Illini Football 2024

Tre11 said:

When Brooks first transferred Werner had an interview with a Texas sports writer and the Texas guy said Brooks was amazing when in man coverage, but struggled with zone concepts. So that is shocking to hear he is considered better at zone here.

Click to expand...

derrick6 said:

You mean on a team that gave up 430 passing yards to UW and ranked middle of the pack or worse in passing defense?

It’s all relative, imo.

Click to expand...

Fighter of the Nightman said:

59,488 for Purdue vs. Indiana State

Purdue: 96.8%

Click to expand...

Tre11 said:

When Brooks first transferred Werner had an interview with a Texas sports writer and the Texas guy said Brooks was amazing when in man coverage, but struggled with zone concepts. So that is shocking to hear he is considered better at zone here.

Click to expand...

SoCal Illini said:

If you’re a corner, you shouldn’t be considered ‘zone’ or ‘man’ corner. First time I’ve heard of there being a distinction, seems silly.

I saw this happen with a guy who was from a powerhouse hs team and was a top recruit now at sc. the problem is coaching. Basically all they said was there’s your guy, guard him. No understanding of basic defensive schemes. My guess is that’s what happened here. I won’t go into why I think that lack of coaching/player understanding seems to exist now.

Click to expand...

Virtue4 said:

Best guesses on when the Michigan game start time will be announced?

Click to expand...

SoCal Illini said:

If you’re a corner, you shouldn’t be considered ‘zone’ or ‘man’ corner. First time I’ve heard of there being a distinction, seems silly.

I saw this happen with a guy who was from a powerhouse hs team and was a top recruit now at sc. the problem is coaching. Basically all they said was there’s your guy, guard him. No understanding of basic defensive schemes. My guess is that’s what happened here. I won’t go into why I think that lack of coaching/player understanding seems to exist now.

Click to expand...

therealmiket86 said:

Are you serious?

Click to expand...

Illini2010-11 said:

Likewise for CBS Power Rankings.

College Football Power Rankings: Tennessee, Miami surge into top five after top teams struggle in Week 2

A chaotic Saturday caused some shuffling in this week's Power Rankings

www.cbssports.com

Click to expand...

gary? said:

i have a very hard time believing these numbers. there isn't fancy accounting going on here? like going to sox park and they announce 24,000 people but you'd need an aldis lamp to communicate to the next closest group of people

Click to expand...

Virtue4 said:

Best guesses on when the Michigan game start time will be announced?

Click to expand...

Fighter of the Nightman said:

Unfortunately, the only information that is really ever available is tickets sold. I remember seeing once that during our last 60,670 sellout vs. North Carolina in 2016, something like 49,000 actual tickets were scanned ... meaning almost 20% of tickets went unused. On the flip side, I find THAT hard to believe, too. It certainly did not look like there were 11,000 actual empty seats on Saturday, haha. However, yes ... for the more lowly attended games - especially if there is bad weather - you can take a serious hatchet to the announced attendance. I feel like there are Northwestern games in years where we have sucked that announced attendance around 40,000 but had fewer than 10,000 souls actually out there braving the cold, lol.


FWIW, guessing TV became a bit simpler this year with there being zero possibility of a Big Ten game being on any of the ESPN channels. These are all of the available TV slots for any Big Ten games that weekend, with slots that are no longer a possibility in red below, excluding BTN and FS1. I am going to go ahead and somewhat confidently guess that Michigan at Illinois will not be on BTN, FS1 or Peacock *knock on wood*. Unless we literally go winless until then, our win vs. KU has given us some real respectability, and Illinois draws well in good time slots. Additionally, unless Michigan just faceplants, they are still a top 25 team and a massive draw. So, I see these as the "good" options we will be fighting for:

FRIDAY 10/18
7:00 pm on FOX - Oregon at Purdue

SATURDAY 10/19
11:00 am on FOX

2:30 pm on CBS
2:30 pm on NBC
2:30 pm on FOX

6:30 pm on NBC
7:00 pm on FOX

So, that leaves these six Big Ten games unscheduled as of now, using current top 25 rankings as a basic indicator of how "exciting" the game might be. I think we can honestly assume - even if ONLY because of Michigan, not even considering our strong start and decent viewer numbers ourselves or the special circumstances of the game - that we would be above everyone but maybe Iowa/MSU in the pecking order, depending on what both of those two teams do between now and then. I would guess a pecking order something like this:

