Illini Football 2026

#226      
BZuppke
mhuml32 said:
Playing the roulette game of coaching candidates in 1991 were Jim Colletto, Curley Hallman, Jackie Sherrill, Gerry DiNardo, Tom Rossley, and Jery Pettibone. Jackie Sherrill would have been preeeeetty interesting considering how his TAMU tenure ended but I cannot imagine Illinois would have hired him. The rest of that list is awful, might be the worst coaching hire year for major schools that I can remember.
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Jack Bicknell who was very successful at BC was purportedly interested.
 
#228      
blackdog
OB positive said:
I can't recall much pass protection by our running backs the past couple of years anyway. I don't thats going to factor in very much on whether he plays or not.
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I certainly remeber a lot of time Luke was running for his life because a RB whiffed on a blitz pickup. Feagin used to especially struggle with the recognition part of it which probably contributed to his move to TE.
 
#230      
Mr. Tibbs
blackdog said:
I certainly remeber a lot of time Luke was running for his life because a RB whiffed on a blitz pickup. Feagin used to especially struggle with the recognition part of it which probably contributed to his move to TE.
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it’s one thing if a RB can average +5 yds per carry and get you 120 per game - you can accept a pass blocking deficiency . but not if the guy is averaging less than 3 per carry

the NFL won’t be as forgiving
 
#231      
Birdus
OB positive said:
I can't recall much pass protection by our running backs the past couple of years anyway. I don't thats going to factor in very much on whether he plays or not.
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I see this too. He could make a mistake or two but if he is getting p/t he could make the difference in games with N.W. and M. State which are much better than we thought. Unfortuntely, he may be gone next year.
 
#233      
Illinicpa14
Juju said:
I still have no idea why our budget for football is LESS THAN NORTHWESTERN'S. We have a huge alumni base, a large percentage of which range from upper-middle class to millionaires - and some billionaires as well - and we still only get slightly over $20 million to spend on football?! And again, Northwestern somehow spends MORE?? And Ohio State nearly triples our budget!

I really need help understanding why we don't have a much bigger budget, considering we're a top school(regardless of if you look at public school or public AND private schools; we're #8 in public schools and #34 when private schools are factors in, which is still a VERY high ranking), have said wealthy alumni base, and we definitely aren't a poor school. I feel like there's some glaringly obvious rule or issue I'm not thinking of when I should be, but I just can't understand why we don't have a much larger football budget. Help? Somebody? Anybody??
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Not saying this is the only reason - but we have a lot of resources into basketball right now the past few years and coming off a F4 and an E8 the past 3.
 
#234      
mhuml32
OB positive said:
I can't recall much pass protection by our running backs the past couple of years anyway. I don't thats going to factor in very much on whether he plays or not.
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There is a noticeable gap between Illinois running backs being below average to average pass blockers and a true freshman who's never performed a live pass blocking rep in a college game. We had this same discussion two years ago when Valentine was flashing as a freshman and he still was only getting limited reps after his breakout against CMU. Barnett might be a decent pass blocker, but he's never done it before (and I'll be surprised if the staff wants to find out against Ohio State).
 
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