IlliniKrush

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Dec 7, 2013 -> 06:28 PM) Someone play some defense Good call on Missouri destroying Auburn

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Dec 7, 2013 -> 03:41 PM) Ha that wasn't a catch. Great production! I have no idea how you miss even reviewing that.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Dec 7, 2013 -> 02:19 PM) Don't watch reruns of any of my favorite shows. Makes no sense.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Dec 7, 2013 -> 12:53 PM) Actually, the Ala-LSU game is the only BCS Championship game I didn't watch, and this is coming from a guy who one year in college watched every single bowl game. Way to make a statement. Oh man, I'm not going to watch the championship game of a sport I follow, take that.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Dec 7, 2013 -> 12:14 AM) Who gives a crap how the game would draw? Apparently BW does, for some odd reason. He'd probably try to claim he wouldn't watch it, either. College football fans will watch the game no matter who is playing in it. Whether or not it draws Johnny-watch-2-games-all-year, who the hell cares? Also, LOL NIU, go away.

QUOTE (SoxFan1 @ Dec 6, 2013 -> 03:08 PM) I hope the Rangers (or someone) give him a chance. I know what he can do when his head is on straight. I'm rooting for him. Still has so much talent. I think that ship sailed a long time ago, maybe he had it on straight in the WHL but that's about it. He'll be a decent AHL player for them. I did catch some of the game Friday, Rockford up to their usual antics...give Dent credit for telling two of them to f*** off early.

QUOTE (pettie4sox @ Dec 6, 2013 -> 03:31 PM) When did they switch venues for the State championships? Trying to get a better crowd going since there's way more people up near Chicago that won't make a random trip to Champaign for the games every year. Trying to draw the high school football fans that don't have a dog in the fight.

Hat trick Saturday, way to strike while the iron was "hot"

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Dec 6, 2013 -> 12:37 AM) Real time it was so obvious. Horrible non call. Doesn't matter in the long run anyway. Just be glad it wasn't during the tourney How quickly you forget the Illinois rule from last year's tourney...

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Dec 5, 2013 -> 10:28 AM) There are conflicting reports as to whether the lowest record gets the bid or the player gets to choose. If the player gets to choose, I don't think much is going to change because they are going to choose the team that has the reputation for giving bigger contracts. It will still be the Yankees, Dodgers, Red Sox. Yeah, if there's no order, this basically changes absolutely nothing about the process. They'll still end up with the bigger market teams. I don't know if I agree that it should be like a waiver system, though.

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Dec 5, 2013 -> 12:17 PM) I have to pick two RBs out of Jennings, Tate, Sproles, Rainey, Spiller in a PPR. And if it matters, we do get 1 point per 20 return yards. Thoughts? Tate and either Rainey/Spiller. That is a total toss up to me, both have great matchups.

QUOTE (knightni @ Dec 5, 2013 -> 06:20 PM) Andre Brown, Le'Veon Bell, LeSean McCoy, Steven Jackson, Ryan Mathews. Please pick two. McCoy and Brown

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Dec 5, 2013 -> 12:07 PM) Hadn't seen this on the shot that won GT the game: How on earth did the ref miss this? It's literally right in front of him. OMG STOP b****ING ABOUT THE REFS THAT'S ALL ILLINOIS FANS DO!!!!! QUOTE (fathom @ Dec 5, 2013 -> 12:36 PM) According to a former ref on the GT site, it's not that refs job to call the travel, as he's watching for contact between the players. It was a bad call, no doubt...but like I said yesterday, it just balances out the brutal goal-tend that wasn't called In reality, my best bet is that once the ref decided not to call Egwu for putting both hands on Miller's back, he just decided to let the play go and ended up allowing the blatant travel which makes him look foolish. It may not be his job, but a blind man could have seen that travel, even if he wasn't looking for it. That travel would have been called in a 5th grade basketball game. Plus, the 2nd(!) travel happened after contact was done. There's not a whole lot else to look at.

Standard or PPR? I'd say go Floyd for sure. Toss up between White and Edelman. PPR would probably lean Edelman a bit. The question is how much do you believe that White is back. I'd go Rice over Miller if you had to pick a RB to use in flex. But I'd probably play your other Edelman/White option over Rice anyway. I know Minnesota sucks, but personally, I can't play Rice with confidence. He had one good game against the Bears, outside that has done basically nothing all year. Plus, then you don't have to kick yourself when one of White/Edelman goes off, because you played them both.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Dec 4, 2013 -> 12:27 PM) ok. Started another round of p90X since its been awhile and ive let myself take a long rest. Day 2 was yesterday and today, well, can barely walk. Had to pause 3 times during plyo. S+A tonight with some ab ripper p****

