Wisconsin 45, Illinois 7 Postgame

#52      
Not in the least bit surprised. Anyone predicting a win here was setting themselves up for disappintment.
Wasn't expecting a win, but was at least expecting the offense to score a couple of touchdowns, maybe a field goal or two, and didn't expect the defense to look as pathetic as it did. In short, I didn't expect a win but was expecting a competitive team. We did not get anything close to that.
 
#53      
Nobody should be surprised at the result last night. Lovie is such an inept college football coach that he consistently fails to have his team ready to play the first few games of the season. Seriously, check out the scores/results of the non-conference games since Lovie's been in Champaign. The Illini won most of those games, but they should have have been easy wins -- and they were far from that.
 
#54      

hooraybeer

Pittsburgh, PA
losing Hansen so early on last night was huge. he’s the one player on the team we couldn’t afford to lose and i think our team knew that and it was all downhill from that moment
 
#57      
losing Hansen so early on last night was huge. he’s the one player on the team we couldn’t afford to lose and i think our team knew that and it was all downhill from that moment

Nah man, yes a huge loss but Barnes was amazing. The team came out flat, fumbled, no offense, no pass rush, and no reap secondary. It was just a huge letdown. Unless Rod learns to coach using other weapons and we generate a pass rush this will be a rough year. The thing is our offense should be very good. Our D should not be that bad.
 
#59      

KrushCow31

Former Krush Cow
Chicago, IL
Lovie is .300 as head coach at Illinois. The worst coach record since 1967-1970 and the 3rd worst all time. Just saying.
 
#60      
I'd say you're pretty generous in using "consistent." I see only '82-'85 and then '88-'91. In the former period, White primed the pump of a moribund program with a lot of JuCo transfers from CA, then got slammed with sanctions. In the latter, Mackovic had us relevant for three straight seasons. That's it, however. I believe we'd have to go back to the early '60s, pre Slush Fund debacle to find consistently respectable teams. And even then.... can't be ar$sed to look it up, however.

I go back to my observation I've made to friends over the years that if you'd told me in late 1989 that Wisconsin football would be in the Rose Bowl before 2000 I would have bet five figures against it. If you bet me in addition that the basketball team would be in a Final Four before 2000 I'd have added a zero (if I had the cash.) They were annually awful for years in both sports. I don't think Don Morton won more than five games in his three seasons as football coach before he was fired in '89. Apart from a successful spurt in the early '80s (coincident with ours) they were between mediocre and terrible going back to the early '70s. Basketball was a joke, too. When I was a senior in 1988 I recall Wisconsin cut several non-revenue sports because football and basketball generated insufficient revenue. The Field House where the hoops team played had holes in the roof they couldn't afford to repair. Fans told of snow falling on them in the rafters.

And yet. Chancellor Donna Shalala's conviction that having competitive football and basketball programs paid huge dividends for them. I believe she brought in a new AD, a senior marketing guy from Miller Brewing, who turned it all around. Hired Alvarez, and promoted Dick Bennett from a satellite UW campus. Raised large amounts of money from the Kohls and others. And there they are, in the 1997 Finial Four, and winning the 1998 Rose Bowl with one loss. And if you're a college student today you've not been alive when Wisconsin football and basketball have not been not only annually relevant but consistently among the top programs in the nation in both sports.

My solace is that Whitman seems like a solid AD and should maximize the chance of us luring a younger, more ambitious coach to Champaign. Where we are now seems to be the result of Thomas and the long tail of the Guenther years.

I am being outrageously generous and grading on a curve. Fans of tOSU, Michigan, various SEC franchises (and I mean this in the corporate sense), etal would never accept the Ilini results from the 80's as being "the good old days" but that's what we have to work with.
 
#62      
losing Hansen so early on last night was huge. he’s the one player on the team we couldn’t afford to lose and i think our team knew that and it was all downhill from that moment
Really? We were more than one player awful & his backup scored our only TD. We didn’t cover anyone, we bailed them out several times with stupid penalties, and the offense couldn’t move the ball, let alone score.
 
#63      
On the bright side, if you are looking for a deal on a beach house rental or to buy there seems to be a surplus on Madison’s craigslist.
 
#65      

altgeld88

Arlington, Virginia
I am being outrageously generous and grading on a curve. Fans of tOSU, Michigan, various SEC franchises (and I mean this in the corporate sense), etal would never accept the Ilini results from the 80's as being "the good old days" but that's what we have to work with.

