Illini Football 2023

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#426      

Illinois_2_AZ

Illinois_2_AZ
Illinois_2_AZ
Don't know if anyone mentioned it, but Kionte Curry is no longer on the team. To quote another site, "Bielema was one of the first high school additions by Bielema at Illinois." (Obviously they had a typo 🙄 )
 
#427      

FlyNavy

FlyNavy
Los Angeles
FlyNavy
So, first off, Jim Leonhard's journey is remarkable. He was not offered a Division 1-A scholarship out of high school, then walked on to Wisconsin to earn that scholarship his senior year. He was not drafted into the NFL, but worked his way to being a starting safety for a Jets team that played in two conference championships. His NFL career was cut short by injuries, but still a solid career, especially for a guy that was a zero-star defensive back in 2001.

He had an opportunity to prove himself as a head coach, and did well. Sure, Wisconsin went a different direction with Fickell, but I'd have to think JL's stock is still high. Going to BB's staff allows him to bank the UW money and stay in the game. He will likely be a one-year employee for U of I, and will either be a HC or DC for a power five team in five months.

I think this move is 99% BB. Bret was JL's DC in 2004, which was probably his most critical year for developing into an NFL-caliber player. Since JL is also a solid teacher, he will definitely be an asset for the Illini, but unless Henry is no longer the DC next year (for good or bad), JL will have a better job in 2024 likely at a P5 school.

In the end, this is a home run move for BB. It makes perfect sense given the history, and shows how well Bret can build a staff, something we haven't seen since, well, ever. But I want to counter the ideas that JL will be a DB coach next year...he won't. I think if he finds a good head coach opening, he'll take it; if not he will be a P5 DC.
 
#431      

UofToledoFans

UofToledoFans
UofToledoFans
IlliniInBuckeyeState said:
Your points and estimates all seem on point to me. To point #3, I sense that we will be in the ballpark of 45,000 for Toledo. That is a hefty increase over the attendance for Wyoming and is right around the draw for Iowa last season. But, for a night game...my optimistic side hopes that 50,000 is within reach. I doubt that will happen at this point.

To point #4, 55,000 feels like an a reasonable goal for the Penn State attendance. And while we're still almost two months away from the game, we have a long way to go. I'm a little discouraged by my initial count of available Penn State tickets. Estimated tickets sold as of tonight is just a few hundred more than Toledo. Remember this is still a conservative estimate since sections 101, 109, 123, and 131 are all unavailable for sale and are contributing 0% to the total estimate of tickets sold. Penn State will travel pretty well and bring a good contingent to fill section 109.

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Jeremy Werner mentioned on the Illini Inquirer podcast at some point that there were only ~23,000 season ticket holders in 2022. A few weeks ago on Tay and Piper, Jason Heggemeyer from the Illinois Ticket Office said over 9,000 new season tickets had been sold. So lets assume there will be ~32,000 season tickets. Can we expect to have an additional 23,000 of single game tickets sold for Penn State? Perhaps, but knowing there won't be flash sales the week of the game this year, I would have hoped to see more than just 11,000 single game tickets sold for Penn State at this point.
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Toledo is going to bring more than the 200 Wyoming fans... Outside of NIU (instate fans), no MAC team is bringing more than Toledo. 5 hour drive and high expectations for the Rockets.

I hope it doesn't sell out for our sake. But we will be riding 12 deep with a crew who goes to 1 away game a year.
 
#435      

redwingillini11

redwingillini11
White and Sixth
North Aurora
redwingillini11
#444      

ChiefGritty

ChiefGritty
Chicago, IL
ChiefGritty
illinoistradition said:
3 of the first 5 questions to Bret related to Northwestern and…Barbie 🤦‍♂️
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He's more of an Oppenheimer guy

boom smile GIF
 
#446      

Fighter of the Nightman

Fighter of the Nightman
Chicago, IL
Fighter of the Nightman
IlliniInBuckeyeState said:
... Jeremy Werner mentioned on the Illini Inquirer podcast at some point that there were only ~23,000 season ticket holders in 2022. A few weeks ago on Tay and Piper, Jason Heggemeyer from the Illinois Ticket Office said over 9,000 new season tickets had been sold. So lets assume there will be ~32,000 season tickets. Can we expect to have an additional 23,000 of single game tickets sold for Penn State? Perhaps, but knowing there won't be flash sales the week of the game this year, I would have hoped to see more than just 11,000 single game tickets sold for Penn State at this point.
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I love hearing stats like this that we would not be able to normally find ourselves! The article on the front page of IL right now says over 9.5k new season ticket holders, so let's round to 10k assuming some more buy in the next couple weeks? That is a 40-45% increase in season ticket sales in one year! Using 23k for last season, that means we sold the following number of single-game tickets for our home games last season:

