Solely based on the fact that Ca'Lil Valentine won the Heisman for me in NCAA 25 by his senior year, I'm going to choose to believe he's just a beast in real life as well
Illinois 23, Kansas 17 Postgame
Solely based on the fact that Ca'Lil Valentine won the Heisman for me in NCAA 25 by his senior year, I'm going to choose to believe he's just a beast in real life as well
The stop short of the first down by Patterson.
mhuml32
- Cincinnati, OH
What a win, what a moment. Notes from the game.
1. Melvin Priestly is the highest graded Illini offensive player so far this season. What a revelation. Run blocking scores are crazy, crazy high. I wonder if Illinois' mix-and-matching at RG is because they are trying to find a willing partner so they can maximize Priestly's play so far.
2. As a follow-up from last week, Tanner Arkin is the one TE the staff trusts and he's getting 95% of the meaningful (pass/run) snaps so far. The team really, really needs him to stay healthy or another TE to at least be competent enough to soak up 10-15 snaps. Going to be the last game next weekend where you can foresee a situation where Arkin can get second half rest and find out about your other options.
3. Interior offensive line with another concerning performance (outside of first and last series). Wigenton, Henderson, and Whitenack all got some snaps on Saturday while trying to find the best combination. If you're looking for positives - the pass blocking is much improved from last year. We are seeing chunks of snaps where Altmyer has time. Run game is a different story. Some of that you could point to obvious downs where Illinois was trying to establish the run (and later in the 3rd quarter where it was obvious that Illinois was needing to pass because the run game was getting shelved). I'm wondering if we might see a different starting RG against CMU.
4. Altmyer graded well but I trust Werner's report of him missing some throws. Maybe that was by design because the KU secondary is excellent (best face all year?). Still, he had time and needed to do more with the pass blocking being provided.
5. Three players have played all of the defensive snaps so far (when the game was still meaningful): Scott, Scott, and Bailey. Interpret as you wish.
6. Tough to judge the defensive line after this game because the goal might have been just stay in front of Daniels to keep him corralled as much as possible. Still, pretty disappointing there wasn't some more pressure throughout the game. Logan Brown dominated for KU.
7. Joe Barna with only a handful of snaps, but was somewhat competent. All of you can ask for from a true freshman.
8. Didn't expect that Cox would only be targeted three times (and one was a blown coverage, so not sure that was his felt or someone else).
9. Nothing else is needed to be said about Xavier Scott. One of the best defensive game performances by Illinois in a long time.
10. The turnovers are banked and matter in the past. The analytics are saying we are living a charmed life. Something to remember.
1. Melvin Priestly is the highest graded Illini offensive player so far this season. What a revelation. Run blocking scores are crazy, crazy high. I wonder if Illinois' mix-and-matching at RG is because they are trying to find a willing partner so they can maximize Priestly's play so far.
2. As a follow-up from last week, Tanner Arkin is the one TE the staff trusts and he's getting 95% of the meaningful (pass/run) snaps so far. The team really, really needs him to stay healthy or another TE to at least be competent enough to soak up 10-15 snaps. Going to be the last game next weekend where you can foresee a situation where Arkin can get second half rest and find out about your other options.
3. Interior offensive line with another concerning performance (outside of first and last series). Wigenton, Henderson, and Whitenack all got some snaps on Saturday while trying to find the best combination. If you're looking for positives - the pass blocking is much improved from last year. We are seeing chunks of snaps where Altmyer has time. Run game is a different story. Some of that you could point to obvious downs where Illinois was trying to establish the run (and later in the 3rd quarter where it was obvious that Illinois was needing to pass because the run game was getting shelved). I'm wondering if we might see a different starting RG against CMU.
4. Altmyer graded well but I trust Werner's report of him missing some throws. Maybe that was by design because the KU secondary is excellent (best face all year?). Still, he had time and needed to do more with the pass blocking being provided.
5. Three players have played all of the defensive snaps so far (when the game was still meaningful): Scott, Scott, and Bailey. Interpret as you wish.
