Purdue 29, Illinois 10 POSTGAME

SKane · Nov 4, 2017

I just don't get it with Illinois football. Other than a couple years of Mike White, a couple years of Mackovic, two year of Turners and one year of Zook, it has been mediocre to terrible ever since the slush fund. Say maybe eight good years out of 51. I will say that the White years were exciting even when the record was average.

RedRocksIllini · Nov 4, 2017

Illinivek23 said:
I realize it's ugly overall, but Cam took big Steps since last week. If he can continue to improve over the last few games, going into next year...I'm optimistic for next year, with Taylor and Rivers joining the competition. Kids are getting invaluable ed experience, especially in th e trenches.

How did Megginson do today? Would be helpful if his light goes on.

Glad someone else noticed Cam's improvement. Much better job of taking care of the ball and his passing looked a lot stronger. Still has a lot of work to do, but starting to like what I see there.

Swamp Donkey · Nov 4, 2017

The thing that should be most discerning to Illini fans is the progress made by Rutger, Indiana, and Purdue. We are looking up at them and appear to be in that position for awhile. Need some recruiting wins and some on the field wins before the needle starts to move for Illini football.

gibb52 · Nov 5, 2017

We have what, 36 freshmen/rs freshmen? Lots of them starting or at least in regular rotation. Unless you are Bama or OSU with 20 5 star freshmen you will struggle mightily with that much youth.

Next year those 36 players will be sophs. With a year in the weight room, a year of CFB experience, and a year of becoming more familiar with the systems. We will have another recruiting class and some rs frosh that didn't play this year. More experience, more size and strength, more depth.

I don't expect a B1G champion next yr but I expect significant improvement. How much we improve will depend a lot on the QB position. If Thomas or one of the incoming kids can play reasonably well we could be a bowl team IMO.

Illiini · Nov 6, 2017

basementcheetos said:
I don't want him back at all, however, how could we be worse than we are now?

If we still had Beckman, we wouldn't be seeing an eventual light at the end of the tunnel. We'd still be digging downwards. Yes, it can always get worse.

BRucks · Nov 6, 2017

Illiini said:
If we still had Beckman, we wouldn't be seeing an eventual light at the end of the tunnel. We'd still be digging downwards. Yes, it can always get worse.

I don't think that Beckman was the answer but his teams did improve each year: 2-10, 4-8, 6-7. Will we be able to say that about Smith's teams? If there is a light at the end of his tunnel it is very, very faint.

FiveStar · Nov 6, 2017

BRucks said:
I don't think that Beckman was the answer but his teams did improve each year: 2-10, 4-8, 6-7. Will we be able to say that about Smith's teams? If there is a light at the end of his tunnel it is very, very faint.

Freshman are playing over most Beckman/cubit upperclassmen because they are better players. If it was a true youth movement allegretti, dudek, turner, dunlap etc would not be playing at all. The younger guys are playing out of necessity because the Beckman/cubit guys aren’t good enough in like 15/22 slots. And even those lower level Beckman recruits got us 6 wins in his 3rd year, but Lovies guys are clearly better. That should tell you all you need to know about lights and tunnels.

Dren1 · Nov 6, 2017

Swamp Donkey said:
The thing that should be most discerning to Illini fans is the progress made by Rutger, Indiana, and Purdue. We are looking up at them and appear to be in that position for awhile. Need some recruiting wins and some on the field wins before the needle starts to move for Illini football.

We may be looking up at Rutgers, Indiana, and Purdue right now, but I am of the belief that we will not be in that position for awhile. I think we are developing some good, young talent and I don't think those schools are recruiting immensely better than us, if at all.

Ransom Stoddard · Nov 7, 2017

Illinibatt said:
Despite everyone's collective refusal to acknowledge it, Zook's last two years were 7-6 and 7-6.

We still have a very long way to go to get back to even that level of program.

A collective refusal to acknowledge a .500 regular season? That's a bit of a stretch. Zook had one single season with a winning record in the B1G. And only one season (the same) with a winning regular season record. Winning a game in a LOL bowl is nothing to reminisce fondly about.

Also, on an aside, Mike White's last two years were 4-7 and 3-7-1.
People have a skewed recollection of the success of the White regime.

5 straight winning seasons overall, 5 straight winning conference records, 5 straight conference finishes of 3rd or higher. Yes, he crapped the bed his last 2 seasons but it was still exciting football, and I was there for every single game. White has the 2nd highest winning percentage of any Illinois coach since 1912.

