MoCoMdIllini
- Montgomery County, Maryland
But not a dagger.
Coaching Carousel (Football)
skyIdub
Winged Warrior
I read this as "potential bullpen replacements".
Can you tell Spring Training starts next week?!
Illini4Chief
- TENNESSEE
Zook the clown took Illinois to the rose bowl.
Ya tepper’s teams had solid defenses, at least at first. After verduzco, quarterback, and ultimately offensive ability was awful until kittner. Robert holcombe was the lone bright spot, but they still went 5-28 in 96-98. Terrible offense and defensive talent had fallen off as well. Turner got some talent there, a lot of nfl guys from the 99-01 teams especially, but somehow couldn’t keep that train rolling, not exactly sure why.
I always believe that Turner wanted to use the IL job as a stepping stone to an NFL HC gig and once he got the Illini rolling 99-01 he stopped recruiting and waited for the offers to roll in. When it didn't happen he was finished here.
Ron had a long college coaching careeer before before becoming Bears OC
University of Arizona (1978–1980).[3] He moved on to be an assistant at Northwestern University (1981–1982), the University of Pittsburgh (1983–1984), the University of Southern California (1985–1987), Texas A&M University (1988), and Stanford University (1989–1991), before earning his first head coaching job at San Jose State University in 1992.
He had reasonable success at Illinois compared to other coaches of past 50 years. We would have gone to RoseBowl in 2001 if it had not been hosting the BCS championship game - USC Texas
in 2005 he became Bears OC again for 5 years.
Interesting to look at coaches for last 50 years. Only two big 10 championships in 57 years.
Valek 1967-70 8-32
Blackman 1971-76 29-36 (best record was 5-6)
Moeller 1977-79 6-24-3
Mike White 1980-87 47-41 1983 B10 champs Rose Bowl. JMO - never should have fired him
John Mackovic 1988-91 30-17 benefited from MW recruit Jeff George
Tepper 1992-96 25-31
Turner 35-57 2010 B10 champs Sugar Bowl
Zook 34-51, 2007 Rose Bowl (not B10 champs)
Beckman 12-25
Cubitt 5-7
Lovie 17-39
I missed 1983/4 Rose Bowl because of death in family but did get to see us beat OSU and Michigan in person after suffering for 18 years. I attended 2007 Rose Bowl. My dream is it go see Illini win Rose Bowl before I die (61 years old). With new CFP as well as 18 team B10 my only chance may be if we have regular season road game vs UCLA.
University of Arizona (1978–1980).[3] He moved on to be an assistant at Northwestern University (1981–1982), the University of Pittsburgh (1983–1984), the University of Southern California (1985–1987), Texas A&M University (1988), and Stanford University (1989–1991), before earning his first head coaching job at San Jose State University in 1992.
He had reasonable success at Illinois compared to other coaches of past 50 years. We would have gone to RoseBowl in 2001 if it had not been hosting the BCS championship game - USC Texas
in 2005 he became Bears OC again for 5 years.
Interesting to look at coaches for last 50 years. Only two big 10 championships in 57 years.
Valek 1967-70 8-32
Blackman 1971-76 29-36 (best record was 5-6)
Moeller 1977-79 6-24-3
Mike White 1980-87 47-41 1983 B10 champs Rose Bowl. JMO - never should have fired him
John Mackovic 1988-91 30-17 benefited from MW recruit Jeff George
Tepper 1992-96 25-31
Turner 35-57 2010 B10 champs Sugar Bowl
Zook 34-51, 2007 Rose Bowl (not B10 champs)
Beckman 12-25
Cubitt 5-7
Lovie 17-39
I missed 1983/4 Rose Bowl because of death in family but did get to see us beat OSU and Michigan in person after suffering for 18 years. I attended 2007 Rose Bowl. My dream is it go see Illini win Rose Bowl before I die (61 years old). With new CFP as well as 18 team B10 my only chance may be if we have regular season road game vs UCLA.
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Illinivek23
- Gurnee
Gotta be announced soon, right? Since they are coming from either KC or SF staffs?
/s
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
This blows my mind, and it comes across as so pathetically small-minded. Wisconsin is constantly ranked even or above Illinois, and they have invested a lot in sports … hasn’t hurt their academic reputation one bit. You won’t find one overall academic ranking that doesn’t have Michigan above Illinois, and they’re super invested in their athletic department.
These folks, if true, are cutting off their noses to spite their faces. Athletics benefit the entire university.
In my personal opinion, from the point of view of the administration, there is the University of Illinois and the Illini. The primary goal of the the University is to be a top flight academic institution. The primary goal of the Illini is virtue signaling.
We technically tied for the Big 10 championship in 1990.
Two bad personnel decisions ended RT's career here - not offering Aaron Rodgers a scholly when he badly wanted to come here and reneging on the offer to Jay Cutler.
SampsonRelpenk
- Edwardsville, IL
In the context of today's world it is pretty baffling that Turner didn't get poached (whether for the NFL or a better college gig) after the 2001 season.
sbillini
- st petersburg, fl
To play devil's advocate, I see both sides of the argument and don't believe Athletics benefitting the entire university is as cut and dry as some make it out to be. Yes, Wisconsin and Michigan are very strongly academically, but has the athletic program meaningfully contributed to this? Or are the two mutually exclusive? Has Alabama athletics helped in their academics? Kentucky? Kansas?
If you just look at the business model of P5 (or 4 or 2 or whatever) athletic programs, the vast sums of money generated typically stays within DIA. In most cases, the general university is actually paying the DIA MORE on top of what they're already generating internally. I think it's a totally fair question from someone in other parts of the university to ask why that's the case.
