On another note, Olano's leg is starting to get tired. I can tell the way the ball is coming off his foot. It's not the field goal attempts, it's the kickoffs. I wish Bielema would let someone else execute the kickoffs. There's gotta be someone else on the team that can put it 5 yards deep into the end zone. You can find a dozen DII kickers that can do it. There's a reason that kickers refer to kickoffs as "leg killers".
Illinois 43, Purdue 27 Postgame
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Curbelo Fanboy
BERTBALL IS LIFE
At least the yard marker didn’t float away today.
I never heard the 5 star RB stuff.
His blocking is surprisingly bad for his size. Just doesn't seem to recognize or pick up the blitzer in time. Don't think it's a willingness issue
So, first win out of the last three tries. That’s quite a drought.
GrayGhost77
- Centennial, CO
Yeah. If weren't missing our X factor our defense would be Miles better.
He ran good against usc
For being a big guy he’s not a physical player.
It's week 6 and we were only out 1 starter on defense. He's a great player but comparatively to other programs. That's insanely good injury luck
Krombopulos_Michael
- Aurora, Illinois (that’s a suburb of Chicago)
He ran OK but he caught the ball well, as he always has. He's a pass catching big RB. That's his strength. Just keep passing him the ball.
It was in a article a couple weeks after the win against the gamecocks and was mentioned on here for a week or 2 by 1 insider.idk if the other kid wanted to much guaranteed snaps or money or what but ive never seen the name.ill look and see if I can find a reference to it but bret has brought it over the summer a couple of times of said player reaching out while we still had mccray before he packed his bags and left.i think had that happened we could possibly have another playmaker in the back field
??? Purdue was throwing 3 guys (tackle, TE, back) at times towards Gabe. Other teams also sent a lot of protection his way. The other guys need to get home when 1 player commands that kind of attention and to their credit did a better job at containing Brown in the second half
When Illinois is in short yardage situations, it seems like Feagin runs too upright to be a true power back. Seems like if he lowered his shoulders and exploded into the line he'd have better success getting 1-2 yards for a first down.
He had 1 really good play in that he got like 60-70% of his yards for the game on a catch where he stayed inside barely to get the touchdown.im not trying to knock the kid but in my eyes and medida he's not a starter in the big ten.yea he's averaging 4.3 per carry but against non p4 it'd be alot worse fr l.i hope he can find his stride but I really think going forward if we dont find a 2nd to valentine going forward were not going to be good next year especially considering were loosing luke.rb is the qb best friend right?
I agree with you 100% here. I didn't see them doubling and chipping, but if that's the case and nobody else could get home.....that's an enormous problem.
I think you're jumping to conclusions and really oversimplifying things in several regards in an effort to defend Henry by laying most of the blame on player ability.
First off the whole purpose of the DC is to create a scheme that hides his player's weaknesses as best as he can and play to their strengths. It is not as simple as saying "welp I don't think the players can compete so best I can do is just move everyone 10yds off the line of scrimmage so they don't get a quick score".
You're saying our corners can't play man coverage and they aren't able to press. How exactly do you know that's the case? What evidence exactly do you have of that? I'd say our best downs today for our DBs was when we were pressing. Put another way we seem completely incapable of even stopping 3rd and very long when we drop 7 or 8 in zone coverage.
I think Henry's schemes are made for being able to get consistent major disruptive pressure from the front 4 and instinctive physical corners who can get downhill fast and hammer players when the qb needs to inevitably check down. And while that's the scheme, that's not what is happening. Our front 4 struggles at getting consistent pressure, and we're giving opposing skill players way too much space from the line of scrimmage allowing qbs to just absolutely dissect us as their receivers just run through us.
I have an incredibly tough time just blaming players for that. You can blame them for missed tackles, blame them for poor angles or instincts, but you cannot blame them for putting them in positions to fail and refusing to adjust for the weaknesses. And this drop zone coverage ain't it. I thought Henry's gameplan today absolutely stunk. Maybe you thought it was great and the players were the issue, but I'll be real, what the hell are players supposed to do when the scheme is giving the opposing WRs 10yds from the line of scrimmage to run free? It was utter garbage.
And do you really think the Scotts, Bailey, Clarke, Cox, and Patterson are just completely devoid of talent, high school at best level players? Or maybe just maybe is the scheme possibly letting them down?
You might not like people calling out coaches, but to think this is almost entirely on the players and recruiting, I mean come on.
Not just your opinion.
We can do emphatically better than Aaron Henry and Bart Miller.
Mark my words OSU is the last game Henry has the defensive headset. Bret has hinted at Henry needing to be better after both the Indiana game and this game.
We have anything close to a repeat of Indiana and. At the bye I anticipate the headset goes to Jamo or literally anyone else.
Henry’s last stand, put together a game plan ala Michigan 2024 or give it up. There is no way in hell he is the best we can do.
Zero chance AHen gets let go in the middle of the year.
Just bc someone's listed at 250 lbs doesn't mean they're a bruiser between tackles... Feel like Feagin size's only a threat when he gets the ball in space with a 5 yd head start. Personally give me Valentine's one cut get and downhill quick!
who? (sry, bad algebra joke, couldn't help myself)
Good win. Purdue always plays us tough and crazy things can happen in rivalry games.
Biggest concerns for me going forward are 2 fold:. 1. Inability to get a push up front/too many TFLs and 2. Inability to get off the field on third and long (we have to have the worst % in the country in stopping teams on third and 10+). Both looked to be fixed last week but reared their heads again. O Line gets a partial pass missing Kreutz.
Next week is a house money game. OSU is good but not unbeatable. If we play like we did against USC think we have a shot. Will never take 5-1 for granted. Go Illini!
Biggest concerns for me going forward are 2 fold:. 1. Inability to get a push up front/too many TFLs and 2. Inability to get off the field on third and long (we have to have the worst % in the country in stopping teams on third and 10+). Both looked to be fixed last week but reared their heads again. O Line gets a partial pass missing Kreutz.
Next week is a house money game. OSU is good but not unbeatable. If we play like we did against USC think we have a shot. Will never take 5-1 for granted. Go Illini!
#s 9, 14, 16, and 18 lose. Illini moving on up tomorrow.
Won a big ten road game against a pesky team that had two weeks to rest and prepare.
Won a big ten road game against a pesky team that had two weeks to rest and prepare.
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