In 2016, Illini football has returned to relevance. The buzz is back. As Saturday night’s sellout crowd of 60,670 attests, the days of Illinois Football @EmptySeatPics are gone too. It was the first sellout at Memorial Stadium since November 12th, 2011. The atmosphere was electric. The crowd was jacked.
The game was interesting….for three quarters. Interest and enthusiasm for the team has returned. The team itself has a ways to go. It will be very interesting to see how they respond here; especially given the fact they are slight underdogs to a Group of 5 team.
Last week was the first sell out for a non-conference game since 1987 versus Arizona State.
For perspective, Jeff George was in his redshirt year, sitting out after he transferred from Purdue. He would become the team’s starting quarterback the next season. Today, his son is listed as third on the depth chart at quarterback.
Here’s a link to much much more on how far the attendance has come since 2014.
TV: ESPNNews 3:00 PM Saturday
SPREAD: Western Michigan -3 1/2
Western Michigan Football Preview:
Broncos WR Corey Davis is really dangerous. He’s NFL bound, and now just 36 yards aways from becoming the MAC’s all time receiving yards leader. He’s an exact, even 1,000 yards away from becoming the all-time FBS receiving yards leader.
WMU is coming off the first bowl game win in school history, and should they reach Detroit as expected, and win, it would be the school’s first conference championship since 1988. In fact both the media and the coaches picked WMU to win the MAC this season. Under fourth year head coach P.J. Fleck, the Broncos achieved 21 “nevers” according to the school information department.
By that we mean “never until 2015 had Western Michigan…..”
It’s all about head coach P.J. Fleck, who’s name kept coming up as a potential next head coach at Illinois last season. Whether or not he really was being considered, and likewise considered leaving Kalamazoo for Champaign, has never been brought to light. It was all just conjecture and speculation, but it certainly was discussed.
Now the Purdue fans are beating the pick Fleck drum. Take a look at this Boilers coaching candidates piece from our good friends Hammer and Rails, the SB Nation Purdue Boilermakers community.
An excerpt:
On Saturday Fleck will get a chance to tie Darrell Hazell for wins over Big Ten teams. He got his first in week 1 this year at Northwestern and this week the Broncos can beat Illinois. A win there would also make things very interesting, as it sets up a potential undefeated regular season for the Broncos. Their toughest games are in each of the next four weeks when they go to Illinois, host a good Georgia Southern team, open conference play at Central Michigan, then host Northern Illinois. If they get through all four of those games unscathed this team is probably undefeated when it hosts Toledo on November 25.
Fleck is a young guy, younger than me, even. He is also a decent recruiter. His classes have been consistently better than Hazell’s (at WESTERN MICHIGAN no less). His current 2017 class is ranked 41st according to Rivals. That’s ahead of Mississippi, Stanford, Wisconsin, Texas, UCLA, and Purdue (We’re No. 62).
That really is astounding; Fleck could tie Hazell for wins over a B1G opponent if he’s victorious Saturday! Damn.
Also, if he does maintain that top position of 2017 recruiting class ranking for a Group of 5 team he will…wait for it, wait for it, have landed the #1 of any non power five conference team for the fourth straight year.
Fleck has admitted that some of the stuff he does might come off corny to some people, but it certainly works in recruiting. Fleck is extremely ALL CAPS!!!!!!!!!!! often times when in the public eye, but you can’t deny the fact that it works well in recruiting.
These displays are essentially required in order to appeal to the meathead demographic of the football community. It just comes with the territory. Football is a great game with a large, diverse audience casting a very wide net.
There are meatballs within that net, and I know that I’m just as guilty of pandering to that segment as anybody else involved in the game. We all cater to the “DO YOU EVEN LIFT BRO?!” crowd from time to time; it’s inherent to the sport’s very fabric.
Coaches are under tremendous pressure to not just be a coach and carry out all the responsibilities therein, but to also play a coach on television. It’s vital to recruiting. (It’s certainly working too)
Underneath the cartoonish soundbite clips, there’s usually a real person with depth and substance.
Tom Flacco, a sophomore at Western Michigan University, is the WMU Broncos QB2. Senior Zach Terrell is ahead of him, and he’s really good. In fact, Athlon rated Terrell the 24th best QB in the nation this season.
Tom Flacco is more of a “change of pace quarterback;” you know like a “change of pace back.” He’s a run first quarterback, unlike Terrell, and unlike his brother. Here’s much more on him.
Side note, starting middle linebacker Robert Spillane is the grand-son of Johnny Lattner, who won the Heisman trophy at Notre Dame.
Illini football preview:
You couldn’t ask for a more starker contrast in style between the persona of the two coaches. There have been multiple stories written already about how Illini football coach Lovie Smith does not yell. The backfield tandem of junior Kendrick Foster and sophomore Ke’Shawn Vaughn have been leading the way for Illinois thus far, combining for 337 yards and four touchdowns in the first two games of 2016.
Here’s much more on Vaughn and the stellar effort he turned in on Saturday night.
Below, you’ll find video of Kendrick Foster talking to the Illini football media after the loss to UNC.
Illinois was in a one-possession game midway through the fourth quarter Saturday night, but then the Tar Heels broke it open down the stretch and then window dressed the score. This Illini football team had their chances, but they have nobody to blame but themselves for why they lost.
Six fumbles (although only one was lost) and sloppy, inexplicable mistakes that piled up to 99 penalty yards yielded to UNC. Also, Quarterback Wes Lunt had perhaps his worst game in an Illinois uniform. It’s fitting because last year at North Carolina was his worst game of 2015.
The NFL Draft talk for Lunt is really starting to look like…well, I’m not saying you need to sell all of your Lunt NFL Draft stock yet, but I would have your broker ready on speed dial just in case.
We’ve already well past the point in which you can blame his issues on the receivers’ drops or lack of depth on the offensive line. Everyone is to blame for the very poor numbers that Lunt produced Saturday night. He made some mistakes in that game that no veteran player of his hype, acclaim and experience should make.
Flipping over to the other side of the ball, how will this Illini football team stop Zach Terrell, Corey Davis and company? Probably by takeaways. Illinois will likely need to go at least +2 in turnover margin to win this game.
We did an in-depth profile of the secondary, and what they learned from Charles Peanut Tillman when he stopped by this summer. It includes interviews with Peanut, as well as all four starting members of the Illinois defensive backfield. It’s very detailed, so give it a read over at this link.
Pick: Western Michigan 27, Illini football 26
On this day, HIGH EXTREME INTENSITY beats out laid back chillax, by the narrowest of margins. Despite the predicted result, we still believe that Lovie Smith was a much better hire though.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes regularly to the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye publication and Bold Global.
He also consistently appears on numerous radio and television talk shows all across the country. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram and Sound Cloud.