Illini Football 2023

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#401      

Fighter of the Nightman

Fighter of the Nightman
Chicago, IL
Fighter of the Nightman
the national said:
Gotta admit, I have a bigger smile right now than this guy 👇

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It is still ASTONISHING to me just how much more pride (and more accurately, less shame) I feel being an Illini football fan now than I have in the last decade. Not strictly Beckman related (Lovie Era), but I will never forget driving from Iowa City to Champaign with my now-wife (who is a converted Illini fan) and my Hawkeyes friends to watch us lose 63-0 in the cold. We had a great time during the trip and many beers were had, but I HAD to disassociate the actual football with being an Illini fan ... the trip was about Champaign bars, all getting to hang together, discussing the potential Memorial Stadium could have if Illinois ever weren't awful, etc. I don't expect us to win every time we take the field now, but I am legitimately proud and confident in the type of football I know Bret will have us playing week in and week out.
 
#402      

Navy_illini

N
Navy_illini
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It is always interesting looking at the conference as a whole

We have to make it to the bye healthy
Wisky and OSU have an early bye
scUM last 5 games will be interesting
PSU has NW bye and UMASS could easiest three weeks
VT plays PU and Rutgers back to back weeks
 
#403      

GrayGhost77

GrayGhost77
Centennial, CO
GrayGhost77
Been on vacation with the fam (Telluride is beautiful, btw), and come in here after a long day of off-roading and checking out spectacular waterfalls only to see that not only did JW make the hire of the century with Bielema, but somehow Jim Leonhard is now on staff AND Harbaugh is in NCAA trouble? What a time to be an Illini football fan, man.
 
#404      

KnoxIllini2

KnoxIllini2
KnoxIllini2
#405      

DeeAndDWill

DeeAndDWill
DeeAndDWill
Legit, when was the last time one could argue that the football program's future was brighter than basketball? I don't think it's realistic but maybe you could have argued end of 2010 beginning of 2011 with Weber still being Weber and Zook going to 2 bowls in 4 years?

Maybe a short time in the early 60's? Maybe?

I don't know how to live like this.
 
#406      

BretMyBeachHouse

B
BretMyBeachHouse
Mr. Tibbs said:
and there were a number of people on here and other boards that were totally against the BB hire in Dec 2020
not alot , but I would day like 20%-25%

I wish I could remember some of the names they wanted - I do recall Lance Leopold getting mentioned . and he would likely have been a good hire too

but for me, BB was a no brainer . hes proven it.
Im not saying we are his last HC job, but there is a decent chance he stays here for a long time
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I'll fess up to being a skeptic. I don't think I was totally against it, but I was somewhat underwhelmed. In fairness, I think he's grown tremendously as a coach and person, which is saying a lot considering his coaching chops were real solid.
 
#407      

BretMyBeachHouse

B
BretMyBeachHouse
Fighter of the Nightman said:
Wisconsin fans have had their extended day in the sun for FAR too long. My dad (about to turn 60) always talks about how bad Wisconsin was at everything when he was a kid and how bizarre it seemed when they got really good at sports, with relatively no history to speak of, meh facilities and subpar instate recruiting. I respect the hell out of what they have accomplished, but it's WELL past our turn. :cool: The '20s belong to Illini football ... both of them!!
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I believe Don Morton might be available as a Senior Analyst to counter Leonhard.
 
#408      

BretMyBeachHouse

B
BretMyBeachHouse
DeeAndDWill said:
Legit, when was the last time one could argue that the football program's future was brighter than basketball? I don't think it's realistic but maybe you could have argued end of 2010 beginning of 2011 with Weber still being Weber and Zook going to 2 bowls in 4 years?

Maybe a short time in the early 60's? Maybe?

I don't know how to live like this.
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Buy tickets.
 
#416      

zentrails

Z
zentrails
GallopingGhost said:
Maybe this is my naïveté, but what does a defensive analyst do? He’s not the coordinator, so what is their job specifically.
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In this case my guess is whatever Bret wants him to do, while following NCAA rules and not giving UW reason to negate their $1,000,000 payout to him.

And my guess is also that Bret will want PLENTY from him this year and hopefully a couple more years while Jim waits for a plum HCing job to open up (it ain't NW LOL)

WIN WIN baby plus lots more WINS!!
 
