gatnom

QUOTE (whitesoxfan99 @ Nov 2, 2013 -> 02:39 PM) Again, once you know you have the wrong coach get rid of him as quick as possible. There are good coaches all over the place, go out and find one. And you don't have to look in traditional places. Go find the most innovative offensive coach in FCS and bring him in. I wouldn't be entirely opposed to getting another coach. I just wonder who would want to take on an all but shattered program, and perhaps more importantly would I even want them as a head coach? I mean we're definitely not in better shape than we were last coaching search, and we didn't exactly get our pick of the litter. I think Beckman can get us to mediocre, or at least on the path to it, given one more year.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan99 @ Nov 2, 2013 -> 02:28 PM) Lol at Illinois football. Please fire Beckman tomorrow. 3rd and long and PSU has to throw and you have your two incredibly slow LBs on the field in coverage? Just awful. And lol at that throw by Scheelhaase. 4 year starter who still makes ridiculously stupid decisions all the time. Abysmal play calling and game management after that PSU fumble. Still think firing Beckman is a bad idea right now even if he isn't the answer long term. Classic Scheelhaase.

After regularly pulling 50+ hour weeks between work and school for the past few years, I can't say I'm going to miss it that much. I could see why a lot of people would miss it, though. My neighbors always seem to be having a great time haha.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Oct 29, 2013 -> 01:18 PM) Done. That's why he needs to go. Just admit it was a bad hire and move on. Firing Beckman doesn't just magically fix the program. There's a reason Sumlin turned us down last coaching search, and it's not that we didn't have enough money. Firing Beckman can actually make things worse instead of better. We may be forced to fire him if he doesn't win a another game, but let's cross that bridge when we get to it.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Oct 29, 2013 -> 06:44 AM) 1. Stop saying this. Stop, stop, stop. It's absolutely meaningless when he's the one responsible for setting the bar so incredibly low. 2. You know it's bad when the only actual defense of him is one mediocre class. And this cant possibly hold up when everyone knows he's a lame duck coach. See: Zook, Ron. 3. No, a death sentence is hanging onto a coach too long when it's clearly time to move on. Every Illinois fan should know this by now. 4. Who cares? We won't be paying Zook and Beckman's buyout is cheap. Not to mention with Beckman at the helm, excitement and revenues have to be at an extreme low to the point where it makes financial sense to hire someone else. Zook in 2009 and Beckman right now aren't really comparable situations. My main point is that I want our next coach to believe he's going to get time to fix a bad situation and actually be put in a situation where he can succeed, should Beckman prove beyond all reasonable doubt that he can't move the program further.

Reasons not to fire Tim Beckman: He actually has shown improvement this year. Sure, we've looked exceptionally bad the last few games, but we've also played a lot of the tougher teams on our schedule. With winnable games against PSU, IU, PU, and NU coming up on the schedule, we might just break that ugly losing streak. Despite our current recruiting class rating poorly, last years class was middle of the pack in the Big Ten, and he's also added Wes Lunt. Unlike Zook, he seems capable of recruiting defensive backs and actual offensive tackles. As an added bonus, he appears to be sitting pretty well with some good 2015 recruits. Firing Beckman is akin to a self imposed death penalty. We would be completely giving up on this years recruiting class, leaving us with 3/4 of the last recruiting classes as lost. I get that we don't have many/any highly rated recruits right now, but it would only get worse were Beckman to be fired. Nick Saban couldn't come in and win with such a broken program. We would have to pay yet another coach to be somewhere else. It's hard to say how well we'd be able to pay an incoming hire, but it certainly wouldn't be easier. I get that everybody wants to fire Beckman because we keep losing, badly. But, if/when Beckman gets fired, I want the next coach to come into a situation where he doesn't have about 10 seniors on the entire three deep. Our most experienced corner (who is currently injured) is a sophomore... Fire Banks as a sacrificial lamb this year, and see if Beckman can crawl his way to mediocrity. If he can't get there (or beyond in the next year or so), fire him then. Firing him now is just as bad as continuing to employ a "clearly in over his head who can only recruit MAC level coaches and players and get tackled by referees" coach for one more year. We would be guaranteeing ourselves a completely broken program instead of just maybe having one. Just my opinion. Flame away.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Oct 22, 2013 -> 11:56 AM) I'm in the same position regarding my loans...I feel like every month I pay $500, but nothing ever changes That said, I have gotten the six-figure job as a result of going to law school. I feel like law school was so much better of an educational experience than any of my other educational experiences. That said, there were certain classes I never attended once, and still did as well as those I attended regularly. If they would have allowed it, I feel like I could have gotten the same degree/experience simply by buying the textbooks and reading them on my own. Probably could have gotten it done for $5,000 instead of $80k. The same could be said for any schooling, really. It's a shame that schooling is such a big business. Man, we have a lot of lawyers here at Soxtalk haha.

