Pregame: Illinois at Maryland, Saturday, October 14th, 2:30pm CT, NBC
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altgeld88
- Arlington, Virginia
Stranger things have happened, though rarely on the road:
1986 Illini Football
| September 6 | Louisville | W 23–0 |
| September 13 | at USC | L 16–31 |
| September 20 | No. 6 Nebraska | L 14–59 |
| October 4 | at Ohio State | L 0–14 |
| October 11 | Purdue | W 34–27 |
| October 18 | Michigan State | L 21–29 |
| October 25 | at Wisconsin | L 9–15 |
| November 1 | at No. 3 Michigan | L 13–69 |
| November 8 | No. 16 Iowa | W 20–16 |
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I might have bought that line after Florida Atlantic. Even against a subpar opponent the offense managed to execute in spots and you could imagine that there was a base to build on. But that won't fly after what we saw against Nebraska. Hardly anything worked against the Huskers. The offense clearly regressed and I doubt that all of what went wrong can be fixed in a week.
Oh well, I'm mostly here for hoops anyway...
I really didn’t think we’d be HERE this season. Hopefully we’re competitive Saturday.
To the contrary, there have always been cockeyed optimists ready to predict big upsets. What's rare is the optimists being right.
To be fair, IW had a walk in touchdown on our first possession if a block gets held for even a half second longer. Instead, he gets tripped up at the two, we fail to make it in the end zone. That's not Lunney's fault.
I am most embarrassed that a D1 school let two kickoffs literally fall on the ground. In a span of four plays we had this:
Nebraska 1yd TD run
Kickoff, not received, recovered by the kicking team
Nebraska 25yd TD run
Kickoff, let it hit the ground again before picking it up and getting hit immediately
Followed by a 3 and out. That's Lovie level incompetence. I didn't expect that from this team under Bret.
I mean FWIW, essentially no public models predict score margins better than Vegas opening lines. https://www.thepredictiontracker.com/ncaaresults.php?orderby=mse&type=1&year=23
The line moves more towards sharp money. If a lifetime loser bets a lot of money on a side the line wouldn't necessarily move because it already has an advantage over said player. One of if not the best easily accessible models (Teamrankings) has it at ~ Maryland -15.5 which is probably around where the closing line will settle.
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BZuppke
- Plainfield
I did qualify this week’s prediction. I do think we’ll win a game we shouldn’t but probably not Maryland. Minnesota, IU and NW are winnable. Maybe our offense is less crappy than Iowa’s and we steal a road win to go bowling.
Cook
- Richmond, VA
What's troubling me a bit is this sense the whole staff seems to be in a defending, minimizing posture that's indicative that they haven't yet truly unpacked and owned the issues that have led to such poor play. Responses tended toward, that's what we scouted, what we called, what we planned... if just weren't for that one missed block, one blown assignment, etc.
Sorry Barry, but there is no way that the offense is razor close to success or has been at any point all season. That's a laughable and ridiculous assertion.
Sorry Barry, but there is no way that the offense is razor close to success or has been at any point all season. That's a laughable and ridiculous assertion.
DeonThomas
- South Carolina
A really tough game to call when it comes to the spread. Still trying to stay neutral with my prediction so I'd say the pundits have it just about right.
37 Maryland
26 Illini
We cover the 12-14 points. I think we'll play our best game of the year so far. And if this game were being played at home, I'd actually take the Orange & Blue to win outright. But I don't think we can pull it off on the road. Maryland has recruited better the past few years and has more overall talent and speed. Locksley has a superior offensive mind. But MD is not Penn State good.
6-0 predicting the winner
3-3 against the spread
37 Maryland
26 Illini
We cover the 12-14 points. I think we'll play our best game of the year so far. And if this game were being played at home, I'd actually take the Orange & Blue to win outright. But I don't think we can pull it off on the road. Maryland has recruited better the past few years and has more overall talent and speed. Locksley has a superior offensive mind. But MD is not Penn State good.
6-0 predicting the winner
3-3 against the spread
The offense seems to be getting worse as the season progresses. I bet we win another game without a significant turnaround because there are still a few garbage teams left on the schedule. Forget about bowl game unless the team flips a switch which I see as being a very remote possibility
Back in the Zook days Locksley was viewed as a good OC. I wish We could have promoted him instead of who we hired
Our secondary has to have a good game to give the offense any chance making it within 14
All the heat is focused on QB play. The offensive line is horrible, running game is nonexistent. If the team takes a 55 gallon drum of stickem to Maryland at least they won't fumble the game away. They will probably just out penalize Maryland like 125 yards to 10. Look for a beatdown-Maryland 45- Illini 7.
All the calls for Coach to be fired is nonsense. Lovie had 6 years of disastrous football. Coach has at least taken the Illini to a bowl. Something is wrong in Champaign but I think he will turn it around next year.
All the calls for Coach to be fired is nonsense. Lovie had 6 years of disastrous football. Coach has at least taken the Illini to a bowl. Something is wrong in Champaign but I think he will turn it around next year.
In his defense, sometimes people misspeak or don't know the expression
Nah, he used "shutter" correctly. He was just creatively using homophones to describe our o-line play, i.e. "It makes me shudder seeing our o-line flap around like shutters in a stiff wind."In his defense, sometimes people misspeak or don't know the expression
By the time Zook was let go, Locksley had already been hired and fired (mid-season of his third year) after amassing a 2-26 record as the head coach at New Mexico.
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GrayGhost77
- Centennial, CO
Not to defend him, but Lovie took us to a bowl, too. Agree Bret should by no means be fired. This was always going to be a step back season. I think some just underestimated how much losing 7 NFL players, a lot of senior leadership, and a bunch of coaches was going to hurt us. I have hope that if we can inject some OL talent and players learn the new schemes and learn to stop doing dumb mistakes (a result of lack of experience) that we'll look much better again going forward. Sadly future schedules do us no favors, but we can at least look competent as a football team.
I want to believe a turnaround of some kind is possible, but there's just so little you can do when your offensive line is getting rolled like this. We've already shuffled some people around looking for answers and it just seems like there's no lineup we can make from the players on our roster that blocks well enough to open up the playbook meaningfully.
Maybe Feagin can be Chase Brown, But Large.
Maybe Feagin can be Chase Brown, But Large.
I think everyone underestimated what the drop-off would be. Even the biggest pessimist wouldn't have predicted the current state. The personnel lost had a big impact, but should not have resulted in this dumpster fire
I think the only way we pull an upset is if we hold their high powered offense to 14 or less. Past that and we would need a couple Our Fathers and Glory Be’s. The maximum level of my faith in our offense is 17 points.
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