I was thinking similar. I think we have the talent on offense. Line is questionable but the correct play calls could mitigate and the transfer portal long term
Nebraska 20, Illinois 7 Postgame
Watching Texas Oklahoma and Ohio State Maryland games. It is definitely talent
You slept?
Absolute nonsense
6 weeks is the equivalent of 6 months. Season is 12 weeks
A lot of people have criticized the 4th down set on the first series. I kind of like it though. All they had to do was have the receiver in motion go right to left instead of left to right. Then have Altmyer fake a handoff to the left side of the line and scamper to the right corner. The tight end keeps the DL on the right side from getting outside and the fullback comes up to block the next defender who would come up. The defender on our receiver on the right would have to make a choice to stay with the receiver running an in route to the left, or leave the receiver to stop Altmyer from getting to the right corner of the end zone. Burn that cornerback for whichever decision he makes. Makes a lot more sense than trying to prove for a third time that we cannot gain a yard between the tackles.
I agree with some of what you say but our issues with the oc has been going on a lot longer than six weeks. Lunney was not good last year but it was not as noticeable because of the outstanding play of Chase and Tommy.
It’s almost to the point they’re playing to prepare for next year. Don’t you think it would be wise to give the younger QB’s time if they were to pull Luke? I’m not in favor of that as the Oline/play calling is the problem. More work should have been done in the portal in hindsight.
Well he was far away from our only or biggest reason for losing yesterday. Not trying to say he even played half well. The reason question is if we even have anyone worth trying instead and I really think the answer is a resounding no. And that is squarely on the staff
This team is struggling but so is the fandom. We acted like after one year we were going to compete for the Big Ten Championship and even get into the College playoffs! If you don't believe that go back to last years and some of this year's threads. We lost to many talented and high productive players after last year and we were fooling ourselves to think we going to be better than last year. I think there's a few issues, 1) we are impatient and need to let Bret continue to build and I do think Lunney is not getting the best out of the talent we do have. 2) I believe Bret has learned a lot from his past experiences and has the ability to steady the ship and make progress. I agree it's hard to watch, especially with what we hoped could have been a quick turnaround, but I do believe we're still in a foundation building mode. We have a new quarterback that has only started 7 games and is running around trying not to get killed way too often. Talk of firing Bret and Josh being on the Hot Seat is a little dramatic. But we are Illini fans and it's not easy! 
Go ILLINI
Go ILLINIYou aren't going to convince me this is different from the movie I've already seen 100 times with Illinois football, but I agree any talk of firing Bret is prematureThis team is struggling but so is the fandom. We acted like after one year we were going to compete for the Big Ten Championship and even get into the College playoffs! If you don't believe that go back to last years and some of this year's threads. We lost to many talented and high productive players after last year and we were fooling ourselves to think we going to be better than last year. I think there's a few issues, 1) we are impatient and need to let Bret continue to build and I do think Lunney is not getting the best out of the talent we do have. 2) I believe Bret has learned a lot from his past experiences and has the ability to steady the ship and make progress. I agree it's hard to watch, especially with what we hoped could have been a quick turnaround, but I do believe we're still in a foundation building mode. We have a new quarterback that has only started 7 games and is running around trying not to get killed way too often. Talk of firing Bret and Josh being on the Hot Seat is a little dramatic. But we are Illini fans and it's not easy!
This game can only be described as:
I dont know if it can all be on Bullen because you can't overlook the contributions of other players that helped open up things for guys like Jacas and the DL last year. Case in point: Calvin Avery. Sure, he may not have achieved superstardom, but he was a seasoned veteran player with tremendous size that wasn't a pushover.
Just to change the topic a bit, what’s with the 20-something guys strutting out at halftime like they’re the clever ones? Give me a break. And I’ll put the students in that group too. “I’ll walk out to show them players!”
Yeah, right.
Damn, the players aren’t causing this. Whether it’s a lack of talent or physical ability, or a lack of preparation by the coaches, or deficiencies in play calling, I won’t believe the players aren’t giving their all. I don’t believe there’s an athlete out there who doesn’t give it their all, if nothing else to not be humiliated.
Abandoning them when the going gets toughest saus more about you than them. We stayed to the end, and there were more, far more Nebraska fans in Memorial Stadium, all of them chanting “GO BIG RED!”
Embarrassing? Nebraska was mocking Illinois fans who left, if not more so, than the empty seats in the home and student sections.
Yeah, right.
