Illini Football 2024

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#1      

Dan

Dan
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Dan
Welcome to the Illinois Football 2024 & College Football news thread :illinois:


Schedule | Roster | Tickets


2024 Illini Football Schedule
DateOpponentTime/TV
Thu, Aug 29Eastern Illinois8:00pm BTN
Sat, Sept 7Kansas6:00pm FS1
Sat, Sept 14Central Michigan
(Homecoming)		11:00am Peacock
Fri, Sept 20@Nebraska7:00pm FOX
Sat, Sept 28@Penn State
Sat, Oct 12Purdue
Sat, Oct 19Michigan
Sat, Oct 26@Oregon
Sat, Nov 2Minnesota
Sat, Nov 16Michigan State
Sat, Nov 23@Rutgers
Sat, Nov 30Northwestern
(Wrigley Field)

All times CT
 
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#2      
Illini in Italy
Oh Yeah Yes GIF
 
#5      
fatt lacosse
at this point the game against kansas is still happening, right?

will that continue to be the case?
 
#8      
SoCal Illini
Epsilon said:
Because, Illinois.
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I believe liepold was thrown around this board after lovie. The knocks on him were his age for some reason and no power 5 experience, with apprehension to hiring another MAC coach. Does Kansas have more football nil? Is Lawrence a better town than Champaign? They had one of the worst stretches of football for over 10 years ever, of any team, before he got there.

Not saying things are terrible under bb, but it does beg the question of why they’re having more success than Illinois, and why not Illinois instead of a Kansas.
 
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#9      
JJE
I hate agreeing with Carpenter, but this upcoming football season might be ugly.

While Brett is the best coach we’ve had in my lifetime, what happens if he goes 4-8 or worse this year?

I’m glad I don’t have to make those decisions.
 
#12      
Tre11
SoCal Illini said:
Does Kansas have more football nil?
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I am just going to guess that Kansas has a decent amount more NIL just on the fact that they are doing a complete stadium renovation right now. Illinois fans have been asking for big upgrades to Memorial Stadium for a few years and there is still no word since the plans for the south endzone got scrapped in 2017.
 
#13      
FloridaMan
Genesis said:
If I had to guess at this point, I think we'll sit 2-1 before we lose 5 in a row and then split he last 4 games. Finish 4-8. Hope I'm wrong.
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Think (hope) we may be able to pull out the Purdue game, but otherwise agree with you. Either way 4 or 5 wins is not gonna get the job done. Need a bowl appearance at an absolute minimum, or we are looking at perennial bottom of the Big Ten status and the prospects of climbing out continue to get further and further out of the realm of possibility. Would love to be wrong, but it's looking rough.
 
#14      
redwingillini11
We need to cancel all our games with these "Power 5" opponents. We need to start each year 3-0 in non-con to have a chance at a decent (bowl eligible) season.
 
#15      
SoCal Illini
I said this on another thread, but basically it’s way too early for doom and gloom. I suppose it’s tempering expectations, b/c football has been a let down so often.

Big time recruits and future draft prospects do contribute to a team’s success, but to be a decent college team you need good college players, even though their playing days will likely be done once their eligibility runs out. A lot of other things contribute as well. Usc looked like a national title contender on paper last year. Let’s see how players develop and fit into their roles. Maybe we’ll see a few surprises. I still have Michigan penciled in as a W.
 
#17      
Epsilon
JJE said:
I hate agreeing with Carpenter, but this upcoming football season might be ugly.

While Brett is the best coach we’ve had in my lifetime, what happens if he goes 4-8 or worse this year?

I’m glad I don’t have to make those decisions.
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I’m not ashamed to admit that when it comes to football I am a bit of a fair weather fan - and I’ve mostly checked out when it comes to Illinois football. If we have a season of 4-8 or worse I don’t think it’s a difficult decision to start a new coaching search. Go 5-7 the seat is hot but it probably depends how the season unfolded and if we somehow were able to turn around our recruiting woes.
 
#18      
lstewart53x3
Epsilon said:
I’m not ashamed to admit that when it comes to football I am a bit of a fair weather fan - and I’ve mostly checked out when it comes to Illinois football. If we have a season of 4-8 or worse I don’t think it’s a difficult decision to start a new coaching search. Go 5-7 the seat is hot but it probably depends how the season unfolded and if we somehow were able to turn around our recruiting woes.
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Fire Bret & we’re more likely to win 2 conference games per year than 6.

(We averaged 2 conference wins/yr in the 18 years before Bret was hired).
 
#19      
GrayGhost77
I think we can expect to take a slight step back this year, but then Bret should get another year to show that he is building something. If we go something like 4-8 this year but then go 6-6 the year following and get to a bowl game, I think that would show enough to keep this thing rolling with Bret longer. If we go 4-8 this year and then go 4-8 again next year or worse, then it will be time to reevaluate whether this is working.
 