BIG TEN GAMES - SATURDAY 10/19
#17 Michigan at #26 Illinois
#32 Iowa at Michigan State - Two teams that get good ratings. However, neither comes close to what Michigan gets, and Illinois does not pull in significantly less than either in a good window.
#11 USC at Maryland - USC draws well, but Maryland gets shockingly bad ratings.
#37 Wisconsin at Northwestern - Wisconsin is a decent draw, but NU is easily the weakest link in the conference. Maybe some channel will like the novelty of broadcasting from that tiny makeshift stadium, though? Lol.
#23 Nebraska at Indiana - Nebraska fans tune in no matter what, but they probably wouldn't make up for the lack of Indiana viewers like an OSU might.
UCLA at Rutgers - UCLA gets decent ratings, but they're down this year. RU usually draws very poorly unless they're having a great year.

Thankfully for us, #3 Ohio State, #8 Penn State, #31 Washington and Minnesota have byes that week. The following Big XII games featuring top 25 opponents are potential competitors for FOX or FS1 slots. Notre Dame plays Georgia Tech at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta (officially a neutral site game), but it was originally GT's home game, so TV rights go to ESPN (i.e., leaving NBC and Peacock slots open). Again, roughly in order of how quickly I think they'd get nabbed up:

BIG XII GAMES - SATURDAY 10/19
Colorado at #20 Arizona - FOX is obsessed with Coach Prime, and it's against a top 25 team, lol. Plus, being 2 hours behind CST allows this to fill a different time slot.
TCU at #12 Utah - I don't know much of what to think about this one.
#14 Kansas State at West Virginia - Not a huge population tuning in for either but a decent matchup.
UCF at #21 Iowa State - Can't see this one drawing too well ... likely relegated to some ESPNU-type channel.

It's also worth noting that FOX or FS1 has TV rights to the NLCS for baseball, which will be right around this time ... they say the tentative schedule has only the ALCS on Saturday 10/19, but again, it's tentative ... I will assume prime time on FOX is available, though.

Unfortunately, we are missing some CRUCIAL information that might help. I read online that the Big Ten TV partners have a draft where they select weeks where they get the first pick. However, only certain details are available right now. For example, FOX got the first three picks due to owning a majority, but they did this with them:

1. November 30 Ohio State/Michigan game
2. September 7 Michigan/Texas game
3. Traded their third pick to NBC for a higher pick in the lower "rounds" or whatever. NBC then picked the October 12 Ohio State/Oregon game.

If we could just know which network got first pick for the October 19 weekend, we'd have a way better idea of where we might end up. For example, FOX is the only one with an 11:00 am window. If FOX has third pick, I'd put my money on the Illini at 2:30 pm or later. The best I can think to do is look at the Big Ten games/teams we already know for these networks so far this year. I'm excluding Friday night games, as I THINK those are separate from this aforementioned draft?

FOX
8/31 - Penn State (Big Noon Kickoff)
8/31 - Nebraska
9/7 - Michigan (Big Noon Kickoff)
9/14 - Wisconsin (Big Noon Kickoff)
9/14 - Oregon
9/21 - Ohio State (Big Noon Kickoff)
11/30 - Michigan vs. Ohio State (Big Noon Kickoff)

CBS
8/31 - Ohio State
8/31 - UCLA
9/7 - Iowa
9/14 - Purdue
9/21 - Michigan vs. USC
11/29 - Wisconsin vs. Minnesota

NBC
8/31 - Michigan
9/7 - Nebraska
9/14 - UCLA
9/14 - Indiana
9/21 - Iowa vs. Minnesota
10/12 - Ohio State vs. Oregon
11/29 - Nebraska vs. Iowa

I'm not going to go TOO far down this rabbit hole either, but every Big Ten team apparently has to play on BTN a minimum of twice per year. However, like I said, I don't see that affecting Illinois/Michigan. So, after a ton of unhelpful rambling, I do think there are two important things to remember:

1. If you agree with me that the Illinois/Michigan game is rather appealing compared to what else is available that week, it's all going to come down to which network picked this weekend for its "first dibs" week. I would assume this week was pretty far down the pecking order of weeks to select given the teams that are off, so who knows ... maybe it's that week that FOX traded its third pick for to rectify their Big Noon Kickoff spur from last year??

2. NBC HAS to scoop up a 2:30 pm and 6:30 pm game from that list of Big Ten games since they won't have Notre Dame that week. Additionally, CBS has to pick up a Big Ten game at 2:30 pm. This is quite different from FOX, which could have rights to some of those Big XII games (I'm not sure how their TV rights intersect with ESPN for that...?).

