Pregame: Illinois vs Michigan State, Saturday, November 5th, 2:30pm CT, BTN

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#301      

MustangWally

Mayfield
In a more just world, we’d be annual rivals with Wisconsin as a college parallel to Bears-Packers or bitter border rivals with Iowa … but I doubt we’ll ever replace their alternatives, NU and Illinois are the last ones standing in musical chairs. :(

Only conceivable setup would be a Clemson/South Carolina “exception” rivalry where we play Mizzou out of conference that weekend.
Or Kentucky?
 
#302      
According to what I've seen, and it depends on the section, but anywhere from 11-20 of the top rows in the East Main stands have not been listed for sale yet. Assuming the unavailable rows are 100% unsold and counting the available tickets, there are approximately 4,252 unsold tickets in the East Main stands. There could be some additional in section 101 depending on what the student ticket overflow situation is. The East Balcony is completely sold out. I've seen tickets in every other section/row come and go. The Horseshoe, West Main, and West Balcony have had some one-off tickets appear, but they are effectively sold out. All told I think there have been at least 56,416 tickets sold (assuming the student tickets sell out...I have no data there).

The tickets site just dropped 1,870 tickets into available status in section 101. Not a great sign for student tickets sales maybe? I find that hard to believe.

I'll revise my ticket sales estimate down to 55,253 thus far. That number should be conservative as it assumes all rows that have not come available on the tickets site are 100% unsold.

Edit: Now the tickets in 101 are no longer appearing. No idea what's going on...
 
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#305      
The tickets site just dropped 1,870 tickets into available status in section 101. Not a great sign for student tickets sales maybe? I find that hard to believe.

I'll revise my ticket sales estimate down to 55,253 thus far. That number should be conservative as it assumes all rows that have not come available on the tickets site are 100% unsold.

Edit: Now the tickets in 101 are no longer appearing. No idea what's going on...
Yeah, I would be surprised and disappointed if the students were the ones keeping us from a sellout. They have stepped up and packed the house for every game this year, WAY outpacing the engagement of the fan base at large.
 
#307      

skyIdub

Winged Warrior
Saturday
A 50 percent chance of showers before 1pm. Partly sunny, with a high near 62. Breezy, with a south wind 18 to 25 mph, with gusts as high as 48 mph.


cflol.gif
 
#308      
Yes but a lot of those were free tickets. I believe that's what has changed.
True, but they haven't ALWAYS been free. I guess my point is that, taking money out of the equation for a second, the students have at least shown a clear interest in being in Memorial Stadium this year - an obvious improvement from recent history! So, with a 7-1, nationally ranked team, you'd think a few more might shell out the money for a discounted ticket?

Anyway, as has been said before, unless it's pouring I expect the crowd to look packed. And that's what matters!
 
#310      

ChiefGritty

Chicago, IL
Saturday
A 50 percent chance of showers before 1pm. Partly sunny, with a high near 62. Breezy, with a south wind 18 to 25 mph, with gusts as high as 48 mph.


cflol.gif
I'll be the one to say it: both in terms of Lunney's system and DeVito's arm strength, that's probably a bigger problem for our offense than Sparty's. We will need to make adjustments.

The first highlight was into a 40 mph wind.
Yeah that's an incredible video.

I just so happened to be at Ford Field with a perfect side angle view like that video for Justin Tucker's NFL-record breaking field goal last year, and it gave me a new appreciation for just how much air the ball has to push through in order to travel that distance. It's gotta be a really low trajectory to reduce the total distance of the arc the ball has to travel because the air is slowing the ball down all the time. An even bigger effect in the wind, as you see there.
 
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#312      

ChiefGritty

Chicago, IL
All I know is we'd better make hay while the offense is pointed North.
But so much of our offense is predicated on accurate, in rhythm throws outside the hashes but close to the line of scrimmage, relatively sideways throws. TDV is awesome at that game.

But while he's got a great feel for hitting his guys in stride, he doesn't get elite (read: NFL level) zip on those throws and no one can be as accurate in that kind of wind. To put an admittedly troll-y point on it: a howling, tricky wind turns Tommy DeVito into Art Sitkowski.
 
#313      
In my experience, the three-day forecast is infallible. If they predict rain at the time specified, it is a guarantee that it will NOT rain at that time (though it may rain 6 hours before or after). If I recall, yesterday's prediction was for rain in the afternoon on Saturday. I therefore guarantee that it will NOT rain during the game.

You're welcome.
 
#320      
Just a bit of additional intrigue for this game:

I was listening to "Big Ten Today" on SiriusXM yesterday, and they were talking about how Illinois has a "real shot" at the CFP, based on the opportunities they have ahead to add some very high profile wins. Not new information, and we all know how difficult of a task that will be.

BUT, it was also mentioned that, aside from the obvious (winning out), it might also be helpful/necessary for the Illini to show out a bit. In other words, we need to beat MSU decisively.

I don't see it as necessarily getting ahead of ourselves to simply try to lay it on a little harder on offense, if opportunities to do so are presented. Facing a team that is currently experiencing some turmoil and will be missing some important pieces on defense, it sounds like a golden opportunity to me.

If I'm honest, though, I doubt Bret is worried about that sort of thing. At the end of the day, that's probably for the best, too. Just amazing, though, to hear national media personalities talking about Illinois having a legitimate path to the Playoff and talking about "style points" where, for once, we're not being mentioned as a good way for some other team to rack them up.
 
#323      
But so much of our offense is predicated on accurate, in rhythm throws outside the hashes but close to the line of scrimmage, relatively sideways throws. TDV is awesome at that game.

But while he's got a great feel for hitting his guys in stride, he doesn't get elite (read: NFL level) zip on those throws and no one can be as accurate in that kind of wind. To put an admittedly troll-y point on it: a howling, tricky wind turns Tommy DeVito into Art Sitkowski.
South winds are particularly problematic in Memorial Stadium due to the tunnel that runs under the horseshoe seats. It has a 'bellows' effect on the field. Hopefully our guys know what to expect and handle it better than their guys do.
 
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