6. Tough to judge the defensive line after this game because the goal might have been just stay in front of Daniels to keep him corralled as much as possible. Still, pretty disappointing there wasn't some more pressure throughout the game. Logan Brown dominated for KU.
7. Joe Barna with only a handful of snaps, but was somewhat competent. All of you can ask for from a true freshman.
8. Didn't expect that Cox would only be targeted three times (and one was a blown coverage, so not sure that was his felt or someone else).
9. Nothing else is needed to be said about Xavier Scott. One of the best defensive game performances by Illinois in a long time.
10. The turnovers are banked and matter in the past. The analytics are saying we are living a charmed life. Something to remember.
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Only thing to make this any sweeter is TSJ waiting one more week to ring the bell! Boy that would have been something!!
When Luke completed that pass to Franklin with that amazing one handed catch it was like a light bulb went off in his head. I think the only reason he threw that pass was because he thought we had a free play. Maybe it dawned on him that he needs to trust his recievers more and go ahead and throw the ball and trust them to make the play. It seemed like after that he was getting the ball out a little quicker.
Hadn't seen it posted yet, we made ESPN's best 20 games of the weekend:
Yeah, it’s definitely been a surprise to not see more of Brooks this year- what I thought was a message they were trying to send in the first game, clearly wasn’t - he’s just not a starter right now- Patterson and Cox beat him out apparently.During camp, Xavier Scott took the reps at CB. These two weeks he's played the nickel. He was a nickel last year. He is a nickel.
So I guess this is the secondary based on how things stand currently:
CB: Cox and Patterson
Nickel: Xavier Scott
FS: Miles Scott
SS: Bailey
No Terrence Brooks...14 snaps through 2 games...didn't play a single snap this past game...
I guess you can't argue with the results to say the least so...
It’s crazy to think a kid that was top 100 coming out of HS - committed to Ohio state before flipping to Texas and earning honorable mention all big 12 can’t start for us, but maybe our DB’s are just that good? Here’s an article at the time of his transfer that suggested he had some lapses in coverage so maybe that reared up in practice but it’s great to know we have depth at CB- we will almost certainly need it at some point this year
Texas CB Terrance Brooks to enter the NCAA transfer portal
The Longhorns suffer a big loss to the portal for the first time this offseason.
www.burntorangenation.com
Maybe he used the Hawaiian version....Not to be that guy, but… it’s cojones. It’s Spanish.
GrayGhost77
- Centennial, CO
Yes, now that the kool-aid has worn off from the win, a few things to note that we need to improve on to carry this momentum forward:
1) Kaden Feagin looked like he was running in quick sand all day. Isn't he a 4.4 guy? He looked slow and weak, compared to what we saw Week 1.
2) Not sure if it was game script or not, but Altmyer through the ball down field 5 times, I believe, with three of them coming late in the game. I also believe 4 of the 5 were completions. He also missed seeing wide open crossing receivers several times. I'm sure film room time will shed light to this.
3) Cant say much bad about the defensive play, but I do question Aaron Henry's defensive play calling. I feel like the only time we blitzed was the last play of the game. Never saw a run blitz dialed up, as Neal/Hishaw were getting anything they wanted on the ground Saturday and Daniels had plenty of time to throw (he just played godawful) without any pressure. Tackling was okay - one play, they missed like six tackles. Thankfully X was in God-mode Saturday.
4) Laughrey - catch the damn ball!
5) Offensive line played piss poorly - not what I've come to expect from a BB coached team. Need to be better when we go to Lincoln.
Regarding blitzes, I think you answered your own concern later in that post. They forced Daniels into some bad throws and capitalized. The risk of running blitzes, missing him, and having him take off for a 20-30 yard gain was probably too much. I am normally very critical at how infrequently he blitzes, but this was the right strategy with our DB talent.
The OL has started off slow every year under BB and Bart Miller. They start to gel as the season goes on and look pretty darn good at the end of it. I anticipate the same will happen here.
