Illinois 21, South Carolina 17 Postgame

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#751      
therealmiket86
Fly Illini Fly! said:
What they did on the fair catch was not illegal but out of the norm. What we do on subs, one could argue, Beamer would argue, is not illegal but out of the norm. Seems like both coaches were frustrated with the opposing team's ways in those circumstances.

Overall, pretty bizarre situation with their coach constantly screaming at the officials the whole game and absolutely charging at Bret there in the 3rd QTR.
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The difference is what they did on the kick off is a safety issue if players let up when they see the T bar.

We have subbed like that all season and they did a very bad job preparing for it. Their problem was they were subbing late and sometimes subbing 2 different times. Also let’s be real Beamer didn’t want the smoke.
 
#752      
fatt lacosse
i've been just about as cynical as it gets for parts of the bielema era, but if there was any doubt left at all it died on tuesday as our boy made yet another respected coach absolutely piss himself. beamer kept our guys pretty fired up, and they definitely went for that fourth down swinging gate because beamer was mad.

this feels totally different from 2022. there was room for doubt given how integral ryan walters seemed to the whole operation, and as good as that team was it always felt like once the chips were down they couldn't battle back. our coordinators have done a better job than they did last year, our quarterback improved (though the added protection helped), and we got massive help from the portal at positions (OT specifically) where first year transfers historically struggle to make an impact.

what speaks volumes to me are the following three points:
-as mentioned, players and coaches improved their performance from last year. this is something we don't see that often here without a big staff shakeup.
-by my count, we've now won five games this season that we could have lost had the opposing coach been smarter about managing the game. we finally have a steady hand that doesn't flinch and lets the other guy make mistakes.
-only one player (an obvious NFL draft pick) opted out of the bowl, with a bunch of outgoing portal guys sticking around for one last ride

i've never seen anything like this.
 
#753      
mattcoldagelli
fatt lacosse said:
i've been just about as cynical as it gets for parts of the bielema era, but if there was any doubt left at all it died on tuesday as our boy made yet another respected coach absolutely piss himself. beamer kept our guys pretty fired up, and they definitely went for that fourth down swinging gate because beamer was mad.

this feels totally different from 2022. there was room for doubt given how integral ryan walters seemed to the whole operation, and as good as that team was it always felt like once the chips were down they couldn't battle back. our coordinators have done a better job than they did last year, our quarterback improved (though the added protection helped), and we got massive help from the portal at positions (OT specifically) where first year transfers historically struggle to make an impact.

what speaks volumes to me are the following three points:
-as mentioned, players and coaches improved their performance from last year. this is something we don't see that often here without a big staff shakeup.
-by my count, we've now won five games this season that we could have lost had the opposing coach been smarter about managing the game. we finally have a steady hand that doesn't flinch and lets the other guy make mistakes.
-only one player (an obvious NFL draft pick) opted out of the bowl, with a bunch of outgoing portal guys sticking around for one last ride

i've never seen anything like this.
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It's so true, man. As an Illini/Bears fan, I have just literally never been on the side of the football game that is saying "jump" vs. the side that is tripping over its own feet and muttering "how high?" as they faceplant. It is disorienting and weird (complementary).
 
#754      
Guest
AttentionDeficit said:
For those who haven't seen the T-pose kickoff 'trick' play, or would like to see it again, there is currently a full game broadcast on youtube (which will probably get removed at some point soon).
This link is queued up to a couple of seconds before the kickoff.
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Unfortunately, this link is gone. I have only gotten to page 22 of this thread so I don’t know if this was posted already, but I was not able to watch the game and I have been looking for full game replays, to no avail, but I found this strange video on youtube:


It is an animated recreation of the game, I think. I don’t know how accurate it is and it is pretty bizarre but if anyone is, like me, desperate enough this might be a decent alternative. The person who posted this says, "This is only an (sic) Madden NFL 25 , College Football 25 simulation based on CPU vs CPU"
 
#757      
Fighter of the Nightman
Two more random postgame thoughts:

1. You can nitpick individual actions/decisions, but DAMN do I love how much frickin' confidence Bret has in himself. When he threw those extra subs in and forced South Carolina to burn a timeout, he didn't hesitate to chuckle. Whereas I (a long-tortured Illini fan) kept thinking that it was risky because South Carolina very well might score a TD on one of the next plays, Bret didn't care ... he had confidence in his players, his staff and himself to punch back. One of the luckiest days in Illini football of the last many, many, many years was when we were able to hire him.

