Fitzgerald must want the Illini to retain Lovie as coach.
oh lawd please noDo the commentators know something we don't? They said "Fitzgerald and Smith shake hands for the last time." Hmmmm, slip of the to guess, perhaps
Yep. Basically said that he limited their scheme and play calling to avoid putting certain guys in situations that increase the risk of injury. It felt like a "we would have beaten them by a lot more if we had tried" kind of momentDid anybody catch what Fitzgerald said after the game? Something along the lines of We planned to win the game while limiting our offensive exposure.
It is so poetic that a senior, Del'Shawn Phillips, is the one to get an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that wraps up the season.
What did he do?
I second this question. No one had any commentary about this penalty during the game.
Post-mortem: Weird season. At times, it felt like were were making progress: USF, Rutgers, Minnesota. Others times it felt like we regressed from the Beckman era: Purdue, Maryland, Iowa.
Where does that leave us? I think there's enough young talent on this roster to make a bowl game next year, especially if one of the QBs steps up. But how much attrition will there be? Can we hold on to some of our best recruits? How will Lovie on the hot-seat next year effect recruiting?
More questions than answers right now.
At least we didn’t eclipse the ‘81 Mildcats for the worst Big Ten defense of all time. So there’s that.