Illinois Fighting Illini (you'll see)

[OregonBuckeye]

why are big ten titles pipedreams? ill had one what six years ago? they played in another bcs bowl this year. in the late 80s early 90s illini owned osu. could it happen again, yup, will it happen again, at some point yes.

Is is really a forgone conclusion Illinois will own us again one day?

 

[OrangeRoughy]

Zook has to prove he can coach at a consistent level though. Wisconsin and Iowa have never dominated the recruiting rankings, but Wisconsin has been a consistently good team for the past decade because of good coaching and sticking to a system. And Iowa's penchant for having good lines has made them a good team, although they have slipped in recent years.

Agreed. There really hasn't been a Big Ten team that approached Ohio State and Michigan's sustained success in recruiting since maybe Penn State in the early 90s. If Zook can build on these top-20ish classes and pull in maybe a top-12 class (2009 is already off to a great start with three 4-stars in the fold and probably the highest rated class of Illinois high school players in years), then it truly will be unprecedented in the Big Ten over the last 20 years. If it happens, it will be interesting to see what Zook can do with all of that talent.

Personally though, I think that without a feature back like Mendenhall (Dependent on no one stepping up here) that Illinois will struggle next year. 7-6 or 8-5 wouldn't surprise me. At a school like Illinois which doesn't have the name recognition, you don't replace a player like Rashard Mendenhall very easily.

Then you and I agree again. As I told our Koolaid drinkin' friend AlgonquinIllini earlier in this thread...

Look, Algonquin, I appreciate the enthusiasm. But please don't jump off the bandwagon when we go 7-5 next season. We've gutted the center of the defense (2 DTs, 2 LBs, both safeties), and that will take half the season to rebuild. The passing game should start to click, but Mendenhall going pro is a huge blow to our rushing attack. You don't lose the Big Ten Player of the Year and just expect to pick up where you left off with four 3-star running backs. And the schedule that gives us away games at Missouri (albeit STL), Michigan, Penn State, and Wisconsin doesn't bode well for a Big Ten Title run.

And you have to realize that if we go 7-5 and Champs Sports Bowl next year, Illini nation will do backflips down the aisles at Memorial Stadium. We haven't been to back-to-back bowls since 91/92. We're still in the honeymoon phase of this whole "winning football" thing.

High expectations kick in for 2009 and beyond. That's when this team will be finally purged of the "Turner Two-stars".

 

[osugrad21]

Is is really a forgone conclusion Illinois will own us again one day?

If you have followed college sports long enough you know it is more than likely.

Its all cyclical...believe it or not, there will be thin years for tOSU again at some point in the future.

 

[SNIPER26]

If you have followed college sports long enough you know it is more than likely.

Its all cyclical...believe it or not, there will be thin years for tOSU again at some point in the future.

So Michigan might even beat you guys more than once out of seven? :)

 

[BB73]

So Michigan might even beat you guys more than once out of seven? :)

That can be ten times true. I'll concede TSUN 20 victories in the next 70 games.

But back to the Illini.

 

[zincfinger]

And you have to realize that if we go 7-5 and Champs Sports Bowl next year, Illini nation will do backflips down the aisles at Memorial Stadium.

Do you really think so? You would know better than I would, but it doesn't seem to me that a majority of Illini football fans are as patient and sober as you are. I suspect that anything less than 7-5 would be viewed by a fairly large contingent as a letdown.

 

[BB73]

Some Q&A about the Illini.

cfn

1) How many of the top Illinois prospects from the 2007 recruiting class are ready to roll.
2) Is there going to be more of an emphasis on throwing, and is Juice Williams going to be the full-time starter?
3) Who's replacing Rashard Mendenhall?

Frank Frangie, Publisher, Insideillini.com

1) A number of players from last year's class played a great deal last year: WR Arrelious Benn, LB Martez Wilson, WR Brian Gamble, RB Daniel Dufrene, DT Josh Brent, CB Marcus Thomas, FS Nathan Bussey. All of those guys currently are listed as starters headed into spring.

Beyond those starters, players from the 2007 class that redshirted, but will figure prominently, include: RB Troy Pollard (received medical hardship after being injured early in the season), OL Jack Cornell, Craig Wilson and Mark Jackson (all are listed in top two of depth chart), DL DeAngelo McCray and Darryle Ballew (will be in rotation), LB Ian Thomas (could start) and SS Darius Purcell (could start).

Cont'd ...

 

[OrangeRoughy]

Do you really think so? You would know better than I would, but it doesn't seem to me that a majority of Illini football fans are as patient and sober as you are. I suspect that anything less than 7-5 would be viewed by a fairly large contingent as a letdown.

I think so. I'll tell you this - the season ticket holders and other long suffering fans will be doing backflips. I can't speak for the 17 year old Kids who weren't alive the last time we went to back-to-back bowls, but the general consensus of the fans I hang around, both in person and on the internet, is that the happiness meter is set to go off at 7 wins.

