Illini Football 2025

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#101      
BrownTown
jamarvelous31 said:
Dunno. Years past I understood, but we don't have much in the way of top 3 round picks to opt out?
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I agree. Staff is actively TRYING to get Luke into an All Star game. New Year's Day bowl game --especially at 9-3 would be a great showcase for his talent.

Only opt outs I would foresee...Gabe Jacas, JC Davis, maybe X Scott? I just don't see a world X comes back into unless we sneak into the CFP and that's not happening.
 
#102      
BrownTown
GoodePodzMelendez said:
The only three that would opt out would be Jacas, Davis and Luke. Both Jacas and Davis have dropped to third day picks. Luke could be a 4th rounder depending on a teams needs. I won pull think that all three would want national exposure that a bowl game gives.
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Jacas and Davis day 3? I don't think so
 
#103      
logjam
the juiceman cometh said:
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Harry Potter GIF by Box Office
 
#106      
bluemountain
Illini in Italy said:
While Lovie was not the coach that Bret is, he brought in talent that eventually improved the program, including what 20 NFL draft choices, including 3 first rounders? Not the coach we wanted, but we wouldn't be here today without having him as a coach from 2016-2020. I still think Whitman chose wisely.


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Not sure I agree with this....those were 5 wasted years when it comes to on field performance - in terms of results, even Beckman was better than Lovie.

He did bring in some good under the radar talent, but talent without results means nothing
 
#107      
Illinijoe
Simply put this season was an F. No other way to spin it. Enough of Barry and Henry. Clean house - complete and utter failure really across the board. I also wonder if Bielema really looks that good if he doesn’t have Luke. We will see what happens next year but just terrible momentum - program defining year and typical Illinois laid another egg.
 
#108      
illinifan1987
https://twitter.com/x/status/1992445677633220907
We all now know that Henry is gone. Could he be mentioning Lunney as well? This has been a very disappointing season for who's likely the best QB we've ever had...
Did he intentionally misspell focus? Now I'm worried about next weekend :cry:
Edit: JK, we have a very nice bounce back game to prep us for our 9th win (35-24)
 
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#110      
Fighter of the Nightman
While I certainly still maintain that our defense is almost shockingly bad and its level of competency as a unit is utterly inexcusable ... I am starting to appreciate just how much of a contributing factor our crappy O-line play is to the underperformance this year. Below, I listed our results so far this year in order of how many times our O-line allowed the opposing defense to sack Luke. Not only is this obviously bad in that it wastes a down and pushes us farther back from the line to gain ... but it also ensures that our awful defense returns to the field to give up more points! There are

Sacks Allowed ... Result
0 Sacks ... L 25-42 at Washington
1 Sack ... W 35-13 vs. Rutgers
1 Sack ... W 24-6 vs. Maryland
1 Sack ... W 34-32 vs. USC
2 Sacks ... W 43-27 at Purdue
4 Sacks ... W 45-19 at Duke ... all in the first half!
4 Sacks ... L 16-34 vs. Ohio State
5 Sacks ... L 10-27 at Wisconsin
7 Sacks ... L 10-63 at Indiana

I mean, I realize Indiana and OSU are elite while Rutgers and Maryland are not, but (A) the pattern is still clear besides the fluke outlier of Washington (which was probably our defense's worst game, given the context) and (B) look at results vs. a good USC team and a bad Wisconsin team to see what a difference this can make. Using those two as an example, our O-line allowed Luke and Co. to stay on the field and get three genuine tries at a first down each time vs. USC, and we were able to outscore them. Conversely, last night vs. Wisconsin we forced Luke to have one fewer opportunity to get a first down FIVE TIMES. If we can avoid those five sacks, can the offense start to get in a groove and potentially outscore Wisconsin? I mean, we certainly have the ability to score more than 27 points, and our offense has allowed us to get victories over teams putting points on the board before, lol.

There are obviously other issues than just this (looking at you, Special Teams!!), but man ... if you have a bad defense anyway and you know you can't rely on them to win you a game, you AT LEAST need to competently keep your offense on the field so THEY have a chance to keep you in it!
 