14,832 vs. Wyoming
10,669 vs. Virginia
14,579 vs. Chattanooga
21,910 vs. Iowa
22,683 vs. Minnesota
33,092 vs. Michigan State
22,574 vs. Purdue

Now, new season ticket holders are probably disproportionately from that population of fans who bought single game tickets last year, but not ALL of them, right?? While we no-doubt lost some "single" fans that converted into the season ticket population, one has to figure that such a huge increase in season ticket sales will at least translate to the type of excitement that adds more "single" fans and new fans. Last year is clear evidence that Illini Football can get over 30k people to buy a single game ticket when the excitement and promotion is there, and getting 20k single game tickets bought for a Big Ten home game seems quite ordinary now.

If we are starting with a base of 33k season tickets this season, ANY game where we sell 20k or more will have the stadium looking full ... that is very encouraging. We only have a bit over 27k to go before we have a sellout. Again, it's NOT apples to apples, but these would have been our attendance numbers last year if we sold the same number of single game tickets but started with a base of 33k, just for illustration purposes:

47,832 vs. Wyoming
43,669 vs. Virginia
47,579 vs. Chattanooga
54,910 vs. Iowa
55,683 vs. Minnesota
60,670 vs. Michigan State (sellout)
55,574 vs. Purdue

I am now quite confident that there will be over 55k vs. Penn State, and that is all I really care about. The sellout is nice to break the streak and for the statement it makes, but the stadium looks packed with anything over 55k (you could not see a single empty seat vs. MSU last year on TV, and we were 4.5k short of a sellout). My wife has only been to Memorial Stadium once, and it was the Purdue game last year ... a frustrating loss in freezing cold weather with most of the upper deck empty. My parents have not been to Memorial Stadium since our blowout loss to Louisiana Tech in Beckman's first year (2012). I myself have not been to Memorial Stadium in a month other than November since 2012, as well ... I'm excited to see the atmosphere we can put together for such a hyped game with beautiful weather.

P.S. Are you just assuming there will be now flash sales or anything this year? I hope the DIA realizes how invaluable of an opportunity it is to showcase the stadium, town and program for Big Noon Kickoff vs. Penn State ... if there are a substantial number of tickets unsold (especially among students) for this one by Week 2, they need to be pulling out all of the stops to fill the place up!
 
#447      

altgeld88

altgeld88
Arlington, Virginia
altgeld88
BretMyBeachHouse said:
I believe Don Morton might be available as a Senior Analyst to counter Leonhard.
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As I've occasionally noted on the Board, when I left campus in August 1990 if someone had told me that Wisconsin football would be in the Rose bowl in four seasons and the Final Four in ten, I would have bet an astronomical sum against it as easy money. It was inconceivable at the time.

Good thing I was a newly-minted graduate with ~ zero net worth. ;)

What the new AD (ex-Miller brewing marketing exec, IIRC) did via hiring Alvarez and promoting Dick Bennett spurred the greatest BT program turnaround in my lifetime. Wisconsin fans owe everything to that AD and Donna Shalala, who hired him.
 
#450      

Fighter of the Nightman

Fighter of the Nightman
Chicago, IL
Fighter of the Nightman
redwingillini11 said:
Eurovision Wow GIF


COACH!!!
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Hopefully this puts to rest that he would go to Iowa! Illini Football from the 1990s on was like a strong man that had a disease, and Iowa football was like a weak man that did not have that disease ... yes, you'd rather be Iowa during that timeframe, but guess what?? We're cured! And this is as good of a place to build a program as anywhere else.
 
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