Cook
- Richmond, VA
That and the squib kick were unjustifiably bad and went unaddressed in the presser.
Purdue 24, Illinois 17 Postgame
Most embarrassing loss in a long time. Any negativity spewed is well earned
Why couldn’t Katin hit any targets today? He’s been pretty accurate until now and he just missed so many open hands. Against Purdue?? Weird.
You misunderstood. It is my understanding that GEIS gave the money for those things, not to spend on NIL.
Hereforit
- Littleton, CO
I’ve purposely stayed away today for fear of what has now transpired. But I do want to weigh in on this one, our GM Pat Embleton. He is pretty central to everything you mentioned above. That said, I don’t have enough insight to lay blame and as such I am not trying to do so. However, I do wonder what is going on there…
He’s been there since Lovie. Helping to identify all the pros that Lovie brought in, many of which were 3 stars or lower, probably got him lot of leeway
Inexcusable! Lack of talent is rearing it's ugly head in C-U plain and simple! More of the same to come I'm afraid. The program is regressing.
LubbockIlliniFan
- Savoy, IL
These points were my same thoughts. Take the points, keep them within a 1 score game. Bret made some bone headed CEO decisions today.
The squib kick when you should kick deep, make them run 2x and throw on 3rd down. We gave them 30ish yards of field position where a FG kills you. Just a horrible decision
Houser made a lot of bad throws. Behind guys, off target, too deep. Not sure what was up with him. He has all the arm talent, but today was not good.
Too many missed tackles, over pursuit bad positioning, we got beat to the outside on their first TD when we had help inside.
altgeld88
- Arlington, Virginia
I dunno. Seems precisely analogous. In @The Galloping Ghost ’s GIF there remains part of the dwelling and foundation. It’s just that the home is fairly uninhabitable and will require massive backfilling, reinforcement, and reconstruction.
That’s exactly where the program seems to be this evening.
redwingillini11
White and Sixth
- Batavia
It’s been said elsewhere. But why does Purdue always come into this game wanting it 500 times more than we do? The motivation on our side is nonexistent.
I’d say that in this environment you can turn things around quickly and a bad season doesn’t have to mean a lost decade.
But the roster management and recruiting has me very concerned.
But the roster management and recruiting has me very concerned.
Yep…force a scheme change when you do not have the talent or development
Neidermeyer
- Faber College
I wish they'd trot the DBs out there and see what they say.
I thought they should have kicked, but the idea that giving your offense a chance to score more points is somehow quitting is nonsense.
Plus we had already missed a short FG earlier in the game, demonstrating once again that "taking the points" isn't really a thing.
That’s BB’s call. It’s also having confidence in your offense and knowing you will need a touch down. The way the game was going you don’t know if you’ll get down there again
4/10 per this site: https://fightingillini.com/sports/football/stats/2026
Just to be honest, I have no intention of watching anymore games this year. Ill do what I do when we stink, check the score and hope we win and I can at least check out some fun highlights. This team is just no fun to watch. Given the choice I would rather have a top football team than basketball. I love football. However so many times the last 5 decades we are just awful. Awful. Awful. After 50 years you would think we would accidentally get it right from to time. Instead we are going to take 2 solid seasons to build on and hope to make a jump into a wisconsin or iowa type tier program and instead jump into a 3 to 4 win season and start all over.
They just arent any fun to watch.
They just arent any fun to watch.
I was thinking the same thing as I was watching it. You're down 2 scores. Why wouldn't you get the FG in that situation? It made no sense to me.
We might catch lightning in a bottle and beat one of MSU or Maryland. Huskers are going to curb stomp this version of the Illini though.
Cook
- Richmond, VA
Ugh. Thanks for sharing that from the radio. I guess that “reason” is better than none, but #96 was in the middle of the field standing on the 30. Kicking at him like that to get the ball, the risk reward still just makes no sense.