Damn, the players aren’t causing this. Whether it’s a lack of talent or physical ability, or a lack of preparation by the coaches, or deficiencies in play calling, I won’t believe the players aren’t giving their all. I don’t believe there’s an athlete out there who doesn’t give it their all, if nothing else to not be humiliated.
Abandoning them when the going gets toughest saus more about you than them. We stayed to the end, and there were more, far more Nebraska fans in Memorial Stadium, all of them chanting “GO BIG RED!”
Embarrassing? Nebraska was mocking Illinois fans who left, if not more so, than the empty seats in the home and student sections.
illinipioneer
- Richmond, VA
I agree, was there for the first time in over 10 years and was surrounded by Huskers (which was expected they travel well) but any attempt to get the Illini around me to get an ILL going was pathetic. I know we didn’t have much to root for but it was a bit disappointing, but I suppose there’s a reason we fans are so dispondent
Maybe they just decided they had better, more enjoyable ways to spend the remainder of of the evening. Good for you on “taking one for the team” by suffering through the entire embarrassing game.
Are we watching the Arkansas Bret Bielema or the one from Wisconsin? It takes talent for sure, but it's pretty important to utilize the talent you have and that is not happening from the coaches or the players themselves. The OL should be able to help the runner get 1/2 yard, but they didn't, twice. That is unbelievable!!!!
Seems to me that you’re saying, at least in regards to the OL, that the players Bret and Bart recruited aren’t listening and/or can’t get it done. That’s very concerning.
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Firing anybody is not the answer. This has never been a long-term easy job. If coaches in modern times have been successful they have either moved on or in order to try and sustain success, then they fell into the violation mode. Josh W. is a outstanding AD for Illinois. BB is a wonderful coach. He is really pursuing recruiting ILL. as no one else has. Due to graduations and injuries this has turned into a younger team. Experience is needed in the O-line. A good O-line helps the Defense rest, opens holes for the backs to run through, provides the quarterback time to throw, while giving the receivers time to run good routes. Experience brings consistent play. BB in press meetings said that this would be a scrappy team, meaning I think that they would not dominate their opponents, but would hang in there and compete. The defense is growing better I think. The offense needs the Oline to keep improving.This team is struggling but so is the fandom. We acted like after one year we were going to compete for the Big Ten Championship and even get into the College playoffs! If you don't believe that go back to last years and some of this year's threads. We lost to many talented and high productive players after last year and we were fooling ourselves to think we going to be better than last year. I think there's a few issues, 1) we are impatient and need to let Bret continue to build and I do think Lunney is not getting the best out of the talent we do have. 2) I believe Bret has learned a lot from his past experiences and has the ability to steady the ship and make progress. I agree it's hard to watch, especially with what we hoped could have been a quick turnaround, but I do believe we're still in a foundation building mode. We have a new quarterback that has only started 7 games and is running around trying not to get killed way too often. Talk of firing Bret and Josh being on the Hot Seat is a little dramatic. But we are Illini fans and it's not easy!
Illini92and96
- Austin, TX
I don't disagree and think the offense has been !!!. I hope/expect Bert put Lunney on notice yesterday. If he can't make material progress, we'll have a new OC next fall
Illini92and96
- Austin, TX
Ok. A company has its highest profits in 15 years and everyone is excited that they finally found the right leadership. Things turn south and they fire the leaders six month later? Nah, they reassess and adjust. Maybe even put people on notice. You don't do a 180 six months after relatively tremendous success. If Bret's worth anything as a leader he'll get this team to try something new ASAP.
Brad changed away from the awful press defense schema and it worked out well. Hopefully we can make a similar pivot in football.
Seen on a Husker fan blog today: “In all my years of watching college football, that was the worst game ( by both teams ) I have ever seen. I hesitate to even call it a game... “
See, Illini Nation and Husker Nation can find common ground after all!
If both fan bases can agree that this is about the worst things can get... that bodes well for the future... doesn't it? Things must get better, right?
(No, things could still get worse. But this is finding the 'positive spin'... and looking for the nice piece of candy down in the bottom of Charlie Brown's Halloween bag filled with rocks.)
Illini2010-11
- Sugar Grove
It was absolutely worse under Mike Thomas. He hired Tim Beckman and look how that turned out! You can't compare the actual records of Whitman to Thomas because they came into much different scenarios. The program was not in shambles when Thomas took over, but it was a dumpster fire when Josh came in to try to clean up the mess and scandals of the Thomas administration.
Both football and basketball tanked under Thomas. And without the Beckman scandal, I doubt Thomas would have been fired, so he wasn't run off because he was an outsider. So yes, it was completely worse under Thomas across the board.
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