2. ESPN is so much more obnoxiously and unprofessionally biased toward the SEC than FOX is to the Big Ten ... and it is not close. Something is so cringey and ironic to me about a bunch of arrogant and boarish New Yorkers simping for Deep South football schools. :ROFLMAO:

3. This is super random, but I was just thinking how Illini fans tend to be "undercounted" in almost every crowd we are in due to the color orange. It is such a bright and vibrant color that I think people naturally identify orange with their eyes in a crowd, and they subconsciously count all orange T-shirts as Illini fans and all non-orange T-shirts as the other teams' fans. I have realized this when I have watched us play Northwestern in Evanston or at Wrigley and my wife will start out by guessing we have about 40% of the crowd only to slowly realize just how many Illini fans are in navy, white or gray. It's only once there is cheering that you realize we have so many more fans than it appears visually. In relation to this bowl, there are some angles where it looks like it was 65%+ South Carolina fans, but when you actually zoom in and/or listen to the crowds, it was probably closer to 55/45 South Carolina. People just assume the end zone seats that were not visibly majority orange were NOT Illini fans, even though we had tons of fans in those sections.
 
#759      
Olaf Blab
I appreciate how Bielema didn't use barge formation until late in game so they couldn't adjust to it at halftime.

also Frank Beamer's special teams at Virginia Tech were always excellent...not just blocking kicks and punts. Nepo Baby Shane was a fail on Tuesday...missed a FG...blew a chance at FG with the Zookian formation...a better thrown ball that is a touchdown...but Ryan Meed saw the guy put his hands up, that is when he put his hands up, not PI even though his back was to the QB. that is 6 points left on field...

Met Ryan after game at team hotel, super nice kid, great representative of the program. Flight home yesterday was 2 hours late didn't care....

Beat Western Illinois.
 
#760      
Mr. Tibbs
Olaf Blab said:
I appreciate how Bielema didn't use barge formation until late in game so they couldn't adjust to it at halftime.

also Frank Beamer's special teams at Virginia Tech were always excellent...not just blocking kicks and punts. Nepo Baby Shane was a fail on Tuesday...missed a FG...blew a chance at FG with the Zookian formation...a better thrown ball that is a touchdown...but Ryan Meed saw the guy put his hands up, that is when he put his hands up, not PI even though his back was to the QB. that is 6 points left on field...

Met Ryan after game at team hotel, super nice kid, great representative of the program. Flight home yesterday was 2 hours late didn't care....

Beat Western Illinois.
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you could tell that Bret has a special place in his heart for Ryan Meed. Deservedly so.
kid walks on and earns a scholly and becomes a special teams wunderkid and situational player . Class act
 
#762      
Battle89
OB positive said:
The problem I have is that both arms out to the side while returning a punt or kick is unilaterally accepted by the officials as a signal for a fair catch. So if we interpret it the way Beamer wanted it that would mean that anytime a returner didn't get his arms above his shoulders on his signal the ball is still live and they would be fair game to get smoked and any kickoff team that gets the ball if it stays in play it would be theirs because not a real proper fair catch signal. I bet if we would have crushed their returner in the endzone Beamer would have been screaming for a flag. It can't be both ways. Bret and the Illini have dealt with the late substitutions all year long. This was one of the few times we used it in our favor. Usually we're the ones burning timeout because of it.
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This is exactly what SC wanted, and why the initial receiver held it for a couple seconds (even started walking) before the lateral. We either slow up / disengage, which makes the lateral more effective. or we attack the initial receiver and get fair catch interference (or worse) called on us.

