which greatly adds to the struggles, but getting players is part of the job in college.
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What 2nd string guys on our team didn’t stick around to develop ? We brought literally everyone back …

And that was the first mistake … IMO …
 
#280      
Indy Illini Fan
The Luke Altmyer played a mediocre game narrative is total BS … He shouldn’t have to put up 40+ a week for us to win freaking games …

Period …

I’ll live with the INTs …

He led the team in freaking rushing too …

What more did you want him to do ? Lead the team in receiving too ?

We had a QB the level below what Altmyer is … Would’ve been 63-3 …

Give me a break …
 
#281      
EmeraldCityIllini
Indy Illini Fan said:
The Luke Altmyer played a mediocre game narrative is total BS … He shouldn’t have to put up 40+ a week for us to win freaking games …

Period …

I’ll live with the INTs …

He led the team in freaking rushing too …

What more did you want him to do ? Lead the team in receiving too ?

We had a QB the level below what Altmyer is … Would’ve been 63-3 …

Give me a break …
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Taking a step further, I really didn’t have a huge issue with the offense as a whole.

Maybe more from the rushing attack? but how can I complain about that when our defense puts us in that spot.

The offense is good enough to hang with anyone in the country. Which makes this all the more frustrating
 
#282      
Username
Indy Illini Fan said:
The Luke Altmyer played a mediocre game narrative is total BS … He shouldn’t have to put up 40+ a week for us to win freaking games …

Period …

I’ll live with the INTs …

He led the team in freaking rushing too …

What more did you want him to do ? Lead the team in receiving too ?

We had a QB the level below what Altmyer is … Would’ve been 63-3 …

Give me a break …
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Completely agree. If we're being realistic, we get a QB of the caliber of 2025 LA once a decade - sometimes not even that frequently. LA is NOT the problem at all.
 
#283      
Chase321
Execution issues are coaching issues.

But I know what you mean. Just saying it’s on the coaching either way.
 
#284      
NashvILLe05
Indy Illini Fan said:
The Luke Altmyer played a mediocre game narrative is total BS … He shouldn’t have to put up 40+ a week for us to win freaking games …

Period …

I’ll live with the INTs …

He led the team in freaking rushing too …

What more did you want him to do ? Lead the team in receiving too ?

We had a QB the level below what Altmyer is … Would’ve been 63-3 …

Give me a break …
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100%. I’m really concerned about post-Luke Illinois football. I’m completely lost at how we don’t have a staunch D like Iowa every year. Kinda like in basketball…defense travels…we should always be solid.
 
#286      
The Dying Illini
Is there a realistic possiblity that after the Rutgers game (win or lose) that Bret takes away the walkie talkie and gives Jameson a real shot to see what he can do with the current roster?

A lot of fans (in full denial) bitching about the talent being the main issue (its certainly a large one) but why not give Jameson the opportunity to see if he can get something else and at least give yourself a point of comparision?

Its more and more likely Henry is not the DC next year so why not give someone else a chance to call the defense? Understand the recruiting aspect but if Henry is gone next year it is what it is anyways.
 
#287      
LouDou
Second place is 1st loser said:
i was at that point after the first half vs Duke. The fears from that game became real and here we are. People can say what they want about Henry(he was awful today), but what people don't want to be true is admitting the talent isn't there at any level of the defense. That's not fixed with simply changing coordinators. That's what's hard to digest and accept.
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Maybe we don't have elite level talent to play elite level defense, but we have good players who should be able to play good defense. But our defense is bad. We are disorganized, out of position, can't get lined up correctly, wrong coverages and schemes for situations...seems like a coaching problem more than a talent level problem.
 
#288      
CoachHooleyHoo
Indy Illini Fan said:
The Luke Altmyer played a mediocre game narrative is total BS … He shouldn’t have to put up 40+ a week for us to win freaking games …

Period …

I’ll live with the INTs …

He led the team in freaking rushing too …

What more did you want him to do ? Lead the team in receiving too ?

We had a QB the level below what Altmyer is … Would’ve been 63-3 …

Give me a break …
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Preach John Stamos GIF by Fuller House
 
#289      
jjv0004
You can see how much of a difference coaching makes by looking at Indiana. Find the right guy and it's amazing what can happen to a program.
 
#290      
The Dying Illini
^^^ This. Yes it is obvious and valid that there is a massive talent gap. Yes we are missing X, yes many of the guys from last year have not made the jump.

At the end of the day getting lined up, being in the right spots and competing are indicative of the coaching staff and who is ultimately putting these players in position to succeed.

The program deserves someone better than a rah rah guy trying to figure out the job 3 years in. We absolutely can and will do better than Aaron Henry.
 
#291      
Chukwuwumba
FloridaMan said:
I'm far from an expert on line play, but what are our guys taught to do? All I see them doing is standing straight up dancing with offensive linemen with little slow choppy steps, if any steps at all. When was the last time we had a lineman try to make a move to shed a blocker? When Johny Newton was here? I mean it's maddening to sit there and watch other lines block our guys for 7 seconds every play while our d line gets absolutely no push at all every game.
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Don’t even have to state Newton. Terah Edward’s at NT appears to be a much better pass rusher than anyone this year. From what I remember.
 
#292      
Bucktown
Indy Illini Fan said:
The Luke Altmyer played a mediocre game narrative is total BS … He shouldn’t have to put up 40+ a week for us to win freaking games …

Period …

I’ll live with the INTs …

He led the team in freaking rushing too …

What more did you want him to do ? Lead the team in receiving too ?

We had a QB the level below what Altmyer is … Would’ve been 63-3 …

Give me a break …
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Agree. You can see he really focused on getting the ball out with pressure and had great success. He should have put more behind the throw on the last INT, but we don't win if we don't get a quick score. Beatty catches the other one 80% of the time.
 
#293      
Fly Illini Fly!
EmeraldCityIllini said:
Taking a step further, I really didn’t have a huge issue with the offense as a whole.

Maybe more from the rushing attack? but how can I complain about that when our defense puts us in that spot.

The offense is good enough to hang with anyone in the country. Which makes this all the more frustrating
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For me it was the post-play personal fouls from the OLine. Can't play stupid.
 
#298      
OB positive
Indy Illini Fan said:
What 2nd string guys on our team didn’t stick around to develop ? We brought literally everyone back …

And that was the first mistake … IMO …
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Yes there was a lot of hype about our defense because so many of them were coming back. Problem is overall they were mediocre. Just because they were coming back doesn't mean they would automatically upgrade. If they were a good defense last year and had that many return there would have been a real reason to be hyped up about them.
 
#299      
IlliniNash
therealmiket86 said:
Once again we over valued what we had coming back.
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Yep. Actually, last year we could’ve been 7-5 with a loss or two in close wins. The bowl game win against SC was maybe not so fantastic given how they have done this year. (Note-Any Illini bowl win is fantastic). Conversely, we could win out and be the same 9-3 as last year. I hope we can.
 
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