Man.. Really can't wait for football season. It's so refreshing.
How good are we really going to be this coming year? I've always been a huge basketball guy, growing up a Bears and illini football fan... hasn't been that exciting in my 20something years just in general. The Rose Bowl game against USC is my most exciting and disappointing memory in my short illini football life. I remember I think it was 2010 or 2011 (forgive me if I'm wrong) that we started 6-0..and then lost our last 6.. I remember how hype the 2011 home game against ASU, first time being an illini fan that it felt Memorial Stadium was really really rocking..Losing to mizzou big at the Edwards Jones Dome sticks out..losing to LA Tech in some random bowl game..Getting blown out by UNC at home sticks out for some reason..There were also some awesome moments and illini players that I'll always love..Scheelhouse, Dudek, Epstein, Mendenhall, Liuget, Benn, Juice, Leshoure..bowl win against Baylor, beating OSU...Then from about 2015-2018 I kind of hit snooze on football, 2019 was a fun year, then kinda backed away again.
When we hired Bielema I just figured whatever, it'll be another guy who fails to turn the program around. I wouldn't say I'm a bandwagon football fan, but it was hard to get excited at all..All I've ever known is bad football. Just is what it is. Loved the team last year and the players. So, as someone who is trying to gauge how good this coming year will be..I was kind of surprised by how many people think we might win the West with the amount of guys we lost to the draft. We are replacing almost our entire secondary, Chase, Hightower & Devitto along with others. Are we really in a good position to replace that? Maybe I'm just used to a good ole illini football nut punch...but I'd be happy with 7 or 8 wins this year. That's still awesome, and I'm super excited to watch the guys strap it up in a few weeks and all year.. But are West title hopes really possible? How good are our transfers? Sorry if this is an extremely ignorant post.