Illini Football 2025

Status
Not open for further replies.
#76      
Navy_illini
I was a critic of Luke 2 years ago about his pocket presence. He has drastically improved. These last 2 years show he is being underrated in draft prospects. I don’t know where he will be drafted but I would take him over a lot of the prospects listed above him
 
#78      
GoodePodzMelendez
Navy_illini said:
I was a critic of Luke 2 years ago about his pocket presence. He has drastically improved. These last 2 years show he is being underrated in draft prospects. I don’t know where he will be drafted but I would take him over a lot of the prospects listed above him
Click to expand...
I believe that he is the best all around QB in the conference.
 
#81      
blackdog
Navy_illini said:
I was a critic of Luke 2 years ago about his pocket presence. He has drastically improved. These last 2 years show he is being underrated in draft prospects. I don’t know where he will be drafted but I would take him over a lot of the prospects listed above him
Click to expand...

Really that's still by far his biggest weakness but he has improved significantly and his pre snap recognition also help a lot with setting the pass protection.
 
#87      
Curbelo Fanboy
and 69 others said:
I don’t want to get too high, I know it’s a long season. But on the heels of last season’s win over Michigan and the Citrus Bowl and now yesterday’s win (the game has been on my mind for months), I was thinking, “What was our low point?” For me, I think losing 63-0 AT HOME against a 6-4 Iowa team who had scored 10 points in a loss to Northwestern the previous week was the low point.

What do y’all think? Was there a lower point that I am missing?
Click to expand...
Which decade would u like the low point for.

90’s I’ll give you the winless 97 season and perhaps worse rushing the field for a win in 98 over Middle TN State. The Eddie George heisman clinching game against us later that year is a close 2nd. Tho that game did feature the debut of the great Kurt Kittner.

00’s a 63-10 homecoming drubbing against Penn State at home. We took a 3-0 lead only to trail 56-3 at half time. Special mention also to the home
Loss to San Jose State early in the 2002 season. They took all 3 of their first half timeouts on first drive and still managed to score a td. To this day never seen that before or since.

10’s would be the game you mentioned and the entirety of the Beckman regime. I live in Chatham and left that Iowa game early enough that we were home 90 minutes away before the game ended. Special mention to the 2019 game where Eastern Michigan beat us on a walk off field goal. In a game where they called a time out cause they couldn’t get lined up on the FIRST PLAY of the GAME.

Others probably have more to add but those are the ones that really stick out to me.
 
#88      
PleaseMakeABowlGame
It’s certainly possible, especially if the OLine and tackling doesn’t improve. Your not gonna win every TO margin 5-0.

Washington, USC, IU, OSU, WASH are all very losable games. And one of Rutgers/Purdue/Wisconsin/NW/MD isn’t all too unreasonable either.

IMO the schedule is way harder than people think.
 
#89      
Fly Illini Fly!
Curbelo Fanboy said:
Which decade would u like the low point for.

90’s I’ll give you the winless 97 season and perhaps worse rushing the field for a win in 98 over Middle TN State. The Eddie George heisman clinching game against us later that year is a close 2nd. Tho that game did feature the debut of the great Kurt Kittner.

00’s a 63-10 homecoming drubbing against Penn State at home. We took a 3-0 lead only to trail 56-3 at half time. Special mention also to the home
Loss to San Jose State early in the 2002 season. They took all 3 of their first half timeouts on first drive and still managed to score a td. To this day never seen that before or since.

10’s would be the game you mentioned and the entirety of the Beckman regime. I live in Chatham and left that Iowa game early enough that we were home 90 minutes away before the game ended. Special mention to the 2019 game where Eastern Michigan beat us on a walk off field goal. In a game where they called a time out cause they couldn’t get lined up on the FIRST PLAY of the GAME.

Others probably have more to add but those are the ones that really stick out to me.
Click to expand...
Getting blown out by Western Michigan 34-10 (2016) was also quite awful (though they did finish 13-1).

Eastern Michigan was bad, but perhaps even worse was the NW game that same year; Matt Robinson at quarterback.
 
Last edited:
#90      
OB positive
blackdog said:
Really that's still by far his biggest weakness but he has improved significantly and his pre snap recognition also help a lot with setting the pass protection.
Click to expand...
Yes he is better but not there yet. He has to learn to just throw it away instead of taking a sack. I realize the protection has been bad but he has to realize that and chuck it away before losing big yards on sacks.
 
#91      
mhuml32
mhuml32 said:
- If you beat Duke, you can dream of a 6-0 or 5-1 start going into the Ohio State game, knowing the back half of the schedule is very, very manageable.
- If you lose to Duke, there's a lot of pressure to beat Indiana in Bloomington or USC in Champaign to avoid a 3-4 start to the season and a test of wills if this team can stay focused on finishing the season strong.
Click to expand...


