Said Illini Head Coach Tim Beckman at yesterday’s news conference: “It’s almost like a playoff game, you got to keep winning to keep playing.”
“It kind of comes down to a one game season,” said Northwestern Coach Pat Fitzgerald.
That’s right, 5-6 Illinois at 5-6 Northwestern. This year, the LOL Trophy game isn’t just LMAO or ROTFL, it’s also meaningful. It’s for more than the Land of Lincoln hat. It’s for a bowl berth. Probably a bowl you’ve never heard of. The Foster Farms Bowl is in a great location (the San Francisco 49ers brand new home in Santa Clara). If the winner of this game doesn’t get some “California Love,” then they’re relegated to Detroit. (That’s what the Quick Lane Bowl is called this year)
It’s understandable if you’re confused, these low-tier bowl games seem to change their name every season.
TV: ESPNU 11 AM
SPREAD: NU -9 Pat Fitzgerald with have to go with a back-up QB who making his first ever start. Yet he’s STILL favored by a touchdown and safety. Ouch.
Illini preview:
There’s so many story-lines here. Tim Beckman is coaching for a bowl berth, and possibly his job too. A poll of Illini fans show that the fanbase is pretty much evenly split when it comes to what they’d rather have: a coaching change, or a bowl berth. You already know where I stand. I’ll let you make up your mind, by voting in the poll here.
Beyond a bowl berth and a possible regime change in the making, the real story surrounding Illini football is actually apathy. The current lack of interest in the program, something I’ve been spotlighting since August, is now the lead story in the “A block” of Illini football coverage. (If they’re even in the “A block” anymore, more on this here)
The bowl implications, the in-state rivalry, the Beckman hot seat, all that is secondary right now. The most important thing for Illini football right now is to win back hearts and minds. Pulling off the big upset here, and then winning a bowl game, would be a good first step towards doing that.
Seriously Univ. of Illinois students? You gotta do better. This is the crowd at kickoff. #illini #B1G pic.twitter.com/8GHQuGaQ6e
— Paul M. Banks (@PaulMBanks) November 22, 2014
Now if you’re among the half of the fan base that does with for Beckman to be replaced, here are five leading Illini football head coaching candidates.
Not satisfied? Here are five sleeper Illini football head coaching candidates.
Northwestern preview:
Trevor Siemian is out for the season (and that means it’s a college football with an ACL injury. Zack Oliver will get the start and Matt Alviti will also get some snaps against Illinois. Fitz thinks Oliver will be ready because he’s gotten plenty of reps in practice and gained game experience against Iowa and Purdue. The most important thing he’ll have to do is hand the ball off cleanly to Justin Jackson; over and over and over again.
Jackson, though just a freshman, has already gone over a 1000 yards rushing for NU and since midseason, he’s given the Wildcats an offensive identity that they’ve sorely needed. On Saturday, he faces the worst rush defense of all the power five teams. The Illini were 121st of 126 heading into the Penn State game. The Nittany Lions, down to their third string tailback, ran for 172 yards as a team on Tim Banks’ defense.
Beckman, who recruited Justin Jackson (not to be confused with the McDonald’s All-American freshman small forward Justin Jackson at North Carolina) spoke of his abilities:
“does not run like a freshman, he doesn’t go down with one tackle, you better be gang tackling,” he said.
Prediction: Northwestern 38, Illini 21
Will there be $3 black & tans (1/2 Guiness, 1/2 Harp) on special at Reilly O’Toole’s Saturday night 9pm-closing time??!!!
No, not so much. All three Illini QBs will play, but Wes Lunt is kind of a bit of a Mr. Glass right now. Aaron Bailey still can’t seem to complete forward passes, so Reilly O’Toole will and should get the bulk of the snaps. O’Toole did lead the Illini in the only two wins this year that you can consider impressive, so he deserves to take most of the reps on Saturday.
But he won’t be able to do enough. It’s going to be cold and ugly, grind the ground game weather. Don’t be shocked if Jackson goes off for over 2 bills…..and then Defensive Coordinator Tim Banks is working on updating his resume the next day.
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and writes The Sports Bank.net ,which is partners with Fox Sports. Read his feature stories in the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. Listen to him on KOZN 1620 The Zone. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks). His work has been featured in hundreds of media outlets including The Washington Post and ESPN 2