I think the feeling when Zook was hired remains: Consistently win 8 games in Gainesville and you're fired. Consistently win 8 games in Champaign and we'll put up a statue.

 

[wadc45]

Rivals $

3/18

From O&B News...a look at Illinois' targets and recruiting strategy for Ohio in 2009.

 

[jimotis4heisman]

Is is really a forgone conclusion Illinois will own us again one day?

If you have followed college sports long enough you know it is more than likely.

Its all cyclical...believe it or not, there will be thin years for tOSU again at some point in the future.

the same way that ill will also have some good ones.

 

[OrangeRoughy]

the same way that ill will also have some good ones.

Speaking of good ones, all three of Illinois' 2009 recruits thus far are 4-stars on both Scout and Rivals. That might not mean much to you Terrelle-Pryor-gettin', Brew-crew-havin' Ohio State fans, but seeing as these three 4-stars are equal to the number of 4-stars pulled in by Ron Turner in his last two years, well...

In case you're keeping track at home, here's the scoreboard:

Blue Chippers under Turner from 2000-2004: 5
Blue Chippers under Zook from 2006-2009: 21 (and counting - we're 3 for 3 so far in 2009)

 

[MililaniBuckeye]

*right click, save* Oh wait - you guys hang on to your posts over here. Good. I'm glad this one will be around in 6 years.

I'm glad you chose the timeframe you did, because I walked onto campus in the fall of 1991 and have followed Illinois recruiting very closely since. The 1990 team (Jeff George, Darrick Brownlow, Howard Griffith) was the closest thing to having a solid line a blue chippers on the bench. John Mackovic was pretty solid at recruiting. After he left for Texas, I don't think we had one single top-25 recruiting class from 1991 to 2006 (that's easy to track back to 2001. There wasn't much of a consensus before that - I was forced to rely on Tom Lemming's "Notre Dame is so friggin' awesome" recruiting rankings) As I stated earlier in this thread, neither Tepper or Turner cared much for recruiting. And the results on the field showed.

So when you saw those occasional "great years", it was mostly luck. We pulled in Simeon Rice and Kevin Hardy in the mid 90s and had a few good years with Tepper's D. Got Kurt Kittner, Brandon Lloyd, and a host of solid offensive linemen (none besides Kitter were very highly regarded recruits) and had some good years in 1999 and 2001 with Turner's O. But in the rest of our years, our 6th-through-10th ranked recruiting classes gave us 6th-though-10th place results.

But now, something's different. After five 4-star recruits from '02 to '05, we've pulled in 18 (two of 'em 5-stars) in the last three years. After averaging a 9th-place-in-the-Big-Ten finish in the recruiting rankings from '02 to '05, we've been a consensus 4th, 3rd, and 3rd the last three years. We've had three straight classes ranked higher than Wisconsin, two straight ranked higher than Penn State, and four straight better than Purdue and Michigan State. While those aren't the numbers of a National Championship contender, they're not the numbers of a "great season once a decade or so" team either. I think you'll see a Wisconsin-like run for the Illini over the next 10 years. And given the fertile recruiting ground in Illinois, there's an outside chance at that aforementioned "consistently elite level".

I know, I know - recruiting rankings doesn't always relate to wins. Zook still needs to prove he can coach. Most reasonable Illini fans are in full agreement with that. But when we see that the three players who have verballed for the 2009 class - Fellows, Buckner, and Hill - were all ranked as 4-stars when Scout's most recent update came out, and we see that equals the same number of 4-star recruits that found their way onto the Memorial Stadium turf from the 2002, 2003, and 2004 recruiting classes combined, we can't help but get excited.

Please do save it, so when Illinois is 4-7 in 2012 we all can have a good laugh. My point was that while Illinois has some good years, they have never been consistent. I didn't feel like listing your entire history, but if you'd like feel free to check out your season-by-season history which lays out all the gory details, such as:

Your 10-2 season in 2001 was sandwiched between 5-6 and 5-7 seasons.

Your 10-2 season in 1989 was sandwiched between 6-5 and 8-4 seasons.

Your 10-2 season in 1983 was sandwiched between 7-5 and 7-4 seasons.

Your 8-1-1 season in 1963 was sandwiched between 2-7 and 6-3 seasons.

Sense a pattern here, Sparky? You have to go all the way back to 1950-1951 to find two consecutive seasons with 2 or less losses (7-2 and 9-0-1). So, regardless of how great your current recruiting classes may seem, you'll have to excuse my scepticism until you put together more than one or two solid seasons.

 

[OrangeRoughy]

Please do save it, so when Illinois is 4-7 in 2012 we all can have a good laugh. My point was that while Illinois has some good years, they have never been consistent. I didn't feel like listing your entire history, but if you'd like feel free to check out your season-by-season history which lays out all the gory details, such as:

Your 10-2 season in 2001 was sandwiched between 5-6 and 5-7 seasons.

