ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
It made *some* sense early when they wanted to see what they had and play young guys. But now that the guys spending reps off the field are experienced Lovie recruits it just doesn't make any sense at all.
Maryland 63, Illinois 33 POSTGAME
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It made *some* sense early when they wanted to see what they had and play young guys. But now that the guys spending reps off the field are experienced Lovie recruits it just doesn't make any sense at all.
Smith, said he did a bad job of preparing the team. He said this after the Purdue game. It becomes meaningless rhetoric. He said he's seen cracks in other games but nothing like this. I saw big cause for concern after the Kent State game. Look, either these guys are really bad at coaching football or the talent level isn't very good. Tell me how much can actually change from this year to next defensively with the same scheme, players who are a year older, redshirts playing, and frosh. I'm goign to say not near enough. 700 yards. Amazing
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
The bolded is basically magic in college football, but it's going to take an awful lot of magic to get this anywhere near respectability.
Sadly Lovie is just not meant for coaching at the college level. He needs self motivated talent - NFL.
This is becoming a bigger fear of mine. I suppose there is still time for this to all "click" for these guys and maybe Abraham and Phair's departures were devastating to this group, but it feels like we are running out of time and hope. Our Sophomore class as a whole has been a massive disappointment so far on D. Maybe a new DB and DL coach with maturing players can bring about substantial improvement next year but it's starting to feel like a real long shot.
Deleted member 656517
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Fire Nickerson and Stoker. Never seen so much out of place defense in my life. They literally ran 3 plays the entire game. Had defender’s running around like a bunch of chicken’s with their head’s cut off over Maryland’s pointless motions. If you go 3 strong quarter’s against penn st it goes to show we have players. The big plays given up are a de
JFGsCoffeeMug
BU:1 Trash cans:0
- Chicago
Losing this game, by this margin, is simply inexcusable.
So dejected had to give it a night before posting.
What can anyone say? We can see that we are close but just so incredibly far away with our defense playing as it has.
Maryland was not good. There is no reason we shouldn’t have been able to win that game. D has a great first series, offense moves the ball all game... we should be competing but it is impossible when giving up 700 yds and 60 points to a bad offense. In fact I’d argue we should have been close the last 2 games - if we don’t turnover 5 times vs UW and get TDs not FGs vs UM we hang around much longer but ultimately doesn’t matter with the defensive performance
I was positive glass half full up until now. 3-4 was expected and the season comes down to competing in all and winning 1 maybe 2 of UM, Minny, Neb, NW. first exam was a total fail and I have no idea how to fix 60 pts, 700 yds. I’d like to hope we have a chance against Minnesota - they have he least scary O (but Mary was so bad!). I have a feeling Taylor Martinez may hang 70 on us - Nebraska has more offense than Maryland. NW shouldn’t scare you, but if their QB plays like an avg 4 year starter we’ll make him look like Tom Brady with 2-3 wideouts running wide open on every play
Something needs to change fast on D just don’t know if that is possible. Under normal circumstances you could say drop the D coordinator but given Lovie’s role and background our D may be very well just as tied up in our programs CEO as anyone else
What can anyone say? We can see that we are close but just so incredibly far away with our defense playing as it has.
Maryland was not good. There is no reason we shouldn’t have been able to win that game. D has a great first series, offense moves the ball all game... we should be competing but it is impossible when giving up 700 yds and 60 points to a bad offense. In fact I’d argue we should have been close the last 2 games - if we don’t turnover 5 times vs UW and get TDs not FGs vs UM we hang around much longer but ultimately doesn’t matter with the defensive performance
I was positive glass half full up until now. 3-4 was expected and the season comes down to competing in all and winning 1 maybe 2 of UM, Minny, Neb, NW. first exam was a total fail and I have no idea how to fix 60 pts, 700 yds. I’d like to hope we have a chance against Minnesota - they have he least scary O (but Mary was so bad!). I have a feeling Taylor Martinez may hang 70 on us - Nebraska has more offense than Maryland. NW shouldn’t scare you, but if their QB plays like an avg 4 year starter we’ll make him look like Tom Brady with 2-3 wideouts running wide open on every play
Something needs to change fast on D just don’t know if that is possible. Under normal circumstances you could say drop the D coordinator but given Lovie’s role and background our D may be very well just as tied up in our programs CEO as anyone else
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
Yeah nobody wants to hear it but even discounting some of the garbage time stuff, that was a pretty good offensive performance. Getting benched seems to have done AJ Bush some good, he was not playing hero ball as badly as previously.
