Nebraska 20, Illinois 7 Postgame

Nikethreadguysm · Oct 7, 2023

illini0440 said:
Paddock? And did you watch him when he played the 4th quarter a few weeks ago?

Look if we’re gonna do something dumb like risking losing Altmyer *and* Petty after we’ve already hurt our relationship with Jacas over our spending choices could we maybe - just maybe - use it on giving Leary some experience instead of burning it on a super senior in a lost season?

Let’s keep riding Altmyer, he’s young and needs reps, but holy moly if we’re gonna do that it better be for some reason other than “just seeing if we can do something.” Yeesh.

BRucks · Oct 7, 2023

Roundball Sage said:
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.)

The 0-0 tie vs. Northwestern in '78 would like a word.

RJK01 · Oct 7, 2023

Bootheel Illini said:
ed ArkansasAre 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!!!!

I asked this question when Bielema was hired. I was afraid we would get the guy that coached Arkansas. To me it was telling that his name never came up for open college coaching jobs.

BoiseBaller · Oct 7, 2023

Illini2010-11 said:
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.

Bit of revisionist history here. Thomas also walked into a pretty crappy situation. He was essentially tasked with firing the football and basketball coaches right out of the gate. Guenther was an extremely small time thinker as AD. He had one really dynamite hire and he let that guy get away without a fight due to his wounded pride. Thomas certainly stunk, but he didn't walk into a bed of roses. It was awful when he took it over and awful when he left.

I wasn't sold on JW out of the gate, especially since he cut his teeth under Guenther. But I've grown to appreciate several aspects of how he runs the athletic department. He's not afraid to spend money, and it takes that to make money. That said, football is the cash cow and we are paying too well to be seeing a complete nosedive in year three.

I agree dumping Bret isn't the answer he needs a chance to fix things, but he needs to really look seriously at staff changes. Lunney isn't the answer. Personally, I don't think Bart Miller is either.

Illini2010-11 · Oct 7, 2023

BoiseBaller said:
Bit of revisionist history here. Thomas also walked into a pretty crappy situation. He was essentially tasked with firing the football and basketball coaches right out of the gate. Guenther was an extremely small time thinker as AD. He had one really dynamite hire and he let that guy get away without a fight due to his wounded pride. Thomas certainly stunk, but he didn't walk into a bed of roses. It was awful when he took it over and awful when he left.

Not revisionist at all related to football. Thomas came in during the last season of Zook, and he had a full offseason to get his football hire. The team still had some pieces, but it was not great by any means. He blew that hire completely with the lasagna loving fool. Scandals arose and he was fired shortly after Beckman was fired. The result was an interim coach in Cubit for one season and no permanent AD. The administration extended Bill Cubit 1 year. In recruiting terms, this was terrible and the roster was near gutted with near non existent recruiting.

Enter Josh. He was hired in February after the normal hiring process for football was over. He made the biggest splash he could with very limited recruiting time to start for Lovie. It ultimately didn't turn out well with Lovie, but any rational viewer would see Josh having a much worse starting hand than Thomas. Period. That is why you can't only look at record when comparing the two. Context matters.

Chief512 · Oct 7, 2023

Reality we lost 7 players to the NFL, 4 coaches, 2 OL, QB, RB, and hired a DC with zero experience. I’m as frustrated as anybody, but that’s a lot to replace.

CHI 1086 · Oct 7, 2023

BRucks said:
Nebraska kept trying to give the game away. We refused to accept it.

We are really excellent hosts.

PNWIllini · Oct 7, 2023

illinipioneer said:
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

Biggest diff between midwest crowds and pacific northwest: Pacific Northwest gets loud even if the team is sucking. Or Ducking (Oregon joke).

Midwest crowds make the team prove it.

I used to live in CU and went to many Illini games. Seeing Pacific Northwest crowd behavior was somewhat eye opening.

illinipioneer · Oct 7, 2023

Chief512 said:
Reality we lost 7 players to the NFL, 4 coaches, 2 OL, QB, RB, and hired a DC with zero experience. I’m as frustrated as anybody, but that’s a lot to replace.

And it really isn’t the defense that’s the problem other than what areas we thought there would be issues I.e. the secondary, if our offense could just keep the defense off the field

BRucks · Oct 7, 2023

Chief512 said:
Reality we lost 7 players to the NFL, 4 coaches, 2 OL, QB, RB, and hired a DC with zero experience. I’m as frustrated as anybody, but that’s a lot to replace.

That's true, but the last two teams that rolled us both lost their head coaches and lots of assistants.

blackdog · Oct 7, 2023

PNWIllini said:
Biggest diff between midwest crowds and pacific northwest: Pacific Northwest gets loud even if the team is sucking. Or Ducking (Oregon joke).

Midwest crowds make the team prove it.

