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Illinois Football Thread
- Thread starter GatorLandMike
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The defense gave up 690 yards. Lovie is way too conservative. That end of the first half was brutal. He didn’t even want to give his offense the opportunity to move into FG position for a kid with a big leg. The OC is struggling to call an offense for a QB who isn’t a dual threat. The Special Teams are really good. Ligs is the Illini version of Dave Toub. I’d put Isaiah Williams in at QB and not look back. This team will be 4-8 at best. The talent available along with how weak the Big 10 West is a bowl team.
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One of my buddies was bragging about Nebraska putting up 700 yards of offense
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If I have my facts right, Illinois has given up 600+ yards six times under Lovie Smith. It isn’t anything to brag about.One of my buddies was bragging about Nebraska putting up 700 yards of offense
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I don't think that makes them bowl eligible, nor as talented as the 2007 Rose Bowl team.
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Christ. Have the opponents by chance?
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TL1961
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So, for those scoring at home: This is in addition to losing 63-0, and has happened to teams not at the top of the conference.
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Thank you. Was curious to see if they were really good opponents or not.
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In case no one noticed, Illinois didn’t lose yesterday.
TL1961
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I noticed that the team that beat Illinois at Illinois got killed at home. 38-0 at half.
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Illinois plays Minny at Minny next week. Unless Illinois has a new bag full of tricks, they will get beat handily. And Michigan is going to be ruthless the following week in Champaign. Frankly, the OC, who I do like, is only good with a dual threat QB. 1 and 2 on the depth chart are not dual threat. LOL. And Lovie needs to do something other than basic blitzing occasionally and sitting in Cover 2 all game. Very disappointing. Rutgers is the only team I have now that this team could beat without pulling a rabbit out of the head coach's ass. Well, maybe Purdue because they are young, but Brohm is a far superior coach.
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..So this isn't going to the Rose Bowl?
JimJohnson
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Still waiting for that bowl game you promised us under Lovie. Do you know when I should expect to see that?
TL1961
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The defense scored 14 and the offense added 3.
The defense allowed 40, even with the two Minnesota turnovers that led to scores.
Has an opponent punted yet this season?
The defense allowed 40, even with the two Minnesota turnovers that led to scores.
Has an opponent punted yet this season?
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Yes. I can't remember whether Akron or EMU as those games blend together for me now, but one of them had a punter shank a couple of punts.
That performance was coming off a bye week. Just imagine the next 2 games. Michigan will give Illinois a beatdown at home and Taylor from Wisky will run all over the Illinois defense.
TL1961
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Nebraska scored zero in the first half vs An Ohio State University, and scored only 13 in a game against a bad NW team, but hung 40 on the Illini.
Minnesota barely got by a couple poor nonconference opponents, and routed the Illini even though they allowed two defensive scores. (Generally if there are two defensive scores in a rout, it's the team scoring on D that routs the opponent, no?)
Illinis lost at home to an Eastern Michigan team that has gone 2-2 in their other 4 games so far, including getting routed by non-powerhouses Kentucky and Central Michigan, while beating Central Connecticut State by less than they beat the Illini.
One of two wins is at home by 8 over UConn. UConn has one win - by 3 over Wagner. Their three games since playing the Illini even have included losses by 35, 35 and 26, all to non-ranked teams.
Any defense of retaining a coach I have had was based on trying to get recruiting traction by having some continuity. And fear that we can get a lesser known name that will not get a foot in the door recruiting wise.
But there is simply no defending this any more. I don't see any positive to a mid-season firing, but there can be no arguing that a change must be made.
The only recruiting success (almost, anyway), has been due to hiring Cory Patterson from Trinity. (And we have yet to see results on the field from those recruiting "wins".
Why on earth can we not get a coach who entices talented kids to come to UI?
In Lovie's case, I think the results on the field are worse than the talent level. It's antiquated schemes.
It's time to make a change and we can't let the Tim Beckman disaster scare us off from looking for a new coach. If Minnesota, in a cold weather climate and with no football success to speak of, can attract a coach, why can't we?
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AHS is a pretty good recruiter, Hudson is a pretty good recruiter. Of course Patterson is a good recruiter. It’s going to be hard to recruit when the prized recruits aren’t getting any playing time. And who is coaching the kids up? The new linebacker coach? The new OL coach? Just an FYI, the UConn game was at UConn.
As for attracting a coach, it isn’t the idea of attracting a good coach. It’s the incompetence of not being able to identify good ones. There have been any number of assistants running through Champaign who have become Head Coaches like Brohm. Dino Babers would have come to Illinois. The AD search committee that included Barb Wilson would not allow the interim AD (Kowalcyk) to make the hire, which is why they got the Cubit/Cubit Jr situation. It’s a shame, because that interim AD hired Jerry Kill at SIUC and Kill turned a garbage program around. Leach would have killed it at Illinois, too. He was obviously available when Illinois hired Becky. So much folly. They need to identify up and comers. Thomas misindentified Becky because he was the HC. Clearly Matt Campbell was the goods. Iowa State is a hard place to win.
TL1961
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I thought at the time that Babers was just bad timing. He had taken a job just a year before, but Voila! he winds up jumping elsewhere after we don't get him. But the other examples are also right on point. We can't seem to attract known good coaches, and shied away from Leach thinking he was toxic.
One thing about the Lovie hire that may make me optimistic is that Whitman showed he was willing to go after a big time coach at a high salary. It may not have worked out, but it's better than feeling we will be looking for a bargain, as we were when we let Self walk and replaced him with Bruce.
Get a good young coach and spend on assistants with recruiting ties.
TL1961
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It's hard to overstate the damage Thomas did in a very short tenure.