Nebraska 20, Illinois 7 Postgame

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#126      
BZuppke
Ander1345 said:
True but I imagine Bret is also incredibly unhappy with things like, Reggie Lovie loses 9 and gets hurt because of OL just utterly getting blown off the ball, and then calling a jet sweep to Isaiah for another loss.

Seems to me like we should be avoiding plays that go sideways until we learn to go forwards. That was a real headscratcher.
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As I’m awake at 2:30 am utterly disgusted by tonight you ask a pertinent question: Why not more plays north/south? Slants, TE etc.
 
#127      
WeWillWhen
Six games in, this team is playing dumb, fundamentally unsound football of a character that hasn’t been seen in Champaign since the Lovie years. An obvious theory is that departed assistants had a lot more to do with the team’s quality play last year than Bielema. Scary.
 
#128      
IlliniTaffy
WeWillWhen said:
Six games in, this team is playing dumb, fundamentally unsound football of a character that hasn’t been seen in Champaign since the Lovie years. An obvious theory is that departed assistants had a lot more to do with the team’s quality play last year than Bielema. Scary.
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Losing multiple top draft picks doesn't help either. Lovie brought in talent, couldn't coach them, Bret's staff clearly could coach them. But can Bret recruit his own players to coach up?
 
#129      
BWBW
This is a situation that calls for a change midseason. Lunney out, McDonald calling the plays, as mentioned earlier in this thread, seems reasonable to me. We also need the QB under center. If Kreutz can't handle it, put someone there who can. Run and pass forward, not sideways and backward.

Stop running and passing into the strength of the opposing defense.

There was an article a week or two ago about how the Michigan strength coach was the real secret behind their success. I wonder if Tank isn't as good as we thought? An offensive lineman gets pancaked by an edge. We can't gain an inch for a first down? We have trouble with solo tackles even with both arms wrapped around the player?
 
#130      
BWBW
IIRC, Nebraska was using third and fourth string running backs who looked better than our first and second stringers.
 
#131      
N D kid
Bret has done the same thing as Lovie did, hire friends & coaches he is comfortable with & not the best coach available. Bret says the same thing week after week,”we will get this straightened out”. Right!! He also said prior to the season, this the best offensive line he has ever coached. Just maybe he is not a good judge of talent. Linebackers are slow and terrible.
 
#132      
TampaToo
IlliniTaffy said:
Losing multiple top draft picks doesn't help either. Lovie brought in talent, couldn't coach them, Bret's staff clearly could coach them. But can Bret recruit his own players to coach up?
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On paper recruiting has been a bit better the past couple of years, but mediocre at best. Lack of strong coaching has been exposed. It’s back to Groundhog Day again with this program!
 
#133      
msphdillini
Lovie brought in talent but neither he nor his assistants could coach them well.
Bret's assistants could coach good talent but left for greener pastures...
Bret neither able to bring in good talent nor he can coach.
 
#134      
illini80
That was shockingly bad football, even for Illinois. We did absolutely nothing well.

The one thing I had expectations for during the BB era was competent football. We saw that the first 2 seasons. I’ve seen none of that this season. Extremely disappointing. We’ve shown the world how to beat us and I’d fully expect it to continue. After looking forward to football since January, its time to move on for me. I’ll still listen or watch, but I’m done investing any more emotion into this dumpster fire of a season. It’s not going to get any easier on the recruiting trail this offseason.
 
#136      
mattcoldagelli
illini80 said:
That was shockingly bad football, even for Illinois. We did absolutely nothing well.

The one thing I had expectations for during the BB era was competent football. We saw that the first 2 seasons. I’ve seen none of that this season. Extremely disappointing. We’ve shown the world how to beat us and I’d fully expect it to continue. After looking forward to football since January, its time to move on for me. I’ll still listen or watch, but I’m done investing any more emotion into this dumpster fire of a season. It’s not going to get any easier on the recruiting trail this offseason.
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This is what has made this so disappointing and hard to take.

Speaking for myself, the reason for so much optimism wasn’t necessarily even the winning, it was that we finally - FINALLY - stopped beating ourselves (or at least heartily joining in on the effort when a better team was already beating us). It felt like for the first time in decades we weren’t trying to win college football games with a hand tied behind our back.

With each snap we see our guys play on Sunday, I think we’ve probably realized we lost more talent than we originally thought. That’s fine. I can live with that. There are even silver linings to that.

I cannot fathom how our program suddenly snapped back to being dumb. That just doesn’t make any sense. And it makes me wonder just how much certain highly skilled players were making certain coaches look a lot more competent than they are/ever were.
 
