Purdue 24, Illinois 17 Postgame

#251      
BoiseBaller
Jeffcobrad said:
I’m afraid the 3 win / 4 win seasons have returned. Appreciate BB giving it a shot but this program will never be Iowa or Wisconsin unfortunately. Love the potential of the freshman class but afraid Illini won’t be able to $$ hang onto them because of the need to go get portal help. No win situation.
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I think the reality is that the program will always be what we invest into it. This holds true across the board for all schools, though you get a one off here and there were stars align despite a small budget. IU proved this to be true. They are the blueprint. Dumped a ton of money in, got the right coach and the right combination of players.

One thing that just burned into my brain from the Werner post-game podcast is when they said “you spend bottom five money in the league, you get bottom five results”.
 
#252      
Second place is 1st loser
BoiseBaller said:
I think the reality is that the program will always be what we invest into it. This holds true across the board for all schools, though you get a one off here and there were stars align despite a small budget. IU proved this to be true. They are the blueprint. Dumped a ton of money in, got the right coach and the right combination of players.

One thing that just burned into my brain from the Werner post-game podcast is when they said “you spend bottom five money in the league, you get bottom five results”.
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Nothing more needs to be said.
 
#253      
Cook
Second place is 1st loser said:
You might know this answer.....how much does a defensive line and a solid linebacker corp get paid? We don't have one Big Ten caliber player on either position grouping. Without a reasonably good defense, 6-6 really is the absolute best case scenario and that's 100% pending the offense winning a shootout. When the offense doesn't put up, at minimum , 27-30..... we're going to lose. There is no way that can be projected into a 6-6 season. Offenses can sputter. That can't be an automatic loss for us whenever it does. That's where you HAVE to be able to lean on the defense. We can't.

Now is it the evaluation, the money or both? Whoever is managing the money has to make a philosophy change and they need to build from the defense out. If I HAD to choose between a great defense or a great offense to build with our funds.... I'd go the defensive route 100 times out of 100. Defense travels, defense keeps to in games, defense getting turnovers can hand the offense points and a good, fast, physical defense can play anyone, anywhere and under any/all weather conditions.

Give me a great defense and a running game and THAT is what makes the bottom basement record 6-6. Outside of Bailey, there isn't one player on our roster that would remotely be able to play on a contending team. Not one. On offense.....we have legitimate talent. This defensive line and LB corp is the worst that I can remember in a long, long time.

I don't know where Iowa finishes in NIL spending, but that's the model to winning with marginal funds(comparably). Their QB always sucks, but they always find a solid back, a great TE, a mauling, ugly, mean Offensive line and they pair that with a dominant defense and they win. It works and it has always been what works. Control the clock, move the chains, play great D and every game goes into the 4th quarter with a chance.
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My approach would be to consistently prioritize OL and DL in $ allocation, recruiting, development, portal… build everything from the trenches out. Those are your proverbial rising tide, force multipliers that maximize whatever talent you have elsewhere across the board.
 
#255      
RabidDawgClassic
FloridaMan said:
I truly hope you are right. Josh's first order of business, IMO, is to secure more NIL funding. Full stop. I feel like the whole Gies stadium deal was super, super mismanaged from a timing perspective and just a huge misstep. Josh had to know we were falling behind on NIL, and yet still pushed through that project which the fans by and large really do not care about and know was a terrible allocation of resources.
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Good lord… how many times do people have to say it? The Gies $100 mil was not given for NIL use. That was not money that could be used to pay players. Gies would not be able to use an NIL donation as a tax write off. But a “gift” to the university for stadium renovations could be.
 
#257      
OB positive
HereSoIDontGetFined said:
I recall Luke Altmyer having a few stinker games when he first arrived here, but I don't think any of them were as bad as Houser's yesterday. He consistently overthrows receivers on deep routes.

I think this team thought it was going to be much better than it is, and the shock at the truth has jarred them a bit.
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Its inexplicable. Houser was a cool cucumber against Ohio State on their field but at home against Purdue he looked rattled from the get-go.
 
#259      
Illini in Italy
The hot takes in here after this loss are just . . . en fuego

We knew this was going to be a down year with all the losses from last years’ squad, and yet some are calling for Bret’s and even Josh’s heads . . . GMAFB . . .

Game Of Thrones Burn GIF by Feliks Tomasz Konczakowski
 
#261      
Serious Late
Our team composite talent ranking has been bottom 3 in the league every year since 2020. Flawed metric, I think Indiana might have been dead last a year ago, but when you look at those rankings year after year, you see a pattern emerge with the programs that do vs don't do well overall, mostly do so because of the talent they have.

Bret has overperformed pretty much every single year, relative to the talent he has been given. It has happened because of both development and game planning.

This year, yeah no. We do not look nearly as talented as our opponents and we certainly aren't out game planning them. When the coaching is lacking, the talent gap becomes really glaring.

It sucks, and the Purdue lose sends everyone naturally scrambling to "is it over, are we right back to where we were now?" That can't be a feeling we live through for multiple seasons and expect Bret to stick. CONSISTENCY is key to this staff's legacy.

That said, our fans are as bad as our play on the field. Like, had we all given up on the season before this game started? I enjoyed Dan's pretty epic rant about our fans last week (I think) on twitter. The in-stadium crowd is BRUTAL. Its like we are flashing a giant "quiet, the opponent's offense is working" sign on 1st and 2nd down when we are on defense. If it werent for the student section, you would think we were on offense. 3rd down the video board reminds people they are supposed to get loud when we are on Defense and it reaches a feverish "lukewarm" decibel level. Then, awkwardly, about half the people in Section 123 would stand to cheer. Most of them looking around like "is it okay. Can we stand now? Should we make some noise?" YES. YOU SHOULD BE MAKING NOISE EVERY DOWN AND STANDING OFTEN.

This is the second game I have gone to and felt awkward for making noise in the last year. A few people were looking at me funny when I was making noise early in the game. Everyone seemed to accept it as the game went on, and I would say I got it up to about a dozen people in the vicinity of me making noise by the 4th quarter on 1st and 2nd down. It was the exact same at a February basketball game I was at last season. It is expected you stay in your seat and not disrupt others around you inside the State Farm Center these days. Like we are watching a movie. 🙄

Like, this is a real crusade that needs pushed. It is awful, our fanbase needs a complete culture overhaul at events. We had ZERO homefield advantage thanks to the crowd on Saturday. If you are a season ticket holder... what are you doing? Why aren't you a part of the solution? Why aren't more season ticket holders making noise about this, so they start working to FIX it.
 
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