Pregame: Illinois vs Northwestern, Saturday, November 29th, 6:30pm CT, FOX

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#105      
Illini2010-11
zentrails said:
My point is that pre-season rankings, even if they are really high, often mean NOTHING
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The preseason rankings are obviously not predictive, but they do set expectations among media, coaches, and fanbases. It is also true that there are teams that are highly overrated going into the season, and end up underachieving the lofty expectations.

In that respect, we are one of the ranked teams that underachieved those lofty expectations. The team earned the lofty ranking by how they finished last season and the extent of returning experience going into season. We were on many coaches and media members' dark horses to make CFP. Flash forward to final week of season completely eliminated with four blowout losses, it is hard to not feel some disappointment.

Now we are having a very good season by historic metrics (this is first back to back winning regular season in 30+ years), so it is completely reasonable to be both happy and disappointed at the same time (in how we looked in the losses). I think many of us would feel differently if we were more competitive in the losses...it is really hard to overlook the fact that this team was not competitive in 1/3 of our games so far -- I am sure Coach B will be the first to say that is unacceptable.

This makes Saturday so important in how I will ultimately assess this season.
 
#108      
Coop70
Illinifan533 said:
I am well aware of how Northwestern has played, and I am also aware of how Illini fans like to cry, throw tantrums, and say how everything about Illinois football is terrible and the absolutely worst whenever they have a bad loss. It was a bad loss to Wisky for sure, but we’ve bounced back from bad losses this season pretty well.
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The fact that have bounced back from multiple "bad" losses tells the tale of this team's season
 
#111      
blackdog
I cant even find one other person interested in going to this game with the current forecast and game time.
 
#112      
Dkayak
blackdog said:
I cant even find one other person interested in going to this game with the current forecast and game time.
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Parking passes are listed for ten bucks on SeatGeek. Some lots are only $5!
 
#113      
king dad runnerup
blackdog said:
I cant even find one other person interested in going to this game with the current forecast and game time.
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Should be many other Illini fans at the game. My whole family--seven of us--will be at Memorial Stadium, up in the east balcony. We kind of enjoy the outdoor aspect of football spectating, maybe because we'll be spending a lot of time indoors as winter sets in. Let it snow. Go Illini.
 
#119      
kyillinifan
I have my tickets but with the cold doesn't matter it is the snow going back to Louisville at night. Calling for several inches of snow. We had Wisc 3rd 11 I believe on their first drive and I said they will make 11yds. Sure enough they did. Oh well beat Northwestern. On to a descent bowl game.
 
#120      
KnoxIllini2
RabidDawgClassic said:
I’m old enough to remember when our only motivation for beating Northwestern was to get that fifth win and maybe (MAYBE) get one of those academic-related 5-6 bowl games in Shreveport or Birmingham.
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You win 8 games a couple times it rushes to the head and we tend to forget about the routine beat downs between the Sugar Bowl (2001) and the Rose Bowl (2007) where we had 11 total wins from 2002 through 2006.

Lest we forgot that over the span of 6 coaching staffs, we appeared in four bowl games (Zook 1.5/Koenning 0.5, Timmy/Cubit 1, Lovie 1). Where our highest win total was 7 games with bowl victories.

It wouldn’t be until Bielema’s second season (2022) that Illinois crossed the 8 win threshold for the first time in 15 seasons.

Multiple things can be true. Historically, we should be celebrating this run of success with another shot at 8 wins. However, the preseason hype has not matched the on field execution for the 2025 Illini. Doesn’t mean I love the orange and blue any less, just means there’s more pressure to repeat results and performances going forward.

Come away with 2 more wins on the season and 9-4 is a lot more “what coulda/shoulda/woulda been” without a couple eggs in our faces.

8-5 sure. There’s a preferred order of sequences (beat NW, lose a good bowl game) than the alternate (lose NW, win in Detroit).

7-6… no one wants that.

Beat the kitties.
 
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