Looking ahead to 2024

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#151      

skyIdub

skyIdub
Winged Warrior
skyIdub
skyIdub said:
Honestly I've done both, but definitely lean towards the specific thread. I have a genuinely, sometimes unfortunately....SQUIRREL attention span sometimes.
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Lmao...and the funny part of this is I literally just clicked on the Football Recruiting thread....and it took me to the last page I read.

Page 2 in early November. So I read through all the pages leading up to todays amazing news.
It's kinda fun that way!
 
#152      

Fighter of the Nightman

Fighter of the Nightman
Chicago, IL
Fighter of the Nightman
IlliniFanHere said:
I met Zook at a sort of "meet and greet"... fantastic personality, guy you would have a beer with....excellent repore with fans....yes it was magical, but sadly went south.....but that victory at Ohio State and The Rose Bowl were special.
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I certainly LIKED Zook, and I would never disagree with the assertion that easily the most enjoyable single season of my viewing lifetime was provided to us by him! In that sense, I still kind of love the guy. With that said, I interpreted the original post saying he'd take Zook back right now ... but I think what he was actually saying is he'd take beating OSU in Columbus and going to the Rose Bowl back, and it's like yeah, we all would. :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO: However, that was far from the norm under Zook.
 
#153      

pruman91

pruman91
Paducah, Ky
pruman91
skyIdub said:
Honestly I've done both, but definitely lean towards the specific thread. I have a genuinely, sometimes unfortunately....SQUIRREL attention span sometimes.

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#154      

GMAN55

G
GMAN55
FrankNitty30 said:
You know, being in the BIG 10 in this landscape is going to raise our level of recruiting. SEC and Big 10 is where people want to go. Then you have the FSU, the Clemson, etc but for the most part the BiG 10 and SEC will elevate recruiting n this current college FB landscape.

Case in point: look at MIZZOU. Not a juggernaut program historically. But since joining the SEC they have recruited consistently better.

I could be wrong.
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Missouri also passed a state law that any high school player that commits to Missouri can get NIL while stilli in high school. if they comit to any other program they cant get NIL in high school
 
#157      

ptgrd23

ptgrd23
ptgrd23
Injury to Feagin destroyed Brad's ball control protect the defense strategy.

Paddock was excellent vs. Minnesota, Indiana and NW. However if Feagin had not been injured I think we pick up the crucial 3rd downs vs. Iowa and NW netting us 2 more wins and a bowl slot.

Yes the B10 will be much tougher next year. Too bad they did not take the bottom 4 schools - Colorado 4-8 Cal 6-6 Stanford 3-9 and Arizona State 3-9. Then we would be projecting a win at Colorado instead off loss at Oregon.

Biggest differences between this year and last year

- QB - DeVito was better than Altmyer/Paddock 5 interceptions vs. 13 in 2023

- RB: Chase Brown was better than our replacements 166 yards per game in 2022 vs 126 yds per game in 2023

- Pass defense went from best in country to mediocre , 24 interceptions 174 yds/game in 2022, 7 interceptions 228 yds/game 2023

I am optimistic about 2024

- Altmyer will be better with full year of experience

- Feagin (assuming no injury) we can build our offense around
 
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#159      

AutoPoster 3000

AutoPoster 3000
AutoPoster 3000
For me these are the key stats for Bielena’s tenure so far.

20 out of 37 (54%) games were decided by one score.

By my count, we have only lost games by more than one score 8 times (22%) from 2021 to 2023. And only Virginia, Wisconsin (2021) and Penn St, Purdue (2023) were losses by more than two scores.

It’s pretty remarkable how quickly bielema transformed this program from one that fairly rountineky was humiliated by blowout losses (remember 63-0?) to a program that very consistently plays competitively no matter the opponent. It’s an achievement even if it was accomplished with Lovie’s recruits.

But, unfortunately, I think that gets somewhat lost as a consequence of so many heartbreaking losses late in 4th quarters, which has a disproportionately negative effect on people’s perceptions.

We just missed bowl eligibility by razor thin margins in 2021. We just missed winning the B1G west and playing in 14 games and likely a prestige bowl by razor thin margins in 2022. We just missed bowl eligibility again in 2023 by razor thin margins.

It’s just really hard as a fan to fully appreciate how much this program has improved by objective measurements when we’ve had to stomach so much disappointment and bitterness from all the near misses.
 
#162      

FrankNitty30

F
FrankNitty30
GMAN55 said:
Missouri also passed a state law that any high school player that commits to Missouri can get NIL while stilli in high school. if they comit to any other program they cant get NIL in high school
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Yeah….. but Missouri football ain’t that great. But, if you got all the best players that would still be great.
 
#163      

BZuppke

BZuppke
Plainfield
BZuppke
AutoPoster 3000 said:
For me these are the key stats for Bielena’s tenure so far.

20 out of 37 (54%) games were decided by one score.

By my count, we have only lost games by more than one score 8 times (22%) from 2021 to 2023. And only Virginia, Wisconsin (2021) and Penn St, Purdue (2023) were losses by more than two scores.

It’s pretty remarkable how quickly bielema transformed this program from one that fairly rountineky was humiliated by blowout losses (remember 63-0?) to a program that very consistently plays competitively no matter the opponent. It’s an achievement even if it was accomplished with Lovie’s recruits.

But, unfortunately, I think that gets somewhat lost as a consequence of so many heartbreaking losses late in 4th quarters, which has a disproportionately negative effect on people’s perceptions.

We just missed bowl eligibility by razor thin margins in 2021. We just missed winning the B1G west and playing in 14 games and likely a prestige bowl by razor thin margins in 2022. We just missed bowl eligibility again in 2023 by razor thin margins.

It’s just really hard as a fan to fully appreciate how much this program has improved by objective measurements when we’ve had to stomach so much disappointment and bitterness from all the near misses.
Click to expand...
Great post.
 
#164      

MoCoMdIllini

MoCoMdIllini
Montgomery County, Maryland
MoCoMdIllini
#168      

Illinivek23

Illinivek23
Gurnee
Illinivek23
Curious which of the devo guys that didn't see any action this year is the staff most excited about being able to contribute next year?
 
#174      

BZuppke

BZuppke
Plainfield
BZuppke
I’ve not analyzed them but Oregon as a playoff team this year - do they lose a lot of talent for 2024?
 
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