We did slow up a little but (as another posted noted above) did maintain our lane discipline. Almost got the second receiver for a safety even.

The Illini response (both in the play and Bret later) was perfect and yet another reason Bret is one of the smartest and best-prepared in the business.
 
#764      
NashvILLe05
Ander1345 said:
Our late subbing is not out of the norm. SC would try to sub offensive personnel late after the radios shut off(less than 15seconds) on the playclock, and Bret would just take whatever time he wanted to. In a sense we were just using our D to do what they were trying to do on O.

If you watch the game again, notice that they couldn't do it back to us because we would sub early on the playclock.

The substitution rule makes it kind of pointless to try to do what they do on offense, so I don't know why they even bother.
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100% This. Beamer had the stones to act like we were being over the top and the announcers were completely on his side. Stop doing multiple subs on one play…solved.
 
#767      
From the cheap seats
BillyBob1 said:
This referee had trouble spotting the ball all game.
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Yep. One of the TOs the Illini had to use was because the officials did not signal first down until the play clock had run off more than 10 seconds. Bielema tried to reason with one of the officials that his team could not call a play until they knew if it was a first down or if they still had inches to go for a first down. This crew of officials had trouble with virtually every aspect of the game, from the phantom fumble, when they let the SC defenders make the call for them, to spotting the ball, to letting Beamer drop F bombs all over the place and then acting like he wanted to fight Bielema (all an act). What exactly is the definition of unsportsmanlike conduct? Bielema re-enacted the T signal, which is not the same as flipping off Beamer or physically going after him.
 
#768      
Battle89
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Check
Not so much
 
#769      
Guest
I perused the South Carolina fan board (24/7) yesterday and here are a few random thoughts:

1. The resort to violence. Bret may want to hire a bodyguard for a week or two. There were many posters who out and out wanted to punch BB in the face. And I don’t think they were being metaphorical.
2. Many not only now hate the University of Illinois (some said they previously had either favorable opinions or were neutral but now hate U of I) they also now hate the whole state of Illinois (one called it the commie state, LOL
3. The refs were in Illinois pockets, taking bribes to throw the game of course
4. Strangely enough, they were almost as critical of ESPN announcers as many on here are (including me)
5. And, of course, they had no understanding of what the whole BB/SB kerfluffle was actually about. They just saw it was taunting.
 
#770      
BZuppke
I wish Bret had not done that, but I 100% agree with where he was coming from. And the added benefit of getting in Beamer’s head was priceless. Bret
chuckling while Beamer is flipping out and burning a timeout - hilarious.
 
#771      
Ander1345
I think Aaron Henry needs a lot of credit for sticking with a good gameplay against Sellers. I know it's sometimes boring and frustrating to watch the other team's offense dink and dunk their way down the field, but I think containing Sellers in the pocket and flowing to the football was the right move. We gave up a lot of yards but we never let the game turn in to a shootout by keeping ourselves within striking distance of taking the lead.
 
#772      
BZuppke
Ander1345 said:
I think Aaron Henry needs a lot of credit for sticking with a good gameplay against Sellers. I know it's sometimes boring and frustrating to watch the other team's offense dink and dunk their way down the field, but I think containing Sellers in the pocket and flowing to the football was the right move. We gave up a lot of yards but we never let the game turn in to a shootout by keeping ourselves within striking distance of taking the lead.
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And burning 10 1/2 minutes of the fourth qtr.
 
#775      
Mr. Tibbs
Matt Stevens from Illini Guys said he was told Bret's game plan was he wanted to play the game in a phone booth, or in a 10 by 10 box if thats easier to undersdtand . an old tried and true strategy when playing a team thats faster than you. there was no way we were beating them if they scored 35 points
BZuppke said:
And burning 10 1/2 minutes of the fourth qtr.
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