Looking at the remaining schedule and how our priors have shifted through two games

WMU - same as expected
Indiana - same or expected (maybe slightly better)
USC - better than expected
Purdue - don't know
Ohio State - same
Washington - expected
Rutgers - worse than expected
Maryland - same
Wisconsin - same
Northwestern - worse than expected
 
#92      
BrownTown
Curbelo Fanboy said:
Which decade would u like the low point for.

90’s I’ll give you the winless 97 season and perhaps worse rushing the field for a win in 98 over Middle TN State. The Eddie George heisman clinching game against us later that year is a close 2nd. Tho that game did feature the debut of the great Kurt Kittner.

00’s a 63-10 homecoming drubbing against Penn State at home. We took a 3-0 lead only to trail 56-3 at half time. Special mention also to the home
Loss to San Jose State early in the 2002 season. They took all 3 of their first half timeouts on first drive and still managed to score a td. To this day never seen that before or since.

10’s would be the game you mentioned and the entirety of the Beckman regime. I live in Chatham and left that Iowa game early enough that we were home 90 minutes away before the game ended. Special mention to the 2019 game where Eastern Michigan beat us on a walk off field goal. In a game where they called a time out cause they couldn’t get lined up on the FIRST PLAY of the GAME.

Others probably have more to add but those are the ones that really stick out to me.
Click to expand...
I'd go a completely different direction for the 00s.

Having everything go right for us to GET into the Rose Bowl. Then having USC dominate us (with Jim Belushi in the stands) destroyed my 14 year old self and my Illini football fandom.
It was a painful reminder that even at our best, we were 2nd tier (at best).

Spent the 2010s in the USMC... roommate was a huge Wisconsin fan. Watched every game...thought man why can't we get a coach like Bret Bielema? Became an absolute Bielever watching the 70-31 throttling of Bo Pelini's Huskers in the Big Championship. (Really that game broke Nebraska)

Obviously, Josh Whitman wasn't worried about the Arkansas years because he got us OUR GUY!

All this to say, I always felt the Rose Bowl loss correlated with a downfall in the program that continued until Bret got hired. --Had the flash in the pan year 2011 but never felt like we had a winning program/culture built.
 
#93      
and 69 others
Curbelo Fanboy said:
Which decade would u like the low point for.

90’s I’ll give you the winless 97 season and perhaps worse rushing the field for a win in 98 over Middle TN State. The Eddie George heisman clinching game against us later that year is a close 2nd. Tho that game did feature the debut of the great Kurt Kittner.

00’s a 63-10 homecoming drubbing against Penn State at home. We took a 3-0 lead only to trail 56-3 at half time. Special mention also to the home
Loss to San Jose State early in the 2002 season. They took all 3 of their first half timeouts on first drive and still managed to score a td. To this day never seen that before or since.

10’s would be the game you mentioned and the entirety of the Beckman regime. I live in Chatham and left that Iowa game early enough that we were home 90 minutes away before the game ended. Special mention to the 2019 game where Eastern Michigan beat us on a walk off field goal. In a game where they called a time out cause they couldn’t get lined up on the FIRST PLAY of the GAME.

Others probably have more to add but those are the ones that really stick out to me.
Click to expand...
😫 Please stop! You get the apartment!

IMG_7370.jpeg
 
#94      
BrownTown
mhuml32 said:
Looking at the remaining schedule and how our priors have shifted through two games

WMU - same as expected
Indiana - same or expected (maybe slightly better)
USC - better than expected
Purdue - don't know
Ohio State - same
Washington - expected
Rutgers - worse than expected
Maryland - same
Wisconsin - same
Northwestern - worse than expected
Click to expand...
I just don't know what to think of Indiana.

I know they will be good. BUT they scheduled 3 gimme games to start their season. Will they have anywhere near the continuity and understanding of who their team is? I sure wouldn't feel confident about Illinois going into that game if we didn't have the Duke road test.

Sure Old Dominion gave them a better game then they bargained for, but is that a good thing?

You just don't learn anything in those games. Who will their Quarterback be when a legit pass rush is chasing after him? Can you play with a team for 4 quarters? Up to this point, they have been able to shut things down by half....

I'm just not a fan of Cignettis scheduling. I'd much rather play 1 FCS and 2 P4 non cons.
 
#97      
BretMyBeachHouse
MoCoMdIllini said:
This is the type of Heisman "outsider/Dark Horse" thing I meant. Hank could be that guy they enjoy talking about and may even get a few votes while I more high profile QB probably wins.
Click to expand...
Not likely he gets in the discussion with performances against unranked teams.

Similar numbers in a win at Indiana would start some national buzz.

Do it again against OSU and the talk would take off.

Those aren't likely, but man it would be awesome.
 
#99      
mhuml32
Altmyer passed Johnny Johnson for Illinois career passing yards on Saturday and is going to pass Beutjer against WMU. Then he'll have a couple games before Wes Lunt.

He passed Verduzco and Beutjer in Illinois career passing TDs to move into 5th all-time. He'll need 11 more to pass the next name (Trudeau).
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back