I think folks underestimate just how talented this KU team is. They are right up there with any other team we will play this year. The only difference is going on the road against PSU and Oregon vs. being at home against them. I expect things will continue to be cleaned up and we will be 4-2 or 5-1 against Michigan. What a turnaround in the last few years!
Week 1 we blitzed 45% of the time.
Excellent point! We had the goal line VERY heavily protected on that last play, taking the risk out the blitz with only 4 seconds left
Feagin is like a freight train that needs a little time to gather speed, but he isn't shifty. There will be games in which the OL line creates holes for him, and in those games he will be a monster.
I thought AH called a great game. We didn't let Daniels create and forced him to make errors. Thank God the Kansas OC wasn't interested in picking up 7 yards/play on the ground
OL played well against the pass, but agree we really struggled on the ground
Kansas is a darn good team; they have a reasonably good chance to win the Big 12 this year
Solid responses; you all make very solid points. I think Daniels' confidence was very low heading into the 2nd half after the pick-6, which aided our defense on passing downs - they have extremely talented WRs (and our DBs played very well). But yes, why did KU not rush the ball down our throats? I just would have liked Henry to dial up some run blitzes on first down, where it seemed KU clearly had a pattern to rack up solid yards to make 2nd and 3rd downs manageable.
Was talking to some ISU fans and they heard BB say after the game that he talked to the refs before the game alerting them to KUs pick plays (which apparently they do consistently in the Big12, frustrating other fan bases lol). Good job BB!
Was talking to some ISU fans and they heard BB say after the game that he talked to the refs before the game alerting them to KUs pick plays (which apparently they do consistently in the Big12, frustrating other fan bases lol). Good job BB!
Exactly, the difference in game planning for a very mobile QB.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Okay, I have had the full weekend to organize my thoughts! Some notes I feel like typing, lol...
1. Wow. The postgame jazz has worn off, and I still feel like this is just SUCH a huge win for the trajectory of this program. To beat a ranked team in front of our first full house in almost a decade, with that many recruits in attendance and an impressionable new generation of fans there due to all of the promotions ... wow. Huge.
2. Lol at Kansas. I still have nothing against KU (I actually toured it as a high schooler and loved the campus/Lawrence, and I have NEVER shared this Bill Self-related hatred for the Jayhawks ... they're easily my favorite of the Blue Bloods), but their fans' psychotic behavior online makes it too difficult not to enjoy those tears a bit, lol. As others have said, they acted like it was practically their birthright to waltz into our house and win by 2-3 TDs. They've been a significantly worse program than Illinois historically, and they've not even really been better at all during this flash-in-the-pan renaissance that has given birth to this crazy, unfounded arrogance! I hope they enjoyed their ride home!!
3. On that note, I cannot help but notice that Illinois seems to evoke a weird and seemingly out-of-nowhere contempt from fan bases with whom we don't have regular interaction. Think of how Iowa State fans were talking about us with such undeserved hatred and even more undeserved contempt ... as if it were desperately important for them to convince themselves that Illinois was just this "nothing" so that there would be more room for their team among the crowd of "somebodies." I got the same vibe from KU fans before this game. What is up with this? I can KIND OF understand it in basketball, but you would think we would be totally inoffensive in football ... certainly not offensive enough to start gunning for our very fan support, campus, stadium, etc. My pet theory is that it (subconsciously) bothers fans of other programs that we are the state flagship school for by far the biggest state in the Midwest and because we have not properly taken advantage of that footprint historically to become a powerhouse (ala Georgia or Texas or Florida with their built-in population advantages), they see this "window" where they have to frantically degrade the Illini so as to never let that dynamic change, lol. Go read a college football comment section on Reddit of basic-a$$ bros talking about Illinois if we ever come up. It is NOT some indifference like they might give toward Wake Forest or Cal ... it's actual contempt and what seems like desperation to convince others of how pathetic and irrelevant we are. Can anyone honestly say KU fans would have been so antagonistically arrogant and mocking the mere fact that we had a sellout crowd "for them" if they were preparing to go on the road to face Georgia Tech, Syracuse or NC State? I highly doubt it. Well, joke's on all of them. It's high time Illinois lives up to its high ceiling in EVERYTHING, and last night was a monumental win as far as changing the perception for the next generation of fans. Keep building!!