I used to live in CU and went to many Illini games. Seeing Pacific Northwest crowd behavior was somewhat eye opening.

I absolutely hate that about our fanbase right now. I have season tickets for football and basketball. It always infuriates me that Illinois crowds won't get loud until something good happens in the game. In my section for football people don't even get up on 3rd down even at the beginning of the game or for basketball until the team goes on a run. Kind of doesn't do a lot of good for home field advantage.

One Man Fast Break · Oct 7, 2023

This is a 3-9 football team.

Scoregasm · Oct 7, 2023

illini0440 said:
As frustrated as we all are….the coaching staff is even more frustrated. I can assure you that some of your theories on here are hilarious. Bret didn’t forget how to coach(he’s leading the same team meetings he did last year talking about the same stuff about being smart football players and situational football), Bart isn’t doing anything different(coaching/teaching wise) than he did the past 2 years. You can tell kids/show kids what to do and how to do it until you’re blue in the face and sometimes it just doesn’t matter. Walters, Patterson and Kane weren’t god last year. We had 7 NFL guys on the roster last year that were all veteran college guys. Sydney knew every play that was coming at us last year. Made sure everyone was lined up correctly it really was impressive. But back to the meeting….very intense and emotional, self reflection from everyone. They want to figure this out more than anyone. Yes Barry still has a job(for now). Schematic changes were deeply discussed. This team is badly missing senior leadership imo….Sydney, Chase and Palcho ain’t walking through that door. Coaches can lead but player leadership is a helluva lot more effective.,

You can say the exact same thing about last years basketball team...maybe Bret and Brad should have a drink together.

Coop70 · Oct 7, 2023

BRucks said:
The 0-0 tie vs. Northwestern in '78 would like a word.

After that game Dan Roan, wcia broadcaster said "a tie in football is like kissing your sister. A tie with Northwestern is like kissing your ugly sister. "

illiniguy · Oct 7, 2023

Coop70 said:
After that game Dan Roan, wcia broadcaster said "a tie in football is like kissing your sister. A tie with Northwestern is like kissing your ugly sister. "

Was that the guy they named the expressway after?

bdutts · Oct 7, 2023

illiniguy said:
Was that the guy they named the expressway after?

Dan Ryan…but Dan Roan is a treasure.

skyIdub · Oct 7, 2023

Well, I know Bret likes to give his coaches autonomy and let them do their job....but we are two games too late to be implementing something different on offense, and that is on Lunney. If the CEO lets you do your job without much interference, you better gd well do that job.
Lunney is not doing his job. It is painfully obvious. He is over his head. Last years talent shielded him. TommyD was way more comfortable and had a real running game to support and set up his passing.

He is not setting Luke (or our OL) up for success. He has continually put them in horrible situations with his questionable play calls. I have seen enough of Luke to know he is a capable QB when he is in a rhythm with time. He is getting neither of those. The few times we've had running success, it's almost immediately abandoned.

I'm just sitting here on my Run or Die hill....waiting for the supposed Bret Bully Ball....and confused as hell with the direction we have gone.
What we are doing does not work. Whether it's talent or scheme is for smarter football brains to figure out.
IMO, you have to scheme to your strengths. Luke looks VERY uncomfortable right now. His stats show it. He's forcing throws in desperation to make something happen.

Perhaps it's time to go back to basics and fundamentals.

BashCtIllini · Oct 7, 2023

blackdog said:
I absolutely hate that about our fanbase right now. I have season tickets for football and basketball. It always infuriates me that Illinois crowds won't get loud until something good happens in the game. In my section for football people don't even get up on 3rd down even at the beginning of the game or for basketball until the team goes on a run. Kind of doesn't do a lot of good for home field advantage.

sports is the only place in the world where people think the paying customer owes something to the performers and not the other way around.

Sports is entertainment, no different from a movie, play, or concert. If I'm not entertained I don't owe a damn thing to the team. If I'm not excited, it is not my job to get up anyway to help the team out.

There are always the diehards, but what exactly do you expect with Illini football? Look at Oregon football's results. They've had 2 seasons in the last 20 years where they were under .500, and in that time span they've had 12 seasons with double digit wins. Oh you think they get more excited about football? Illinois on the other hand, over that same period we've had 5 seasons over .500 (only once back to back) and one double digit win season. 1 conference title over that period compared to Oregon's 8. If you want to look at Washington, they struggled the first half of that 20 year period, but since 2010 they've been better than .500 11 of 12 years (i've skipped the covid year in all these counts). They've had 3 conference titles and 4 double digit win seasons in that 12 years too.

