Virginia 42, Illinois 14 Postgame

#51      

Illini92and96

Austin, TX
I’m here as an Arkansas fan who endured our years with Bret Bielema. I hate to tell you this but you won’t see much better than this right now; you future will be disappointing until he is fired and collects another big buyout.

I was excited when he came to Arkansas. I thought his emphasis on line play and O line development at Wisconsin would serve Arkansas well in the SEC. He came in with three Rose Bowl rings and my Big Ten friends were flabbergasted he left for Arkansas. He came in though with unbridled arrogance and got his head handed to him.

He immediately alienated the high school coaches in Texas, Arkansas’ primary recruiting grounds since Frank Broyles. He then butted heads with other SEC coaches, painting a target on himself. As he saw how hard it would be to just be a competitive program in the SEC he lost his way. He put little effort into recruiting in a part of the country where mamas expect to see Nick Saban and Ed Orgeron in their living rooms. He polished his party side and often arrived at games looking like he had closed the bars. He had a reality TV show.

Bielema is simply lazy and not self motivating. Arkansas learned without a Barry Alvarez busting his !!! he would simply slow down. He hated the heat, and so would allow the offensive linemen to have days off from outdoor practices or weight lifting. Any good coach down here in Texas knows that stamina in the heat and humidity is the best weapon any team can possess.

So a couple of years in New England and with the Giants don’t seem to have changed him. Good luck with this guy. 5 wins a year is Bret doing ok.
Your description seems complexity opposite of what the staff has presented. I haven’t seen any sense of entitlement or lack of enthusiasm for building a program right. Who knows behind the scenes, but publicly it seems like the right approach. Whether we have success is up for debate, but for those of us that have seen this game numerous times it should not be surprising. In the business world driving the right long term change can be painful and a step back in the short run. No different here.
 
#54      

derrick6

Illini Dawg
Seattle
Definitely looks like I way underestimated how atrocious Lovie’s recruiting truly was. Idk if it’s because the highs of Beason and IW and the hits on lowly ranked Hobbs and Bennett made me think he was better than he ended up being or what. But man…just the skill disparity in that game was absurd.
Well, guess what? B’s first class is worse. I hope that’s not the problem
 
#57      

KBLEE

Montgomery, IL
we suck again GIF
 
#60      
Will cut the offense some slack. Brown showed he is clearly our best back and a difference maker today and we didn’t have him the first 2 games. And Art shows potential at times but is definitely limited at this point. Plus, it sounds like we are missing our 2 guys that can stretch the field. All of which means defenses can sell out on the run. If I would have told you we would play 3 decent to good ish teams without all those weapons, 1-2 is about all you could hope for.

Defense just seems physically overmatched week in and week out. We lose LOS and can’t generate a pass rush, and our secondary can’t seem to keep up with receivers. Not sure how you fix it.
 
#61      
Sitting at the game today reminded me of the ASU game my wife and I flew out for several years back. Drove 800 miles for this game and the game was over. After 5 minutes. How can you play a game and have absolutely zero pass rush. The passes ar,e being completed at the same high percentage as Lovie’s defense.
 
#62      

APS iMBA

Urbana, IL
It's going to take a while for us to get where we want to be. At least OSU lost to Oregon. That was fun to watch.
 
#64      
Man I can't wait for these super seniors and seniors in general are gone, it doesn't take much for them to look like whipped dogs,they are mentally destroyed. The physicality between the 2 teams wasn't even close.
Agree. Months ago, when Hansen announced that he was returning, I posted that I was not sure how I felt about him coming back. I wanted our younger backers, especially Cooper, to get playing time and develop. I was roasted several times for my post. These super seniors are not good and will not get better. Develop your younger players. Hansen is just one example. The guy routinely reaches double digits in tackles, but most seem like they are downfield. He has a knack for creating turnovers, but how many tackles has he missed in the pursuit of these strips?
 
#69      
Watched game at UVa today..dissapointing to Illini in attendance that game was a no contest
1. Va QB was comfortable all game, hit first option most of the time, timing was perfect....we couldn't disrupt this.
2. UVa had two very tall/good receivers that were unstoppable
3. UVa was very deliberate...we were not.
4. We need a pass rush, need to mix things up defesively, secondary got burned.
5. OL is dissapointing so far, Sitkowski throws a nice ball, we need bigger/faster WRs.
6. Illini need impact transfers, much better HS recruiting, still 2-3 year turn around if all goes well.
7. Illinois needs to schedule 3 cupcake non-conference opponents for the near future...though schedule is already made
 
#70      
Agree. Months ago, when Hansen announced that he was returning, I posted that I was not sure how I felt about him coming back. I wanted our younger backers, especially Cooper, to get playing time and develop. I was roasted several times for my post. These super seniors are not good and will not get better. Develop your younger players. Hansen is just one example. The guy routinely reaches double digits in tackles, but most seem like they are downfield. He has a knack for creating turnovers, but how many tackles has he missed in the pursuit of these strips?
If the younger guys can't beat out the older guys in practice and earn a spot (and if you think Bret is just rolling out the seniors out of respect or some other misguided reasoning other than trying to win, well...) then what does it matter which seniors came back?
 
#75      
I don’t know how good UVA is this year. We need to figure out the Dline and the secondary.
I think we have a decent QB for the future and our RBs are good. Team needs to refocus but the rest of the schedule looks tough Charlotte and Rutgers might be the only winnable games but Charlotte beat Duke. Football is a lot harder to turn around than basketball but I like our coach