TL;DR

So, if we really want to simplify this and take for granted my assertion that this game will not be on BTN or FS1, these are the available options in a simplified format:

- 1 slot at 11:00 am (FOX)
- 3 slots at 2:30 pm (FOX, CBS or NBC)
- 2 slots at 7:00 pm (FOX or NBC)

Thus, it might initially look like there is a 80%+ chance that our game is at 2:30 pm or later. However, it's important to remember that an 11:00 am game is pretty much a no-go for any games in MST or farther west (e.g., Colorado/Arizona). So, I would guess there is a disproportionately higher chance that we could get that Big Noon Kickoff 11:00 am slot.

Michigan's first 4 games are NBC, FOX, BTN and CBS. Their next two before Illinois are Minnesota and Washington. I will guess that FOX suspects they'll be heading to Ann Arbor on either 10/26 vs. Michigan State or 11/2 vs. Oregon and thus skips Champaign to not cover Michigan 3 weeks in a row? So, my final guess...

2:30 pm CBS
or
6:30 pm on NBC

Click to expand...

SoCal Illini said:

I won’t go into why I think that lack of coaching/player understanding seems to exist now.

Click to expand...

Tre11 said:

When Brooks first transferred Werner had an interview with a Texas sports writer and the Texas guy said Brooks was amazing when in man coverage, but struggled with zone concepts. So that is shocking to hear he is considered better at zone here.

Click to expand...

Fighter of the Nightman said:

Unfortunately, the only information that is really ever available is tickets sold. I remember seeing once that during our last 60,670 sellout vs. North Carolina in 2016, something like 49,000 actual tickets were scanned ... meaning almost 20% of tickets went unused. On the flip side, I find THAT hard to believe, too. It certainly did not look like there were 11,000 actual empty seats on Saturday, haha. However, yes ... for the more lowly attended games - especially if there is bad weather - you can take a serious hatchet to the announced attendance. I feel like there are Northwestern games in years where we have sucked that announced attendance around 40,000 but had fewer than 10,000 souls actually out there braving the cold, lol.


FWIW, guessing TV became a bit simpler this year with there being zero possibility of a Big Ten game being on any of the ESPN channels. These are all of the available TV slots for any Big Ten games that weekend, with slots that are no longer a possibility in red below, excluding BTN and FS1. I am going to go ahead and somewhat confidently guess that Michigan at Illinois will not be on BTN, FS1 or Peacock *knock on wood*. Unless we literally go winless until then, our win vs. KU has given us some real respectability, and Illinois draws well in good time slots. Additionally, unless Michigan just faceplants, they are still a top 25 team and a massive draw. So, I see these as the "good" options we will be fighting for:

FRIDAY 10/18
7:00 pm on FOX - Oregon at Purdue

SATURDAY 10/19
11:00 am on FOX

2:30 pm on CBS
2:30 pm on NBC
2:30 pm on FOX

6:30 pm on NBC
7:00 pm on FOX

So, that leaves these six Big Ten games unscheduled as of now, using current top 25 rankings as a basic indicator of how "exciting" the game might be. I think we can honestly assume - even if ONLY because of Michigan, not even considering our strong start and decent viewer numbers ourselves or the special circumstances of the game - that we would be above everyone but maybe Iowa/MSU in the pecking order, depending on what both of those two teams do between now and then. I would guess a pecking order something like this:

BIG TEN GAMES - SATURDAY 10/19
#17 Michigan at #26 Illinois
#32 Iowa at Michigan State - Two teams that get good ratings. However, neither comes close to what Michigan gets, and Illinois does not pull in significantly less than either in a good window.
#11 USC at Maryland - USC draws well, but Maryland gets shockingly bad ratings.
#37 Wisconsin at Northwestern - Wisconsin is a decent draw, but NU is easily the weakest link in the conference. Maybe some channel will like the novelty of broadcasting from that tiny makeshift stadium, though? Lol.
#23 Nebraska at Indiana - Nebraska fans tune in no matter what, but they probably wouldn't make up for the lack of Indiana viewers like an OSU might.
UCLA at Rutgers - UCLA gets decent ratings, but they're down this year. RU usually draws very poorly unless they're having a great year.

