Pregame: Illinois vs Indiana, Saturday, November 11th, 11:00am CT, BTN
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Mr. Tibbs
- southeast DuPage
the weather is perfect.
them being next door and close, we might have 500-600 walkups wearing Indiana colors
I also think the walkup of Illni fans will be strong, given the nice weather. maybe 3000-4000 ?
BZuppke
- Plainfield
Your item 1 is spot on and we have Bret to thank for that. Despite the 4-5 record we feel correctly that we are way more competitive and competently coached since perhaps the days of White/Mackovic. You can disagree with play calls but no one can say Bret doesn’t know what he’s doing. He has the knowledge, experience and demeanor to command respect among his peers and from the fans.A few thoughts jumped out at me when seeing this:
1. Given that we also beat Minnesota, this chart REALLY shows how cathartic 2022 was for our fan base, specifically beating Wisconsin and Iowa, lol.
2. This very much helps to highlight how infrequently we play traditional Big Ten teams that are in the Eastern Division.
3. The Indiana stat makes me want to puke, but we have really blown some games vs. bad IU teams since 2011.
4. Ohio State really took Juice and Co. beating them in the Horseshoe personally, and with only a few exceptions they have pretty much whooped our a$$ every time since.
Because of all this we will keep getting better. At long last we have a true college coach who knows what he’s doing (as opposed to everyone else we’ve had since Mackovic left):
White - great recruiter and in game coach
Mackovic - great in game coach, average recruiter - very weird dude with zero social skills
Tepper - CDP. Nothing more to say
Turner - decent in game coach, didn’t want to recruit and never really was a college oriented guy.
Zook - one of the best recruiters but horrible horrible in game coach. Learned from another coach who stacked talent but couldn’t coach (John Cooper at Ohio State - 2-7 versus Illinois).
Lovie - did some good things but again had been out of the college game for 26 years. And from what I understand was too detached from the players - NFL like.
BB - major college coach by every measurement - the best coach we’ve had in the modern era.
I forgot Beckman - yes. I’ve blotted those years out of my memory.
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The only thing going against the strong attendance narrative is the game time. I have a theory there are more walk ups for a 2:30 or night game than 11am. The morning kicks can be tough for people with 2+ hour drives to Champaign.
The helicopter was there for the ROTC kids to play with. Nothing to do with football. Apparently, the fly over isn't happening either.
Our coaching hire history over the past few decades was always to hire a coach based on the last guy's biggest perceived problem.
Moeller ran a dull-as-dishwater Michigan-type offense that failed miserably without Michigan-type talent.
Enter White who brought passing excitement and success, at least for a while, but couldn't follow the rules.
Enter Mackovic, Mr. Clean from the pros who won a great deal but had no loyalty whatsoever to the school.
When he leaves, we promote Tepper, who would have loved to retire here, but could not get/keep a decent offensive coordinator.
Voila! We hire an experienced pro offensive coordinator, Ron Turner, who has no feel or talent for recruiting.
So we get master recruiter Ron Zook, but he's doomed by lapses on the sideline and other places.
Not sure what Beckman's perceived strong suit was besides "Ohio," but he destroyed the program's credibility.
Lovie Smith brought instant credibility as he passed time between NFL gigs, and mostly limited the embarrassments to our on-field performance.
With BB, we finally have someone who had success as a P5 head coach, even if it didn't work out at Arkansas.
Building up this football rivalry to the day it's as intense as the Illini-Hoosier roundball rivalry. Both football programs have to get still better for this to happen.
And with the infusion of the great West Coast programs coming in to the Legacy Lands of the Great Midwestern Rust Belt... all Big Ten games everywhere are getting more scrutiny and National attention. The time is now to be ready for that day... coming soon.
Maybe play this game one day at Soldier Field. As a Sea of Orange and Crimson. Or Crimson and Clover if Tommy James is available.
Over and over...and let's not leave the Shondells behind (whatever those are)
It was ok. Nothing special but there are worse I’m sure.
DeonThomas
- South Carolina
I attended one game in the 1980’s while we were in the midst of selling out every game at our Memorial Stadium. It was the first time I had witnessed empty seats in the stands. Perhaps 50% filled. I felt embarrassed for them, thinking “How can a football program be so bad that they can’t even get a full house for a Big Ten game?”
Oh, and I’ve attended one BB game at Indiana too. Bruce Douglas went off and the Illini won by 15-20 pts. 1985 maybe?
2-0 lifetime in Bloomington.
IlliniCardinal
- Minneapolis
Could it be Donovan Leary?
I think this game matters too much for our season and bowl prospects to start a kid with 0 career snaps. Maybe we'll see him for a series or something if things are going well late
No way. He’d be Back up but paddock’s earned it if LA can’t go. If we’re in that scenario though I’m thinking we might see some Swanson. Bb brought him up completely out of the blue.
Could we see Leary and Williams in the backfield together?
Mr. Tibbs
- southeast DuPage
my daughter went there 15 years ago
we never went to a football game there, nor did she
driven past it 25 times
my problem with it is there is no exterior outside stone or brick wall. - it has the look of a large MAC stadium. They would be wise to figure a way to make it look like a real B1G stadium.
Mr. Tibbs
- southeast DuPage
if Luke is out, 99% sure Paddock will start and should get most of the snaps - would not be surprised to see Leary get some action though
I apologize for asking as this is probably posted or discussed somewhere else within Loyalty, but I've been a little out of touch. What is the deal with Malik Elzy? Is he hurt or can he just not get on the field? His last game with any catches was Purdue, so he's gone four games with nothing.
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