Duke 31, Illinois 27 Postgame

Orangeandblue72 · 2026-09-13T19:38:21-0500

CoachHooleyHoo said:
Ohio State might hang 80 on us.

Looks like it will be up to them how many they score. Our defense will be little to no resistance.

therealmiket86 · 2026-09-13T19:46:53-0500

Curbelo Fanboy said:
Lots of people don’t get this. All this talk about scheme is kinda missing the bigger point. We don’t have the personnel to really run any scheme. A 3 man front can and does work in places. It relies on high end linebackers and safeties. We don’t have that. Last year was a more conventional d and we couldn’t get off the field on 3rd down with that either. The program has to invest on that side of the ball to fix it. Bret is good but he is fighting uphill on the nil front. I just hope we didn’t build a nice big shiny scoreboard that will play to a half full house if the program falls off

We invested a lot in Bailey, x and juice. The dline and lb room didn’t get addressed

gibb52 · 2026-09-13T20:03:01-0500

WyattEarp said:
In all seriousness…

If Iowa truly is in our (do more-with-less, tax bracket)…I wish we could figure out how to reverse engineer their approach.

Step 1 Have the same head coach for nearly 30 yrs
Step 2 Have the same defensive and offensive philosophy for nearly 30 yrs
Step 3 Have long term coordinators and many assistants.

Bret is on his 3rd DC in 6 yrs. That's not the Iowa way.

Bbuck21 · 2026-09-13T20:24:33-0500

therealmiket86 said:
The guys on the dline aren’t lb size.

Pat Farrell 6’5 285lb
Joe Barna 6’4 275lb
Darrel Prater 6’3 310
Carter Janki 6’5 295
Will holmes 6’4 260

The dline isn’t good but the problem is the linebacker are brutal. They take bad angles and can’t tackle.

Those aren't D-line sizes either.

therealmiket86 · 2026-09-13T20:26:18-0500

Bbuck21 said:
Those aren't D-line sizes either.

It’s not lb size and realistically who isn’t dline size? Holmes and Barna are at de. Also this defense is based off players that can move. They don’t want 330lb linemen

Gabe Jacas - 6’4 261
Keith Randolph - 6’5 300lb
Johnny Newton - 6’2 300lbs

I guess those guys also weren’t the size of defensive linemen

therealmiket86 · 2026-09-13T20:31:08-0500

gibb52 said:
Step 1 Have the same head coach for nearly 30 yrs
Step 2 Have the same defensive and offensive philosophy for nearly 30 yrs
Step 3 Have long term coordinators and many assistants.

Bret is on his 3rd DC in 6 yrs. That's not the Iowa way.

The other difference is they have spent money on defense. We have no 4 star recruits playing on defense.

Illini92and96 · 2026-09-13T20:35:09-0500

LvilleILL1 said:
There is going to be a big talking point in general with the budget. They just don't have the guys right now, and the NIL budget for football needs to be upped a bit.

Basketball's has quite frankly exploded and may be top five in the country for next offseason. Not expecting that for football but that really needs to improve.

Sigh. This is just sad, and the epitome of what is wrong with college football. Sounds like a comment you would expect to hear in one of the pro sports like MLB. It reminds me of video games where you pay money for special gear and then win because you spent the money. Takes some of the thrill out of it.

lstewart53x3 · 2026-09-13T20:42:08-0500

Illini92and96 said:
Sigh. This is just sad, and the epitome of what is wrong with college football. Sounds like a comment you would expect to hear in one of the pro sports like MLB. It reminds me of video games where you pay money for special gear and then win because you spent the money. Takes some of the thrill out of it.

Just keep in mind our record in the 2000s pre NIL (2000-2021) was 98-164 (.374) and in current NIL era (2022-2025) it’s 32-19 (.627). The NIL era has been good to us. Basketball especially.

Illini92and96 · 2026-09-13T20:55:57-0500

lstewart53x3 said:
Just keep in mind our record in the 2000s pre NIL (2000-2021) was 98-164 (.374) and in current NIL era (2022-2025) it’s 32-19 (.627). The NIL era has been good to us. Basketball especially.

I don’t disagree (but I also think some of that has to do with having some of the most competent leaders at the helm in a long time). The higher the correlation between winning and money spent the more it just seems like the pros. Heck, we have free agency with 1 year deals.

pvaughn8 · 2026-09-13T21:25:05-0500

lstewart53x3 said:
Just keep in mind our record in the 2000s pre NIL (2000-2021) was 98-164 (.374) and in current NIL era (2022-2025) it’s 32-19 (.627). The NIL era has been good to us. Basketball especially.

I wish we had Bret for a few more years pre-NIL and during big ten West. He's done a great job adapting to the changes, but he could have done great before and set us up for bigger NIL.

WyattEarp · 2026-09-13T21:48:34-0500

gibb52 said:
Step 1 Have the same head coach for nearly 30 yrs
Step 2 Have the same defensive and offensive philosophy for nearly 30 yrs
Step 3 Have long term coordinators and many assistants.

Bret is on his 3rd DC in 6 yrs. That's not the Iowa way.

Right. Yes, all of it. You’re obviously correct.

I’d settle for being consistently solid fundamentally & maximizing what talent we do have on the defensive side.
Right now we’re not even utilizing what skill & athleticism we have; in most cases.
The scheme was supposed to enhance the secondary; thus far it’s been the opposite.

Iowa can have their offense.

LFOD · 2026-09-13T21:49:02-0500

Roundball Sage said:
Nick Saban: “We’ve (SEC) already got nine teams in the top-25. It’s not like the Big Ten, where there’s three good teams at the top and then nothing.”

That’s the rep that the Big Ten generally has these days. And it’s not inaccurate until and unless another Big Ten steps up its game and raises its profile. And that includes the team in Orange and Blue.

The orange and blue team has defeated the mighty SEC teams in the past two bowl seasons.