Deleted member 569417
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We are close? To what?
Defense is the problem Lovie is going to have to look in the mirror and hire a top notch defensive guru. The scheme can work but when you have players out there that don’t know what the heck is going on it’s going to be a long day. Defenses are figuring out that Hansen Phillips , and sometimes Roundtree are the only ones to worry about. Hansen saved at least 3 more td’s yesterday
Illinir1
- Camdenton, MO
Allowing 55 PPG in Big Ten play if you remove that Rutgers game...that's...not good. There's no way they get another win with their remaining schedule.
Can't believe people are surprised by Lovie's lack of emotion. That's just who the guy is, I was excited for his hire because i thought he'd at least get the program out of embarrassment territory both off the field and on but nothing has really improved at all.
I'm not sure what the answer is for this program...they're going to have to strike gold with a young coordinator or something at this point. Who even comes here to coach?
Can't believe people are surprised by Lovie's lack of emotion. That's just who the guy is, I was excited for his hire because i thought he'd at least get the program out of embarrassment territory both off the field and on but nothing has really improved at all.
I'm not sure what the answer is for this program...they're going to have to strike gold with a young coordinator or something at this point. Who even comes here to coach?
True
A few catches that should have been caught get completed and the offense looks even better.
I think we are close to competing, but like I said at the same time impossibly far away. It comes down to our D - if we give up 60+ / 700 yds to a bad O like Mary we never will win. However I say we are close because of O and the glimpses of the D working (USF, 75% PSU - bend but didn’t break aided by timely to’s and penalties). If our D is just bad and not historically bad (say 40 points to Mary or 35-40 to UW) we are playing the what if game of not 5 first half TOs or getting TDs vs FGs in likely very competitive losses
Deleted member 746094
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If the WR’s typically make those catches we can say “should have been caught”. Unfortunately, our current WR Corp has no business in D1. The lack of their ability to make routine catches blows my mind at this level. They are okay athletes that lack the fundamentals that should have been mastered before camp broke. We have a bunch of possession receivers that can’t catch. Can’t have a passing attack without weapons.
However, this is one position where I will actually say injuries and defections have hurt the team.
Deleted member 746094
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I try not to be argumentative on here because we are all entitled to our opinions. However, we aren’t close to anything other than another coaching staff and a “fresh start” or another season of giving up 40pts and 500yds a game.
Unfortunately, our O is marginally better than our D at this point so we just look terrible all around. Throw in special teams giving up KO returns and we are close alright, close to being the worst program in D1 football.
I'd suggest a combination of both. The lack of footspeed on the defensive side of the ball was marked . . . . our guys took bad angles and were simply outrun time . . .after . . .time . . . after . . . time . . .
Illinois has not done well with resets. You guys were on a 3 year plan, I thought 5 years was more accurate if we did the right things. Think of an SMU type rebuild about 3 years post death penalty. That what was inherited by Whitman.
Looking at positives is that we have a competent running, kicking, punting game. Developing depth at QB and WR. Defense to young w/out enough stars.
Next year need to lean in transfer market on defense to gain size, talent, depth, experience. But don't give up on developing young talent. But reality is probably over half of players don't stick around 3-4 years.
Looking at positives is that we have a competent running, kicking, punting game. Developing depth at QB and WR. Defense to young w/out enough stars.
Next year need to lean in transfer market on defense to gain size, talent, depth, experience. But don't give up on developing young talent. But reality is probably over half of players don't stick around 3-4 years.
Glad I left home to go to the races when we were still (relatively) in the game, on the scoreboard anyway. And then I saw the final score while I was at the track...
Somehow, the masochistic Illini fan in me is still planning on heading up to Lincoln for the Nebraska game in a couple weeks...
Somehow, the masochistic Illini fan in me is still planning on heading up to Lincoln for the Nebraska game in a couple weeks...
I’ve been telling people that starting a new football program from scratch would have been an easier job than what Whitman inherited.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
It's a good line, but it ain't true.
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