Illini Football 2025
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It will be interesting to see where we start in the polls this season and also the BT writers.
i’m thinking top 20 nationally , and 5th or 6th in the B1G .
We should be top 15 - we’ll be better than this year
mhuml32
Gesture of Northern Aggression
That game was an important turning point for Illinois football. Every time I hear the discussions on here and elsewhere, I want to force the "keep Zook" folks to re-watch this game. Hands down the most frustrating game of Illinois football this century. There's a big difference between being talent inept (2003-2005) and what culminated in that game.
I firmly believe the Beckman era was so bad in so many ways that it created a lot of justifiable "Zook wasn't this bad" takes, but people reflected on his overall coaching record without understanding the context of his end-tenure, and created a narrative that what Zook was building in 2005-2008 was still happening in 2009-2011. Illinois leadership rightly learned that giving Turner the extra year at the end his coaching tenure was a mistake that wasn't worth repeating, but now fans point to that lack of reality as justification for a poor mistake.
The mistake was hiring Beckman, not firing Zook.
mhuml32
Gesture of Northern Aggression
Agreed. I'm already growing a chip on my shoulder assuming that Illinois will not be ranked as high in next season's pre-season poll as they should be.
foby
- Bonnaroo Land
DeonThomas
- South Carolina
MOST RESPECTFULLY:
I believe LT has ~80 years of intimate Illini fandem, and essentially no one on the planet has more historical knowledge. I'll stack his experience, local sports knowledge, historical Illini perspective and "homer" writing skills up against anyone.
Totally respect and love the guy to death!
I tend to always give him the benefit of the doubt --- especially given his bruised fandem after following this "losing" football program for over eight decades. Yeah, he's a little bit sour at times, but who wouldn't be after all these years. (NOTE: I almost started this comment with "Four score and seven years ago.....")
DeonThomas
- South Carolina
Bleacher Report just put us #20 in their Way Too Early 2025 projected rankings. That's #5 in the Big10, with Michigan replacing Indiana ahead of us ----- and OSU, OREG and PSU keeping their spots in the Top 10 at #2, #3 and #4, respectively. Texas and Arch Manning projected at #1.
I think we’re going to miss Bryant & Franklin more than we think.
I’ll go 9-3 again.
I’ll go 9-3 again.
Ceiling: 10-2
Floor: 7-5
Floor: 7-5
Yeah. What happened to the Danish Destroyer?
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
^ That is awesome. What's even more awesome is that Bret started off 1-4 in Big Ten play in his first year, and since then he is 27-18.
skyIdub
"I can't tell you. Secret."
It won't the Loyalty uniform debates, but I would just like to emphasize orange = win, blue = loss.
MOAR ORANGE!!
38 games under .500 beckman through lovie. now at 32 under through bielema. we could go 3 games over for the next 10 years and still be under .500. this century as a whole really messed up our all-time record; a miracle we're still over .500 there. by only 20 games. imagine if we we could've just achieved regular mediocrity since 2001.
I like the 9-3 part.
They will be missed, but I think guys in the WR room are ready to step up. Beatty in particular. Remember it took Bryant 4 years to get to where he was this past season. Bowl game showed that they can step up and they have a big win without 2024’s WR1 already. That should give them some confidence and swagger all off-season.
Kid from WVU is a nice add too. I’d be thrilled if we had someone replicate what Pat did for us this year but I think that’s a little far fetched. Kid is going to be a great NFL receiver and we were beyond lucky to have him as long as we did.
mhuml32
Gesture of Northern Aggression
WR group is very likely to be worse in 2025 than 2024. But that's what happens in CFB after you lose players as good as Bryant and Franklin. Altmyer and the offensive line should be better, which should give the WR "better" opportunities to mask some of those deficiencies. Also, the '25 Illinois team should be asking less from the WR group than the '24 version. Altmyer, o-line, rushing game, return of Rusk, can handle a more prominent role.
Hoping this post is cathartic for me, these thoughts have been bouncing around my head for a while. In no certain order:
1) Never would I have thought the NIL era of college football would have been this good to the ILL. When I first caught wind of it my first thought was that we would be a warm up school that the more established teams picked our best or developed players from. I marvel at what it has done to our football fortunes.
2) I think the WR room will be every bit as good as this year. I think that room will see a lot of movement after spring and the a few entering the portal.
3) As far as I can see we have never had back to back years with double digit wins (Link). 2025 might be the first.
4) If BB does that and a few more like it over the next, say, 5 years, is he our best coach ever?
5) As bad as we have been recently the history of our program is above .500 @ 505%. We are 92nd all time winningest program will a minimum of 100 games played. That's 92 out of 135 (Link).
6) I did not know that money received from a bowl game by big 10 teams is given to the conference and not the program.
7) I wonder which coordinator will move first OC or DC. Does Luney want his own program? Does Art take over or move on?
1) Never would I have thought the NIL era of college football would have been this good to the ILL. When I first caught wind of it my first thought was that we would be a warm up school that the more established teams picked our best or developed players from. I marvel at what it has done to our football fortunes.
2) I think the WR room will be every bit as good as this year. I think that room will see a lot of movement after spring and the a few entering the portal.
3) As far as I can see we have never had back to back years with double digit wins (Link). 2025 might be the first.
4) If BB does that and a few more like it over the next, say, 5 years, is he our best coach ever?
5) As bad as we have been recently the history of our program is above .500 @ 505%. We are 92nd all time winningest program will a minimum of 100 games played. That's 92 out of 135 (Link).
6) I did not know that money received from a bowl game by big 10 teams is given to the conference and not the program.
7) I wonder which coordinator will move first OC or DC. Does Luney want his own program? Does Art take over or move on?
Bret, just keeping the Illini relevant in a positive way. Getting the info out that needs to be out there.
A good football coach and a good salesman.
post season winnings in all sports go into a pot and get shared equally with each other with the B1G conference itself also getting a share. at least that is how it was done in the 1980’s .
with regards to expenses incurred re going to bowls , schools are given an allowance for that . but I do not believe it covers the band .
not sure that all conferences do this . I would think many don’t
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