Illini Football 2025
- Status
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Okay, I'll bite ... let's keep it 1980s and on, as things were even more fundamentally different before that. I would grant that, from my limited knowledge, we were indeed "built to compete" to this level at various points in the 1980s. However, I would defer to someone who was a fan during those years for some better perspective. We also seem to have been in a really good spot overall by 1990, but wasn't there WAY more concern about Mackovic leaving than anyone currently has about Bret doing the same? Mackovic did in fact leave just one year later, and obviously that was the beginning of an almost unimaginable decline. As for 2001 ... I guess I was really young and barely remember it, but there was a pretty firm sentiment by that point that we were a "basketball school," and I recall fans were really concerned about Turner's recruiting.
I think it is entirely fair for fans to feel like there is something uniquely "stable" about this current excitement under Bielema. He already left for allegedly greener pastures once, and by all accounts it served as a slice of humble pie that caused him to mature and grow as a person and coach. Josh took a chance on him and has shown him 100% support through his years here. BB grew up an Illini fan and is at an age where stability and building his OWN legacy from scratch at a place like Illinois seem to appeal to him.
Also, transitioning to the ranking that was posted ... if the AP Poll follows that trend and we are ranked #10 or better preseason, it would be the first time Illinois Football was preseason top 10 since 1964. Hell, if we can finish the season ranked, it would be the first time we begin the season ranked and finish the season ranked since 1990! If we are preseason top 10 and manage to finish the season top 10?? That would be something Illini Football hasn't done since 1951. Let's not understate how exciting this is! We are in territory that goes well beyond the excitement of post-2007 or post-2001, IMO, by quite a long shot.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
For fun, this would be our schedule using the Big Ten rankings shown here ... I am going to use JR's since it has Illinois lower and is thus "more conservative" or whatever:
#4 Illinois at #5 Indiana
#8 USC at #4 Illinois
#4 Illinois at #18 Purdue
#1 Ohio State at #4 Illinois
#4 Illinois at #6 Washington
#11 Rutgers at #4 Illinois
#17 Maryland at #4 Illinois
#4 Illinois at #16 Wisconsin
#15 Northwestern at #4 Illinois
We play ALL FOUR of the lowest ranked teams in the conference, and hosting #8 USC plus #11 Rutgers makes two thirds of our Big Ten games vs. the bottom half of the league. We get the best team on our schedule (#1 OSU) at home. We will have two rather hyped up road tests at #5 Indiana and #6 Washington, but we have proven we can stay composed in tough environments before.
To put this in perspective, going 2-1 in the non-conference (losing at Duke), beating the bottom four teams in the Big Ten, protecting our home field vs. bottom half USC and Rutgers gets us back-to-back nine win seasons for the first time E-V-E-R ... and I think we can do a lot better than that.
wouldn’t that be awesome ?
That'd be something if that were to happen they'd be 2 coaches bret got fired at Wisconsin lol that'd make bret the ad for Wisconsin
Epsilon
M tipping over
- Pdx
As much as I love Zack’s enthusiasm I’m just not sure I see a world where we are better than the Ducks next year.
Battle89
- Cary-Grove, the better Trojan team
You've pretty much nailed it Fighter. It's all been about changing the image of Illinois as a stepping stone or way station to further other personal needs of the coach. Mackovic pretty much walked in the door saying he was looking for the next and bigger job, and it is a separate debate as to whether we were better off with him (loved and lost) than without him (never loved at all). He would have fit in well on the basketball team this year though.
I'd argue that Mike White was the last coach to actually build a complete program, the sustainability of which is yet another debate. Mackovic more maintained what White had built, using his own methods. Which was no small feat in and of itself, so I fall into the loved and lost camp above. In short:
- White: builder but with unsustainable methods.
- Mackovic: stepping stoner, professional, from day 1. Wanted a blue-blood college football job.
- Tepper: Peter Principle, and 100% one-sided, all D no O.
- Turner: stepping stoner, professional. Zero interest in recruiting and sole goal was returning to the pro league.
- Zook: 100% one-sided, all recruiting & zero Xs and Os. And terrible at staff-building too. Classic AD move here, the General fighting the last war.