4. I still hate the ILLINOIS font and especially how it reminds me of the philosophy of the Ron Guenther Era, but I have to admit ... there was an aspect of seeing those again that made me like them a lot more. I still really don't like the font, but I think I am realizing that the Block I looks too tall on our helmets, and I actually really like the more horizontal proportions of spelling out Illinois. As I said, I don't love the font, so ... I am officially all aboard the bandwagon to at least TRY the Script font on our helmets. I honestly think it would look amazing. Teams like Florida, UCLA and Ole Miss do it very effectively and have iconic helmets. Give it a shot here and see just how great it looks.
5. As far as all orange uniforms go, I am feeling very conflicted. On one hand, I still think it would have looked better with our white pants, and that is what I would always favor going forward (caveating that statement with the assertion that we would ONLY ever wear white pants with an orange jersey ... put those things away for road games!!!!). However, my thoughts are clouded by the fact that these all orange uniforms look ten billion times better than any orange uniforms we have ever worn in the past; as others have said, this is due to the matching B/W/B stripes on the helmet, jerseys and pants. It looks cohesive and stylish. As others have also said, playing at night really helped them pop, too. I would be more than okay with busting these out once per year on an orange out or night game, I just hope we don't randomly wear a different uniform combo every week like the Beckman and Lovie Eras ... we need to continue to establish an identity and a "look." But again ... they actually looked pretty great, haha.
If you skip everything else, at least read this:
6A. PROPS TO OUR FANS!! Great job, guys. Having grown up much of my life in Iowa City and getting to experience what an awesome gameday experience was (and being bitterly jealous of it for decades now), I have been as hard on our fans as anyone over the years. However, Saturday we were just simply the real deal. It sounded as loud as any other stadium of a powerhouse team during the game, and not just in reacting to big plays; the fans were ACTIVE and helped to rattle KU on multiple occasions. The students especially were amazing. Doesn't it give you shivers thinking that this could be the EXPECTATION of away teams as they travel to Memorial Stadium - a hornet's nest that they better damn well be prepared for?? It has not sounded that loud since the 2007 Michigan game, and I don't even think any game since then has come marginally close. On that note...
6B. Can someone knowledgeable about this subject explain why Memorial Stadium seems to have the capability to get why louder than 60,670 fans have any right to be?? It's famous at this point how the Big House is notoriously quiet for having 111,000 engaged fans due to the gradual slope of the bowl design. Similarly, it's famous how Autzen Stadium is super loud despite a smaller capacity than Memorial Stadium due to the acoustics. Those make sense, but I don't understand how Memorial Stadium can get THAT loud! Our south end zone (the Horseshoe) is more or less completely open, and there are very significant open gaps on either side of the north end zone stands (the student section), as well. It doesn't seem intuitive that we could effectively trap noise so well. I have heard people say that Memorial Stadium was considered one of the loudest in the Big Ten during the 1980s according to opposing coaches, and it would have had the same sound dynamics then ... is it because most of our fans are between the end zones on the west/east sides, and the noise bounces off of each side?? Really treading into a subject of which I know nothing here, lol.
1. Wow. The postgame jazz has worn off, and I still feel like this is just SUCH a huge win for the trajectory of this program. To beat a ranked team in front of our first full house in almost a decade, with that many recruits in attendance and an impressionable new generation of fans there due to all of the promotions ... wow. Huge.
2. Lol at Kansas. I still have nothing against KU (I actually toured it as a high schooler and loved the campus/Lawrence, and I have NEVER shared this Bill Self-related hatred for the Jayhawks ... they're easily my favorite of the Blue Bloods), but their fans' psychotic behavior online makes it too difficult not to enjoy those tears a bit, lol. As others have said, they acted like it was practically their birthright to waltz into our house and win by 2-3 TDs. They've been a significantly worse program than Illinois historically, and they've not even really been better at all during this flash-in-the-pan renaissance that has given birth to this crazy, unfounded arrogance! I hope they enjoyed their ride home!!
