Illini Football 2023

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#128      

Serious Late

Serious Late
Peoria via Denver via Ann Arbor via Albuquerque vi
Serious Late
#130      

Sedino

Sedino
Sedino
NJJ871 said:
Prior to coming to Illinois, Devito had thrown 572 passes in 4 seasons at Syracuse (sorta, Covid season included, so the equivalent of 3) and was the starter for better than 1 full season. Altmyer has thrown 54 passes total with one emergency start. I get you with regard to Lunney (and Art?), but Altmyer is much less a proven commodity at this point than Devito was going into last year. I'd like to be as confident as you are, and if you're right and Altmyer is solid it's going to be a good year, but it's reasonable to think he may have some growing pains.
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There will absolutely be growing pains, but at the same time Altmyer has the highest ceiling of any QB we’ve had since probably Nathan Scheelhaase.
 
#142      

Fighter of the Nightman

Fighter of the Nightman
Chicago, IL
Fighter of the Nightman
Serious Late said:
I can't believe I was still able to grab a tailgate spot in Grange Grove for the Penn State game. With Big Noon Kickoff taking place there, real happy to get in there with the kiddos!
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I am happy for you, but I hope there are no spots to be had soon! Grange Grove needs to be absolutely POPPIN' to send a loud and clear message to a national audience that the Illinois football of 2000-2019 is dead and buried. If you read social media posts and whatnot, you will see that we have already changed the narrative of our program being a doormat or easy win, as rival fans always give our defense some respect and acknowledge that a Bielema team will play tough and fundamentally sound football. However, the reputation of Memorial Stadium and Champaign for gameday atmosphere is still pretty subpar, and this PSU game is going to be a massive opportunity to change that. And, changing that reputation for the better won't just help attract recruits and casual TV viewers that will increase the value of Illini football; it will turn into a positively self-fulfilling prophecy that causes more and more people to want to be in the stands at Memorial Stadium on a given fall Saturday. And that last part is essential, as the "big money" football programs didn't start drawing huge crowds by relying on the diehards, they extended the pool of fans to include people who just wanted to be part of the atmosphere and visit for the gameday experience.
 
#143      

NJJ871

N
NJJ871
Dan said:
https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1689305539803578368
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No offense at all to Love and McCray (and I realize it is different organizations), but them being on the Doak Walker list and IWill not being on the Beletnikoff is very indicative of how lazy and uninformed the sports writers/voters on these awards are. For Doak Walker, I would guess that because Chase Brown had a monster season they simply look for who's next for Illinois and include both as it's not obvious if one or the other break out. With Beletnikoff/IWill, Illinois didn't have anyone as a finalist last year (and was a heavy run team) so he's overlooked. And I'm sure if one were to look at the lists, the same schools have a player(s) listed every year regardless of what they've done in the past (or even if they're going into a season injured).
 
#144      

Fighter of the Nightman

Fighter of the Nightman
Chicago, IL
Fighter of the Nightman
Not sure how one would adjust for home vs. away, but here is our schedule broken down purely by teams above or below us in the preseason Coaches Poll ... just thought it would be interesting. Illinois came in with 7 votes received, good for #48 overall.

Probably a clear underdog
vs. #7 Penn State
at #26 Iowa

Somewhere in the middle
at #58 Kansas
at (NR) Purdue
at #45 Maryland
vs. #21 Wisconsin
at #40 Minnesota

Probably a clear favorite
vs. (NR) Toledo
vs. (NR) Florida Atlantic
vs. (NR) Nebraska
vs. (NR) Indiana
vs. (NR) Northwestern

I want to say again that it is fairly arbitrary where to put those games. With that said, I put PSU and Iowa in the top because (1) PSU is the only TRULY highly ranked opponent we play all year and (2) Iowa City is a very tough place to play where we have not won in literally 2.5 decades. The range in at (NR) Purdue to #21 Wisconsin at home in that middle category is pretty damn wide and at the same time not really ... that's the Big Ten West for ya! Lol.

So looking at it this way OR any other way, I think we have to win the five games where we are clearly a favorite. The Nebraska home game would be the toughest given they do have some talent, but I would view it as a bit of a "mess-up" if we lose to a first year Nebraska coach in Champaign. That gets us to 5 wins.

Knocking off PSU for Big Noon Kickoff or finally getting a win in Iowa City would be awesome, but I won't expect it. You could have added Minnesota to this category since it's on the road, but Bret seems to have PJ's number, and we have already won up there once! So, let's say 2 "given" losses.

That is a 5-2 record with five games that will define our season in the middle category above ... nothing we all did not already know, but you really can see how a range from 10-2 all the way to 6-6 is not hard to imagine whatsoever, depending on how everything plays out!
 
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