So if I haven't made it abundantly clear, I don't see how anyone can expect wild support when over the last 41 years, we're going all the way back to the 1983 Rose Bowl team, over 41 years Illini football has won 43% of their games. We've won 3 conference championships, in 41 years. We've only had 14 seasons (34%) over .500 and 9 of those were in the prior millennium. All of our last 6 coaches have left with a sub .500 record and Bielema is at .500 exactly currently. So quite frankly it's a little shocking we have any fan support at all. Quite frankly it was depressing looking this up to see just how bad it was. If I factored out all of the cupcake wins, dear lord.

I consider myself extremely lucky, we were 23-12 for my 3 years on campus. The most wins anyone has been able to see in a 4 year period in Champaign was 30 in the late 80s/early 90s. If you were unlucky enough to graduate in 2006, you got to see 8 wins over your time at the fair alma mater. On average you got to see 19.4 wins over your 4 years.

So there, I win depressing post of the year award. But it always annoys me when people act like fans owe the team something.

Point-Illinois · Oct 7, 2023

BashCtIllini said:
sports is the only place in the world where people think the paying customer owes something to the performers and not the other way around.

Sports is entertainment, no different from a movie, play, or concert. If I'm not entertained I don't owe a damn thing to the team. If I'm not excited, it is not my job to get up anyway to help the team out.

There are always the diehards, but what exactly do you expect with Illini football? Look at Oregon football's results. They've had 2 seasons in the last 20 years where they were under .500, and in that time span they've had 12 seasons with double digit wins. Oh you think they get more excited about football? Illinois on the other hand, over that same period we've had 5 seasons over .500 (only once back to back) and one double digit win season. 1 conference title over that period compared to Oregon's 8. If you want to look at Washington, they struggled the first half of that 20 year period, but since 2010 they've been better than .500 11 of 12 years (i've skipped the covid year in all these counts). They've had 3 conference titles and 4 double digit win seasons in that 12 years too.

So if I haven't made it abundantly clear, I don't see how anyone can expect wild support when over the last 41 years, we're going all the way back to the 1983 Rose Bowl team, over 41 years Illini football has won 43% of their games. We've won 3 conference championships, in 41 years. We've only had 14 seasons (34%) over .500 and 9 of those were in the prior millennium. All of our last 6 coaches have left with a sub .500 record and Bielema is at .500 exactly currently. So quite frankly it's a little shocking we have any fan support at all. Quite frankly it was depressing looking this up to see just how bad it was. If I factored out all of the cupcake wins, dear lord.

I consider myself extremely lucky, we were 23-12 for my 3 years on campus. The most wins anyone has been able to see in a 4 year period in Champaign was 30 in the late 80s/early 90s. If you were unlucky enough to graduate in 2006, you got to see 8 wins over your time at the fair alma mater. On average you got to see 19.4 wins over your 4 years.

So there, I win depressing post of the year award. But it always annoys me when people act like fans owe the team something.

See that’s the thing…in my opinion the bolded is not true. (And I’d posit it’s not true for other live events where performers feed off of crowd energy but that’s another argument)

Fans that think like this (I don’t owe the team anything until they prove it) aren’t understanding the mutual relationship of team/fan.

Your loudness isn’t something fans owe the team. The noise you make and energy you bring isn’t currency that players/coaches can put into their pocket and cash in later for their own benefit.

The reason making noise/having energy is (should be) different in sports than in other venues is that it makes you, the fan, PART of the game.

You can actually HELP your team do better by making it harder for the other team to communicate or concentrate.

You don’t owe something to the players, you owe it to yourself to try to be part of a raucous crowd that opposing players hate to play in front of and mess up routine plays when they do.

But I get it, it’s hard to get excited when the team is showing absolutely no competence and is down by 20+ in the 4th quarter.

When it’s still a winnable game though, you better believe my a$$ is standing up and cheering and trying to help the team any way I can.

1970 John · Oct 7, 2023

TampaToo said:
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.

Don’t kid a kidder. Really, they were going to rush home to finally watch that Tivo’d Bachelor?

I guess I’ll old-fashioned, but I believe in supporting your team. I can see them at Thanksgiving dinner. Mom’s turkey was dry. Well, get up from the table and go somewhere where the food is better.

The concept of “support” for the team is, golly, supporting the team. It’s not about taking anything for the team, it’s about not abandoning your team. But…you do yours. I’ll do mine. I-L-L-

Noblesville Illini · Oct 7, 2023

Genesis said:
We were too easy to defend because we're too predictable. Nebby played 9 up front too often because they had no reason to cover more than 5 yards deep.

Said that all night. My wife kept asking who I was talking to …..lol

1970 John · Oct 7, 2023

BashCtIllini said:
sports is the only place in the world where people think the paying customer owes something to the performers and not the other way around.

Sports is entertainment, no different from a movie, play, or concert. If I'm not entertained I don't owe a damn thing to the team. If I'm not excited, it is not my job to get up anyway to help the team out.

