Illini Football 2024

#28      

Thaillini22

Thaillini22
Thaillini22
SCillini said:
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.
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I could be wrong, but I find it hard to believe that 7-5 and a mid- to late-December bowl would have appreciably improved our prospects in recruiting over 5-7 and no bowl, particularly now that these youngsters are apparently looking for money short-term more than anything else.
 
#31      

Simeon Rice

S
Simeon Rice
Thaillini22 said:
I could be wrong, but I find it hard to believe that 7-5 and a mid- to late-December bowl would have appreciably improved our prospects in recruiting over 5-7 and no bowl, particularly now that these youngsters are apparently looking for money short-term more than anything else.
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It's about selling a vision about what the program will look like in 2-3 years when those students are a major part of the program. If the trend line is pointing up, the story is compelling. If you just pissed down your leg throughout the most forgiving schedule in years, it's a much more difficult vision to get momentum behind
 
#32      

Thaillini22

Thaillini22
Thaillini22
Simeon Rice said:
It's about selling a vision about what the program will look like in 2-3 years when those students are a major part of the program. If the trend line is pointing up, the story is compelling. If you just pissed down your leg throughout the most forgiving schedule in years, it's a much more difficult vision to get momentum behind
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I hear ya, but I'd rephrase it like this: I don't believe that 7-5 and a mid- to late-December bowl would have appreciably improved the story we could tell over 5-7 and no bowl, particularly now that these youngsters are apparently looking for money short-term more than anything else.
 
#33      

ChiefGritty

ChiefGritty
Chicago, IL
ChiefGritty
Thaillini22 said:
I could be wrong, but I find it hard to believe that 7-5 and a mid- to late-December bowl would have appreciably improved our prospects in recruiting over 5-7 and no bowl, particularly now that these youngsters are apparently looking for money short-term more than anything else.
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The people whose belief faltered with last year's team wasn't recruits, it was us.
 
#34      

mhuml32

mhuml32
Cincinnati, OH
mhuml32
ChiefGritty said:
Nope, this is the conclusion of the home and home, with the most hyped preseason Kansas team in a generation.

The next two years we have a home and home with rapidly improving Duke.
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high quality GIF


88th in returning production for this year. Best QB in program history just left. Best coach in the last 30 years just left. I'll need to see a lot this year to confirm Duke is on a different level than pre-Elko.
 
#36      

Username

U
Username
GIF by Paramount Movies


Any info on timeline? Last indications seemed to indicate 0440's profile pic was a done deal. Can anyone provide any additional info on what the hold up is and/or if that remains the case?
 
#37      

Old.Edgy

O
Old.Edgy
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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Do you know how many times your scenario has been brought forward in the last 70 years ? ? ? ? ... 'If (name a school with a recently better FB record) can do it, we can do it'.... We HAVEN'T DONE IT.... We've had 15 head coaches since Ray Eliot retired in 1959. Most schools have had 6 or 7.... We have only caught lightening in a bottle once a decade since 1959... With the exception of Mike White and John Mackovic, we have wasted millions and millions of dollars on coaches who can't recruit, or can't coach, or don't care about either... For the first time in nearly 3 decades we have a coach who gets it...
 
#38      

Old.Edgy

O
Old.Edgy
Epsilon said:
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.
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It's not fait accompli that we would get only 2 wins... But it's what our history shows ... it's what we have done before...
 
#39      

Epsilon

Epsilon
M tipping over
Pdx
Epsilon
Old.Edgy said:
It's not fait accompli that we would get only 2 wins... But it's what our history shows ... it's what we have done before...
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en.m.wikipedia.org

Structural break - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org en.m.wikipedia.org

We have an AD who gets it and NIL. These are big changes. Don’t yet know how the latter will play out in football, but these are different circumstances.
 
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#47      

Point-Illinois

P
Point-Illinois
Tre11 said:
No way. Unless some crazy scandal happens I would guess Bret has 2 or 3 more years to get us to another bowl game. I could see Aaron Henry being on the hot seat if the defense has another bad season.
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My thoughts as well. In his 2nd year he utilized a staff he put together and got the most out of a mixed bag roster and achieved the best season we’ve had in over 10 years.

Unless it becomes abundantly apparent BB can’t function in this NIL/transfer world, he’s probably gotten 2 extra years of faith added to his original promise of 4-5 years to turn this thing around.

That’d be 6-7 years total, and he’s completed 3.
 
#49      

illini80

illini80
Forgottonia
illini80
Illinivek23 said:
I think, if anything, we should be more concerned about BB finding other opportunities.
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That’s where I’m at. Everyone knows he can coach. If we are lacking the $$NIL resources and some who has the money to buy the players, (yes that’s what I meant to say), offers him a HC gig at the right school it would be hard to say no imo.