#111      
TampaToo
Fighter of the Nightman said:
While I certainly still maintain that our defense is almost shockingly bad and its level of competency as a unit is utterly inexcusable ... I am starting to appreciate just how much of a contributing factor our crappy O-line play is to the underperformance this year. Below, I listed our results so far this year in order of how many times our O-line allowed the opposing defense to sack Luke. Not only is this obviously bad in that it wastes a down and pushes us farther back from the line to gain ... but it also ensures that our awful defense returns to the field to give up more points! There are

Sacks Allowed ... Result
0 Sacks ... L 25-42 at Washington
1 Sack ... W 35-13 vs. Rutgers
1 Sack ... W 24-6 vs. Maryland
1 Sack ... W 34-32 vs. USC
2 Sacks ... W 43-27 at Purdue
4 Sacks ... W 45-19 at Duke ... all in the first half!
4 Sacks ... L 16-34 vs. Ohio State
5 Sacks ... L 10-27 at Wisconsin
7 Sacks ... L 10-63 at Indiana

I mean, I realize Indiana and OSU are elite while Rutgers and Maryland are not, but (A) the pattern is still clear besides the fluke outlier of Washington (which was probably our defense's worst game, given the context) and (B) look at results vs. a good USC team and a bad Wisconsin team to see what a difference this can make. Using those two as an example, our O-line allowed Luke and Co. to stay on the field and get three genuine tries at a first down each time vs. USC, and we were able to outscore them. Conversely, last night vs. Wisconsin we forced Luke to have one fewer opportunity to get a first down FIVE TIMES. If we can avoid those five sacks, can the offense start to get in a groove and potentially outscore Wisconsin? I mean, we certainly have the ability to score more than 27 points, and our offense has allowed us to get victories over teams putting points on the board before, lol.

There are obviously other issues than just this (looking at you, Special Teams!!), but man ... if you have a bad defense anyway and you know you can't rely on them to win you a game, you AT LEAST need to competently keep your offense on the field so THEY have a chance to keep you in it!
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The OL run blocking has been very poor most games.
 
#112      
STLini25
bluemountain said:
Not sure I agree with this....those were 5 wasted years when it comes to on field performance - in terms of results, even Beckman was better than Lovie.

He did bring in some good under the radar talent, but talent without results means nothing
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I don’t know the specific relationships with each top player under Lovie but I think it’s highly likely Lovie didn’t do the recruiting considering he refused to actually recruit.
 
#113      
bluemountain
Assuming we win Saturday, this will have been a successful season IMO. Having said that, I agree with most posters that we need a staff shakeup - in particular, we need upgrades at DC, ST Coordinator and OLine coach. Our overall talent level is average, maybe even a little below average, and we clearly don't have much NFL caliber talent on the roster. While it appears our incoming HS recruiting class will be our most talented class in a generation, we still have a lot of work to do in the portal if we want to make a bowl game next year.

What really hasn't been commented on is the culture of the program. To put it bluntly, we are soft compared to other teams - we don't play aggressively and we don't play fast. We don't play with an edge or with a chip on our shoulder. The contrast between us and say IU is really obvious in this area. This is where having a coordinator like Ryan Walters makes a difference - while he was here our defenses were cocky and played with an edge. I know he had more talent to work with, but I believe there is more to it than just talent; to be a good defensive team you need to have an attitude, and we haven't had that since Walters left.
 
#114      
TheodoreRex
Gotta be honest- listening to Werner and Lehman talk about next years team- I'm feeling pretty low on what that team is going to look like. Going to be year 6 with Bret and it feels like we barely have any surefire starters.
 
#117      
Illiniguy13
TheodoreRex said:
I'm happy about that- but we will literally have an entirely new line- pretty hard to build something like from scratch and no continuity. Here's to hoping.
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Yeah, I am not expecting 2026 to be a great year by any stretch...I think the most critical piece is nailing coaching hires (the very tippy-top of the wish list is Jim Leonhard)
 
#123      
From the cheap seats
In my long experience as an Illini football fan, I never thought I'd be disappointed in a 7-5 record, let alone possibly 8-4. But perspectives change I suppose. I do think the loss of Xavier Scott really altered a lot in the secondary. To use a basketball analogy, I'd compare him to a rim protector, someone whose presence helps others in their coverage. I realize they were short on DBs at the time, but the fact that he got hurt late in a blowout is something that bothers me more than some other obvious deficiencies.
 
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