Indiana 63, Illinois 10 Postgame

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#326      
illinifan31
AutoPoster 3000 said:
I don’t want to overreact, and the injuries were a factor, but it is exceptionally rare, almost unprecedented, for a “top 10” team to get dismantled and totally humiliated like this. Lose, even badly, yes, it happens. But not this. It’s a disgrace. There’s no other word for it.

And it’s probably not fair, and almost certainly not rational, but a loss on this scale resurrects all our old demons. We’re not back in the abyss, but the abyss has returned to stare back at us.
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I believe actually it is the biggest loss by a top 10 team to a team outside the top 10 in the history of college football. So it may in fact be unprecidented.
 
#327      
Todd99
Illinifan533 said:
One loss and Illini fans are ready to jump off the ledge. The USC thread is already miserable. After thinking about last night, it’s established that Illinois is a second tier Big Ten team, which means they could win anywhere from 6-9 games depending on their schedule, health, and favorable bounces. Last year, the Illini had good fortune in all 3 phases. Got dominated by Oregon, and offensively outside of 2 drives struggled against Penn State who committed several mistakes to keep the game close, but otherwise we were good enough to compete with everyone else we faced. It’s a hard truth for us to accept but Cignetti is a top 5 coach and he has already made Indiana a top tier program, which we have struggled against the last few years. Bielema and the staff have done a good job developing the current roster into a competitive team, but they’re just not good enough to hang with the big boys because the talent isn’t there…yet. We need to have a solid season to retain the talented recruiting class we have coming in and build on that if we want the program to take the next step. This year may end up a lot like 2021 Iowa State, a team that returned almost all its starters and was considered a Big 12 and playoff favorite only to finish 7-6. If that does happen to the 2025 Illini, hopefully we don’t follow the steps of that Cyclone team that followed up 2021 with a 4-8 season before rebounding the next 3 seasons because I cannot bear to see the Crying Illini fans b*tch and moan about how Illinois is the only program in the world that loses football games and disappoints its fans.
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^^^^
Well said!

It is, after all, just a college football game.
 
#328      
Old.Edgy
BrownTown said:
We would have been calling for his job last year if it hadn't been for Luke having JUST enough time to deliver the ball to Pat Bryant at Rutgers.

That one play (though he barely had time to get the ball off) really helped us forget that he had NO TIME in the pocket all day before that play.

If there is any good thing that comes from this embarrassment? Bret will have to look internally-- and seriously-- at this staff, our depth, our recruiting, etc. and make some hard decisions that could be pushed off with a run of the mill 27-20 loss.
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True this....but this has always been true, especially at Illinois... You can't attract good recruits or good coaching staff if you don't win games. If you don't get good recruits and good staff, you CAN'T win games. The old 'catch 22'... Now with the NIL & Portal era fully implemented, If you don't have money to spend, you also can't get top players... We are Illinois... we are allowed to catch lightning in a bottle only once every few years, and that was last year...
 
#331      
madillini4
BrownTown said:
The remaining teams on the schedule certainly make that attainable. Though I think we lose one of these games.

Purdue
Rutgers
Maryland
Wisconsin
Northwestern
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You’re missing @washington which is easily the most difficult of the rest of our games outside of USC and Ohio State. Wisconsin is trash, northwestern is trash, Rutgers is at home, as well as Maryland at home. Maryland is pretty good but getting them at home should be a win.
 
#332      
BrownTown
madillini4 said:
You’re missing @washington which is easily the most difficult of the rest of our games outside of USC and Ohio State. Wisconsin is trash, northwestern is trash, Rutgers is at home, as well as Maryland at home. Maryland is pretty good but getting them at home should be a win.
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I just put the games that I thought we would be favored.

USC
OSU
@WASH

I think we'll be underdogs in.
 
#334      
aaeismacgychel
Joel Goodson said:
missed assignments happen. that said, Arkin's failure to pick up the outside guy was brutal. especially from a 2X captain. can't happen

the whole game was brutal. Bret's going to have to make some hard decisions. the ceiling for this team is 8-4. I'd love to be wrong
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From my perspective that was somewhat the theme last night. Guys were flat out missing or whiffing blocking assignments. And at least in the 1st half, it wasn't even so much what Indiana was doing or calling, unlike Duke who had extremely exotic packages meant to confuse, it was players just unable to make the 1 on 1 play.

