Illinois 42, UAB 23 Postgame

#226      
mhuml32
therealmiket86 said:
Imagine how much better this defense would be if we had McCollum, coenen and Tomiwa. Even just having one of them would’ve been huge.
Click to expand...

I had similar thoughts. It's part of the trade-off of living in the portal for a starting QB. Having Altmyer and Houser are incredibly valuable, but the increased certainty at QB has a cost, which is felt across other areas of the roster. If Boyd had really flashed last year, Illinois likely has Boyd at QB for ~25% of the Houser cost (at least for year 1), which means you likely keep McCollum, Coenen, and maybe have enough financial ammo to bring in another piece somewhere on either line. Now, that means you are risking that your redshirt freshman QB is going to be good (big risk!), but it improves your depth.
 
Last edited:
#227      
lstewart53x3
mhuml32 said:
I had similar thoughts. It's part of the trade-off of living in the portal for a starting QB. Having Altmyer and Houser are incredibly valuable, but the increased certainty at QB has a cost, which is felt across other areas of the roster. If Boyd had really flashed last year, Illinois likely has Boyd at QB for ~25% of the Houser cost (at least for year 1), which means you likely keep McCollum, Coenen, and maybe have enough financial ammo to bring in another piece somewhere on either line. Now, that means you are risking that your redshirt freshman QB is going to be good (big risk!), but it improves your depth.
Click to expand...
I’m not saying I wouldn’t want those guys back, I’d take them back in heartbeat. But Jeremy Werner did his film review (premium 247) and the d-line actually graded out decently well (B). The linebackers were the big problem in game 1 (D).
 
#228      
therealmiket86
mhuml32 said:
I had similar thoughts. It's part of the trade-off of living in the portal for a starting QB. Having Altmyer and Houser are incredibly valuable, but the increased certainty at QB has a cost, which is felt across other areas of the roster. If Boyd had really flashed last year, Illinois likely has Boyd at QB for ~25% of the Houser cost (at least for year 1), which means you likely keep McCollum, Coenen, and maybe have enough financial ammo to bring in another piece somewhere on either line. Now, that means you are risking that your redshirt freshman QB is going to be good (big risk!), but it improves your depth.
Click to expand...

We paid big money for several prep recruits who haven’t gotten on the field. We will see in the long run if it was worth it. Guys that got close to 7 figures.

I heard McCollum got 1.2 million and coenen was around 800k. Not sure about tomiwa.

Guys like Warren, Hayden, hood..etc would’ve cost very little to come back.
 
#230      
Illini-Rule
Ok, a few of my thoughts after rewatching the game today. I only caught parts of the Thursday night. I am not a fan of the 3-3-5, even before watching this game.

* I think UAB is a better team than people are giving them credit for.
* I would like to see a break down by quarter of the stats. I feel like our defense was better in the 2nd half than the 1st half.
* If we make some of those tackles that we missed, we would have won by a lot more.
* Do we have some work to do? You betcha. But after rewatching the game, I am feeling better about the team than I was Thursday after the game. I'm not saying we are a playoff team by any means, but in a year with a new defensive coordinator and with a bunch of new players, I am feeling better. Hopefully, we continue to get better at tackling and running the defense as season progresses.
* I think we have a good offense and a heck of a good QB.

ILL
 
#231      
blackdog
Illini-Rule said:
Ok, a few of my thoughts after rewatching the game today. I only caught parts of the Thursday night. I am not a fan of the 3-3-5, even before watching this game.

* I think UAB is a better team than people are giving them credit for.
* I would like to see a break down by quarter of the stats. I feel like our defense was better in the 2nd half than the 1st half.
* If we make some of those tackles that we missed, we would have won by a lot more.
* Do we have some work to do? You betcha. But after rewatching the game, I am feeling better about the team than I was Thursday after the game. I'm not saying we are a playoff team by any means, but in a year with a new defensive coordinator and with a bunch of new players, I am feeling better. Hopefully, we continue to get better at tackling and running the defense as season progresses.
* I think we have a good offense and a heck of a good QB.

ILL
Click to expand...

I will definitely take a week 1 defense that is generally in the right place but misses versus one that is nowhere close to the play. One is a lot easier to improve than the other
 
#233      
AirTran
pvaughn8 said:
I think there is a misunderstanding here. I'll try to clarify. I believe that OP understands that wins are awarded by points and not total yards. What he's trying to do is project that performance vs higher caliber future opponents.
Click to expand...
Have you ever played football? I run a quantitative systematic equity and corporate debt trading strategy that took me 32 years to build.

The numbers of yards conceded against UAB is more a function or Illinois scoring 4 touchdowns in less than 3 minutes of playing time. The more opportunities you give the opposition combined with game management (i.e. what is the score and how much time remains) is what determines who is on the field, what defensive plays are called and what matchups we are trying to avoid. Plus it was this crew's first game. Had we controlled the ball longer, UAB doesn't gain 400 yards. That being said, my point was... 400 offensive yards is not an above average number

Mathematically speaking, there is no way to project Thursday's game forward. You don't even know who will be on field next Saturday, let alone the situation (down, distance, formation) - Even the Illinois film crew and game planning team don't know that.
 
#234      
pvaughn8
AirTran said:
Have you ever played football? I run a quantitative systematic equity and corporate debt trading strategy that took me 32 years to build.