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Dec 3, 2013 -> 08:43 PM) An Illini fan calling a bowl game a joke? That's like a Northwestern basketball fan calling the NIT a joke. But I guess that goes back to my expectations being more realistic than everyone else. Whatever man. If you really think Zook needed to stick around and you think the results would be much different, that's your choice. To try to say that season was a success is indeed a joke. 2-6 and an 0-6 run met expectations? You must have forgot what happened that season. You have no idea what my expectations are, but it was clear Zook had to go. This is you seeing Beckman and now saying Zook should still be here. That's wrong. If Zook isn't the answer, you have to make a change. But, this is coming from the guy that wants to dirty up the basketball program. So I guess we do disagree on expectations.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Dec 3, 2013 -> 03:53 PM) I believe it's the board of trustees not giving two s***s about the football program. It's never been a priority there. Really though it comes down to piss poor coaching selection. You had two good hires in White and Mackovic. Tepper was the Lovie Smith of the program - a great defensive mind that could never get the offense going. Turner was the opposite as his offenses flourished but it was never enough to win. And unfortunately he forgot you had to recruit every year to win. Zook was brought in to recruit but he couldn't coach or develop guys. And now Beckman, who can't do anything well, but admittedly has a stacked deck to play with. I also blame Guenther. He made mistake after mistake in his hiring and then compounded the problem by waiting too long to get rid of his bad decisions. And scheduled terribly.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Dec 3, 2013 -> 02:21 PM) I never understood why. It's a basketball school yes, but as a kid my family tailgated every home game from the mid to late 80's to the late 90's and it was a decent program back then. They'd win some games, lose some games and usually end up in a decent bowl game (and lose, but still). Since then they've won a big ten championship and gone to 2 BCS bowls, so clearly you CAN win there. Wisconsin is what Illinois should aspire to be at this point. They were awful for a long time and then got a coach and stuck with him for a long time. Wisconsin is exactly it. Just haven't found a guy that's nearly Alvarez. Zook wasn't, it appears Beckman likely isn't.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Dec 3, 2013 -> 01:49 PM) So you are willing to fire a guy solely based on his recruiting while ignoring his team's success on the field? If a couple of mediocre seasons are no big deal at Illinois, why had it been 19 years since they won even 6 games in back-to-back seasons? Who cares if the coordinators did most of the coaching, it worked. Maybe he could have turned the recruiting around had he had any support after making two straight bowl games, which isn't very common in Champaign. My God please stop with this nonsense, the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl was a joke. They went 2-6 in conference, losing 6 straight. That was an epic meltdown. Let's not honor that as some sort of great accomplishment. History of the program or no history.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Dec 3, 2013 -> 09:41 AM) His final two seasons were the first time Illinois had consecutive winning seasons in 20 years. How exactly is that running the program into the ground? Answer below. QUOTE (whitesoxfan99 @ Dec 3, 2013 -> 09:49 AM) His 2010 and 2011 classes were Ron Turner level bad (maybe worse when you factor in attrition) and his 2012 class wasn't going any better before he was fired. Propping Zook up with coordinators who did most of the coaching led to a couple mediocre seasons where Illinois had as much or more NFL talent then pretty much any other team in the Big 10 not named OSU or Wisconsin but predictably Zook's recruiting also fell off because no one had any confidence in him after the 2008 and 2009 seasons and none of the coaches on that staff were particularly good recruiters. If that staff stays together last years team might have been ok but with the lack of talent coming into the program Zook had Illinois heading back to the end of the Turner era. A real program would have fired Zook in 2009 and the next coach would have come into a really good situation to succeed right off the bat. But that would have actually required balls and forward thinking and sadly Guenther doesn't have either of those. Seriously besides Jonathan Brown and Cvijanovic there isn't a single player from the 2010 class who is an above average Big 10 player and you have to stretch to find average Big 10 players. And the only good Big 10 player from the 2011 class is Josh Ferguson with Lacosse and Jon Davis being solid Big 10 tight ends. Notably there isn't a single legitimate Big 10 defensive lineman in either of those classes. Beckman was a bad hire but I have no problem with the decision to fire Zook. This exactly. Ron Zook was an awful coach, and then recruiting fell off on top of it. Zero value. QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Dec 3, 2013 -> 10:18 AM) Either they should have accepted the fact that he would have built a consistently middle-of-the-pack big ten team with a chance at a decent bowl every few years, or they should have fired him in 2009. Keeping him around as a lame duck coach hurt his recruiting, and by the time they got rid of him it was too late. I think if they had been satisfied with what he was doing and supported him he could have kept up the recruiting and we would have been an average program. Instead, they waited too long and hired a s***ty coach. I can't believe 1 big ten win in 2 years is enough to keep you around for 3 years, talent or no talent. There has been little improvement. He better hope Cubit stays and Lunt is worth the hype, otherwise it's going to be another winless season next year. I still would have given him a 5-600k contract to be a recruiting coordinator. The dude can find hidden NFL talent better than most. I don't think with Zook Illinois is a consistent middle of the pack team. But yes, he needed to go after 2009. As for your last point, I think it's pretty interesting and telling that no one wants him to do just that.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Dec 2, 2013 -> 11:46 PM) Ran the program into the ground? Did you see what he inherited from Ron Turner? You were there then. Look at what Turner inherited from Tepper. The program has been in the ground several times, Zook didn't ruin some blue blood football program. Plus, you are ignoring the most important fact: After the Rose Bowl? Ran the program into the ground. He had to go, and should have went earlier. Whether or not Beckman is the answer is irrelevant to keeping Zook.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Dec 2, 2013 -> 11:29 PM) 3 bowl games in 5 years and first back-to-back bowl games in 20 years. He may have made some awful gameday decisions, but he brought in a lot of talent to Champaign and always kept it entertaining. It's not like Illinois has ever been a football powerhouse since the Second World War. Plus, dude can barefoot waterski. He ran the program into the ground. And now we're seeing the results. Please don't let "bowl games" cloud your judgment. That's the biggest bs statement. Should have been gone after 2009.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Dec 2, 2013 -> 07:10 PM) I still don't think Zook should have been fired from Illinois, but I think my football expectations are much lower than most. What the f***?

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Dec 2, 2013 -> 06:06 PM) I think Florida and ILL would love some Zook right about now. You're wrong.

QUOTE (SoxAce @ Dec 1, 2013 -> 09:56 PM) I'm the idiot that benched Decker... Cost me an easy win. (I also didn't know Reed wasn't playing.. double ouch.) Eek...not sure I want to know who played over him.