Chicago Bears 2026-2027

#201      
champaignchris
Curbelo Fanboy said:
I've contended for 30 plus years that Tepper as head coach was among the worst D1 power conference head coaches in the modern era. The 1994 season is exhibit A. But when you look in totality at what he inherited (a solid top 25 or better program) vs what he left behind (a dumpster fire that didn't win a game in 1997 & one of the worst D1 power conference teams of all time) it speaks to how AWFUL AWFUL AWFUL he was as a head coach. A great human being of that I have no doubt but just a disaster as a head coach.
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Performance falling off a cliff coinciding with the exact moment the last Mac-era recruit left town tells the whole story.

That whole sequence…

Stoner fired for corruption
Mac promoted to both HC and AD.
Mac taking the Texas job.
Trustees declining to do a coaching search or to wait to hire a coach until after they’d hired an AD and promoting Tepper to HC.
Hiring Guenther as AD.
Guenther for some reason sticking with Tepper, a guy he didn’t hire, after missing a bowl in 93.

It’s just not how a big time program is run and Illinois stopped being a big time program. Bizarrely, they repeated many of the same mistakes in the whole Beckman>Cubit>Smith transition 20+ years later.
 
#202      
Curbelo Fanboy
champaignchris said:
Performance falling off a cliff coinciding with the exact moment the last Mac-era recruit left town tells the whole story.

That whole sequence…

Stoner fired for corruption
Mac promoted to both HC and AD.
Mac taking the Texas job.
Trustees declining to do a coaching search or to wait to hire a coach until after they’d hired an AD and promoting Tepper to HC.
Hiring Guenther as AD.
Guenther for some reason sticking with Tepper, a guy he didn’t hire, after missing a bowl in 93.

It’s just not how a big time program is run and Illinois stopped being a big time program. Bizarrely, they repeated many of the same mistakes in the whole Beckman>Cubit>Smith transition 20+ years later.
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And I fear the same thing is happening now. Every time it's time to step up to a different level and continue a positive trajectory the program seems to decide to "go cheap" & fall back into the abyss. Cheap in modern day terms being our poor NIL funding relative to the big boys.
 
#203      
ChiefGritty
champaignchris said:
Performance falling off a cliff coinciding with the exact moment the last Mac-era recruit left town tells the whole story.

That whole sequence…

Stoner fired for corruption
Mac promoted to both HC and AD.
Mac taking the Texas job.
Trustees declining to do a coaching search or to wait to hire a coach until after they’d hired an AD and promoting Tepper to HC.
Hiring Guenther as AD.
Guenther for some reason sticking with Tepper, a guy he didn’t hire, after missing a bowl in 93.

It’s just not how a big time program is run and Illinois stopped being a big time program. Bizarrely, they repeated many of the same mistakes in the whole Beckman>Cubit>Smith transition 20+ years later.
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As I mentioned this was before my time, but it's obviously something I've read a lot about.

Making one of the best and most sought-after DC's in the game your head coach to keep him in the building seems like a very justifiable choice in that moment.

And the prospects were positive enough after '93 for the team to be ranked #22 in preseason '94.

It's keeping him after '95, yet another disappointment and after the Chris Redman/Greg Landry fiasco that was an impossible to justify travesty that destroyed the program.

Curbelo Fanboy said:
And I fear the same thing is happening now. Every time it's time to step up to a different level and continue a positive trajectory the program seems to decide to "go cheap" & fall back into the abyss. Cheap in modern day terms being our poor NIL funding relative to the big boys.
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I think Whitman's ability to bring resources into the program has been incredible actually. We didn't cheap out on this team, we failed to keep the same structure that was turning the money into results, as revealed by losing to two lower-resourced teams at home.
 
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#208      
Mr. Roberts
Curbelo Fanboy said:
RIP COACH! Do it for Coach just like you did it in Lambeau for Walter after he passed.
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George Halas's last hire. Ditka was literally a man, a myth, a legend. RIP Coach.

chicago bears win GIF
 
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