With all that said, I fall in the bucket of strong athletics programs do have a tangential benefit to universities (alumni engagement -> more donations -> better academics), but it's derivative impact that's hard to measure. At the same time, I certainly believe a power conference DIA should be entirely self-sufficient and not require any money from the university and, in fact, should probably pay money into the university.
Didn’t know about Rodgers or cutler situations under turner. Rodgers would’ve been perfect, another west coast quarterback like the mike white days, could’ve been a thing at Illinois. Qb play after kittner was just inconsistent. Plus on turner, in hindsight it makes sense that he essentially stopped trying, lost interest, or had sights set elsewhere. As I recall team effort post 2001 seemed poor.
Now zook could recruit. But often wasn’t sure what exactly was going on at times lol. If he still can how about bringing him back!!!!
Beckman, was awful, cubit ill-equipped, lovie is a ‘hands off, things will work out’ guy which doesn’t work in college. That said I think bielema just needs guys that can recruit.
Does Illinois have any sort of NIL collective? I haven’t seen much info on how that works here.
Now zook could recruit. But often wasn’t sure what exactly was going on at times lol. If he still can how about bringing him back!!!!
Beckman, was awful, cubit ill-equipped, lovie is a ‘hands off, things will work out’ guy which doesn’t work in college. That said I think bielema just needs guys that can recruit.
Does Illinois have any sort of NIL collective? I haven’t seen much info on how that works here.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
I don't think good athletics can CREATE good academics ... in other words, if Kentucky is not a good school anyway, increased athletic revenues won't change anything. However, I think at a school like Wisconsin, Michigan and Illinois, excitement and increased revenue generation around sports can only help the university. I frankly think people discount how many very bright students with great academic pedigrees might be down to a top three of, say, Wisconsin, Georgia Tech and Virginia, and they choose Wisconsin because all three will give them a phenomenal degree but UW will be the most enjoyable socially by far.To play devil's advocate, I see both sides of the argument and don't believe Athletics benefitting the entire university is as cut and dry as some make it out to be. Yes, Wisconsin and Michigan are very strongly academically, but has the athletic program meaningfully contributed to this? Or are the two mutually exclusive? Has Alabama athletics helped in their academics? Kentucky? Kansas?
If you just look at the business model of P5 (or 4 or 2 or whatever) athletic programs, the vast sums of money generated typically stays within DIA. In most cases, the general university is actually paying the DIA MORE on top of what they're already generating internally. I think it's a totally fair question from someone in other parts of the university to ask why that's the case.
With all that said, I fall in the bucket of strong athletics programs do have a tangential benefit to universities (alumni engagement -> more donations -> better academics), but it's derivative impact that's hard to measure. At the same time, I certainly believe a power conference DIA should be entirely self-sufficient and not require any money from the university and, in fact, should probably pay money into the university.
sbillini
- st petersburg, fl
I think when you tell a professor at a state school that has a history of being financially strained that likely feeds down to their daily work, this argument will be too derivative/tangential to hold much weight. And it'll be hard to provide them with good data to convince them otherwise.
mhuml32
- Cincinnati, OH
There are a million things that are baked into the "good school" and "most enjoyable socially" that it would be impossible to properly assess the impact of athletics. Unless you are in a situation like App State in '07, Boise State on their come-up, or a really small school that is giving discount rates to incoming students to play sports as means of enrollment survival, you are fighting uphill with an argument that athletics is helping the academic side of the house.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Well, I certainly do not disagree that it will be difficult to sell academics on this logic, lol.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Just to be clear, I am not saying that the quality of the education at Illinois will be any better if we win 8 football games and sell out every home game one year vs. winning 5 games and pulling crowds of 45k-50k. However, sustained athletic success brings a lot of money and exposure to the University, and that simply can never be a bad thing. It brings revenue and excitement to the CU community, which helps it to continue to develop and make Illinois' campus more vibrant. Whatever little benefit you think it provides the academics of the University, it absolutely does not hurt them. And that is my point, I think it's a win-win for everybody if the Illini athletic programs are highly visible and raking in cash.
There were several reasons why I chose Illinois in late 1984, and that 1983 football team was a big one. I wanted to attend a school with good academics AND successful sports programs (strictly from a fan perspective, my sports ability probably peaked around 3rd grade Little League). In-state tuition (a much better deal then than today) was the icing on the cake.
Little did I know that decade would be the pinnacle of sustained success on the football field in my lifetime. Sure was fun to be there for the Flyin' Illini though!
sbillini
- st petersburg, fl
While there's always some more extremists that think it hurts them somehow, i think the more prevalent thought is that it doesn't help them. That professor is still fighting and clawing for research grants after the university cut its budgets and teaching in a dilapidated lecture hall while some guy down the street is the highest paid employee in the whole state for teaching a sport from which the university doesn't get any direct financial benefit. Have fun trying to sell that as a win-win. Irrational? probably, but understandable.
Now, if Shahid Khan and a bunch of donors came out and said they would donate more to the schools' general fund (not the DIA) if more investments were made in DIA, and school admin was able to properly sell that to its people (a stretch, i know), then maybe the tune will change. But that's hard to do.
Well, there are professors who are housed in a relatively newish building with Shad Khan’s name on it (Khan Annex to Huff) … if they don’t appreciate the connection it’s because they don’t want to.
I've often wondered if at least some professors and the like are resentful of a high school culture that sports creates. The "cool kid jock" having a high status while the "academic nerd" feels insignificant. This resentment leads to a desire to reverse the circumstances. Just a thought.
For those in the know, is CBB still in search mode for the LB coach or has one been selected and is now in the negotiations process?
Absolutely, totally agree. All students are different of course, but when given the choice most students will pick the school with a better atmosphere. And a competitive football team helps to create a great atmosphere. I was lucky enough to be at the UofI during the early 80's, and the atmosphere was electric.
Has been pretty quiet. Wondering this myself.