Illinois vs Southern Illinois, Saturday, September 19th, 1:00pm CT, Peacock/YTTV

[ChiefGritty]

Both purdue and msu will beat us. We are looking at 3-9 type of season. One with us likely giving up near 35 pts per game by seasons end.

It's a battle between what we've got in hand after two games, which this is a very reasonable assessment of, versus a smart coaching staff and a winning culture within the building, which we know having been on the other side of it for so many years just has a way of finding wins.

The wheels are wobbling, there are no two ways about that, but you can't just give up in September. Every bucket of water we can bail out of this leaking boat counts.

 

[Dan]

Paul Bermeister (play-by-play), Ian Book (analyst), and Ashley ShahAhmadi (reporter) have the television broadcast streaming on Peacock.

Illinois Finishes Nonconference Schedule Against Southern Illinois - University of Illinois Athletics

Illinois looks to restart its nonconference winning streak.

fightingillini.com

 

[Curbelo Fanboy]

The rare 1pm kickoff. With tv seems everything hits the 11 or 2:30 window on Saturdays these days. Or a Friday night. In the old days, 1pm kickoff meant no tv or perhaps only regional coverage on channel 3 out of Champaign. We had lots of those 1pm kicks in the mid/late 90's.

 

[NoRival]

The rare 1pm kickoff. With tv seems everything hits the 11 or 2:30 window on Saturdays these days. Or a Friday night. In the old days, 1pm kickoff meant no tv or perhaps only regional coverage on channel 3 out of Champaign. We had lots of those 1pm kicks in the mid/late 90's.

Being a season ticket holder, I would LOVE a non-televised game at 1 pm once a season. The game would go so quickly without all of the TV timeouts.

 

[Curbelo Fanboy]

Being a season ticket holder, I would LOVE a non-televised game at 1 pm once a season. The game would go so quickly without all of the TV timeouts.

Sadly tho back then they still took the tv timeouts (for radio coverage) but yes they were shorter & the game was quicker.

 

[gary?]

I feel more confident about the team now than before the season

wow, i'll have what you're having. from your lips/fingertips. . .

 

[Dan]

 

[GatorMcKlusky]

Platt coming back will give Houser that 2nd 1A/1B receiver.

Brown coming back will help take care of *some* of the shortcomings on D.

Last year’s wonderful season included 25-42 Loss at Washington and 10-27 Loss at Wisconsin.

While I’m not ignoring the issues, I’m not ready to enter into despair based on 1/6 sample size of the season.

When are they coming back?

 

[aaeismacgychel]

i am not being a doomer (or maybe i am, whatever), but this could be our last win. not sure who else we beat with this defense. offense petered out, too.

The thing with our schedule is that we have a ton of 50/50 games with our easiest ones on the road. Nothing that happened in these first 2 weeks really changed that. It’s not like the teams on our schedule suddenly turned into playoff teams. Is it possible we lose every single one of them? I mean anything is possible but we could say that about anything. How I see it we have a much better offense than expected and a significantly worse defense than expected. That doesn’t quite resonate as a 2 win season to me like a team with a significantly worse offense and defense would. This team is significantly better than that and we should know that- we’ve seen what 2 win teams look like. This isn’t that.

One other reason for optimism- I actually don’t think the defense has been as awful as the metrics show primarily because they’re getting absolutely nuked by some of the worst tackling I’ve seen. I would be shocked if that doesn’t improve as the season goes on. It isn’t like opposing players are just running around untouched in space with our players being incapable of getting to the ball. We’re missing tackles plain and simple.

We may not be a 10-2 team this year but we’re also not a 2-10 team

 

[BWBW]

The thing with our schedule is that we have a ton of 50/50 games with our easiest ones on the road. Nothing that happened in these first 2 weeks really changed that. It’s not like the teams on our schedule suddenly turned into playoff teams. Is it possible we lose every single one of them? I mean anything is possible but we could say that about anything. How I see it we have a much better offense than expected and a significantly worse defense than expected. That doesn’t quite resonate as a 2 win season to me like a team with a significantly worse offense and defense would. This team is significantly better than that and we should know that- we’ve seen what 2 win teams look like. This isn’t that.

One other reason for optimism- I actually don’t think the defense has been as awful as the metrics show primarily because they’re getting absolutely nuked by some of the worst tackling I’ve seen. I would be shocked if that doesn’t improve as the season goes on. It isn’t like opposing players are just running around untouched in space with our players being incapable of getting to the ball. We’re missing tackles plain and simple.

We may not be a 10-2 team this year but we’re also not a 2-10 team

Would you believe 3-9?

For the record, I am hoping for at least a minor bowl game.

 

[kmunt09]

When are they coming back?

My speculation from piecing things together that have been said; as early as SIU for Brown, with Platt lagging a week or 2 behind (OSU or Purdue).

 

[Mr. Tibbs]

The thing with our schedule is that we have a ton of 50/50 games with our easiest ones on the road. Nothing that happened in these first 2 weeks really changed that. It’s not like the teams on our schedule suddenly turned into playoff teams. Is it possible we lose every single one of them? I mean anything is possible but we could say that about anything. How I see it we have a much better offense than expected and a significantly worse defense than expected. That doesn’t quite resonate as a 2 win season to me like a team with a significantly worse offense and defense would. This team is significantly better than that and we should know that- we’ve seen what 2 win teams look like. This isn’t that.

One other reason for optimism- I actually don’t think the defense has been as awful as the metrics show primarily because they’re getting absolutely nuked by some of the worst tackling I’ve seen. I would be shocked if that doesn’t improve as the season goes on. It isn’t like opposing players are just running around untouched in space with our players being incapable of getting to the ball. We’re missing tackles plain and simple.

We may not be a 10-2 team this year but we’re also not a 2-10 team

agree . 6-6 is how I see it now

anything can happen on any given Saturday .

NO ONE in the country could guess OkSt would beat Oregon . from what my son (an alum) says , it wasn’t just luck . the Pokes beat em fair & square . it’s what having a 6’5” stud qb can do for you . Imagine how Oregon fanbase feels right now .

 

[fuddrules]

agree . 6-6 is how I see it now

anything can happen on any given Saturday .

NO ONE in the country could guess OkSt would beat Oregon . from what my son (an alum) says , it wasn’t just luck . the Pokes beat em fair & square . it’s what having a 6’5” stud qb can do for you . Imagine how Oregon fanbase feels right now .

While I hope it doesn't happen and think it's a long shot - the Illinois basketball fanbase would feel similar to Oregon football if they start off that slow.

That would send an earthquake through CU.

 

[BoiseBaller]

agree . 6-6 is how I see it now

anything can happen on any given Saturday .

NO ONE in the country could guess OkSt would beat Oregon . from what my son (an alum) says , it wasn’t just luck . the Pokes beat em fair & square . it’s what having a 6’5” stud qb can do for you . Imagine how Oregon fanbase feels right now .

I’d take 6-6 with this defense. But sadly, I think it’s closer to 4-8.