Pregame: Illinois vs Wisconsin, Saturday, October 21st, 2:30pm CT, FS1

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#176      

Roundball Sage

R
Roundball Sage
BZuppke said:
Northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin are the same state culturally and historically northern Illinois was fully part of the dairy belt.
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A little history that makes a big dfference in who you will be rooting for:

“Were it not for the action of an enterprising lawyer 200 years ago, the northern portion of Illinois would have the badger as the state animal and the Green Bay Packers as the home football team... the move by Nathaniel Pope, the Illinois territory’s delegate in Congress, to relocate the original proposed boundary from the southern tip of Lake Michigan is regarded as a decisive event in Illinois history.”

(Subscription)
thesouthern.com

Boundary maneuver kept Northern Illinois from becoming part of Wisconsin

The Green Bay Packers could have been Chicago’s home team ...
thesouthern.com thesouthern.com

So there it is. Everything from the level of the south tip of Lake Michigan northerly would have been in the Dairy State. And all you Bear fans living North of Calumet City and Orland Park all the way west to north of East Moline would be Badger and Pack fans. Downtown Chicago dressed up in Wisky colors. Yikes!
 
#178      

DeonThomas

DeonThomas
South Carolina
DeonThomas
altgeld88 said:
I appreciate your work as Loyalty historian! One minor quibble. I wish that 2019 game had been a 24-3 beatdown. It was 24-23. All hail the golden foot of James McCourt.
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But to be totally fair, and maybe even a bit more objective....................

I'm not really sure that 15 years necessarily qualifies as "history" in the grand scheme of life. Maybe the fall of the Roman Empire and the Revolutionary War could truly count as historical events because none of the readers on this forum were alive to witness either of the two. I mention this because Wisconsin has been "arguably good" for the equivalent just a split second in the history of recorded time. True, they've gotten the better of us in recent years. But they're not Southern Cal, Alabama, Michigan or Ohio St.

Nearly just as recently, and during the informative years of my life THIS is how many of us on here grew up with Wisconsin football. In fact, if not for Northwestern, they would have been considered the doormat of the Big 10 during the particular 22-year time-frame of 1971 to 1992! And yes, Iowa was essentially just as bad.

1971 - Win 35-27
1972 - Win 27-7
1975 - Loss 9-18
1976 - Win 31-25
1977 - Loss 0-26
1978 - Tie 20-20
1981 - Win 23-21
1982 - Win 29-28
1983 - Win 27-15
1984 - Win 22-6
1985 - Win 38-25
1986 - Loss 9-15
1987 - Win 16-14
1988 - Win 34-6
1989 - Win 32-9
1990 - Win 21-3
1991 - Win 22-6
1992 - Win 13-12

Wins = 14
Ties = 1
Losses = 3

Illinois winning percentage of 82.5%.
 
#179      

DeonThomas

DeonThomas
South Carolina
DeonThomas
We need to avoid turnovers and play an Iowa brand of football to win this one. I mentioned last week that I thought we could beat the Terrapins, if the game were being played at Memorial Stadium. (In fact, we were able to win it on the road!) Well, we're now back at home and the opposition is comparable. QB advantage Illini. Wind advantage Illini. Crowd advantage Illini. Coaching advantage Illini.

24 ILLINOIS
23 Badgers

We cover and we get the outright victory! Oh, and I'll get to see it in person.

4-3 YTD against the spread
6-1 YTD picking the winner
 
#180      

BWBW

BWBW
BWBW
I am optimistic about this game. Hopefully, we have Reggie back for three running backs to rotate as well as Luke running a few times.
 
#181      

FlyNavy

FlyNavy
Los Angeles
FlyNavy
All this talk of past Illinois-Wisconsin games, but who could forget the 1995 contest? Who wishes they could forget? For the younger folks, this game made the record books as the last-ever tie in college football history (overtime began the following year). And it was an awful 3-3 tie that ended our season at 5-5-1 and cost us a bowl game.

