I do really enjoy Coach B
Illini Football 2023
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I do really enjoy Coach B
Whoever is running his account deserves a raise.
I was in wait and see mode when he hired him because he had proven he could be really good but also had some issues. I’m so happy he gets it. I think our ceiling is higher than what he did at Wisconsin with the right person in charge. I think it’s just my bias. But Wisconsin doesn’t seem like a place to be. The campus is great for sure. But when I hear Wisconsin I don’t think man that’s awesome.Ever get the feeling that Coach B is really enjoying building something big in Champaign? I do, often.
I don’t know how many people think that for Illinois, I don’t really, I just don’t know that it’s as bad as Wisconsin lol.
Mr. Tibbs
- southeast DuPage
to be fair , Wiscy has a real good academic and athletic reputation .
not as strong in the hard core engineering and sciences and business disciplines as UI , but probably better in liberal arts .
overall , they are a legitimate peer and in the top half of the league with us along with UM, PSU, NW , USC & UCLA
not as strong in the hard core engineering and sciences and business disciplines as UI , but probably better in liberal arts .
overall , they are a legitimate peer and in the top half of the league with us along with UM, PSU, NW , USC & UCLA
altgeld88
- Arlington, Virginia
Wisconsin's campus w/o the lakes and the student union = pedestrian IMO. I respect the university. As @Mr. Tibbs notes, strong academics across the board (if an undergrad can stay sufficiently sober to take advantage of it)
. Their engineering and commerce programs will never touch ours, of course.When BB arrived I liked the hire. He seemed to me to have sown his wild oats, gotten his head handed to him in Fayetteville, and then recouped in the NFL. He had a family, two small children, and was at the right age (not too old, stoking a fire to succeed on his own at a place not Wisconsin, but having sufficiently matured) to appreciate the opportunity that Illinois afforded him.
My enduring question is whether he will stay if this rocket launches into orbit. I hope so. In the meantime, I'm loving being excited about Illini football in a way I haven't since the late '80s. And having lots of company there
. I want a Fickell beat-down on Homecoming Saturday so bad I can taste it.Joel Goodson
- ties will be resolved
Ever get the feeling that Coach B is really enjoying building something big in Champaign? I do, often.
There are more than a few Iowa fans who think that BB will take the job when Ferentz hangs em up. FWLIW, I doubt it. Obviously, it's moot if he's not offered. But it wouldn't surprise me at all if inquiries are made.
+1 on the Wisconsin review. Yes one particular part of it is beautiful, the rest is nothing special. Of all the college visits I took with my kids, UW was the quickest 'nope' of the group.Wisconsin's campus w/o the lakes and the student union = pedestrian IMO. I respect the university. As @Mr. Tibbs notes, strong academics across the board (if an undergrad can stay sufficiently sober to take advantage of it)
Bret runs his own. Which makes it better
Your first two sentences just made me say huh?So what do you consider the two best elements of U of I’s campus? And you think taking them away wouldn’t make the campus = pedestrian? And Illinois undergrads don’t drink? Things have changed a lot then since I went to school there. I mean I know Wisconsin is always near the top of the biggest party schools list, but Illinois was never too far behind. Has that changed?Wisconsin's campus w/o the lakes and the student union = pedestrian IMO. I respect the university. As @Mr. Tibbs notes, strong academics across the board (if an undergrad can stay sufficiently sober to take advantage of it)
When BB arrived I liked the hire. He seemed to me to have sown his wild oats, gotten his head handed to him in Fayetteville, and then recouped in the NFL. He had a family, two small children, and was at the right age (not too old, stoking a fire to succeed on his own at a place not Wisconsin, but having sufficiently matured) to appreciate the opportunity that Illinois afforded him.
My enduring question is whether he will stay if this rocket launches into orbit. I hope so. In the meantime, I'm loving being excited about Illini football in a way I haven't since the late '80s. And having lots of company there
pruman91
- Paducah, Ky
Yeah , I agree with what you posted , but the important question is ........Is Illinois his DREAM job .......................?????Wisconsin's campus w/o the lakes and the student union = pedestrian IMO. I respect the university. As @Mr. Tibbs notes, strong academics across the board (if an undergrad can stay sufficiently sober to take advantage of it)
When BB arrived I liked the hire. He seemed to me to have sown his wild oats, gotten his head handed to him in Fayetteville, and then recouped in the NFL. He had a family, two small children, and was at the right age (not too old, stoking a fire to succeed on his own at a place not Wisconsin, but having sufficiently matured) to appreciate the opportunity that Illinois afforded him.
