Illini Football 2025

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#102      
bluemountain
altgeld88 said:
I don't for a moment disagree that BB has "done something noteworthy." As I've often noted on the Board, IMO the most important thing he's done is to create a culture of winning in a long-term, sustainable manner. Winning 10 and nine games in consecutive seasons is, of course, special. I believe a statue of BB will materialize upon his retirement here after many further seasons of success. I'm also all for trumpeting our program's current success as a matter of PR and necessity.

However: I give side eye to calculations that fail to normalize for longer seasons and compare like with like.

Comparing coaching performance across seasons today with seasons decades ago is difficult. Mike White didn't coach in an era of ample bowl games for all, nor the possibility of playing more than 11 or 12 games per season (usually 11). And if NIL had existed in 1980 the trajectory of White's Illini tenure would likely have been much longer and much more successful. The sanctions in '84 kneecapped the program until the recruiting class of '88 showed up and we benefitted form the absolute dumb luck of Purdue hiring an option-oriented coach (Fred Akers) after the '86 season, alienating a guy named Jeff George.

As for the number of days it took BB and MW to win the same amount of games, that's irrelevant if MW didn't have an opportunity to play the same number of games within the same period.

Compare Mike White's first five seasons ('80-'84) with BB's ('21-'25). MW took a program at an absolute nadir and, by my calcs, won 59.6% of his games during those five years (a pinch more than that if you give him partial credit for a tie in '80 that I'm counting as a loss.) BB inherited a program in much better shape, and with much better talent, and has won 58.7% of his games.

Both achievements are fantastic. And we're in much better long-term shape now than on New Year's Day 1985. But BB's achievements on the field to date don't yet outstrip Mike White's. I'm confident they will when we're celebrating the 2026 season results next January.
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not sure BB inherited a better situation....Lovie was a disaster who followed a disaster who followed a joke. Yeah, Moeller was a disaster, but at least we had been competitive under Blackman a few years earlier
 
#103      
Illinijoe
Fighter of the Nightman said:
Number of Illini home games with fewer than 50,000 tickets sold by season. And yes, it's tickets SOLD ... that's the only publicly available stat, so save your comments about the Northwestern snow game. :ROFLMAO:

2014: 7 out of 8 home games ... high crowd of 50,373 vs. Iowa
2015: 5 out of 6 home games ... high crowd of 51,515 vs. #3 Ohio State
2016: 6 out of 7 home games ... high crowd of 60,670 vs. North Carolina
2017: 7 out of 7 home games ... high crowd of 43,058 vs. Nebraska
2018: 6 out of 6 home games ... high crowd of 41,966 vs. Purdue
2019: 7 out of 7 home games ... high crowd of 44,512 vs. Nebraska
2020: N/A (COVID season)
2021: 7 out of 7 home games ... high crowd of 40,168 vs. Wisconsin
2022: 6 out of 7 home games ... high crowd of 56,092 vs. Michigan State
2023: 4 out of 7 home games ... high crowd of 54,205 vs. Wisconsin
2024: 1 out of 7 home games ... high crowd of 60,670 TWO times
2025: ZERO out of 7 home games :cool: ... high crowd of 60,670 FOUR times

Amazing increase in fan support, and we should be proud. It was exhausting explaining to both outsiders and even some of our own fans back in the day that the fan support would return rather quickly if we got this thing goin' ... there is nothing "in the water" in Illinois that would prevent us from having the type of fan support of a Wisconsin, Iowa or even better with sustained success. I am glad we are starting to see the proof in recent years!
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Ticket sales always lag by a year so this makes sense. What hurt us in 2022 was low season tickets. It’s similar to 2007 vs 08/09 where we had more season tickets but were far worse. It’s amazing what holding on to those season ticket holders does for attendance. Makes selling out games so much easier.
 
#106      
and 69 others
Fighter of the Nightman said:
Number of Illini home games with fewer than 50,000 tickets sold by season. And yes, it's tickets SOLD ... that's the only publicly available stat, so save your comments about the Northwestern snow game. :ROFLMAO:

2014: 7 out of 8 home games ... high crowd of 50,373 vs. Iowa
2015: 5 out of 6 home games ... high crowd of 51,515 vs. #3 Ohio State
2016: 6 out of 7 home games ... high crowd of 60,670 vs. North Carolina
2017: 7 out of 7 home games ... high crowd of 43,058 vs. Nebraska
2018: 6 out of 6 home games ... high crowd of 41,966 vs. Purdue
2019: 7 out of 7 home games ... high crowd of 44,512 vs. Nebraska
2020: N/A (COVID season)
2021: 7 out of 7 home games ... high crowd of 40,168 vs. Wisconsin
2022: 6 out of 7 home games ... high crowd of 56,092 vs. Michigan State
2023: 4 out of 7 home games ... high crowd of 54,205 vs. Wisconsin
2024: 1 out of 7 home games ... high crowd of 60,670 TWO times
2025: ZERO out of 7 home games :cool: ... high crowd of 60,670 FOUR times

Amazing increase in fan support, and we should be proud. It was exhausting explaining to both outsiders and even some of our own fans back in the day that the fan support would return rather quickly if we got this thing goin' ... there is nothing "in the water" in Illinois that would prevent us from having the type of fan support of a Wisconsin, Iowa or even better with sustained success. I am glad we are starting to see the proof in recent years!
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I posted this at the time, but I brought a friend to our Virginia game in 2022. He wanted to see the campus so we were running late to the game. We were in Kam’s at kickoff and the game was not on any screens! The Iowa/Iowa State game was on a couple and SEC games were on several others. No Illini game!!! I asked the bartender why the game wasn’t on and he said, “That should tell you how bad we suck.” I said, “No. We USED TO suck.” It was embarrassing.

We’ve come a long way, baby.
 
#109      
BrownTown
Illini2010-11 said:
Good numbers for us, especially since the game was on an early Tuesday evening before a holiday, which is not the optimal slot. Only the Michigan game rated higher that was not a Saturday game over free TV.

It is definitely great to score the highest on paid tv non-CFP games.
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Also, I'd contest we have had some very fun games. Shootouts, big special teams' plays, last second wins. We've became a fun watch
 
#110      
mhuml32
This might have already been mentioned on the game thread but just saw that Illinois' PGWE for the Tennessee game was 65.2%. Was essentially the only game for Illinois all season where Illinois' PGWE was above 25% and below 75%.
 
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