Pregame: Illinois at Purdue, Saturday, September 25th, 2:30pm CT, BTN
- Status
I think there are some serious concerns about bielema's ability to turn this program around largely due to recruiting but I'm willing to give him 4 years to show progress just like everyone else before him. For lovie, it looked like we were heading in the right direction but that turned out to be a mirage.
Valid concerns but he won big at Wisconsin with a lot of 2/3 star OL/TEs that he turned into road graders. Rankings might not be where you’d like to see but seems like he’s pulled in several road graders in training in his first class. We lost our composure at UVA but otherwise a lot of the silly things we’ve been doing for the last decade plus to beat ourselves have largely been cleaned up. I’m willing to be patient. I think he can build a program that can compete with Northwestern, Iowa, Minnesota and, yes Wisconsin.
Illinivek23
- Gurnee
This is a great staff, they will figure out a path to make us successful. I have to believe they know the traditional and new obstacles to building a sustainable program and are working diligently, alongside JW, to overcome those and build a winner.
As a fan, love to track the development of the roster and individual players. Gotta be patient, but look forward to fun Saturdays, complete with bumps along the way.
Bielema made what I thought was a very accurate assessment - that the team's margin of error is very small. That was especially evident against Maryland. We had to scrap and scrape for everything it seemed, while Maryland on offense made chunk play after chunk play. We were fortunate to keep them out of the end zone for as long as we did. Unfortunately, the dam broke at the end. I also highly respect and admire the coaching staff for having the players' backs publicly. That says a lot.
Bret and the entire staff are tireless recruiters then add in his connections throughout the college world and to a lot of high schools....recruiting doesn't concern me one bit. I also trust him and his staff to evaluate the sleeper type kids better than previous staffs since he did it at Wisky really well.
Maybe a new QB to enter top 3 after this week???
There's no doubt that he won big at Wisconsin with 3* recruits and that's what gives me hope but a lot has happened since then. The entire B1G west has invested the huge tv money into football and recruiting across the board in this division has improved since his time in Wisconsin.
We are trying to beat Wisconsin and Iowa at their own game with inferior athletes and that is very concerning to me. I am still optimistic that this staff can figure it out but there are already some red flags that I'll mostly ignore for the next couple years.
We are trying to beat Wisconsin and Iowa at their own game with inferior athletes and that is very concerning to me. I am still optimistic that this staff can figure it out but there are already some red flags that I'll mostly ignore for the next couple years.
I seriously doubt we are turning down 4 an 5 stars. Look how many schools recruit Chicago. But how many recruit Tuscola?
Yeah but good coaching and identifying talent makes it work. However you need a star to make it work. Wisconsin always had a star running back Ron Dayne or Melvin Gordon
Ransom Stoddard
Ordained Dudeist Priest
- Bloomington, IL
BB didn't have Dayne, and Morgan didn't explode until Montee Ball (and BB) left. In fact, that's kind of a hallmark of Wisconsin running backs, where the underclassmen bide their time and learn the system behind the studs. The first string backs under Bret were PJ Hill, John Clay, and Montee Ball. System guys.
Yeah Dayne was before BB but Wisconsin model works when they had the running back to support it. Dayne started their pipeline of running backs. BB continued that model with the backs you listed
The transitive property is like the last thing I understood in math
Transitive property is the most important sports math
If only Nebraska could have beaten Oklahoma. We'd be Big 12 favorites right now.
Not so fast young transitive apprentice. Illinois beat Nebraska by 8 points and Oklahoma's only won by 7.
Homecoming 2019
- Chicago
Definitely. We won the National Title my freshman year when we beat Colorado
skyIdub
Winged Warrior
I'm getting this printed on a t-shirt.
Anyone else going Saturday? I will be tailgating with my Illini wife and all of my Purdue relatives on the south intramural field (brother, niece, nephew, son, daughter, daughter in law, future son in law all Boilers). I will be in Illini gear with a Purdue marching bad hat (son, DIL, future SIL all AAMB alums - I do love their band).
Are the Marching Illini travelling?
Go Illini!
Are the Marching Illini travelling?
Go Illini!
Go Nats 88 Illini
Fairfax, VA
I don't think the MI are going to an away game this year. (unless the Big Ten Championship or a bowl
)This is the absolute best.
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