Illinois football is cool ... finally again!

I've been going to Illinois football games for 28-years. Oh yes, there has been the occasional sellout, but the excitement soon wanes as another 4-8 season goes into the books.

I planned on arriving at the stadium very early due to the sellout tailgating all day. In years past, I'd arrive 90-minutes before the game and get a nice parking spot. This past weekend, I got there three hours early and had to park on the back 40 of my assigned parking lot. That's fine, I'm glad I got a spot.

Then walking to the stadium, I could just tell there was a different vibe. An air of expectation. An expectation of excellence. Of winning. Of wanting to be part of the action.

Illinois football is cool. Coming off of big seasons before, the fans were in a "show me" mode only to be shown 4-8. And fans slipped away. Not this year.

Keep this up and Illini football will be like it was in the 80s. The best show in town.

Amen, brother! It sucked growing up in Iowa City as an Illini fan and seeing what a truly awesome gameday experience Iowa fans had at Kinnick ... and just knowing that we COULD have something similar in Champaign. The "bones" were always there, especially once Grange Grove was implemented. We just needed to give our fans a reason to believe and to "train" them to be football fanatics who live for those precious few college football Saturdays ... judging by the incredible increase in attendance since Bret got here, I would say we are learning fast!!

We were walking to the stadium and one of our group had never been to a game before. They commented how hopping it was and I pointed out that even 2 years ago it was almost a dead zone. Amazing revival to watch in real time.

I live for the day that the Illinois fans at the game are as delirious as Tennessee fans.

As a fan who goes to 1-2 games a year for the past 10-15 years, you would have brought we were playing Ohio State on Saturday, not Western Michigan. It was packed and the buzz was palpable. We wanted something to cheer for in the first half, but it was loud in the second.

My family sat next to Beerman's dad. He was super nice and was chatting with us around him. You could tell he was proud of his kid, what a moment for him to see his son get his first college snaps!

It was an amazing day. With my reseats I believe they better than the ones we had for the last couple of days years. You could not get close during the Illini Walk. Beat Indiana.

28 years, that’s impressive!

The stadium filled out nicely; and students in 101/102 is fantastic. I hope over time they choose to stick around for the whole game.