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Oct 21, 2013 -> 09:39 AM) 10k? Even I think that's crazy low if you don't have any help: Monthly amount (assuming 10k is after taxes): ~833 per month. Rent: 450 (hard to find in Chicago but possible) Food: 250 (let's say they really scrounge, thats like $8 a day) Right there you are at $700, and thats with the bare minimum. Now add in clothes, utilities (gas and electric), etc and youre creeping on $830 a month real fast. I honestly don't know how you can say we could live easily off of 10k a year. I currently live on a little more than 10k a year, and have for the past 4 or so. I don't have a family, though.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Oct 4, 2013 -> 06:02 PM) Well I have been a NW fan since the Notre Dame win in 95, they were the only college team in Chicago growing up.(plus I hated all the people claiming ND was Chicago's team) Going to school in Champaign obviously made the Illini#1 on my list. Illinois football is so insignificant that it's hard to worry about battling over stuff with the Cats, when Illinois can't step tripping over their own two feet. It's a basketball school and NW is an afterthought in that department. As far as paying players goes, it happens everywhere. Do you really think the few that get caught are the only ones breaking rules? The rules are dumb, everyone tries to bend them as needed, it's about winning, not "amateurism". Did you just call Illinois insignificant while defending NU haha? I mean it's great that they've gotten better and all, but that just doesn't make any sense...

Antonio Gates or Justin Blackmon for flex?

Looks like the NCAA has reduced the sanctions on Penn State. http://www.ncaa.org/wps/wcm/connect/public...te+scholarships

I'd be surprised if Lyle ended up at the same school as Cliff, to be honest. Lyle's got some issues.

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Sep 14, 2013 -> 10:36 PM) Let's not be silly. Browns very talented. Monheim has proven he's a bt linebacker. Kynard has some talent. Bentley too but he's young. Bates shows flashes. The defense is so young and inexperienced. Not a ton you can do about that right now except play. They are going to give up a lot of yards this year. Lost to a better, ranked team. Looked respectable and fought. Not sure what you expected. This post is pretty much on the money. Not much you can do when a good 2/3 of your defense is composed of freshmen, sophomores, and JUCO transfers.

So yeah, Tim Beckman didn't look too bad today. The youth on defense is going to be a real problem this year, though.

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Sep 3, 2013 -> 12:32 AM) We still don't have a scholarship...but I'd crean anyone if cliff wanted a spot. Hopefully the NCAA waiver coin lands on heads for the Starks waiver.

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Aug 31, 2013 -> 04:17 PM) Get the f*** out of here. Unreasonably high? Yes, because my bar is set so high that I expect more than a goal line stand over an fcs team to win a game. I expect more than tripping another ref. I expect more than knowing how to use time outs. I expect more than knowing how to accept an obvious f***ing penalty. And that doesn't even count last year. You're out of your f***ing mind. Good to see you're as friendly as ever, Krush. What happened today is obviously inexcusable, and I don't see Beckman as being here after the season. I just don't think he's deserved the s*** he's gotten, and I feel bad for him. Continue to drop f-bombs about a guy just trying to do his job if it makes you feel better. I didn't see him trip another ref today, but I left in the third quarter. That's pretty bad.