Thankfully for us, #3 Ohio State, #8 Penn State, #31 Washington and Minnesota have byes that week. The following Big XII games featuring top 25 opponents are potential competitors for FOX or FS1 slots. Notre Dame plays Georgia Tech at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta (officially a neutral site game), but it was originally GT's home game, so TV rights go to ESPN (i.e., leaving NBC and Peacock slots open). Again, roughly in order of how quickly I think they'd get nabbed up:

BIG XII GAMES - SATURDAY 10/19
Colorado at #20 Arizona - FOX is obsessed with Coach Prime, and it's against a top 25 team, lol. Plus, being 2 hours behind CST allows this to fill a different time slot.
TCU at #12 Utah - I don't know much of what to think about this one.
#14 Kansas State at West Virginia - Not a huge population tuning in for either but a decent matchup.
UCF at #21 Iowa State - Can't see this one drawing too well ... likely relegated to some ESPNU-type channel.

It's also worth noting that FOX or FS1 has TV rights to the NLCS for baseball, which will be right around this time ... they say the tentative schedule has only the ALCS on Saturday 10/19, but again, it's tentative ... I will assume prime time on FOX is available, though.

Unfortunately, we are missing some CRUCIAL information that might help. I read online that the Big Ten TV partners have a draft where they select weeks where they get the first pick. However, only certain details are available right now. For example, FOX got the first three picks due to owning a majority, but they did this with them:

1. November 30 Ohio State/Michigan game
2. September 7 Michigan/Texas game
3. Traded their third pick to NBC for a higher pick in the lower "rounds" or whatever. NBC then picked the October 12 Ohio State/Oregon game.

If we could just know which network got first pick for the October 19 weekend, we'd have a way better idea of where we might end up. For example, FOX is the only one with an 11:00 am window. If FOX has third pick, I'd put my money on the Illini at 2:30 pm or later. The best I can think to do is look at the Big Ten games/teams we already know for these networks so far this year. I'm excluding Friday night games, as I THINK those are separate from this aforementioned draft?

FOX
8/31 - Penn State (Big Noon Kickoff)
8/31 - Nebraska
9/7 - Michigan (Big Noon Kickoff)
9/14 - Wisconsin (Big Noon Kickoff)
9/14 - Oregon
9/21 - Ohio State (Big Noon Kickoff)
11/30 - Michigan vs. Ohio State (Big Noon Kickoff)

CBS
8/31 - Ohio State
8/31 - UCLA
9/7 - Iowa
9/14 - Purdue
9/21 - Michigan vs. USC
11/29 - Wisconsin vs. Minnesota

NBC
8/31 - Michigan
9/7 - Nebraska
9/14 - UCLA
9/14 - Indiana
9/21 - Iowa vs. Minnesota
10/12 - Ohio State vs. Oregon
11/29 - Nebraska vs. Iowa

I'm not going to go TOO far down this rabbit hole either, but every Big Ten team apparently has to play on BTN a minimum of twice per year. However, like I said, I don't see that affecting Illinois/Michigan. So, after a ton of unhelpful rambling, I do think there are two important things to remember:

1. If you agree with me that the Illinois/Michigan game is rather appealing compared to what else is available that week, it's all going to come down to which network picked this weekend for its "first dibs" week. I would assume this week was pretty far down the pecking order of weeks to select given the teams that are off, so who knows ... maybe it's that week that FOX traded its third pick for to rectify their Big Noon Kickoff spur from last year??

2. NBC HAS to scoop up a 2:30 pm and 6:30 pm game from that list of Big Ten games since they won't have Notre Dame that week. Additionally, CBS has to pick up a Big Ten game at 2:30 pm. This is quite different from FOX, which could have rights to some of those Big XII games (I'm not sure how their TV rights intersect with ESPN for that...?).

TL;DR

So, if we really want to simplify this and take for granted my assertion that this game will not be on BTN or FS1, these are the available options in a simplified format:

- 1 slot at 11:00 am (FOX)
- 3 slots at 2:30 pm (FOX, CBS or NBC)
- 2 slots at 7:00 pm (FOX or NBC)

Thus, it might initially look like there is a 80%+ chance that our game is at 2:30 pm or later. However, it's important to remember that an 11:00 am game is pretty much a no-go for any games in MST or farther west (e.g., Colorado/Arizona). So, I would guess there is a disproportionately higher chance that we could get that Big Noon Kickoff 11:00 am slot.

Michigan's first 4 games are NBC, FOX, BTN and CBS. Their next two before Illinois are Minnesota and Washington. I will guess that FOX suspects they'll be heading to Ann Arbor on either 10/26 vs. Michigan State or 11/2 vs. Oregon and thus skips Champaign to not cover Michigan 3 weeks in a row? So, my final guess...

2:30 pm CBS
or
6:30 pm on NBC

Click to expand...

illini0440 said:

Lol. what smoke is being blown? If he was better in coverage than the other guys he'd be playing.

Click to expand...