The numbers of yards conceded against UAB is more a function or Illinois scoring 4 touchdowns in less than 3 minutes of playing time. The more opportunities you give the opposition combined with game management (i.e. what is the score and how much time remains) is what determines who is on the field, what defensive plays are called and what matchups we are trying to avoid. Plus it was this crew's first game. Had we controlled the ball longer, UAB doesn't gain 400 yards. That being said, my point was... 400 offensive yards is not an above average number

Mathematically speaking, there is no way to project Thursday's game forward. You don't even know who will be on field next Saturday, let alone the situation (down, distance, formation) - Even the Illinois film crew and game planning team don't know that.
Click to expand...
I dunno, that looked like 400 yards due to a bad defensive performance
 
#235      
derrick6
2 cents:

3-3-5 is new to us fans. It’s also new to the defensive players in a real game.

I’d expect their performance to improve next game.
 
#236      
Nohops 73
I expect that tackling fundamentals will get a lot of attention in practice this week, and would expect significant improvement in Duke game.
Many posters thought linebacker play was biggest hole in the defense. Longer term, getting Daniel Brown back and Grant Beerman having more practice time and improved conditioning could go a long way to fixing that problem.
 
#240      
Fly Illini Fly!
lstewart53x3 said:
Yeah and of course Mensah has more weapons at Miami than Eget has Duke, but some of Eget’s misses were bad balls to wide open receivers that would’ve been touchdowns.
Click to expand...
Accuracy seems to be a very big problem. Only completed 13 of 26 passes, with some missed throws being wide open touchdowns.

If Illinois can get them into 3rd and longs with blitz packages, some turnovers might happen (hopefully).
 
#241      
illiniwil
RIP_Chief_2003 said:
I also remember the announcers saying a few UAB players followed by “transfer from Georgia”…now UGA is known for their recruiting and evaluation of talent. This UAB team would blow the brakes off of an EIU/WIU. Their QB is mobile and had some really impressive throws under pressure. This year’s UAB is not last years UAB…
Click to expand...
i'd like to think that's true!
 
#243      
illiniwil
i think this 3- 3-5 defense expects 2 things we didn't get Thursday, better tackling for sure
(we were missing a key linebacker) but more importantly, better pursuit and multiple tacklers
at the ball carrier.
 
#248      
OB positive
Nohops 73 said:
I expect that tackling fundamentals will get a lot of attention in practice this week, and would expect significant improvement in Duke game.
Many posters thought linebacker play was biggest hole in the defense. Longer term, getting Daniel Brown back and Grant Beerman having more practice time and improved conditioning could go a long way to fixing that problem.
Click to expand...
Its not just the tackling. I expected to see more speed and bodies flying around all over the place even if we weren't making the tackle. Once again when I was watching pretty much any other p4 football game everything on both sides of the ball seemed to be moving faster making us like we are a step slower. Our defense was very underwhelming. Like a 3 on a rating to 10. Hopefully it's just because we are still figuring things out because we need to be in the 6-8 range to be competitive with the better teams on our schedule.
 
#249      
number1IlliniFan
TheChief4Life said:
Okay, now it’s my time for thoughts.

1. Regarding the crowd. Heck yeah the student section was great! Full for SOOOOO much of the game. However, as for the rest of the fan base, I am so disappointed in how little football fandem knowledge our fanbase has. Was the stadium full-ish? Sure. They were not loud. They barely cheered. Barely stood. Where I was, they didn’t even celebrate when we scored TDs. I’m not sure why anyone paid tickets to go to the game and do the same thing they could’ve done at home. I remember when Mizzou put out a “how to be a fan” video 5 or 6 years ago and so many people on this forum (and elsewhere truthfully) criticized them. I thought then, and I still think it now: Illinois needs to do this.

2. The new audio/visuals are something to behold! Not a fan of the mic’d up band playing through the speakers. Sounded bad. But wow. Such a cool experience for the crowd to sit through and not get excited about.

3. Regarding the defense. I also agree with those that have said it appears as if this new scheme is understood by the guys and it does put them in position to make plays. They just didn’t. The tackling… ouch. The number of times we would get other RBs at the line and then he’d breakthrough for 5 or 6 yards was frustrating. Like others have said, hopefully there was a little “holding back” in some of the looks too. But we’ve said that every year for a decade. We’ll see what we have against duke.

4. Offense will be okay.

5. I get that the final score was 42-23, and some want to say it should be viewed more like 28-23 due to the pick six and Hail Mary. But that’s fair. The last TD UAB scored was against our backups, and it was obvious. Also, the D did their part on that pick six. Why would we not count that? The Hail Mary was some luck, but it just seems weird we start categorizing “points that really don’t count”.

6. Night games are fun. Thursday night games are probably my least favorite night game, but still, one of my favorite experiences at Memorial Stadium! And I’ve had season tickets for 22 years.
Click to expand...

Regarding point #1: Fans Cheering. I found it impossible to cheer over the stadium audio. I don't think there was a quiet moment for the crowd to make ourselves heard. I lost my voice just trying to talk about the game with the people I was sitting with. I'm not sure 35 thousand fans can be louder than the sound system that never gave us a break.
 
#250      
TheChief4Life
number1IlliniFan said:
Regarding point #1: Fans Cheering. I found it impossible to cheer over the stadium audio. I don't think there was a quiet moment for the crowd to make ourselves heard. I lost my voice just trying to talk about the game with the people I was sitting with. I'm not sure 35 thousand fans can be louder than the sound system that never gave us a break.
Click to expand...
Well.... the sound system is literally not allowed to play during plays, or even after the offense breaks the huddle, I believe. In fact, the crowd was so obnoxiously quiet, that combined with the blaring audio, it was so obvious the crowd was quiet when the audio stopped.
 
Back