QUOTE (Boogua @ Aug 31, 2013 -> 03:55 PM) Unreasonably high? What do you think the fanbase expected him to do? I think many thought it would be a rebuilding process, but the guy won two games last year. The defense went from one of the best in college football to absolutely awful. We lost a lot of our best players off of a team that lost 6 games in a row, and the defense very clearly never bought in. Considering how much hate he gets just about everywhere, I think fans expected a lot more than a rebuild last year. Overall, I'm just disappointed with how many fans quit on him within the first few games of his first season.

For as bad as he's been, I genuinely feel bad for Tim Beckman. He's gotten so much unnecessary s*** from the Illinois fan base. Hopefully, the guy that gets brought in next year is better. He won't have to live up to unreasonably high standards right off the bat at least.

QUOTE (maggsmaggs @ Aug 15, 2013 -> 09:56 AM) I really like Groce, but he still needs to prove he can close the deal on these guys. It's great being talked about with a lot of top recruits and being included in top threes or fives, but in the end, you gotta get the commitment and not be runner-up. Hopefully, this is the year he gets those top recruits. You shouldn't hold his successes against him. A school like Illinois had no business being runner up so late in the game for some of those recruits.

How does he hold onto the ball when it's on fire like that?

QUOTE (GoodAsGould @ Aug 12, 2013 -> 11:10 PM) Every gaming community is the worst ever... just the nature of games and being somewhat anonymous brings the worst out in people. Plus, the age of the average player doesn't help.

Realistically, one of De Aza, Rios, and Viciedo has to change positions or organizations by the start of next season. If you don't want to move Viciedo or De Aza , I wouldn't mind moving Rios purely for salary relief as I don't see his value getting any higher than it is to the Rangers right now.

QUOTE (southside hitman @ Aug 8, 2013 -> 02:32 PM) I would be livid, as you should be, if we just dumped him for salary relief. Everything the Sox have said and indicated through these moves are that we are "reloading" not "rebuilding." Rios has value, we might have to eat some salary to get a premium prospect, but it can be done. Dumping salary would be a cop out, especially after we didn't pay any of Peavy's outgoing contract. There have been no indications that this is true.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Aug 1, 2013 -> 08:52 PM) Konerko was the #2 prospect in all of baseball entering the 1998 season. His age 21 season in AAA was stellar. It was in the PCL so the numbers are inflated a bit but 37 homers .327 avg over 1.000 OPS is quite impressive from a 21 year old. What I said didn't exactly come out the way I wanted to say it. I meant to say that comparing Garcia to Konerko in his later years as an example of how he could learn to have a better approach is kind of a stretch. He could just as easily become tentative at the plate as he could become Paul Konerko of the previous couple seasons. In the end, we can only hope that he becomes as good of a player for us as Konerko has been for his 15 years here. He's certainly young with nothing left to prove in the minors, something Konerko was once upon a time.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 1, 2013 -> 02:15 PM) One thing worth thinking about though is that "No plan at the plate" is a mental issue that can be changed with coaching. A guy can develop a plan at the plate. Paul Konerko dramatically improved his plan at the plate with time. "No plan at the plate" is being stated there like it's a genetic issue, like one of his arms is 30 centimeters shorter than the other one. It took Paul Konerko a long time to get where he was the past few years, and I don't think he started anywhere near where Garcia is. I'm not saying he can't or won't dramatically improve in this area, but I'm not sold on him being some instant all star caliber player that a lot around here seem to think he is. Value-wise he is a fine center piece for a Peavy deal, no doubt. I'm just not his biggest fan, personally.