I know this is going to sound off-the-walls considering what we saw, but I actually thought our 1st Quarter OL scheme as a whole was decent enough. Even most of the 1st half, we did have players giving Luke time, and in the right positions to make the blocks. But you had Feagin whiffing twice, you had Kreutz getting steamrolled, you had nothing from the tight ends. And then by the second half they weren't blocking as a unit anymore.

And on special teams, as you mentioned, same thing with Arkin. Just unaware.

I do think scheming needs to change. Since the TEs aren't doing a good job blocking anyways, might as well start having them leak out as safety valves. But I think the biggest issue is we can't give everyone on the line additional support, at some point our lineman need to win some 1 on 1 battles. Davis and Priestly are 2 of those guys that should be those guys but haven't been. Kreutz should have the leverage and speed to hold his own, he hasn't.

I haven't been a big Bart Miller fan, and I think Lunney needs to be more aware of our deficiencies in the line in his playcalls, but at the same time, at some point you need your guys to win their matchup or win a 1 on 1 battle, and we just aren't. It also hurts that the Altmyer/Kreutz combo just hasn't been great at identifying blitz pickup
 
#337      
Illini in Italy
I'm just going to try and continue to enjoy the ride . . .potholes and all

Screenshot 2025-09-21 at 11.32.10 AM.png
 
#338      
LJ22
BrownTown said:
We haven't had good offensive line play in 5 years that Bret has been here. I'm sorry but it's just true.

Last year for a stretch run they played well. Pat Bryant heroics, a routing of Northwestern and an overrated USC team helped us forget what was very mediocre last year.

As for selling your returners making a better case for their pro career.

-JC Davis is destroying his draft stock by coming back.
-Melvin Priestly ....well does Melvin stuff
-Kreutz may get a camp invite at best for his name recognition.
-Gabe feasted on FCS and has been non-existent in the Big time.
-Xavier Scott further cemented his injury prone reputation
-Bailey has been good but will the league want him as an early entrant? Saw quite a few plays he gave up on expecting the Cornerback to make the tackle
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Did we have a few key plays last year that put some games in the W column? Absolutely.

But a mediocre team doesn't beat SC in the Citrus Bowl (without their WR1).
 
#345      
the juiceman cometh
Having had time to digest this, I think the thing that disappoints me most is it feels like we were in a similar situation to Indiana going into this offseason. We had very successful seasons that looked like it could be a turning point for our respective programs. The kind of thing that, if capitalized on, could turn into the kind of virtuous cycle that sustains a program for years.

Indiana clearly capitalized on that. They just blew out a top 10 team on national television. Their transfer QB is now in the Heisman discussion. Their recruiting is going to get a huge bump.

We didn't capitalize. We got embarrassed on national television. Our recruits saw that. We're going to probably have to prove ourselves to them all over again to keep them. This is the kind of loss that will be brought up over and over again by opponents competing against us for recruits.

It feels like not only a missed opportunity, but a significant setback in probably the biggest stage we see this season. If we could have just been competitive, it would have been fine. Barring an upset of #1 OSU, which is basically the stuff of science fiction at this point, I think this season is another step backwards for this program. Reminds me of following up our 8-4 season in '22 with a 5-7 season in '23. Just can't seem to build momentum. 2 steps forward, one step back.
 
#346      
BrownTown
That spread could easily get to -9.5.

Only positive we have is that they will be playing 9am internal clock for a 11 am central kick off
 
#347      
Illini-Rule
madillini4 said:
Forgot about the injuries. ****.
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They are already a 5.5 point favorite over us as of this morning. And we already played that "they haven't played anyone yet" game with Indiana and all see how that turned out. We have seen the O- line and D-line performance against WIU, Duke and WMU. Yes we ended up winning big in each of those games, but good lines shouldn't struggle against that level of competition for more than a series, not a entire half. And the number tackles for loss against us is embarrassing. Not just QB sacks, but how many times do our running backs get hammered in the backfield just as they get the ball handed to them? I don't know what the rest of the season holds, but my expectations went down severely last night.
 
#348      
hooraybeer
BB is a good coach, i have faith in him to figure it out. has to be driving him insane to have such poor OL play given that it solid OL play has been his calling card his entire career
 
#350      
illiram
This fits right up there with that Iowa loss where they rolled us at Home about 7 or 8 years ago. This would have been a bad enough score vs Ohio State, but this was Indiana. I thought we had turned a corner. Next week will tell us everything about the heart of this team. That all being said, the referees blew that Targeting call. The NCAA has blown several of them this year. Something is off....

Hey at least we get to watch the Bears today :rolleyes:
 
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