Recent content by JTOWNillini

Refs are missing it but there’s an 11th player who enters the court a lot: Buzz Williams.

I’m surprised that Beckman vanished off the face of earth and has not been heard from in the football world since 2016. He was still in his 40s when he was let go.

Last post as I’m in the stadium. They closed off both upper decks, ramps, horseshoe, student section, and lower East sideline. Only lower West sideline is open and it’s free seating. Stadium workers have been phenomenal. I’d say 3k people here.

Just parked after a 2+ hour drive from the SW suburbs (I live right off I-80). Pretty eerie drive with few cars (first time I didn’t spot a UofI decal or bumper sticker). Dozens of vehicles in ditches including trucks and a charter bus. I-57 was functional in northern IL but got pretty scary...

Doing the drive from Mokena to Champaign. Just too much of a once-in-a-generation memory to miss out on. I just know when people are talking about this game on message boards in the 2030s, 2040s, & 2050s I’ll have retro-FOMO if I didn’t attend.

How did those 71k 1951 fans make it in a blizzard with no GPS, no SUVs, worse cars, worse roads, etc?

There must be a backstory with him and a FGCU walk-on. lol

Exactly this. If it doesn't get moved to Friday night, there's a 2-in-3 chance it ends up in scorching heat on Saturday. Anything after the first couple weeks, I definitely want on Saturday. But those first 2 weeks, I'm completely fine taking the guaranteed night game in good weather.

Glad to hear the season opener was moved to Friday night. Labor Day Weekend is almost always HOT, so that's the weekend you want on a weeknight every year!

Man, Groce is killing it at Akron. Good for him.

I’m at Sky Harbor Airport in Illini gear and Lovie Smith and his wife are on our flight to Chicago. Small world. Not going to bother them though.

The amount of research this dude puts in his videos is insane. But basically the TL;DW version is: - Isolating both network and opponent+network in MAC tv ratings for conference games over 12 years, NIU’s ratings were 27% above average. Second was Toledo at 4%. - NIU’s ticket revenue (adjusted...

May a statue of Bielema doing the substitution signal be the newest statue erected outside Memorial Stadium.

That was the best gameday environment at Memorial Stadium I've experienced in 30 or so games. Also, the first time I had difficulty with parking, as my go-to spots that were easy to get to in all the other 30 games I've been to were now full. That's a function of a great thing and I'll have to...

Illini 30 Purdue 7 I think Bret wants to hold back and not show much. Plus, he’s not one to run up the score. I’ll be making the 2-hour drive down tomorrow and have goosebumps. A top-25 team? In 80-degree weather in October? I’m savoring every minute of this!