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Illinois Fighting Illini (you'll see)

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BuckTwenty;1150212; said:
That's a shame. I kinda liked having him around, though his arguments didn't make sense all the time and I didn't like his "find the awkward loophole" angle. Lopo = Loophole
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Last Activity: Yesterday 06:16 PM


...and our next performer on BP Karaoke, Lupus..errr Loopy...um Lopo will be singing Led Zeppelin's "I can't Quit you Baby"
 
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OrangeRoughy;1151512; said:
I think we'll look back in 10 years and say that the Illini run from 2007 to 2017 was the most successful Goldilocks run of them all. Why? A coach who gets it (recruiting is 66.67% of the game) in a state where there's a fertile recruiting base (much more talent in Illinois than there is in Wisconsin, or Minnesota, or Iowa, or Indiana).
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I disagree with this statement. Look at Wisconsin over the past eleven years: they've got a .700 winning percentage (.625 conference winning percentage). They played in 10 bowl games over that span, but won or shared only 2 conference championships. The problem is that their rise was paralleled by the emergence of Ohio State post John Cooper.

Now, Illinois certainly looks to be on the upswing. I think it's premature to say that they'll be the prettiest princess at the party over the next 10 years, in light of the recent success of other such former push-overs.
 
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ShakerBuck;1153468; said:
really? not that familiar with the IL secondary.

but we return our entire 2 deep from last year? that includes an all-american shut down corner. and otherwise solid, if not all conference potential at the other secondary positions.
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Illinois has Dere Hicks, Miami Thomas, and Vontae Davis all returning, and the general feeling is that their safety positions get a huge upgrade through addition by subtraction of Mitchell and Harrison. The incoming kids are really good.

I think the Illini are putting a lot of stock in the fact the Juice allegedly had a poor spring, and that was a result of their own defense and not Juice and the O.

That secondary gets a test in Week 1 with Mizzou, so we'll see pretty soon.
 
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Dryden;1153499; said:
Illinois has Dere Hicks, Miami Thomas, and Vontae Davis all returning, and the general feeling is that their safety positions get a huge upgrade through addition by subtraction of Mitchell and Harrison. The incoming kids are really good.

I think the Illini are putting a lot of stock in the fact the Juice allegedly had a poor spring, and that was a result of their own defense and not Juice and the O.

That secondary gets a test in Week 1 with Mizzou, so we'll see pretty soon.
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I think that's generally the case. Here's how I feel about our secondary.

-> Vontae Davis will be a 1st round draft pick next year (ESPN in a way-too-early 2009 mock has your boy Jenkins going 12th and Vontae going 14th)
-> I think Miami Thomas beats out Dere Hicks for the other corner (you guys remember him - broke up the pass that was picked off in the endzone by Steele, and then picked off Boekmann with 8 minutes left)
-> I think the starter last year, Hicks, will move to nickelback (basically a starter against teams like Missouri, NW, and now Michigan)
-> Another starter from 2006, Travon Bellamy, will be back as well (he missed all of 2007 with an injury and redshirted). He bounced between free safety and corner in 2006 - I think he'll be our starting free safety this year.

Between those 4 guys, I'm more confident in our ability to cover multiple receiver sets than I have been in any year as an Illini fan, save maybe for 1989.

That leaves only one position completely unproven: strong safety. I think it will be a competition between the old man Bo Flowers (tried baseball for 5 years, is now a 24 year-old sophomore) and Donsay Hardeman (4-star JuCo safety from Georgia - picked Illinois over offers from Miami (FL), South Carolina, and Alabama). From all that I've heard, I think Hardeman arrives in August and takes the starting spot.

All of that said, though, youth is a concern. I'll feel very confident in the secondary come November. I'll be pretty scared going into the Missouri game with two juniors and three sophomores back there.

Flip the calendar forward to the fall of 2009, and I believe we'll have one of the better secondaries in the country.
 
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Herald & Review | Columnists: Buckeye state of disbelief

The Illini are coming . . .

In many ways, the word used earlier this week in the Cleveland Plain-Dealer to describe Illini head football coach Ron Zook was the ultimate compliment.

"Poacher!"

It was used in a story that documented Illinois' aggressive recruiting throughout the state of Ohio, putting the Ohio State Buckeyes on the defensive and making fans, no doubt, somewhat aghast that a Johnny-come-lately like Illinois would have the audacity to think any athlete good enough to play for the beloved Buckeyes would dare consider playing for the Illini. . .

con't
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Illinois does not have a birthright to Illini prep standouts. But neither does Ohio State in the Buckeye state
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Here is where the johnny-come-lately school on the rise fans just don't get it.

We have tradition, we have 4th, 5th, 6th generation Buckeye families. Prep stars born and raised in Ohio do by and large feel playing at OSU is a birthright. There is always a traitor here and there but the odds are stacked in OSU's favor as long as the program is being run as it is under JT.

Its something these schools will never overcome. This decade alone you have seen fans from Purdue, Northwestern, Iowa and Illinois all think they have turned the corner and that their school will be taking one of OSU or scUM spot at the top of the B10.

They all come and they all go. The only one even remotely consistent as being the "best of the rest" is Wisconsin.
 
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Mendenhall takes a pretty good shot at the Zooker:

Link

Or what he couldn?t do at Illinois, at least not early in his career. He went there to play alongside brother and fellow running back Walter Mendenhall, yet was a part-time player until he became the Big Ten offensive player of the year last season.
Mendenhall is disappointed that, since he left school, his older brother was effectively told he wasn?t wanted back at Illinois and will transfer to Illinois State as a fifth-year senior.
?Yeah, it upset me but, to tell you the truth, the way things were there, it didn?t surprise me too much,? Rashard Mendenhall said. ?They were just never in our favor there.?
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Trevi;1155596; said:
Herald & Review | Columnists: Buckeye state of disbelief

The Illini are coming . . .
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tupperka9.jpg
We now know what Lopo looks like.
 
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OK, I count seven Ohio kids offered by Illinois. We have offered three of those seven.

Two of those three have committed to OSU and the third is undecided.

The only poaching I see is us grabbing Melvin Fellows off their commit list.
 
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I stand corrected - the Scout sort function wasn't working as I expected.

Per the Illini board the number of Illinois offers to Ohio kids is 17.

Five have committed to OSU. One to UM and one to MSU.

There are two still on the board with confirmed OSU offers (Hall and Hunter).

None of the 17 have committed to Illinois.

If you are hunting deer on the King's land is it poaching if you don't shoot anything?
 
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