A good story came out several years back remembering this "great" event:
ESPN
 
#182      

Illinir1

Illinir1
Camdenton, MO
Illinir1
Fighter of the Nightman said:
Lucky! I hate to say it, but when you watch highlights on YouTube ... 2007 was the last time Memorial Stadium really rocked. The PSU, Wisconsin and (especially) Michigan games were just electric, at least from TV. And that refutes two "myths" about why our stadium just isn't loud lately:

1. That we simply don't have enough fans in the stands. Due to renovations, the max capacity in 2007 was 57k - a number we more or less hit for the MSU game last year, which was actually one of our more quiet crowds.
2. That the location of the students prevents the stadium from getting loud. 2007 was the first year where the students were in the NEZ, and they were loud!

Don't get me wrong, I want the students back in East Main yesterday, as I DO think it negatively affects the stadium atmosphere. I also think the more fans you get into the seats, the louder it will be. However, I think our issues in recent years are that a lot of our fans react to what's happening on the field rather than try to influence what happens on the field. That might sound crazy to complain about, but it's not how fans at PSU, OSU, Iowa, etc. behave; they are standing and yelling on big third downs, they have regular chants, there is just a sort of "buzz" at all times, etc. Hell, it's not even how our basketball fans behave - they are way more active and less reactive! I get that this NATURALLY comes with more wins and better teams to watch, but I think there are indeed little things we can do to achieve marginal but essential improvement BEFORE we get those wins, too.
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The stadium used to make a LOT of noise on big 3rd downs with the war chant and arms clapping overhead. But that was offensive. Now we have nothing.
 
#183      

zentrails

Z
zentrails
BWBW said:
I am optimistic about this game. Hopefully, we have Reggie back for three running backs to rotate as well as Luke running a few times.
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I like the way our KO returner runs too.
Is he 100% a WR? Or could he be a RB once in a while? probably can't block

We could really use a RB with speed to go with the 2 freshmen, hopefully Reggie can come back soon, if not against Wisky.

And Lunney USE THE TIGHT ENDS MORE PLEASE!
 
#185      

Illini2010-11

I
Sugar Grove
Illini2010-11
Illinir1 said:
The stadium used to make a LOT of noise on big 3rd downs with the war chant and arms clapping overhead. But that was offensive. Now we have nothing.
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I might be in the minority here, but the War Chant on 3rd down did not create much noise at all, as overhead clapping does not produce much sound. Noise was not made until after the War Chant ended, and at times that was with 10 seconds or so on the play clock. This did very little to throw off the rhythm of the opposing offense. From a pure sound making perspective and messing with the opposition to cause penalties, eliminating the War Chant was probably for the best (I simply did not agree with the reasoning put forth by the administration). The problem is that fans have not been making enough noise consistently going into 3rd down for ages (pre and post War Chant).

Students in the NEZ should be also causing havoc on the opposition going to the north end zone, and even then the students have not been loud enough. I completely agree with Fighter's thoughts here.
 
#186      

Marshall_Lucky

M
Marshall_Lucky
Illini2010-11 said:
I might be in the minority here, but the War Chant on 3rd down did not create much noise at all, as overhead clapping does not produce much sound. Noise was not made until after the War Chant ended, and at times that was with 10 seconds or so on the play clock. This did very little to throw off the rhythm of the opposing offense. From a pure sound making perspective and messing with the opposition to cause penalties, eliminating the War Chant was probably for the best (I simply did not agree with the reasoning put forth by the administration). The problem is that fans have not been making enough noise consistently going into 3rd down for ages (pre and post War Chant).

Students in the NEZ should be also causing havoc on the opposition going to the north end zone, and even then the students have not been loud enough. I completely agree with Fighter's thoughts here.
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I blame Lovie's defense for traumatizing us. This is not supported by data, but it felt like every game I was at where we get loud after getting an opponent to 3rd and long, we'd be rewarded by the other team converting. It seems like now the crowd attitude in those situations is just nervous.
 
#188      

BZuppke

BZuppke
Plainfield
BZuppke
So Wisky has a new qb. Normally a team would try to take the pressure off and try to establish the run which I expect them to do. So stop the run and force him to pass. Yes?
 
#192      

BWBW

BWBW
BWBW
Looking at the Sports App Zone preview (Comcast), I see that Mordecai has 1128 passing yards. Luke has 1576.

Allen has 559 rushing yards. Love has 252.

WR Pauling has 303 receiving yards. Williams 546.