:) Charity is a cardinal virtue.

My brother got me a book for Xmas around 2005 or so. It was a history of Big Ten football. Each team had its own chapter. At the beginning of that chapter, across the bottom of two pages (IIRC) was the team's record charted in winning pct. across the 100+ years covered. Illinois' was positively sinusoidal from 1950s onward. A few strong seasons followed by years of poor-to-abysmal ones. No other second-division BT program (e.g., MN, IU, NW, Purdue) had anything resembling our peaks of successes and deep troughs of failure.

I'm from Columbus and visited there last week for the first time in 15 years. Caught up one evening with some childhood friends who went to OSU. We got to talking about football season arriving soon and one of them reminded me that he and a friend had crashed on the floor of my room in Scott Hall for the OSU-Illinois game in 1987 (we lost 10-6). I made an offhand remark about how we had some strong teams back then and then went into a tailspin in the '90s. Both of them scoffed at that claim. I reminded them that between 1983-92 we went 7-3 against OSU and beat them four straight times in Columbus from '88-94, then twice again on consecutive visits in '99 and '01.

The silent shame that suddenly descended on them was a joy to behold. I drove the nail further into the coffin by changing the subject to the upcoming basketball season ;).
 
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#66      
I have to take the blame for this game! I should have known better. Every time I bet on the Illini they lose. I put $50 on them to cover.
Methodists don't gamble, fortunately. I expected the Illini to cover. That's the Orange Koolaid thinking again.
 
#67      
Watching a recording of the game. The Illini defensive and offensive line look to have good quickness. But the Badger lines look to be just as as quick, but visibly bigger and stronger. A bad omen.
 
#68      
:) Charity is a cardinal virtue.

My brother got me a book for Xmas around 2005 or so. It was a history of Big Ten football. Each team had its own chapter. At the beginning of that chapter, across the bottom of two pages (IIRC) was the team's record charted in winning pct. across the 100+ years covered. Illinois' was positively sinusoidal from 1950s onward. A few strong seasons followed by years of poor-to-abysmal ones. No other second-division BT program (e.g., MN, IU, NW, Purdue) had anything resembling our peaks of successes and deep troughs of failure.

I'm from Columbus and visited there last week for the first time in 15 years. Caught up one evening with some childhood friends who went to OSU. We got to talking about football season arriving soon and one of them reminded me that he and a friend had crashed on the floor of my room in Scott Hall for the OSU-Illinois game in 1987 (we lost 10-6). I made an offhand remark about how we had some strong teams back then and then went into a tailspin in the '90s. Both of them scoffed at that claim. I reminded them that between 1983-92 we went 7-3 against OSU and beat them four straight times in Columbus from '88-94, then twice again on consecutive visits in '99 and '01.

The silent shame that suddenly descended on them was a joy to behold. I drove the nail further into the coffin by changing the subject to the upcoming basketball season ;).
The Illini wins against OSU did cross my mind when I was posting. I decided while it was sweet indeed, that limited success does not make for a great season by itself.
 
#69      
Disappointed and more......I thought we would be at the very least competitive. I think Lovie's time has past...., watching Indiana/Penn State....Indiana was once an Easy W for Illinois...now they blew right past us.
 
#70      
We made Mertz look like the next Andrew Marty. The Rutgers vs. Michigan State game should have been called The Illini Bowl because the loser will be playing Illinois in the last game of the season. Bring on Sparty! I hope I am just overeating after the first game of the season.
 
#72      

Cook

Richmond, VA
I thought this would be the year that we'd see a legit football team for once. Coaching, scheme, talent, execution and therefore wins. Let alone being competitive in every game.

Instead watching every other B1G team enviously. We are the worst team in the league and it's not even close. :hurl:

Whitman has to see that this has to change, no? 🙏
 
#73      
Peters didn’t look like he was even in the game. With the fumble by Epstein didn’t help. Williams is not the QB of the future. Man I would put Spann in the game. Peters was totally off .
 
#74      
I thought this would be the year that we'd see a legit football team for once. Coaching, scheme, talent, execution and therefore wins. Let alone being competitive in every game.

Instead watching every other B1G team enviously. We are the worst team in the league and it's not even close. :hurl:

Whitman has to see that this has to change, no? 🙏
i guess you didn't see Michigan St
 
#75      
for my fan (not trying to be negative) it a couple of teams just to cheer for
IU
NW
Rutgers
and Miami U ( with future Head coach Chuck Martin).