OrangeBlue98
- Des Moines, IA
Illini Football 2024
- Status
Fun story: I attended a debate between Timothy Leary and G. Gordon Liddy on the UIUC campus when I was a student (I don't remember the building or the exact year, might have been 1989). My favorite Leary statement from that debate was:
"There are only two kinds of people in this world; people who think there are only two kinds of people in this world, and people that don't."
pruman91
- Paducah, Ky
I'm more worried about our RB depth than any other position. We have 3 big RBs along with Laughery, but they are all coming off serious injuries. I'd like to pick up at least one more for the portal. If nothing else, to share the load in practice.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
I understand football is different than basketball, but I really do not understand why we are not performing extremely well in the portal. Dain Dainja-type talent should be leaving an Illinois equivalent (let's say Penn State) for a Memphis equivalent (Illini football!). With Bret's proven track record, the opportunity for serious playing time competing in the Big Ten and what we have been told is significantly improved NIL ... I do not understand the lack of recruiting momentum compared to Big Ten peers like Rutgers.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
My sense is that BB hasn't WANTED to be a major player in the portal, preferring to shoot for an unusual degree of roster stability and internal development relative to our peers.
He totally defied the conventional wisdom around coaching changes by doing that when he arrived to great success.
I like the idea in theory. To zig where others are zagging. But is it actually viable in 2024 college football? The evidence of the past couple of days suggests maybe not.
We're a small club, but welcome! I've been hoping for a portal RB for several years given our current talent/health. DT and DB may be just as important, but RB is up there.
Yeah, and not to get all Debbie downer woe is us, but fairweather fans generally indicates there's weather to be had outside of a low visibility blizzard with very brief peeks that there might actually be some blue thing and some glowy thing above the clouds before everything goes immediately dark again. Outside of rabid Illini alum football fans, it's just difficult to bring in the general public from a Chicago when the team hasn't had back to back winning regular seasons in what will be 35 years, especially when there are other more successful options that are much closer (Notre Dame, even Northwestern for example).I cannot speak to the south side, specifically, but how many Illini fans should we expect?? The Chicago Area is fundamentally a different beast to Milwaukee for Wisconsin or Cleveland for Ohio State or even Detroit for Michigan/MSU. There will always be too large of a population and too many transplants for the Illini to dominate the market like we could a smaller, less nationally relevant city. That's just the way it is, for better and for worse! Our instate support in Central Illinois is just as good overall as any other Big Ten school's in their state (with the possible exceptions of truly psychotic instate loyalty for Nebraska and Iowa), and I think our support in Downstate Illinois as a whole is quite good. Our support in Chicagoland has a relatively high floor, but it really explodes when we are good, from my experience. Sucks to admit it, but we have a lot of fair weather Illini fans in Chicago, which is unfortunate most of the time but also gives our program a high ceiling as far as TV ratings and fan following if we get things going (e.g., Chicago responding super well to the Rose Bowl season).
With that said (and again acknowledging that I cannot speak to the south side), I have always found the Notre Dame presence in Chicago incredibly exaggerated. Sure, they have a lot of fans (probably fourth most prevalent up here in the Roscoe Village area after Illinois, Michigan and likely Iowa), but they are FAR from some type of "home team" in the broader Chicago Area, and there are easily more Illini fans overall, even if they're quieter. The Tribune actually just recently did a poll of all of its readers, and Illinois had 30% support, with Notre Dame at like 19%.
EDIT: However, yes, if we are talking about our sway with Chicagoland high school football talent ... we have been punching WAY below our weight for far too long.
And while the lay Chicagoan can definitely be a jersey chaser, generally I find Chicagoans to be extremely loyal sports fans who love and support all things Chicago. If they weren't, the Cubs, Bears, Blackhawks, and Bulls wouldn't have had the following they've had through much of their existence. And yes even for those major teams branded with the city (maybe we start selling Chicago Fightin Illini jerseys to fund NIL, lol...), there have been attendance lulls. But even those who have given up and "know better" come back.
And for all the dark times we've had with Illini football and what can seem like lack of support in Chicago, I look at the 2010s for the Blackhawks and the millions upon millions of people crawling out of the woodwork to support them, despite it being over a decade since Dollar Bill completely disenfranchised them and booted them out the door. The fans are there for us, the support is there for us, but it's hiding, deep in their shelters, because Chicagoans know better than to go out in a blizzard. We just need the sun to come out for a while...
I think this year, with the schedule 9-3 is possible, assuming all stay healthy, and players progress during off-season. Though that is kind of an “all goes right” scenario. More realistic on the high end is 7-5 or 6-6 probably.
I really do think the illini can pull one off at home against Michigan…. I’ll put money (not a lot) on that being the upset game this year.
I really do think the illini can pull one off at home against Michigan…. I’ll put money (not a lot) on that being the upset game this year.