We have 247 passing yards per game. They have 212.

We have 124.6 rushing yards per game. They have 185.7.

Hmm.
 
#194      

Nikethreadguysm

N
Nikethreadguysm
I want this to be a win, trust me I do, but the ghost of Graham Mertz has me feeling like this will be a loss. We’re gonna put Braden Locke on the map.

Until they prove it to me tomorrow, this feels like the inevitable crash back to reality after a patented Illinois win to get your hopes up. And I picked them to beat Maryland last week. It was kinda wet and rainy, lots of Maryland mistakes, and winning on a last second field goal. Doesn’t feel as convincing as some make it sound.

Wisconsin 31 - Illinois 17
 
#196      

GILL-INOIS

G
GILL-INOIS
BWBW said:
I see that Mordecai has 1128 passing yards. Luke has 1576.
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Mordecai 179 passing attempts---sacked 8 times and 3 INT

Altmyer 218 passing attempts---sacked 26 times and 9 INT

BWBW said:
Allen has 559 rushing yards. Love has 252.
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Love has been hurt and played a small fraction. Using Allen as #1 back and Love/Feagin combined as #1 back stats

Allen 91 carries for 559 yards 7 TDs

Love/Feagin combined 94 carries for for 489 yards 2 TDs


QB rushes Mordecai 51 rushes with 4 TDs with Altmyer 67 rushes with 3 TDs

The thing that needs to be thrown into the stats is Wisconsin has played one less game than us and Mordecai got hurt in the 1st half of last game. Wisconsin has a new coach, system and just lost starting QB. They throw a bunch of short and medium range passes.

I was looking at some of the tape of the Iowa/Wisconsin game. Locke is smaller around 6'0 and not super quick. If he gets time in the pocket his foot movement is good and puts zip on the ball around 12 yards and under. I was impressed with his short passing game especially with the fact he was thrown in against Iowa and not getting first team reps. Wisconsin was down 7-0 when he got in and was basically a 10-6 game into the 4th quarter.


Big things are minimizing Allen(good rusher and 2nd most receptions) and getting pressure on Locke. Locke will distribute the ball around to 4-5 guys if he gets time. Given time he steps into his passes, pressured he threw off balance a number of times. Ideal situation is we use the wind, home crowd, first away game for Locke and Homecoming to our advantage :illinois:
 
#197      

bluemountain

B
bluemountain
FlyNavy said:
All this talk of past Illinois-Wisconsin games, but who could forget the 1995 contest? Who wishes they could forget? For the younger folks, this game made the record books as the last-ever tie in college football history (overtime began the following year). And it was an awful 3-3 tie that ended our season at 5-5-1 and cost us a bowl game.

A good story came out several years back remembering this "great" event:
ESPN
Click to expand...
No game better sums up the Tepper era. We had superior talent and a great defense that year, but p*** poor coaching killed us. An average coach goes 9-2 that year
 
#198      

Toews

Toews
Toews
Illini2010-11 said:
I might be in the minority here, but the War Chant on 3rd down did not create much noise at all, as overhead clapping does not produce much sound. Noise was not made until after the War Chant ended, and at times that was with 10 seconds or so on the play clock. This did very little to throw off the rhythm of the opposing offense. From a pure sound making perspective and messing with the opposition to cause penalties, eliminating the War Chant was probably for the best (I simply did not agree with the reasoning put forth by the administration). The problem is that fans have not been making enough noise consistently going into 3rd down for ages (pre and post War Chant).

Students in the NEZ should be also causing havoc on the opposition going to the north end zone, and even then the students have not been loud enough. I completely agree with Fighter's thoughts here.
Click to expand...
Yeah fans on here used to get very annoyed with the War Chant not allowing the fans to get loud. Short memories. A lot of this stems from we've rarely had good teams in big games to warrant that buzz. It's the big games at those big programs with those big crowds that warrants that noise and we've had it very rarely here. Once you have a taste of it then you it builds and you have more of those crowds. People expect great crowds from what's been a consistently garbage program, which we have been, and it's silly.
 
#200      

Ander1345

A
Ander1345
One of their contributing RB's is out for the season too, Bellusi? They have been relying on Allen a TON and it may catch up with them eventually.
 
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