Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
I also wonder if the DIA tipped them off to any throwback(s) we might be wearing this year?? Personally, I am shocked and saddened that these never made a comeback besides this ONE game:
EA Sports College Football 25
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lstewart53x3
- Scottsdale, Arizona
The real question is ... can someone show us what these three uniform combos that I have been dying to see look like:
O/W/B
O/O/W
O/B/W
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Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
After now seeing most combos, I have to say that from a purely aesthetic standpoint (not taking into account what we should wear for "brand consistency" or whatever), I think my favorites would be:
Home: O/B/B ... just looks sharp, IMO.
Away: O/W/B ... I'm a sucker for the navy pants, I guess!
Alternate: O/O/W ... JMO, but I think the white pants help to soften the orange look. However, the all orange looked WAY better than I thought it would last year.
Once my copy arrives (elder millennial who only buys physical media) I can guarantee you that exactly 0 games will be played in the white pants.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Lol. FTR, I don’t love white pants simply because it doesn’t “look like Illinois” to me … and I despise the all white we’ve been wearing on the road. However, with SO much orange, I think white pants work with the orange jersey and helmet.
It's all personal taste of course but to me white pants (when you have 2 primary colors that's aren't white) is an SEC look, like LSU and Florida. Then in the late 2010s it became a fad in the B1G too for some reason and it just rubbed me the wrong way for whatever reason.
Best helmet in the game
ILLINOIS FIGHTING ILLINI 2024 SPECIAL VERSIONS FOOTBALL MINI HELMET | eBay
The 2024 edition will feature gray facemasks and a blue-white-orange-white-blue center stripe cadence. Bret Bielema. We're looking forward to releasing more details soon about the rest of our 100th Anniversary plans.".
www.google.com
GrayGhost77
- Centennial, CO
Ha! Guess they didn't get all the bugs worked out.
There's a bunch of bugs and the dynasty mode is so shallow. Gameplay is about the only thing that works and its not great. Classic EA
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Is Team Builder up and running yet?? I would love to recreate the legendary juggernaut of the Central Illinois Trojans, lol.
redwingillini11
White and Sixth
- North Aurora
Here are some of our looks with different helmets. Ignore the stubbiness of the sample player, I apparently took these photos at a weird angle. Also sorry for missing some of the combinations, but I took these in a rush.
My takeaway from the visuals of the game is that the arched Illini helmet is our best helmet for the home blues, and IMO, the 90s throwbacks look amazing with our orange and white jerseys. I just think the white slanted ILLINOIS on an orange helmet pops really nicely with either the orange or white jersey. Meanwhile, having blue in the logo of the arched Illini or even the block I pairs nicely with the blue jerseys.
To me, at least in the game, the star and number helmet just doesn't pop that much. Maybe it will be better in real life.
Bottom line, we. need to somehow keep all of these helmets in our rotation moving forward. They look great. This should just be a one-off thing for 2024.
Also, while there are some valid criticisms for Illinois aspects of the game (like the Oskee being slightly different, no Illinois Loyalty, I-L-L I-N-I being off; the glitches are fine, they will be fixed), they have absolutely NAILED the rhythm of Marching Illini clips from first down to second down to third down to fourth down and on offense vs defense. Once I get in and move the ball up the field it sounds exactly like what you would hear watching or being at an Illinois game. So while not perfect, a lot of effort was clearly made to make this feel authentic.
i believe its out on friday and the full release of the game along with a day 1 patch.
Team builder actually just came out but the website is having trouble keeping up with the amount of people.
Illini92and96
- Austin, TX
So have they reflected the dynamics from my years there accurately? Our crowd cheers louder on our offensive third downs than the defensive ones. I never understood that. Lol.
Finally got to play this after getting back from vacation. I really want to like the Illinois playbook but there's just not enough heavy sets for me and I felt like I really struggled in the red zone.
I have to use the Power Spread generic playbook because it has most of what I like and the game crashes whenever I try to create a custom playbook.
I have to use the Power Spread generic playbook because it has most of what I like and the game crashes whenever I try to create a custom playbook.
redwingillini11
White and Sixth
- North Aurora
So far I have just been spamming a run play like Inside Zone with Altmyer and the RB in the shotgun every down. It is a reliable ~4-10 yards every time. Poor Kaden Feagin is borderline injured the whole season because he is leading the nation in rushing attempts.
I actually tried to use Georgia's "pro-style" playbook, and absolutely hated it and switched back to Illinois' "spread" playbook.
robertgoulet
IL Board Resident Crooner
- Austin, TX
8 weeks into Dynasty before I realized you can reallocate recruiting hours EVERY WEEK.
I'm a season and a half in and have no idea how recruiting works, buy I've sent the house to so many players lol.8 weeks into Dynasty before I realized you can reallocate recruiting hours EVERY WEEK.
KBLEE
- Montgomery, IL
lstewart53x3
- Scottsdale, Arizona
Rebuilt IL to a national championship in 5 yrs on Heisman with the #1 overall ranked recruiting class in year 5. Here’s my base recruiting strategy:
1: I sort the recommended tab by the number of stars, so it shows the highest ranked players on top.
2: I then add prospects to my board who: I’m targeting by default (the green dot on the left) and that are a need.
—> After I add the first 25 or so players, then I sort by position to make sure I’m adding players at every position of need.
3: I fill up my big board with all 35 slots, even though I usually only actively recruit a small portion of those players at any given time.
4: Then I go to my big board and sort by national rank. I’ll actively recruit the highest ranked players first because it’s easier to get in late on lower ranked players. I max out my available points on each player that I can.
5: My goal is to land the highest ranked players as soon as possible, so once the players get down to their top 5, I remove 40 points from some of my lowest ranked actively recruited players for that week, and I use those points to get players on visits. I get them to campus as soon as possible even if it’s a bye week or an unimportant game.
6: I also try to go from sending the house to doing the hard pitch on those same players that week (which is when you have all 3 green check marks on their 14 interests). Sometimes, even when I have just 2 green checks, I can figure out the 3rd by seeing if there’s only one possible combination available on that player. So I can do the hard pitch a week early.
—> Scheduling early visits and moving to hard pitch as soon as possible gives you a huge advantage and helps you start locking up those best players early, giving you more points available for future recruiting.
7: From there, I continue on. Some of the players will lock me out or commit elsewhere and I’ll remove them from my board. Others will commit to me. Both of which open up points. And I’ll just work my way down the list from highest ranked to lowest ranked.
8: Once every player on my original board has either committed to me or somewhere else, I start the loading the board back up. This time by position of need, even if lower ranked, to fill the class out with the players I need most.
—> I also look for Gems & Busts. Gems are usually worth one star more and busts are usually worth one star less. If I’m normally recruiting 4 stars and I find a 5 star bust, I’ll continue recruiting that player because it’s still as good as what I can normally get. If I’m normally recruiting 4 stars and I find a 4 star gem, I make sure to do everything I can to lock them up because they’re better than the players I normally land.
Hope that helps
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This method absolutely cooks on the road. Slows the game down and does a bit to take the crowd out of it...
...until you score and then let the other teams offense break off a ridiculous 75 yard touchdown on the first play of their drive.
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