I realize this, and I’m never expecting Illinois to be an elite football program. I just want them to win the games they should win consistently. This Minnesota team is not good.
I believe you express the sentiments of a huge segment of Illini Nation. I know you express ours perfectly. Those of us who've been around a while know it's been the same for decade upon decade. We've grown to expect and accustomed to what happened yesterday. Although we enjoyed being at the game going into it we really had a preconceived notion that what happened was how it was yet again meant to be. As we walked to the parking lot the general feel among the people we interacted with was that this was somewhat anticipated. I believe in the coaching staff and I believe the players give their all but this stuff happens every time we think the culture has finally changed. We will always be supporters but every time this happens it becomes a bit harder to ever be truly optimistic. How many times will this feeling repeat itself?
Gotta be good before you can be great. We aren't a deep team yet and sometimes I think we are overthinking how we play football.
We were underdogs, it's hard to say we should "win these games consistently". If anything we have won a lot of the coin flip games this year (Kansas/Nebraska/Purdue). Analytics have been lower on us than the pollsters all year. I just think this is probably more like 7-5 team than a 10-2 team and there's nothing really wrong with that.
We were at home against a team that was beaten at home by a bad UNC team and smoked at home by Iowa.
8-4 more likely. You never know what can happen but check the win probabilities for the remaining 3 games.
This is true. What is also true is that Minnesota had a much softer schedule during that same time frame. I think Minnesota is slightly better than Illinois, but not by much (hence close line). The game yesterday came down to two momentum plays. Fleck going for fake punt with all momentum and failing (Illini take advantage). After Illini take lead, Minnesota converts 2nd and 10 for 37 yards on an underthrown ball, where defender simply never found ball. At worst it should have been a 15 yard PI, not a long completion. If the ball is broken up as it should have been, then it is 3rd and 10, Illini still with all momentum.
I agree. We are perennially in the bottom four of the conference for recruiting. Without a big NIL boost, I'm afraid this is about as good as it gets, folks.
quality wise , we needed to play a B+ game
I've heard J leman say on werners podcast that he actually found it harder to pay at home sometimes than on the road because of this exact vibe. The crowd brings this weird tension where they are just waiting for something to go wrong. and I have seen it so many times at games. Everyone is nervously quiet, and the first time the opponent scoresb or something the balloon deflates.
Sadly, this is a longterm trend of fans not making MS a true home field advantage. A lot has been placed at the feet of coaches and players, but fans have really not done their part over the years. No idea how we "get there" from a fans perspective, but it is concerning. I fear a very unengaged crowd in two weeks, and that is exactly the opposite of what is needed. The team has the potential of winning 9 games, which is rare territory for the program, yet you would not know it looking at crowd engagement.
Everyone on this board needs to call all their friends and get them to show up lol.
They need to make Memorial Stadium a more intimidating place to play for opponents. Make it more compact in to bring the fans and students closer to the field and trap in the noise. I noticed that there were students sitting in the southeast corner of the stadium for the Michigan game and it helped.
