Illinois ranked 110 in USA Today College Football Countdown
the B1G cellar-dwellars shouldn't fall beneath the 80s. I know it's just a preseason SWAG, but no B1G team should be in consideration for ~110 (out of 125)
The three Legends teams benefiting from the auto-win are Nebraska (ha-ha Nebraska ticket holders, zzzzzz), MSU, and Northwestern.
2013 Illinois Fighting Illini Schedule | |||
DATE | OPPONENT | RESULT/TIME | |
Sat, Aug 31 |
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TBD | |
Sat, Sept 7 |
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TBD | |
Sat, Sept 14 |
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6:00 PM ET Big Ten Network | |
Sat, Sept 28 |
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TBD | |
Sat, Oct 5 | TBD | ||
Sat, Oct 19 |
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8:00 PM ET Big Ten Network | |
Sat, Oct 26 |
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TBD | |
Sat, Nov 2 | TBD | ||
Sat, Nov 9 | TBD | ||
Sat, Nov 16 |
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TBD | |
Sat, Nov 23 | TBD | ||
Sat, Nov 30 |
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TBD |
Unfair: they should be at least 109th.
Clearly firing Zook made so much sense
Beckman might not have been the right hire, but I really don't know that not firing Zook is really ever the answer.
EDIT: Case in point, that time he made the decision to go for two despite not knowing what the score was.
There is only one Les Miles.
Yeah, I don't think Zook is ever going to be "the answer" anywhere. Why they hired him in the first place is a head-scratcher. He couldn't win at Florida with the monster institutional advantages they had, but they thought he would at Illinois?
PUNT!!!
I will always associate Juice Williams with an evil duck grafted on to Desmond Howard's legs.
When I visited my friend in Champaign last year, I thought this poster was funny... but now it is even funnier.
They have swag,and by swag I mean a lot of losses.
Firstly, what you are actually targeting in your response is his spelling, not his grammar. They are two much different things. Secondly, offence/defence are not mispellings, look it up in a dictionary yourself. We, as Americans, just prefer those words with an "s," but neither variation is technically improper.
Lastly, while the poster who you are replying to does indeed have plenty of actual grammatical errors, you are one to talk. In your sentence, as you are beginning an independent clause with a conjunction, a comma before "but" is most certainly necessary.
None taken. These things happen when you drink a lot.
That's a brutal schedule they have for 2013 (if you're the 110th ranked team).
Tim Beckman did a hell of a job at Toledo. They are bad right now, but they'll be respectable and good for an upset every now and then soon.
I wouldn't say he did a hell of a job at Toledo. 5-7, 8-5, 9-4 seasons at Toledo are not that great. His defenses were consistently awful.
Illinois vs. Maryland. [shudders]
Not too long ago, that was an actual BCS game.
They've both made BCS bowls this century (Illinois in 2001 and 2007 and Maryland in 2002), but did not play each other.
Most major conference teams really shouldn't fall below 80 or 90. There are some really bad teams in the MAC / Sun Belt / WAC.
teams fall below the #100 mark all the time. Indiana's had about a half dozen in the last 20 years.
In 2012, there were only 69 BCS teams (including Notre Dame), so there needs to be 40 teams from the mid-majors better than Illinois. I ain't buying that.
I buy it. I watched a few Illinois games last season and they were absolutely pitiful. They were inept on offense, undisciplined on defense, and seemed to quit as soon as they fell behind. I don't expect them to be any better in 2013, as they will have less talent to work with and the tension/stress level should increase as fewer people will be inclined to give Beckman the first-year HC pass.
If the Illini want to ever be relevant again, hire Glen Mason immediately. 8-4 every year with notable national attention getting play makers will sell tickets and get you on the TV more.
I can't believe there are 125 division 1-A teams.
Well, the #110 honor sort of makes sense. Courtesy of TeamRankings, some summary statistics from last year and their rank in the whole of Division I football:
Illinois Offense | Value (rank) | Illinois Defense | Value (rank) |
Points/Game | 14.2 (#123) | Opp Points/Game | 35.0 (#101) |
Yards/Game | 280.1 (#123) | Opp Yards/Game | 411.5 (#67) |
Points/Play | 0.204 (#123) | Opp Points/Play | 0.494 (#109) |
Yards/Play | 4.0 (#122) | Opp Yards/Play | 5.8 (#86) |
3D Conversion % | 33.75% (#102) | Opp 3D Conv % | 34.81% (#24) |
4D Conversion % | 33.33% (#111) | Opp 4D Conv % | 61.54% (#97) |
RZ Scoring % | 76.00% (#95) | Opp RZ Scoring % | 81.48% (#64) |
This being the case, I rather agree with much of the assessment - if they lose to Southern Illinois, that's a really bad sign.
I'll bet they could beat Colorado.... maybe Kansas. They should be bumped up two or three slots, man.
Colorado is listed lower in that list.
How is the flagship school in a large, fairly talent-rich state this bad so often? I know they seem to come out of nowhere to be good about once a decade, but why can't they sustain it?
Probably some combination of the following factors:
1) Lack of tradition;
2) Champaign-Urbana being a subpar college town in the middle of nowhere;
3) Steady rise of Northwestern;
4) Numerous other establised football powers (M, OSU, Wisc., ND) are not much further away from Chicago than the Uof I campus;
5) Succession of sub-optimal coaching hires;
6) Nothing special to offer (whether in terms of academics, off-campus life, weather, or otherwise)
Re: #4, does the state of Illinois not have the same kind of "state pride" (for lack of a better phrase) that prods guys to give the in-state school a look? In Michigan we can more or less assume that a local recruit will at least give us (and usually MSU) a shot. Does UI not even get that?
And yet, they've still been to more Rose Bowls than Sparty in the last 25 years.