Your 10-2 season in 1989 was sandwiched between 6-5 and 8-4 seasons.

Your 10-2 season in 1983 was sandwiched between 7-5 and 7-4 seasons.

Your 8-1-1 season in 1963 was sandwiched between 2-7 and 6-3 seasons.

Really? I had no idea. Wow - I'd better re-evaluate my enthusiasm for my alma mater. Our good seasons were sandwiched between poor seasons? Unreal! I had no friggin' clue!! From my seat in Memorial Stadium, it looked like we had winning seasons and sunny bowls every year. I must have missed a few opponent touchdowns while I was off getting nachos. Thanks for pointing that out.

Sense a pattern here, Sparky? You have to go all the way back to 1950-1951 to find two consecutive seasons with 2 or less losses (7-2 and 9-0-1). So, regardless of how great your current recruiting classes may seem, you'll have to excuse my scepticism until you put together more than one or two solid seasons.

I DO sense a pattern, Pookie. A pattern of miserable recruiting for 20+ years, watching all the top Chicago talent end up in Ann Arbor or South Bend. And for the first time in my lifetime, it appears that we're about to turn that corner and bring those boys to Champaign. So tell me, now that this is happening for the first time in a generation, how exactly does our 3-year record from 2000-2002 have anything to do with it? Wait - do you have inside info? Is Ron Turner returning to the football staff? Crap - just tell me, is he? I'm sorry I called you Pookie. I'll take it back if you tell me. If I'm gonna go back to the days of fighting Toledo and the Directional Michigans for recruits, I need to know now.

Look, I'm fully aware of our failures. And I'm also fully aware of our corresponding recruiting failures. So when I tell you that recruiting at Illinois hasn't been this good since Mike White was paying California Jucos to come to Champaign in the early eighties, you have to believe me. Dig through all the stats you want, but I've lived it for 20+ years.

Let me tell you a story. In the spring of 1992, I drove out of Champaign one weekend to get away - destination Madison. While watching the infamous Duke/Kentucky game in Madison with a few Wisconsin guys that my buddy knew, one of the guys offered this: "You'll see Wisconsin win multiple Big Ten basketball titles in the next 10 years. Stu Jackson is recruiting like we've never recruited before." I nearly fell out of my chair laughing. It had been what - 30 years since Wisconsin had had a winning season in the Big Ten? And now they were going to win multiple Big Ten titles? I scoffed, told him he was an idiot, and got back to the overtime of the Laettner game.

I thought of that conversation many times over the next 10 years as Wisconsin basketball made it's steady rise. Just like you'll think of me, Pookie.

 

[MililaniBuckeye]

Really? I had no idea. Wow - I'd better re-evaluate my enthusiasm for my alma mater. Our good seasons were sandwiched between poor seasons? Unreal! I had no friggin' clue!! From my seat in Memorial Stadium, it looked like we had winning seasons and sunny bowls every year. I must have missed a few opponent touchdowns while I was off getting nachos. Thanks for pointing that out.



I DO sense a pattern, Pookie. A pattern of miserable recruiting for 20+ years, watching all the top Chicago talent end up in Ann Arbor or South Bend. And for the first time in my lifetime, it appears that we're about to turn that corner and bring those boys to Champaign. So tell me, now that this is happening for the first time in a generation, how exactly does our 3-year record from 2000-2002 have anything to do with it? Wait - do you have inside info? Is Ron Turner returning to the football staff? Crap - just tell me, is he? I'm sorry I called you Pookie. I'll take it back if you tell me. If I'm gonna go back to the days of fighting Toledo and the Directional Michigans for recruits, I need to know now.

Look, I'm fully aware of our failures. And I'm also fully aware of our corresponding recruiting failures. So when I tell you that recruiting at Illinois hasn't been this good since Mike White was paying California Jucos to come to Champaign in the early eighties, you have to believe me. Dig through all the stats you want, but I've lived it for 20+ years.

Let me tell you a story. In the spring of 1992, I drove out of Champaign one weekend to get away - destination Madison. While watching the infamous Duke/Kentucky game in Madison with a few Wisconsin guys that my buddy knew, one of the guys offered this: "You'll see Wisconsin win multiple Big Ten basketball titles in the next 10 years. Stu Jackson is recruiting like we've never recruited before." I nearly fell out of my chair laughing. It had been what - 30 years since Wisconsin had had a winning season in the Big Ten? And now they were going to win multiple Big Ten titles? I scoffed, told him he was an idiot, and got back to the overtime of the Laettner game.

I thought of that conversation many times over the next 10 years as Wisconsin basketball made it's steady rise. Just like you'll think of me, Pookie.

GTFOH...seriously.

 

[Deety]

I guess now we know who's Pookie now. :p