Illini Football 2023

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#626      
ChiefGritty
IllinoisssssssVarsity said:
Locksley was so damn good. The triple option look out of shotgun with Mendenhall as the handoff read and benn as the pitch read with juice running it was just absurd.
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blackdog said:
Juice was a great athlete and had an absolute cannon for an arm but he was not the most accurate passer.
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In the end the Juice thing was a tragedy of a player who never had the slightest chance of becoming an NFL quarterback becoming a dramatically less effective college player in hopeless pursuit of developing in the NFL direction.

That doesn't fully explain going 3-9 with 16 future NFL players, but that's the biggest single part of it.

He was an elite option trigger guy, it's very rare for someone with quarterback skills being so physical and instinctive working as the guy closer to the trenches in those situations.
 
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#627      
Illini92and96
KnoxIllini2 said:
Correct. Bielema will need to win 8 games consistently, let's say 20 seasons, to even be considered for a statue. That would put Bielema at age 73, so maybe he wouldn't get to enjoy his bronziness as an active coach. But a lot needs to go right to win 8 games at Illinois. Like so damn much.

The 13-12 record for BB after two seasons with Illinois football is worth discussing historically, or at least generationally. The last coach to begin their coaching stint at Illinois to have an above .500 winning percentage after two seasons was John Mackovic in 1989-1990 (which was before my time on Earth), 16-7-1. Mackovic was also the last coach to leave with an above .500 record at Illinois, 30-16-1 (.649).

This one surprised me a bit, but the last coach to have two 8 win seasons at Illinois was Ron Turner. The Sugar Bowl team in 2001 (10-2) and in 1999 (8-4).

Though the flirtations and musing of statues in July are fun, these dreams do have a statute of limitations. During August our Illini will grind and slog through camp, but September is coming. Will we rise to our fanbases loftiest of ceilings or crash like so many other Illini teams before them?
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I think 7.5 wins a year on 13 games gets a statue based on historical standards. The resulting 57.6% win percentage would be the 32nd best historical win percentage among power 5 teams. We're about 62nd today. Given our history that would be a hugely successful run. 8 wins a year and 61.5% would place us 20th, behind Clemson and Washington. That performance should get a statue as well as the goalposts, first down chains, and end zone cones named after BB.

Win percentages
7-6 = 53.8%
7.5-5.5 = 57.6%
8-5 = 61.5%
 
#628      
skyIdub
Boomers using cash only to watch Millennial's and Z's try to make change.

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#629      
1970 John
like I told the lady who sold me single game tickets (we have season tickets but we got the si glean for my sister—Illini—and brother-in-law—married into this), I wanted real tickets mailed to me because…souvenirs.
 
#630      
SkyysNotFalling
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.
 
#632      
superfan
3 point girl said:
He's 13-12 as a coach here. Dont build the statute yet.
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We didn’t build a statue of Harold Grange until 84 years after he graduated. “Red” Grange. The Wheaton Iceman. The Galloping Ghost. Considered by many the greatest college player of all time, and we built him a statue in 2009. Illinois football has had its share of faults, but building too many statues isn’t one of them.
 
#636      
Fighter of the Nightman
ugottabjoshinme said:
Same. Graduated in 08. So, I saw the '05 bball my freshman year and Rose Bowl team my senior year.
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I was in seventh grade for the 2005 run and a freshman in high school for the Rose Bowl season, both surrounded by Hawkeyes fans in Iowa City. At the time, I never would have considered 2005 to 2008 as a particularly lucky time to be at Illinois for sports, but WOW when you consider what came after, you had a good four years! It's honestly astonishing how depressing our athletic department was for a stretch that ended not very long ago.

In 2009, hoops at least spent time in the top 25, and there was excitement for the new recruits coming for the 2009-10 season. Football was coming off of a disappointing 2008 season, but I remember a lot of people thinking (perhaps wishfully) that it was sort of a fluke, and people were excited for 2009. I think the beatdown vs. Mizzou in St. Louis followed by a 3-9 season, tossed on top of an extremely disappointing 2010 hoops season that ended in the NIT murdered this fan base's enthusiasm for YEARS to come. Even when we started off 6-0 in football in 2011, we were selling fewer tickets than we were during our 3-9 2009 season, and the utter collapse killed whatever trust there was left in the program. Basketball from 2011 to 2019 just seemed like one disappointment after another despite a very brief glimmer of hope during Groce's first year.

I imagine being at Illinois from, say, the fall of 2011 to the spring of 2015 might have caused one to hate sports all together. :ROFLMAO: No matter what bumps in the road we experience, it's very difficult to overstate just how much HEALTHIER our athletics are now than eight years ago.
 
#638      
BretMyBeachHouse
superfan said:
We didn’t build a statue of Harold Grange until 84 years after he graduated. “Red” Grange. The Wheaton Iceman. The Galloping Ghost. Considered by many the greatest college player of all time, and we built him a statue in 2009. Illinois football has had its share of faults, but building too many statues isn’t one of them.
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I actually think that Halas would complete the greatest football statue triumvirate.
 
#640      
Mr. Tibbs
BretMyBeachHouse said:
I actually think that Halas would complete the greatest football statue triumvirate.
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so I am well aware of his contributions to the Bears and the NFL.
but unaware of what he did for the Illini besides play 3 years like 1000’s of others
 
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