Doubt it. He wasn't special at Auburn or better than Kruetz at Illinois.
Illini Football 2026
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Joel Goodson
- it's all ball bearings, nowadays
I thought coming out of high school seeing him play 2x. He was Larry Fitzgerald. Big, quick, and fighter for ball. WR.. all day everyday. Nfl potential and I thought this last fall.
mhuml32
Gesture of Northern Aggression
Joel Goodson
- it's all ball bearings, nowadays
not a revelation, merely an observation: Josh done struck gold with coach B
Joel Goodson
- it's all ball bearings, nowadays
roster just updated, some nice weight gains (and few needed losses): https://fightingillini.com/sports/football/roster
Tank and his S&C team have done well
Tank and his S&C team have done well
Beilema likely gave Eberhart the facts, situation and context. Then let's the player make the decision. Beilema may have saw immediate playing time was at WR and not defense this year. Will have option to go back to defense if player/coaches want imho. Illinois has been pretty good at putting players where they and team can succeed.
He was going to be brought in to start. They also went after a juco center that committed to Arkansas. They definitely weren’t dead set on starting Kruetz at center
MoCoMdIllini
- Montgomery County, Maryland
When Matthew Bailey makes a tackle, do we all chant "CHIEEEEEEEFFF?"
Interesting move because it seemed like he was going to replace Matt next year. I do think with his size and speed he could make an impact this year at wr. Also Straughton and Williams were just moved from safety to linebacker.
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Joel Goodson
- it's all ball bearings, nowadays
+1
getting on the field >>> sitting on the bench
dollars to donuts, he flips back to D after this season
RabidDawgClassic
- Los Angeles, CA
So I found five games in the Beckman/Cubit/Lovie era that you could qualify as top wins — only two of which would have a reasonable argument to rival any of the top wins in the Bielema era.
1. 2019 at Michigan State (37-43)
2. 2019 vs Wisconsin (24-23)
3. 2015 vs Nebraska (14-13)
4. 2014 vs Penn State (16-14)
5. 2014 vs Minnesota (28-24)
“Honorable” mention
2013 at Purdue (20-16)
2016 vs Michigan State (31-27)
2019 at UConn (31-23)
Looking at the highlights from these games I must say… we had some dreadful uniform combinations during this period. I’m glad Bret has righted the ship in that area, as well as on field play.
I liked the choice of BB from the get go. Mainly because he had already proved he could win in the B1G
But I was in the minority. I recall it was about 75%~80% negative on here.
I know there were a lot of questions, and likely complainers, but I do not recall it being anywhere near this high against the hire.
band camp
- STL City
I prefer him on defense but I can see him sticking at WR.
DeonThomas
- South Carolina
Glad to hear you say this. When I first saw that Eberhart was moving to WR (perhaps already our #1 most talented player group where playing time will be difficult to come by), my mind instantly went to this place instead............
Are you kidding me? We just moved arguably our #1 incoming Freshman (just days before the start of the season, no less) because he's been a mess trying to learn our complicated new defense. Why in the world would we ever move a talented kid to a place he's going to get completely lost in the shuffle? He'll now never see the field in 2026. And our defense is going to be in huge trouble this season!
BZuppke
- Plainfield
Me too. We needed a proven winner.
High-profile freshman Jacob Eberhart moving to wide receiver
Four-star defensive back will start Illinois career on offense
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