At this point, I don’t know why you’d want to play for Iowa over Bret and the Illini!
Looking ahead to 2023
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Can’t find it now, but last night I read a pretty scathing condemnation of Iowa’s offense by a Hawkeye. He closed his article by saying they need to land a QB from the transfer portal, but added someone like McNamara would be unlikely to chose IA over IL or WI, given the Hawkeye’s terrible offensive strategy and coaching. He blames both father and son btw, saying firing Brian wont fix it.
I understand Iowa's futility in offense this year. The question was asked, why would a recruit choose Iowa over Illinois? Consistency for one thing. When they are bad like they were this year, they still compete. When their offense is good, they are really good. That being said, I would rather have Brett running the show here. The potential here is great. The league is getting better and better.
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Maybe I'm the odd one out...but I don't like calling it a turnaround until there is sustained success. 1 good season could always just be catching lightning in a bottle. Look at Mel Tucker. From 11-2 and a huge contract, to 5-7 with lots of people questioning if he is good.
That said, this season has been amazing and I'm very optimistic for what the future holds.
Agree....we can point to our 2007 season as a more local example. Having said that, the body of work for Bielema and Zook/Tucker is quite different. BB was consistently successful at WI and with the exception of his last year at Arkansas did well there also. The most important job of a HC is to hire good assistants and support people, and BB has done quite well here. He has also done well at rebuilding in-state relationships. So I'm optimistic here as well
mhuml32
- Cincinnati, OH
Quan is a senior.
Fair, but there’s a reason I specified Bret; I’d argue he’s proven his consistency within this conference, and I’d argue given Ferentz’s age and nepotism issues, the future looks brighter here - as you said!!
cuillini
- San Bernardino, Ca.
My guess is that KU will be starting over with a new coach and a lot of new transfers.
mhuml32
- Cincinnati, OH
What openings are left for Leipold to consider?
Is there any reason to think Donovan Leary can't be a starter comparable to his brother Devin, who led NC State to a No. 10 ranking before he was injured this season? I'm asking in good faith; I honestly don't know how he compares to Devin, who threw for 35 TDs and 5 ints in 2021. But if he's reasonably close in talent, why wouldn't he be a legit option at QB for next season, at least as the No. 2? Just wondering if BB might have his future starting QB (for 2024 if not 2023) already on the roster.
Exactly once we know who the QB is then I'll enter the fray with prediction
I thought KU signed Leipold to an extension?
sure it's possible he could eventually be a good QB, but I wouldn't bet on it being next season. He was mainly on scout team this season and probably hasn't taken many practice reps running our offense yet. As far as how he compares to his brother, Devin had way more P5 offers out of high school and was ranked in the 300s nationally vs Donovan's ranking in the 1200s. That doesn't mean Donovan cant be good, but does seem that he wasn't as highly touted as his brother coming out of HS.
Illini92and96
- Austin, TX
A one-year extension in September and now a 2-year extension. He was averaging only 2.75M on the original deal, so I imagine it went up this latest round (I couldn't find anything that called it out).
mhuml32
- Cincinnati, OH
Unless we are going very deep into the genome project here, these posts just make me think of Illinois fans in 2003 having hypothetical conversations about why Chris Pazan isn't getting a chance to win the starting job or whether Mark Hoekstra should be the starter in 1996.
The very best QBs in Illinois' modern history were frequently awful as first-year starting underclassmen (Juice, Kittner). Scheelhaase was a revelation as a redshirt-freshman, so it isn't unprecedented. The worry is (a) we've heard zip about Leary from the coaching staff, (b) he was recruited by a previous OC and we have no idea if he's a fit for this OC, (c) starting freshmen/redshirt freshman is extremely risky. You can do it when you're rebuilding (Juice, Kittner) and take the lumps to pay off in the future. Illinois should not be taking lumps next year to go 3-9 in hopes it pays off in 2025. Recruit a transfer QB to be a one- or two-year starter and then see how Leary, Michaux, Swanson, etc. develop over that time.
The Lamb/Menkhausen debates in '86 were vigorous, and extremely pointless. (And those debates turned into Mohr/Menkhausen debates in '87, which were eventually solved by a coaching change and a notable transfer QB in '88.)
I don't see any path ending in us starting a freshman QB next year that isn't an enormous honking red flag for our prospects of sustaining success.
Pretty much everyone who knows anything has said our 2023 starting QB is not in the program right now.
I have not overanalyzed every team we play, but I actually think people are underrating us a bit here ... which, as long as it does not dilute fan excitement/ticket sales, is not necessarily a bad thing, I guess! Call me a BB homer, but I am skeptical that the new coaches at Nebraska and Wisconsin will have those teams favored against us in Champaign already by next year, and I boldly predict we are about to start a streak of being the biggest thorn in Iowa's side by Bielema driving them ABSOLUTELY crazy and beating them at their own game over and over for several years. 
Bottom line we will have to win differently if we are going to get 8 wins. The defense won't repeat this years performance. The offense is going to have to take a step forward and score more.
The qb position is always important, but for the Illini in 2023 getting someone to upgrade the position might be what determines bowl or not.
We are gonna need to average 28-31 or so points a game next year to win 8 imo.
Right now our offense ave. 24 points a game. That's good for 79th ranked nationwide.
I'd say fining a stop gap at DT and a serious upgrade at qb are our two top priorities. I'd follow this will a few db and a road grader at guard.
The qb position is always important, but for the Illini in 2023 getting someone to upgrade the position might be what determines bowl or not.
We are gonna need to average 28-31 or so points a game next year to win 8 imo.
Right now our offense ave. 24 points a game. That's good for 79th ranked nationwide.
I'd say fining a stop gap at DT and a serious upgrade at qb are our two top priorities. I'd follow this will a few db and a road grader at guard.
Mr. Tibbs
- southeast DuPage
yea, pretty hard to keep winning 5-6 conference games year after year if you dont score more than 28 points
If the offense can take a similar step forward next year to what it did from 21-22, there is room for a more "normal" performance from the D. A ~50th ranked scoring offense would probably work in this system since even with all the talent leaving the D will be above average one assumes
50th would put us ahead of Maryland Purdue Wisconsin and Minnesota.
We are scoring 5 more points a game than we did in 2021. If we improve by another 5 points in 2023 and average 29 a game we are tied with Maryland average in 2022 @ 55th in the nation.
College Football Stats - College FB Team Points per Game | TeamRankings.com
College Football points per game, by team.
www.teamrankings.com
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This team should have won 10 games to be fair. (IU, MSU). Get yourself a good QB and you will always have a good shot at 8 wins. That schedule isn't all that bad all things considered.
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