My mentor and teacher Coach Fulmer once told me. If all your doing is screaming at players, your Tool Box is empty. Instruct, show, critique, repetition, and encourage.
Great Hire.
Illini Football 2024
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Great Hire.
For those of us who haven’t been paying attention, is Illinois football expected to be any better than last year?
I think at best we match last year's record, we lose a lot of talent to include historically good DL and WR. If our QB has gained experience and is better than last year that can be a huge plus. If our RBs are healthy and our WR young talent can perform that would be great as well. But just don't have the experience and returning talent to say they will be better or as good.
That being said felt we underperformed with the returning talent last year and if we can play ready to play on game 1 vs game 4-5, then they can be as good of a record. The link below will give you a pretty good idea of depth chart and who we lost from last year.
2024 Illinois Fighting Illini Football Depth Chart | Ourlads.com
The most respected source for NFL Draft info among NFL Fans, Media, and Scouts, plus accurate, up to date NFL Depth Charts, Practice Squads and Rosters.
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illinifan4249
- Space Coast, FL
I believe the Vegas over/under is 5.5 so they expect another year right on the edge of bowl eligibility. For reference last year I believe it was 6.5.
I think at best we match last year's record, we lose a lot of talent to include historically good DL and WR. If our QB has gained experience and is better than last year that can be a huge plus. If our RBs are healthy and our WR young talent can perform that would be great as well. But just don't have the experience and returning talent to say they will be better or as good.
That being said felt we underperformed with the returning talent last year and if we can play ready to play on game 1 vs game 4-5, then they can be as good of a record. The link below will give you a pretty good idea of depth chart and who we lost from last year.
2024 Illinois Fighting Illini Football Depth Chart | Ourlads.com
The most respected source for NFL Draft info among NFL Fans, Media, and Scouts, plus accurate, up to date NFL Depth Charts, Practice Squads and Rosters.www.ourlads.com
We really underperformed last year. No reason that wasn’t a bowl team. The schedule will be harder this year and we are losing some key players. Oline should be a lot better so that should help. It’ll be interesting to see what transfers are added after spring.
O: OL better; QB play improved; WR and RB mostly unprovenI think at best we match last year's record, we lose a lot of talent to include historically good DL and WR. If our QB has gained experience and is better than last year that can be a huge plus. If our RBs are healthy and our WR young talent can perform that would be great as well. But just don't have the experience and returning talent to say they will be better or as good.
That being said felt we underperformed with the returning talent last year and if we can play ready to play on game 1 vs game 4-5, then they can be as good of a record. The link below will give you a pretty good idea of depth chart and who we lost from last year.
2024 Illinois Fighting Illini Football Depth Chart | Ourlads.com
The most respected source for NFL Draft info among NFL Fans, Media, and Scouts, plus accurate, up to date NFL Depth Charts, Practice Squads and Rosters.
D: DL interior ??; DL edge a plus; LB and DB a year older so hopefully better
Who's gonna be this year's Matthew Bailey? (the stud freshman surprise)
Think it's a wash between additions/improvements and subtractions, so should be about as good as last year. That said, last year's team should have won more if not for costly/timely mistakes.
The big question on offensive is wr. Losing Casey and IW is huge. Hopefully Elzy and Wilcher step up. I think the run game should be good and hopefully it sets up the passing game.
Agreed on a wash. Comparing to last year:
OL and QB should be better
RB will be better if they stay healthy
WR will regress due to experience drop off
TE is a toss up(excited about Rusk if they actually throw to TE)
DL interior regression for obvious reason
Edge/OLB should be better(last yr was disappointing)
ILB should be improved. They got better as last year progressed and that should continue
Safeties should be great if healthy(love the two deep)
Corners is a toss up. Should be better and need them to be better
Special teams will regress unless Olano lives up to HS billing.
Coaching should progress. It was not a great year for coaching. Hopefully AHen learned a lot and improves. I hope we quit the playing not to lose mentality that we’ve seen a lot during the BB era(my only complaint about BB)
That being said I think the games vs Kansas, Nebraska, Rutgers, and Northwestern determine whether we have 5 wins or hit our ultimate ceiling of 9 wins.
Running game will do go if we stick with a gap blocking scheme. Once we switched from zone blocking to gap blocking the running game improved a lot. Faegin is at his best when he’s running downhill with his shoulders square to the hill
Losing Tip will really hurt in the running game. Rusk will get moved and make an impact in the passing game. Hopefully Boyer steps up he can be huge in the running game.