There are always the diehards, but what exactly do you expect with Illini football? Look at Oregon football's results. They've had 2 seasons in the last 20 years where they were under .500, and in that time span they've had 12 seasons with double digit wins. Oh you think they get more excited about football? Illinois on the other hand, over that same period we've had 5 seasons over .500 (only once back to back) and one double digit win season. 1 conference title over that period compared to Oregon's 8. If you want to look at Washington, they struggled the first half of that 20 year period, but since 2010 they've been better than .500 11 of 12 years (i've skipped the covid year in all these counts). They've had 3 conference titles and 4 double digit win seasons in that 12 years too.

So if I haven't made it abundantly clear, I don't see how anyone can expect wild support when over the last 41 years, we're going all the way back to the 1983 Rose Bowl team, over 41 years Illini football has won 43% of their games. We've won 3 conference championships, in 41 years. We've only had 14 seasons (34%) over .500 and 9 of those were in the prior millennium. All of our last 6 coaches have left with a sub .500 record and Bielema is at .500 exactly currently. So quite frankly it's a little shocking we have any fan support at all. Quite frankly it was depressing looking this up to see just how bad it was. If I factored out all of the cupcake wins, dear lord.

I consider myself extremely lucky, we were 23-12 for my 3 years on campus. The most wins anyone has been able to see in a 4 year period in Champaign was 30 in the late 80s/early 90s. If you were unlucky enough to graduate in 2006, you got to see 8 wins over your time at the fair alma mater. On average you got to see 19.4 wins over your 4 years.

So there, I win depressing post of the year award. But it always annoys me when people act like fans owe the team something.

Pro sports is entertainment. I don’t feel that way about my Alma Mater. I do , however, wonder why you bother following a team that disappoints you so. I’m not trying to be combative. I just don’t understand it.

WeWillWhen · Oct 8, 2023

A pile of money spent wisely on NIL for transfer portal OL could fix some of the team’s ills.

My concern is that staff evaluation of some of our transfers hasn’t been great.

Saturdaze · Oct 8, 2023

blackdog said:
I absolutely hate that about our fanbase right now. I have season tickets for football and basketball. It always infuriates me that Illinois crowds won't get loud until something good happens in the game. In my section for football people don't even get up on 3rd down even at the beginning of the game or for basketball until the team goes on a run. Kind of doesn't do a lot of good for home field advantage.

I know what you mean, but I blame it on the administration not the fans. Just as @BashCtIllini said - the administration owes the fans not the other way around. As much as everyone loves Whitman, he’s totally failed at fan engagement. For those ready to chime in defending him - don’t compare him to Thomas and Guenther because they failed too - compare him to other schools. Total failure.

How we aren’t granting free entry to every and any student these last two years blows my mind. When you have 20-30k empty seats every week it makes no sense to not give students free walk-up entry. We could fit the entire population of Douglas county in the weekly empty seats, but no, they need to play games with how they release tickets for sale to force the super fans to over pay.

How we aren’t better coordinating parking and family/kids attractions is another issue. People with kids aren’t going to arrive hours early to get good parking and they aren’t going to deal with a parking headache. Reserve close parking for Family Four Pack people. Why not just let all kids in for free? Introduce a happy meal style kids meal that includes a different Illini toy every week. There are so many things to engage the local youth in a way that would build the tradition your criticizing a lack of.

This is how you build that lifelong fandom. They need to establish traditions with the locals, and engage the student body. It’s clear that Whitman’s administration simply cares about how much money did we make TODAY. It was painfully obvious last year when they‘d do the discount ticket rush sales but withhold good seats until the sale ended. There are posters here making a game of deciphering the ticket sales due to these games the administration is playing. You think other schools are doing that?

The last 5 years Duke and Kansas were the only P5 teams to have a worse attendance rate than us. This isn’t an inherent fault in the Illinois fans - it’s an administration failure.

https://collegefootballnews.com/rankings/college-football-attendance-rankings-2023-five-year-program-analysis

Edit: Since the PNW and Oregon were mentioned for contrast by @PNWIllini and @BashCtIllini - Oregon students get tickets to all football and basketball games for a total of $125. For students that don’t buy the pass basketball games are $5 and football games range $10-$30 per game.

Student Tickets - University of Oregon Athletics

University of Oregon student ticket information

goducks.com

Illiniguy74 · Oct 8, 2023

Saturdaze said:
So discouraging to hear that schematic changes are being discussed with the staff at 1am after a week 6 loss when they‘ve been obvious to the fans all season on defense and all of last season in offense.

The staff is broken if the message coming out of that meeting is “the kids just won’t listen to me”.

0440. I've wondered...has the loss of coaches, elevation of a coach, and the addition of new coaches adversely affected the chemistry of the "coaching team" leading to disconnections and/or disagreements between team units.

Nebraska 20, Illinois 7 Postgame

Winged Warrior