3. On that note, I cannot help but notice that Illinois seems to evoke a weird and seemingly out-of-nowhere contempt from fan bases with whom we don't have regular interaction. Think of how Iowa State fans were talking about us with such undeserved hatred and even more undeserved contempt ... as if it were desperately important for them to convince themselves that Illinois was just this "nothing" so that there would be more room for their team among the crowd of "somebodies." I got the same vibe from KU fans before this game. What is up with this? I can KIND OF understand it in basketball, but you would think we would be totally inoffensive in football ... certainly not offensive enough to start gunning for our very fan support, campus, stadium, etc. My pet theory is that it (subconsciously) bothers fans of other programs that we are the state flagship school for by far the biggest state in the Midwest and because we have not properly taken advantage of that footprint historically to become a powerhouse (ala Georgia or Texas or Florida with their built-in population advantages), they see this "window" where they have to frantically degrade the Illini so as to never let that dynamic change, lol. Go read a college football comment section on Reddit of basic-a$$ bros talking about Illinois if we ever come up. It is NOT some indifference like they might give toward Wake Forest or Cal ... it's actual contempt and what seems like desperation to convince others of how pathetic and irrelevant we are. Can anyone honestly say KU fans would have been so antagonistically arrogant and mocking the mere fact that we had a sellout crowd "for them" if they were preparing to go on the road to face Georgia Tech, Syracuse or NC State? I highly doubt it. Well, joke's on all of them. It's high time Illinois lives up to its high ceiling in EVERYTHING, and last night was a monumental win as far as changing the perception for the next generation of fans. Keep building!!
4. I still hate the ILLINOIS font and especially how it reminds me of the philosophy of the Ron Guenther Era, but I have to admit ... there was an aspect of seeing those again that made me like them a lot more. I still really don't like the font, but I think I am realizing that the Block I looks too tall on our helmets, and I actually really like the more horizontal proportions of spelling out Illinois. As I said, I don't love the font, so ... I am officially all aboard the bandwagon to at least TRY the Script font on our helmets. I honestly think it would look amazing. Teams like Florida, UCLA and Ole Miss do it very effectively and have iconic helmets. Give it a shot here and see just how great it looks.
5. As far as all orange uniforms go, I am feeling very conflicted. On one hand, I still think it would have looked better with our white pants, and that is what I would always favor going forward (caveating that statement with the assertion that we would ONLY ever wear white pants with an orange jersey ... put those things away for road games!!!!). However, my thoughts are clouded by the fact that these all orange uniforms look ten billion times better than any orange uniforms we have ever worn in the past; as others have said, this is due to the matching B/W/B stripes on the helmet, jerseys and pants. It looks cohesive and stylish. As others have also said, playing at night really helped them pop, too. I would be more than okay with busting these out once per year on an orange out or night game, I just hope we don't randomly wear a different uniform combo every week like the Beckman and Lovie Eras ... we need to continue to establish an identity and a "look." But again ... they actually looked pretty great, haha.
If you skip everything else, at least read this:
6A. PROPS TO OUR FANS!! Great job, guys. Having grown up much of my life in Iowa City and getting to experience what an awesome gameday experience was (and being bitterly jealous of it for decades now), I have been as hard on our fans as anyone over the years. However, Saturday we were just simply the real deal. It sounded as loud as any other stadium of a powerhouse team during the game, and not just in reacting to big plays; the fans were ACTIVE and helped to rattle KU on multiple occasions. The students especially were amazing. Doesn't it give you shivers thinking that this could be the EXPECTATION of away teams as they travel to Memorial Stadium - a hornet's nest that they better damn well be prepared for?? It has not sounded that loud since the 2007 Michigan game, and I don't even think any game since then has come marginally close. On that note...