#417      

zentrails

Z
zentrails
Fulton County Illini said:
This is not a traditional coaching hire. This is simply an opportunity hire and an absolute grand slam. You can't have enough quality coaching, whatever the title is, as recent history before Bret has proven.
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I'm thinking we had lawyers involved who advised holding off any announcement after they thoroughly went through UW's separation package.
 
#418      

fuddrules

F
fuddrules
Navy_illini said:
View attachment 27431
It is always interesting looking at the conference as a whole

We have to make it to the bye healthy
Wisky and OSU have an early bye
scUM last 5 games will be interesting
PSU has NW bye and UMASS could easiest three weeks
VT plays PU and Rutgers back to back weeks
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Nice that no opponent has a bye week just before they play Illinois.

IL has the bye, then MN. MN has MSU the week before which is a nice advantage for Illinois.
 
#420      

Chukwuwumba

Chukwuwumba
Chukwuwumba
willillini said:
i think he reports to the head coach on things he observes and it is relayed to the assistants as Brett sees it
necessary. Reinforces what is being done and makes suggestions. also, a big part would be scouting reports
of future opposition. this would be critical with his experience in the big ten and specifically in the west.
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Maybe JL wants to learn more about the CEO role as well and see what BB thinks. Probably had a bunch of questions/ thoughts about how to handle things organizationally once he was made interim coach.
 
#422      

Chief84

Chief84
Chief84
Joel Goodson said:
great flippin' move, regardless that it's gonna be a very short stint. gotta say, BB has been flippin' great thus far. has exceeded my hopes, the realistic ones anyway

and, yeah, if Henry moves on, mebbe it'll be a longer stint,

4D flippin' chess...love, love, love it
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I’m flippin’ excited too!!
 
#423      

IlliniInBuckeyeState

I
IlliniInBuckeyeState
Fighter of the Nightman said:
1. I want to start by saying I think 60,670 is a very appropriate capacity for our program if we keep improving ... probably even on the small side. With that said...

2. This count reinforced my belief that we have way too many seats in two areas - the Horseshoe and East Main underneath the overhang. Regarding the Horseshoe, we have more seats in the Horseshoe than the entire East Balcony! That simply shouldn't add up, given the aesthetics. The Horseshoe seats are truly packed in there, and you get the worst of both worlds - it takes up a ton of our usable capacity, but it still looks small and aesthetically weak. Regarding the seats under the overhang, that really has to be fixed in any future renovation ... it's a no-brainer to wall those seats off with a brick wall to match West Main's setup. If you do that and redo the Horseshoe, you end up with 10k-15k seats to mess around with in the current Horseshoe space that builds something much cooler while not adding to capacity at all.

3. Let's assume that we are able to sell an additional 2,500 seats between now and the first game vs. Toledo (and also assume the tracker is more or less correct!). That would make our opening game attendance 44,713. This would represent a nearly 20% increase from last year's first game (37,832)! It would also be our best opening attendance since Lovie's first year, where we drew 48,644.

4. Looking back at Bielema's first two seasons, this is how the attendance has shifted. In 2021, we averaged 32,233 for UTSA and Charlotte, and we averaged 39,467 for our first three Big Ten home games. In 2022, we averaged 37,706 for Wyoming and Chattanooga, and we averaged 45,297 for our first two Big Ten home games (the rest occurred way later in the year, and I am trying to incorporate some weather considerations here). Looking at those numbers and considering that the Penn State game will be WAY more hyped and marketed than any of the other Big Ten home games in the aforementioned comparisons, if we are drawing almost 45,000 for Toledo, it is all but certain that we will be pushing 55,000 for Penn State, IMO. And that is sort of the magic number to make the stadium look full, so let's hope we get there! I'll be doing my part. :cool:
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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.
 
#425      

hooraybeer

hooraybeer
Pittsburgh, PA
hooraybeer
Fighter of the Nightman said:
It is still ASTONISHING to me just how much more pride (and more accurately, less shame) I feel being an Illini football fan now than I have in the last decade. Not strictly Beckman related (Lovie Era), but I will never forget driving from Iowa City to Champaign with my now-wife (who is a converted Illini fan) and my Hawkeyes friends to watch us lose 63-0 in the cold. We had a great time during the trip and many beers were had, but I HAD to disassociate the actual football with being an Illini fan ... the trip was about Champaign bars, all getting to hang together, discussing the potential Memorial Stadium could have if Illinois ever weren't awful, etc. I don't expect us to win every time we take the field now, but I am legitimately proud and confident in the type of football I know Bret will have us playing week in and week out.
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i was at that game and feel this post to my core
 
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