Finally catching up with this thread, but it seems like while the NIL 1yr splash we supposedly have is a really nice jump for us, it just might not even be all that competitive compared to the leaps others are making. I was excited too based on that NIL news, but sadly, it just doesn't seem like it may be enough. And if that's the case, I'm not sure what we can even do other than to somehow start stringing together winning seasons despite the talent gap and hope that translates to much higher NIL donations. It's a predicament for sure.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
But is it "not enough" compared to Penn State or even Iowa? Fine, understandable, etc., and we will have to win to get the fans to buy in. However, we should have more NIL than the likes of Rutgers or Purdue or Maryland ... and we are not acting like we do. People always talk about how basketball is so different, but having high NIL in one sport (Illinois reportedly has the most basketball NIL in the Big Ten and top ten nationally...) at least speaks to a hypothetical proportional fan interest. With our lack of recent/historical success, it's reasonable to be behind the 8-ball compared to schools like Wisconsin ... but not schools like Minnesota.
Still roster building to be had, but to get there, we'd need giant leaps from our line and our offense as a whole. We'd also probably need Luke to be a top 5 QB in the B10 which is really asking a lot. Reason I say that is with a weakness at DT, getting pressure on the QB and holding the line might be limited, and combined with our holes in the secondary, if we can't get pressure, we will have significant coverage issues.
Overall, as of right now, we should be a worse team this year on paper with the talent we're losing. As well, our schedule is tougher this year, and much of the competition in the B10 appear to be improving. It's going to be tough.
2 EIU and CMU should be straightforward wins
1 tossup(?)/slight dog win vMinn and vMSU seems reasonable
1 slightish dog win in the road @Rut/@NW is a decent goal
1 small to decent dog wins @Neb, vPur, @PSU, vMich, vKansas is reasonable.
Maybe we get a few lucky breaks and we pick up a 6th or even 7th win, but think it'd be very difficult to get anything more than that. I think making a bowl game should be our goal this season, with 5-7 being a 50th percentile season. I can see 7-5 as our high end, 2-10 as our rock bottom if everything goes wrong
Just sayin, illinois football’s nil should have a multi year fundraising plan, possibly in lieu of facility improvements, get an initial amount of say $50mm and manage it like an investment fund and pay out from the interest/returns. Would at least alleviate pressure to come up with enough coin every year.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
This pretty much sums it up. If we can fill the United Center - a direct result of our historical success in basketball - we can fill Soldier Field or some equivalent with success in football. People can say how many more fans are needed to fill a football stadium, but it's still all proportional. Consider our average attendance last year compared to the capacity of Memorial Stadium and Soldier Field, and then compare that to our consistently good crowds at the United Center.
BASKETBALL: Capacity of 15,544. Average attendance of 14,991 in 2023-24. Average was 96% of capacity.
FOOTBALL: Stadium capacity of 60,670. Average attendance of 49,698 in 2023. Average was 82% of capacity.
So even at our current level and as a lower capacity of the stadium, our football games draw almost 3.5 times as many spectators as our basketball games. It's not completely apples to apples, but compare our historical attendance at the United Center as a percentage of our capacity in Champaign...
BASKETBALL IN CHICAGO
- Average of 15,295 (98%)
- Average when Illini are ranked of 17,272 (111%)
- Average when both teams are ranked of 19,581 (126%)
Again, not apples to apples ... but if you applied those same percentages for Memorial Stadium to Soldier Field, an even semi-healthy Illini football team playing there would draw a great crowd.
Hell, in the depths of the Beckman Era in a 2013 season where we averaged 43,924 per game in Champaign, we drew 47,312 at Soldier Field - 77% of the stadium's capacity and 108% of our average for the season at home. The fans are there, and we are just tapping the surface.
Yeah, I don't know. Let's say we are getting more NIL than say Rutgers, Purdue, or Maryland this year. In that case, logically it could be possible we're just not using it as efficiently like a Juwan type issue, or that their recruiting pitch for some reason is stronger as it's not like they've been all that successful either. Money solves a lot of issues though in this new landscape, so if we're following the KISS approach, the simplest solution I can think of is maybe we just really don't have enough NIL to compete, even with the increase.
Not my recollection from the threads here...think at least Indiana is ahead of us in the B1G and more likely top 20 than top 10, but any insider feel free to correct me.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
I recall one poster saying that Indiana was #1 and we were #2, and then there was another that said we were at the top. However, I believe I have seen multiple times that we were top 10 or very close nationally. And that wouldn't surprise me ... I would not be shocked to see anywhere from #8 to #15 or so, but I definitely think we are top 15. There just aren't that many larger fan bases with deeper pockets and more passion for basketball than us past the obvious 5-6.
I attended the Timothy Leary talk at the assembly hall in about '68 or '69 where he counseled us to "tune in, turn on, and drop out."
I'm sure glad I didn't follow his advice then or ever!
I hope you're right and let's get bringing in our targets with those bucks!!!
MoCoMdIllini
- Montgomery County, Maryland
I was at that event, too. I want to say it was in Lincoln Hall. I remember Leary talking about a device that would let individuals "talk back" with respect to the news and such.
I guess I have such a thing in my hands as I "type" this.
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Looking at the schedule, I'm going with 7-5 for next year. We go 2-1 in non conference games and are 3-5 going into the home stretch, with the seat starting to get warm for BB. We turn on the jets in November, winning our last 4 and creating a lot of momentum going into 2025
Don’t forget Ca’lil Valentine doesn’t enroll until summer. He could be in play as a smaller speed back this year. BB will run freshmen backs out there.
I miss the quad.I'm betting many here have no clue as to what you're referring to
Why in the world would Maryland take on The Chemical Warfare Service?
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