- Koenning: undefeated at Illinois. Oh Vic, we hardly knew ya.
- Beckman: in way over his head but he and we were also victims in that no one wanted the job. Lowest point since the post-slush fund days.
- Cubit: not ideal, but not a dagger to the program. Words that will echo in my brain forever.
- Smith, L.: stepping stoner, personal, from day 1. Wanted to pad his retirement and give Junior a job.
- Smith, R.: had a chance to tie Koenning for all-time highest winning percentage but fell short.
- Bielema: I thought at the time that leaving Wisconsin for Arkansas was a terrible decision, but man did that work out for us. Bless him.
Thanks for setting the table, Fighter, for a review of the '80s. That's the standard that I compare all Illinois football to. In the ten years from 1981 to 1990, we had 8 winning records and 6 years where we won 7 or more games, including two 10-win seasons. Those years included two first-round QB draftees in Tony Eason at 15 and Jeff George drafted #1, as well as long time NFL QB Jack Trudeau and Dave Wilson (drafted #1 in the supplemental draft). Get this... in both 1984 and 1986, we had NINE players drafted. We were definitely built to compete. Heck, we even regularly beat Ohio State back then. Those were great years, and it's fun to be back in those type of years again.
RabidDawgClassic
- Los Angeles, CA
Cream and Crimson Kool-Aid isn’t just limited to Hoosier basketball.
Agree... I think Ray Eliot was the last 'lifer' when he retired in '59. Pete Elliot was a White precursor - builder but with unsustainable methods, and poor Valek who inherited that mess. Followed by Blackman who was a good coach, just not quite suited for the B1G. Moeller was the bane of our existence IMHO... Point is we've made A LOT of BAD/REALLY BAD hires in my time following the team, but I'm hoping that BB can be our new 'lifer' and believe he can lead us to many happy seasons.
Epsilon
M tipping over
- Pdx
I’ve seen a few different Locked On podcasts across the country and I find them all to be e incredibly obnoxious. They talk forever without actually saying anything useful and they’re all run by fans of the schools they represent so the podcasts are all super biased. It’s all clickbait nonsense. Don’t waste your time with them or give them the clicks.
New QB but that never seems to bother them when they bring in a new guy. I would love to get them in Indy next December. That would be a hell of a game
Epsilon
M tipping over
- Pdx
Yeah they have a lot of confidence in Dante Moore this year. But their backups are always good too.
Edit: I think they’ve killed it in the transfer market too.
Last edited:
illinidarrin
- from parts unknown
You mean we won't start ranked and we won't beat any ranked teams?
yup
you need to win all the games you’re supposed to win , and get a little lucky in the 2-3 that are pick ems or you are a slight under dog .
if so, 10-2 is very likely and 11-1 is even possible . that said , it’s still very hard and requires a little luck
I just think the team has a lot of grit and season in them...I'm worried about the receiving because it really was a very underrated part of last year's equation. We two very reliable set of hands working the outside that's gone.. That's my only worry.
10-2 is the **realistic** goal for me. Obviously you wanna win any game you play in.
We have plenty of potential with the receiving and I think the tight end is going to have to give more. Hopefully the running game goes to a stellar level. I believe the defense will have 3 tough games
I wondered after our Bowl victory if it was better to end like we did, or like Indiana. We won a game that was played a whole 10 days later. Their playoff loss was on a Friday night, pre-Christmas, one-sided... I guess you always aim for the playoffs, but it seemed like their season ended on a whimper.
Is anyone else still trying to escape that fear that we will return to being "the Illini" who will once again start with sky high expectations and end up with a losing record?
Battle89
- Cary-Grove, the better Trojan team
You may get some grief for that but I've had similar thoughts. I think we have gotten a tremendous amount of recruiting mileage out of that bowl win, especially the head coach 'incident' and the perception that we just owned them. Not sure a wide-margin first-round playoff loss gets us the same cachet.
Battle89
- Cary-Grove, the better Trojan team
I don't know if that feeling will ever go away completely, too many decades of struggle. But the level of fear is certainly much lower now than it has been in my adult lifetime.
- Status