6B. Can someone knowledgeable about this subject explain why Memorial Stadium seems to have the capability to get why louder than 60,670 fans have any right to be?? It's famous at this point how the Big House is notoriously quiet for having 111,000 engaged fans due to the gradual slope of the bowl design. Similarly, it's famous how Autzen Stadium is super loud despite a smaller capacity than Memorial Stadium due to the acoustics. Those make sense, but I don't understand how Memorial Stadium can get THAT loud! Our south end zone (the Horseshoe) is more or less completely open, and there are very significant open gaps on either side of the north end zone stands (the student section), as well. It doesn't seem intuitive that we could effectively trap noise so well. I have heard people say that Memorial Stadium was considered one of the loudest in the Big Ten during the 1980s according to opposing coaches, and it would have had the same sound dynamics then ... is it because most of our fans are between the end zones on the west/east sides, and the noise bounces off of each side?? Really treading into a subject of which I know nothing here, lol.
Not to be a contrarian, but I'm not buying this narrative. If we consider the evidence that Brooks was written in as the Day 1 starter by Werner the morning of the EIU game, that both Werner and Wagner have hinted at something additional going on as to why he's not playing, and how Brooks rated out as our highest CB against EIU in the limited snaps he had while looking the part, something just doesn't smell right.Yeah, it’s definitely been a surprise to not see more of Brooks this year- what I thought was a message they were trying to send in the first game, clearly wasn’t - he’s just not a starter right now- Patterson and Cox beat him out apparently.
It’s crazy to think a kid that was top 100 coming out of HS - committed to Ohio state before flipping to Texas and earning honorable mention all big 12 can’t start for us, but maybe our DB’s are just that good? Here’s an article at the time of his transfer that suggested he had some lapses in coverage so maybe that reared up in practice but it’s great to know we have depth at CB- we will almost certainly need it at some point this year
Texas CB Terrance Brooks to enter the NCAA transfer portal
The Longhorns suffer a big loss to the portal for the first time this offseason.
Now let's also consider that in this Kansas game, all of the following DBs all had snaps for Illinois at the CB and NB position:
Patterson, Cox, Canada, Strain, Scott, Clarke
It's clear Brooks got beat out for a CB spot because he's on the bench, but if he truly was 2nd string, he'd have actually gotten some snaps, because other non-starting CBs and NBs did. There's just not a chance that a National Championship starting CB suddenly becomes 3rd string or worse here at Illinois unless something else is going on. We'll get the full story later on what he actually did or didn't do, but there should be no question he's in the doghouse and being held out for a reason. And I do trust in Bret, that whatever that reason is, it was deserved.
"The Most Bielema Game to ever Bielema" propels Illinois to 2-0
A simultaneous thing of beauty and disgust.
www.thechampaignroom.com
In comparison to his peers, Feagin cuts like an aircraft carrier (e.g. he can't). His balance is also poor for a RB although he fortunately falls forward. He has his role and will get yards in spots but he's a below average B1G running back and always will be below average. IMO, and mine only, it's a disservice to play him at RB. He fits the BB mold in size and speed and that's about it. It takes more than size and speed to be a good RB.
They really need to utilize him in the passing game. What I've seen, he seems really good. He's also blocked well this year. He has a lot of talent. I can't say for certain as it's hard to know for sure with limited time seeing him but there's a chance he could be a phenomenal TE. I told my wife at then end of the 3rd Q - with only 1 Valentine run - "that Valentine is the only true RB Illinois has on the roster." The coaches had to see Feagin unable to cut to a hole. Would the coaches really want to use a true freshman RB in a unbelievable critical situation? No. I was pleading to hold onto the ball every time Valentine touched it. Illinois was forced to use him.
A portal pickup would have been ideal.
IIRC, 1st drive of the 2nd half - 3rd and (something) - a Feagin run and he misses a hole almost the size of a Mack truck. He can't cut to get there and runs right into the back of his OL. Watch it. Neal, an excellent RB, from KU, would still be running.
Illinois didn't blitz the QB to try and keep him in the pocket. Unlike last year where he was out of the pocket all of the time. You saw the result if you keep him in the pocket and let him throw vs. on the run when he's deadly.