Mackovic recovered the program immediately with 4 straight winning seasons, 4 straight bowl invites, and no worse than a 5th place finish in conference. For better or for worse, the period of 1982 - 1991 is the best 10 season stretch in Illinois football. It's pretty disingenuous to knock what White accomplished because of his last 2 seasons.

EJ33 · Nov 7, 2017

Ransom Stoddard said:
A collective refusal to acknowledge a .500 regular season? That's a bit of a stretch. Zook had one single season with a winning record in the B1G. And only one season (the same) with a winning regular season record. Winning a game in a LOL bowl is nothing to reminisce fondly about.

5 straight winning seasons overall, 5 straight winning conference records, 5 straight conference finishes of 3rd or higher. Yes, he crapped the bed his last 2 seasons but it was still exciting football, and I was there for every single game. White has the 2nd highest winning percentage of any Illinois coach since 1912.

Mackovic recovered the program immediately with 4 straight winning seasons, 4 straight bowl invites, and no worse than a 5th place finish in conference. For better or for worse, the period of 1982 - 1991 is the best 10 season stretch in Illinois football. It's pretty disingenuous to knock what White accomplished because of his last 2 seasons.

It'd be more accurate to acknowledge that White left Mackovic some talent, including Jeff George, and Mackovic did a good job with it. But, he was only 6-5 his last year and I doubt he could've sustained the winning.

Moreover, I doubt Mackovic would have been successful at Illinois had he followed Gary Moeller. White was a bright shining star that pulled the program out of the ashes. What he did in his first few years was remarkable. Does anybody doubt we'd be in much better shape today if NCAA issues hadn't ended his tenure at Illinois?

Greensboro · Nov 8, 2017

FiveStar said:
Freshman are playing over most Beckman/cubit upperclassmen because they are better players. If it was a true youth movement allegretti, dudek, turner, dunlap etc would not be playing at all. The younger guys are playing out of necessity because the Beckman/cubit guys aren’t good enough in like 15/22 slots. And even those lower level Beckman recruits got us 6 wins in his 3rd year, but Lovies guys are clearly better. That should tell you all you need to know about lights and tunnels.

+1, the fact that we have to play so many freshman makes the case how weak our upper classes are. We also seem to have a tendency to fade away in the second half which I attribute to lack of depth. Our freshman will get better, but we still have 2 classes above them next year that aren't deep enough or strong enough. If you look at our depth chart below, counting TE we start 5 of 6 freshman lineman, rutgers 1, PU 0 & both only lose 1 Sr next year. We will be better next year, just not sure it will be enough better to show much & as that line gets better so will our running game and QB play. Patience is in order.

http://www.ourlads.com/ncaa-football-depth-charts/depth-chart/illinois/90705

BZuppke · Nov 8, 2017

EJ33 said:
It'd be more accurate to acknowledge that White left Mackovic some talent, including Jeff George, and Mackovic did a good job with it. But, he was only 6-5 his last year and I doubt he could've sustained the winning.

Moreover, I doubt Mackovic would have been successful at Illinois had he followed Gary Moeller. White was a bright shining star that pulled the program out of the ashes. What he did in his first few years was remarkable. Does anybody doubt we'd be in much better shape today if NCAA issues hadn't ended his tenure at Illinois?

This. White recruited the players for Mackovics success. Mackovic could not sustain White’s recruiting. Also in White’s last two years we had a great defense but no QB, which was key to his passing offense (Jim Bennett crapped out and all). White fixed that problem by signing Jeff George and set Mackovic up. I’ll say that had White remained we would have gone to another Rose Bowl with Jeff George. He was a bright star for us.

illini80 · Nov 8, 2017

EJ33 said:
It'd be more accurate to acknowledge that White left Mackovic some talent, including Jeff George, and Mackovic did a good job with it. But, he was only 6-5 his last year and I doubt he could've sustained the winning.

Moreover, I doubt Mackovic would have been successful at Illinois had he followed Gary Moeller. White was a bright shining star that pulled the program out of the ashes. What he did in his first few years was remarkable. Does anybody doubt we'd be in much better shape today if NCAA issues hadn't ended his tenure at Illinois?

Agree on all accounts. :clappy:

Purdue 29, Illinois 10 POSTGAME

Ordained Dudeist Priest