#20      
Epsilon
lstewart53x3 said:
Fire Bret & we’re more likely to win 2 conference games per year than 6.

(We averaged 2 conference wins/yr in the 18 years before Bret was hired).
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I don’t believe that narrative. If Kansas can pull it off so can we. We should have more resources for football than Kansas. Any idea where we sit for NIL in football? I saw someone call it into question somewhere but without any actual facts to support their assertion that we were possibly behind on that for football. That would be the only reason for me to doubt our upside.
 
#21      
RoundBalcs
It's probably way too early for predictions, but I'll toss some rambling nonsense out there.

I'll assume these as W/Ls:
2 wins - Eastern Illinois and Central Michigan
4 losses - Kansas, Penn st., Oregon, and Michigan

The remaining games vs. Nebraska, Purdue, Minnesota, MSU, Rutgers, and Northwestern almost feel like coin flips. Admittedly, I've not paid close attention to any transfer portal activity outside of our own and have no idea what realistic expectations are for these 6 teams. There's probably a chance we win 4 of these, but going 3-3 or 2-4 seems very possible.
 
#22      
SCillini
A lot of doom and gloom here for sure. We blew a major opportunity last year when the schedule was setup for us to win 7-8 games.
That most definitely hurt recruiting.

However, looking at this schedule, I don’t know why everyone is certain of a loss at home to Kansas. Their skill players are great, but they’re online, while experienced by years, has some new starters. Defensively, their strength is their secondary with their Dline strong, but having some turnover.

Michigan is probably a loss, but that’s going to be an electric environment and if there was ever a good year(recent) to beat Michigan, this is the year.

We win one of the two vs KU and UM.(If both, 8 win season)

We beat Purdue, Minn, and MSU at home

We split Rutgers and NU.

Only definite losses IMO are Oregon and Penn St.

That’s 7-5 in a good, not even great, scenario.
 
#23      
lstewart53x3
Epsilon said:
I don’t believe that narrative. If Kansas can pull it off so can we. We should have more resources for football than Kansas. Any idea where we sit for NIL in football? I saw someone call it into question somewhere but without any actual facts to support their assertion that we were possibly behind on that for football. That would be the only reason for me to doubt our upside.
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Since 1991 -

We’ve won 6 or more B1G games 2x.
We’ve lost 6 or more B1G games 18x.
In that time, we’ve fired 6 straight coaches.

Yes, if we fire Bret, we are MUCH more likely to have our next coach win 2 B1G games than 6. That’s a fact.

That doesn’t mean we’re doomed forever, but I believe Bret gives this program the best chance to become a consistent winner out of any coach we’ve had in the past 30 yrs.
 
#24      
Epsilon
lstewart53x3 said:
Since 1991 -

We’ve won 6 or more B1G games 2x.
We’ve lost 6 or more B1G games 18x.
In that time, we’ve fired 6 straight coaches.

Yes, if we fire Bret, we are MUCH more likely to have our next coach win 2 B1G games than 6. That’s a fact.

That doesn’t mean we’re doomed forever, but I believe Bret gives this program the best chance to become a consistent winner out of any coach we’ve had in the past 30 yrs.
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And who have our ADs been in that time period? Guenther? Thomas? We have so much more support now than ever - and competence, from the Athletic Department (and board).

Also, I’m not yet in the fire Bielema camp. But I’m annoyed we didn’t see better results last year and we seem to be struggling with getting and keeping talent.

It’s not fait accompli that we would only get two wins. It’s okay to demand more. And with NIL and our resources (unless someone can correct me in that) - we should demand more.
 
#25      
Epsilon
Any idea if this is legit?

P5 NIL Team Rankings + G5 notables

P5 NIL Team Rankings (from on3): 1 - Texas $19.9 mil 2 - Alabama $16 mil 3 - tOSU 13.6 mil 4 - USC 13.5 mil 5 - Georgia 13.4 mil 6 - Colorado 12.3 mil 7 - Michigan 11.6 mil 8 - Oregon 11.6 mil 9 - Tennessee 11.6 mil 10 - Florida State 10.2 mil 11 - LSU 10.1 mil 12 - Penn State 9.9 mil 13 -...
gopherhole.com gopherhole.com

Separate list for all NIL (collective) by B1G team.

NCAA Revenue Sharing & NIL Collectives – Big Ten Schools – NCAA Revenue Sharing & NIL Estimates 2025

nil-ncaa.com nil-ncaa.com

Edit: look at some of the notes in the bottom of the second link. I may have to restate my position if this is true. tOSU has to get $13m per year just to maintain their roster…? And we gave out $1.5?
 
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