Illini Football 2023

#76      

Dan

Dan
Admin
Dan
#83      

mhuml32

mhuml32
Cincinnati, OH
mhuml32
Screenshot 2023-11-14 at 12.31.23 PM.png


- Toledo is now the 5th best opponent that Illinois has faced this season and 2nd best win.
- Amazing that Illinois has faced the 4th, 6th, and 8th best defenses so far, and has 2nd best defense this weekend (plus Northwestern's defense has drastically improved).
- Somehow get a win this weekend for a million reasons, but mostly so we don't have PTSD of having to beat a competent NW team to make a bowl.
- Weird quirk is that Illinois is getting everyone's best special teams performance every week. Lots of teams are massively better than expected and even the bad ST teams are performing well against Illinois.
 
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#99      

Illini2010-11

I
Sugar Grove
Illini2010-11
MustangWally said:
At least Tu(r)ner and Zook went to major bowl games.
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And neither coach built on the major bowl game appearance. Both went 5-7 the year after making a BCS game. Turner went 5-7, 1-11, and 3-8 after Sugar Bowl; while Zook went 5-7, 3-9, 7-6 (Beat Baylor in Texas Bowl), and 6-6 (epic collapse after 6-0 start). That is the definition of bad power 5 football after some short term success. It is beyond me that a team can go from BCS bowl game to a 1-11 record in two seasons!

Coach B took the team to a New Year's Day Bowl in year 2, with the possibility of another bowl game in year 3. The next two seasons are very important for the program, but from a competitive standpoint, the program is lightyears better than it was under the previous 4 regimes.
 
#100      

GILL-INOIS

G
GILL-INOIS
Illini2010-11 said:
And neither coach built on the major bowl game appearance. Both went 5-7 the year after making a BCS game. Turner went 5-7, 1-11, and 3-8 after Sugar Bowl; while Zook went 5-7, 3-9, 7-6 (Beat Baylor in Texas Bowl), and 6-6 (epic collapse after 6-0 start). That is the definition of bad power 5 football after some short term success. It is beyond me that a team can go from BCS bowl game to a 1-11 record in two seasons!
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The time period you are describing with Turner I agree 100%

The highlighted bold I am not shocked as much if it happens anymore. It might not be a 1-11 team but teams will come out of the woodwork for a season or two and start making runs. 2021 TCU 5-7 (fired Patterson at 3-5) and 2021 Tulane 2-10 before they made major runs in 2022 with TCU in Championship loss to finish 13-2 and Tulane 12-2 with win over USC. I look for it to kick in more once they expand the playoffs down the road. Teams like James Madison, Liberty, Toledo, Tulane, SMU, etc are licking their chops for a bigger playoff picture.