Preseason Polls

#2      
Homecoming 2019
Dan said:
Illinois #29 in Preseason Coaches Poll

NCAA College Football Coaches Poll | USA Today Sports

The US LBM Football Coaches Poll, published by USA TODAY Sports, is conducted weekly throughout the NCAA college football season. See the latest Top 25 rankings from the game’s best head coaches.
sportsdata.usatoday.com sportsdata.usatoday.com
Click to expand...
I'll take it, close enough to move into the top 25 if we take care of business in non-con play
 
#5      
lstewart53x3
BretMyBeachHouse said:
Yes.

Perfect. Keeps the team in something to prove mode. Which is accurate. A top 25 finish would be Bret's finest coaching job here in my opinion.
Click to expand...
Good chance we break into the T25 with 3 wins to open the season heading into the Ohio St game. With our schedule, to finish the year ranked, we'd likely need to go 9-3. Outside of Ohio St and Oregon, we'll likely only play 1 other ranked team all year (Iowa), so not a lot of opportunity for big wins on the schedule.
 
#6      
madillini4
Preseason rankings in the college football NIL era are just wild guesses.
 
#8      
Illini2010-11
Last season the Illini started the season ranked #12 in both AP and Coaches poll, and it led to extremely high (possibly unreasonable) expectations. This led to some questioning if the team had a good season when they ultimately finished the season on the fringe top 25 (AP #26 and Coaches #25).

With a new signal caller this season, I think it is a great thing to come in slightly under the radar. The team was hunted last season, so it will be good to be back on the other side while the team builds up again. If the team can somehow end the season close to the ranking where the Illini finished last year, we should all be very happy. I will take tampered expectations after the wild season of emotions we had last year -- mostly handling business against teams we should (outside of the Wisconsin debacle and to a lesser extent the loss @Washington) and getting outclassed against the premier teams (IU and OSU).

We have had two great seasons in a row, so I expect Coach B to have this team very competitive again.
 
#9      
Det_Illini_fan
Such a testament to how far we’ve come as a football program, and athletic program as a whole. We’re just barely out of the preseason T25, and fan reaction is mostly a mixture of being very slightly upset , but mostly optimistic in “ehh these are often wild guesses and we can surely crack the list once the season starts.”

I’m living in a fever dream of when I was a student; having hopes of being top 25 was far fetched, let alone expectations of it like we can have now. I-L-L
 
Back