Illinois 23, Kansas 17 Postgame
Mr. Tibbs
- southeast DuPage
i had student tix in row 3 in the east balcony , on about the south 35 yd line as we had gotten a super low number in the ticket lottery in fall 1982
that place was really MOVING a lot . we were more than a tad concerned - especially for those underneath us .
honestly, by the numbers even Valentine wasn't great (3.1 yd avg), he just had a couple key runs at key times.
Funny story I heard from a media insider, shortly before Mike White’s firing. White held a news conference and things got quite testy. In a moment of frustration, he wanted to go off the record, instructing members of the media to “put your pencils down!” He immediately followed that with “and if I read about what I’m about to say, I’m gonna stick it in your ear!”Crowd was so loud and rowdy that the concrete started falling from 2nd deck. They had to rebuild the 2nd deck
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Best coach we have had since Ray Eliot! Never should have fired him - he had Jeff George coming in next year.
Well, naturally word leaked out, but not precisely, as rumors were flying. That following Saturday, a caller in Sportine was perplexed asking “what’s this I hear about Mike White shoving pencils in people’s ears?”
Probably because most IU basketball fans root for ND in football. I live in Indiana and it’s pretty widespread.
This board Friday: we need to fill the stadium
Today: why are all these old people here
While you're not wrong above, it struck a nerve with this 50+ year old. Either you want us and our $upport there or you do not. Some of that age are starting to have health issues and there should not be an expectation that they will jump up and down and scream like someone much younger.
Scoring - yes. Big plays like the Franklin catch - yes. Every opponent third down, probably not, me and my five back surgeries will sit for now.
Now we can both save these posts and put them up again in January when the annual discussions about A-section seating in State Farm Center begin.
Point #3 is something I have believed for a long time. It's almost like these schools feel we don't have a right to exist, they are that scared we might become a powerhouse in football AND basketball someday. In the old days, the fans (and some of the coaches and some journalists) would accuse us of cheating, hoping the NCAA would swoop in and punish us. And you know what, with their friends at the Tribune and Sun-Times, it worked. Nowadays the most dangerous fans are at Wisconsin - they feel they're losing their grip on Chicagoland. Lose to Illinois in football, you're fired the next morning (see Christ, Paul). Why do you think Fickell cheated last year? He knows he can't lose to Bret....ever. Look at what that idiot Wisconsin grad at Outkick wrote about the AJ Storr drama. He blamed us for their second half swoon. And then he went after Bret this summer, defending Fickell's chicanery. Surprised we aren't responsible for anyone with erectile dysfunction in Oshkosh.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.
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Illini2010-11
- Sugar Grove
I just rewatched the game. When exactly did this happen with a running clock? The last offensive drive was fantastic clock management by Altmyer and company. Every snap was taken with less than 3 seconds on the play clock that I saw. They burned nearly 7 minutes, including all KU timeouts and the 2 minute warning. That is excellent!Oh I also forgot one that had me banging my head against my RH cloud couch - Altmyer snapping the ball with 22 seconds left on the play-clock (with a running game clock), when the focus was on leaving KU with as little time possible on offense...That kind of stuff just cannot happen. As my coach used to say, mental errors are unacceptable, as they are completely preventable.
Not to be that guy, but… it’s cojones. It’s Spanish.
Si senior - soreNot to be that guy, but… it’s cojones. It’s Spanish.
MoCoMdIllini
- Montgomery County, Maryland
My ears are still ringing from the win over Colorado 34 years later.
MoCoMdIllini
- Montgomery County, Maryland
Doesn't Gene Honda let out an I-L-L now? I don't recall that from last year.
blackdog
- Champaign
Yea that's new and it's pretty good but it's just a quick one. I want more ILLs!
If they aren't already doing so, they really should use the big screen and the sound system to prompt starting up and then leading the back-and-forth chant. They do this at South Carolina with the "GAME - COCKS" chant, and it works wonderfully.
IlliniKat91
- Chicago, IL
I'm curious who she was replying to
It's amazing how Twitter drives people to self destruction.
I was pretty much in the same place in 83 & it was moving then as well, I think they reinforced everything after that year. I think in 82 I was under the balcony in that area, so thanks for not bringing it down.
Personally it is hard to complain too much when youwin, even if it looks like an Iowa win, bend don't break defense, no mistake offense, wait for the other team to mess up and capitalize on their mistakes. But with the way they were running the ball, why they didn't try to hammer it down our throats until we showed a sign of stopping them made no sense.
He was doing the same thing against Michigan a few years ago and didnt get the call
I disagree, I saw a few snaps around 15 seconds left on the clock on the last drive. Watched replay twice today.
Illini2010-11
- Sugar Grove
Yeah, but the clock was stopped on nearly all of those...
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Fair enough, as I just turned 69 today myself. Satutday was an electrifying experience. My wife and I will stand and shout for every opposing third down (and much more) to contribute to a repeat performance. Im considering some cheap foam hearing protection though! Our only concern is getting criticism from those sitting behind us. Yes, that’s actually happened. Both groups could be more tolerant. I-L-L!
Illinir1
- Camdenton, MO
The answer to your question is IFund $$$. The IFund seating chart below shows that the students old location in Sec 106 of the East Main, and where it is suggested they be returned to, is a "Prime C" seating location. This identifies the IFund donation amount required to sit in that section. If the students go there, IFund loses a "Prime" seating area and the donations required to sit there.
mhuml32
- Cincinnati, OH
Jen Bielema might be able to provide her advice about whether to mix it up on twitter about fans.