Defensively it’ll be interesting to see who we bring in as a db coach. Gibbs was a veteran coach with dc experience for Henry to lean on. I would be surprised if it’s not Kerry Cooks. Schematically the defense was very bad last year. Players were undisciplined, out of position and the communication was poor. Teams also figured out our defense.
Running game will be good as long as health is good.
Agree about Tip. Hope Boyer is ready and we utilize the TE weapon in Rusk.
Defense was worse than expected. Sad news on Gibbs. I was optimistic about him and what he would bring to the table.
Was very underwhelmed with the results Bullen got from the outside linebackers. We constantly blew contain and rarely played with leverage. Our ends would crash down the line and give up big plays. I also think Jacas would be better off playing the 5tech in this defense. When he filled in for Keith he played great.
OLB was a big disappointment last year after the promise that shows in 2022. Jacas was great filling in for Keith. Freshman Jacas was also great on the edge. Hard to say which one I’d rather see a repeat of, but one or the other, and not the in between we saw the first half of last season .
I think Jacas is a step slow at olb. He has freak strength and is a force when he’s moved inside. I’m not sure why we were dropping him into coverage last year. Seth should have a huge year. It’s a strong position group
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
I get the logistics of it, but I fear the staff has to sort of "make up for last year" and pull a rabbit out of its hat this year and make a bowl in order to keep any sort of positive momentum with the fan base, especially casual fans. We diehards will understand and see it within context, but the end of last year not making a bowl was really disappointing and I already fear it will dilute the REALLY encouraging trends we have seen with attendance:
2021 Overall: 35,347
2021 Big Ten: 36,593
2022 Overall: 43,048
2022 Big Ten: 47,061
2023 Average: 49,698
We are averaging over 14,000 more fans per game than when Bret got here ... that is an incredible uptick in fan interest, and in this age of NIL and money hindering your ceiling more than ever, it would be REALLY devastating to lose that momentum. Illini Football, even when bad, should still be viewed as a "big" program. And to do that, we need to keep growing the fan base to where it once was.
2021 Overall: 35,347
2021 Big Ten: 36,593
2022 Overall: 43,048
2022 Big Ten: 47,061
2023 Average: 49,698
We are averaging over 14,000 more fans per game than when Bret got here ... that is an incredible uptick in fan interest, and in this age of NIL and money hindering your ceiling more than ever, it would be REALLY devastating to lose that momentum. Illini Football, even when bad, should still be viewed as a "big" program. And to do that, we need to keep growing the fan base to where it once was.
Biggest Positional Gaps:
RT - Plenty of guards on roster but need someone to be able to make the jump to tackle
WR - Still don't think we have enough unless an underclassmen can make the jump
DL - Need depth to emerge
CB - Need a #1 CB to emerge and depth seems thin
RT - Plenty of guards on roster but need someone to be able to make the jump to tackle
WR - Still don't think we have enough unless an underclassmen can make the jump
DL - Need depth to emerge
CB - Need a #1 CB to emerge and depth seems thin
No, picked towards the bottom of the conference. Probably about right, still not getting any big time recruits.
Sigh. Better line play this year. More depth. Another year under the QBs belt.
Not living up to my name as far as football goes this year. I would have thought we would have been picked around the middle of the conference by the so called experts but when they came out with us at I think second to last it pretty much dampened my optimism for the coming year. I hope we prove them wrong and make them eat those predictions.
There is a lot of recency bias in their predictions. Let's say we don't defecate the bed late against UW and don't have the back to back fumbles on kicks against NW. We finish the season having won 5 of 6 with the only loss a close one on the road to Iowa. If that had been the case, there is a good chance we go into the season in the top 25, or pretty close to it anyway. Same team, but big difference in perception
Illinivek23
- Gurnee
With Keith being so banged up last year - I really like what BB and Coach Jamison have done to shore up the DL depth with hungry veterans. And if the ILBs/OLBs take a step forward - this D can show a big improvement over last year.
Count me as optimistic as a whole - like the direction of the program. Could we use some big-time recruits, absolutely. A good W-L season will help a lot.
Count me as optimistic as a whole - like the direction of the program. Could we use some big-time recruits, absolutely. A good W-L season will help a lot.
They really fumbled the bag by not qualifying for a bowl last year. We left several wins on the table. Have to go out there and steal some this year.
you can also say we got lucky to win the Toledo, Minnesota, IU games. The style of football Brett likes to play the margin for error is very small. We need to win the games in the trenches. I feel a lot better about the offensive line this year. The d line is the big question
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