#138      
RabidDawgClassic
mattcoldagelli said:
I cannot fathom how our program suddenly snapped back to being dumb. That just doesn’t make any sense. And it makes me wonder just how much certain highly skilled players were making certain coaches look a lot more competent than they are/ever were.
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I don’t think this is unique to Illinois. It’s just that we so rarely have highly skilled players. Give our team to Ryan Day or Jim Harbaugh and the results would likely be similar. I doubt Nick Saban would be able to do much, either.
 
#139      
TampaToo
Something to wear to the Wisconsin game.
 

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#140      
pruman91
Well , well , well.........................A very winnable game last night if we had a capable OC and a non-porous OLine........

Not defending Altmyer , as he has issues also , but numerous low snaps and suspect play calling left Luke out on an island where he was running around for his life and making poor choices when under fire.........

He had........................

1.... Little time to set up and go through his check downs to find an open receiver.......
2....Poor choice on the interception thrown as he was woefully short with his pass and receiver was not open.......
3....21 yards rushing allowed nebby to tee off on most plays.................
4....so many TFL's on north-south play's called and lack of slants over the middle to loosen up the D.....
5....Griffin M. catching a first down pass then fumbling with a direct hit on the football and only having 1 arm on the ball...

Our defense played a somewhat good game with a few turnovers acquired as nebby was trying to help us to comeback but we were handicapped with an O that lacked imagination as evident by our initial drive of the game........we moved the ball well and for 74 yards ....it was those last inches that doomed another red zone possession without points.......

Special teams worst game this year with a poor choice on that blocked punt and the awful failure to cover a kickoff that was recovered by nebby........

What disturbs me the most is an apparent lack of fundamental play on all three units........I agree that Lunney isn't the answer but nothing probably will happen until the off season.......Gonna be hard for BB to part ways with friends such as the OC and DC but this ain't working .........

We have the leading receiver in the B$G ( I. Williams ) and he still is underutilized as are the TE's.........Seems like our offense has a good drive on first possession of the game then hibernation creeps in for a couple of quarters........

Next week against the twerps will be ugly.......on the road against a ranked team with a very good QB1 will escalate quickly into a rout , JMHO.........................

Last night was a long long long game with little to cheer for the Illini's performance........Seems like there could be one of those embarrassing 40 +- 0 lopsided losses that we all remember from years past.......

With 4 former PAC teams joining next season the road only gets bumpier going forward............I am right now trying to remember the glory of last year but it is being clouded by this rough 2-4 record this year.........

JMHO
 
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#144      
Navy_illini
Our Defense played well enough to win. I think they started three drives inside the 30 and we only gave up 20 and our offense couldn’t move the ball so the defense was on the field a long time

Couldn’t score on the 1 yd line and turnover the ball on a 4th and 1. If u can’t qb sneak it for 1 yd don’t run

Also the ball bounced their way. TE fumbled the ball right into NU hands. Our punt that looked like it hit their blocker and a couple other plays
 
#145      
Illini in Italy
How many times did we run that quick slant on 3rd down last night where the receiver wasn't open and Altmeyer threw it anyway? On top of that the receiver was short of the first down marker when the ball arrived?

I told the spousal unit the game was over after the first play of the game when we had a false start. And still stayed up until midnight to watch the rest of the game. 🤬
 
#147      
pvaughn8
GrapplingIllini said:
Yeah, Illinois fans need to chill with the idea of firing a head coach every time we have a bad year. It’s only his 3rd year and he did very well in his second year. Best season for us in YEARS.

We are not Ohio State. We can’t and shouldn’t expect a consistent upward trajectory year to year. There will be some down years like this one. All we can hope for is that there will be more good years than bad years. It’s just the reality at Illinois. Nonetheless, Bret definitely needs to make some staff changes.
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I don't want to fire BB at all right now, but you have to be careful with this line of thinking. Past few hires have showed more time did not always lead to better results. And before your know it a decade has been lost and you are that much further from relevance.
 
#148      
Illini4Chief
Cant fire a OC mid season...mmmmmmm Indiana fires OC Walt Bell......( after losing to maryland 44-17)

Total Rushing Yards for Illinois....21?
 
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#149      
john1952
Old.Edgy said:
This has been the question over and over and over again, as we fire everybody, hire new, catch lightning in a bottle once, extend contracts, drop into multiple losing seasons, fire everybody again... Over and Over and Over and Over again...
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#150      
steveinspringfield
Ramrod2010 said:
Holy balls. Yes, let's start contemplating firing Bret because we are such an absolute unit of a powerhouse that we are attractive to all of the coaches out there.

That's game thread stuff.
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Yeah, let's just keep doing what we're doing. It's working so well and the future trajectory is awesome. Illinois football will never recover after 5 more years of Bret's "leadership." Can't wait for those west coast teams to join the conference. Should really improve our results.
 
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