My enduring question is whether he will stay if this rocket launches into orbit. I hope so. In the meantime, I'm loving being excited about Illini football in a way I haven't since the late '80s. And having lots of company there
Joel Goodson
- ties will be resolved
Elmo's doing a bang up job
altgeld88
- Arlington, Virginia
I applied to the engineering school there in '83. The acceptance letter was a form letter produced in that distinct mainframe computer typeface common at the time... the kind of thing you'd get from the utility company when your power was about to be cut off because of failure to pay. Or from a HAL 9000 printout. Some of the architecture there was/is of the hideous, dehumanizing Brutalist school. Just awful. (In contrast, really the only thing that plumbs those depths at UIUC is the psych building and the FLB, and the latter is about as human as Brutalist gets.) Back in the early '80s when I was school shopping the Madison campus reminded of Ohio State (where I grew up) in the worst way: a huge, anonymous factory of 50k students with the occasional terrorist bombing thrown in.
I recall visiting a cousin there in '88. The football stadium was rundown and the fieldhouse, where the basketball team played, was literally like a barn. I read later that the athletic budget was so thin that they didn't/couldn't fix holes in the roof where snow wafted in during the winter onto fans in the rafters. Barry A did wonders for their revenue. The entire athletic program was on its knees financially when he arrived.
I must say the physical plant has improved over the years. Strangely, the liberal arts program has always been popular with certain students from the NYC and DC metro areas.
No, Pru, but is elite.
That was SCUM for me
altgeld88
- Arlington, Virginia
The only data points I have regarding Wisconsin students is from the '80s (personally and via friends who attended it). My statement was accurate then. Have no idea now. The last time I drank heavily on campus was 1989.
Regarding the aesthetics of the campus, yes, the lakes make it pretty. But the physical plant in the late '80s in Madison, apart from the really old stuff on the hill where Bascom Hall is located and down on the shore where the union is, was pretty bad. In particular they had an awful, Brutalist second student union down by the engineering campus near the stadium. I believe they tore it down recently and replaced it.
I envied them their hockey program and nothing else.
Frankly, I find the big sky, prairie setting of UIUC, and the architecture across the board, gorgeous. I realize that I'm in a minority. It takes some time to appreciate. It's like a woman of subtle beauty and great depth: an investment in time and close attention pays a lifetime of rich dividends. In contrast, Madison's allure is skin deep. YMMV.
I apologize in advance to anyone offended by that egregiously sexist metaphor. In my defense, I was going to employ the phrase "cheap tart" to describe UWM and thought better of it.
[Pru, help me. Photos of women (or men, or whomever) displaying ankles only, please. Stat.]
MustangWally
- Mayfield
Michigan State for my daughter.
pruman91
- Paducah, Ky
I stand by my statement
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Here’s my take, FWIW … Bret has stated that he grew up an Illini fan, and we obviously know he played at Iowa. So, there’s your sentimental battle. Even if we assume the latter holds more sentimentality for him, I would wager it’s outweighed by the prospect of starting over again, moving his family, having a different boss, etc.
The only reason he’d leave, IMO, is if he came to the conclusion things were humming at Illinois but he was frustrated because we had maxed out … so it’s up to us to fill the stands when we win, for Josh to pay the man his $$$, for our donors to learn to love football and replicate our VERY nice basketball NIL in this sport, etc. If Bret can string together multiple 7-8+ win seasons in a row the bevy couple years, the money will continue to grow, the excitement will continue to grow, the ratings will keep climbing and a renovation of Memorial Stadium will come. Maybe we dug too deep of a hole to ever catch Michigan or OSU, but I’m quite confident we can convince Bret the ceiling here is actually higher than at Iowa … if he even needs convincing.
Well said. Good points.
The only way I see Brett leaving is if we were in a good spot and the program was humming and he had already anointed his successor. Then I could understand if he felt like he needed a new challenge like showing he could succeed in the SEC.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Yeah, that's true. Illinois is just in such a unique position, though ... looking at state demographics/instate competition for fans and support, the ONLY reason we are not Penn State right now - a school in a remarkably similar "natural footprint" as Illinois - is because we never had a Joe Paterno come along. Instead, we became Penn State basketball, haha. So, the hole is dug, so to speak ... but in a paradoxical way, our entire modern history has sort of gone against logic. I see it as similar to Georgia basketball, in that someday some coach is going to turn things around there (seriously, WHY should they be bad besides a lack of history which matters less and less each year?!), and they'll pay him the big bucks to stay and our grandchildren won't know a world where UGA basketball was a doormat joke that no Georgians outside of Athens really cared about. I'm hopeful we can do the same with Illini football, which is honestly in way less of a "hole" than either PSU basketball or Georgia basketball, comparatively.
All of that is to say that I hope Bret builds Illinois up into something that, in 6-7 years, is just a totally renewed brand ... and maybe a destination that very few coaches want to leave! This isn't exactly the pipedream of turning Pac-12-bound-Oregon State into a national power ... all the pieces are there!
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