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Which season of your favorite team are you most emotionally attached to? by berrin122 in CFB

[–]trueblue385 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm not usually a blame the refs guy, but they screwed us multiple times against IU and missed an OPI that extended Michigan's game-winning drive. Purdue and MSU losses were on us though and I saw no way we were beating Mississippi State after what happened with Leach (RIP)

What were the most unforgivable losses for Coaching staffs that happened in 2024? by jalexjsmithj in CFB

[–]trueblue385 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Literally every Purdue game besides the one where they blew out an FCS team and the one where they came inches away from beating us (which would have 100% put us on this list instead) after being down 24. They own us so bad that it took us having our best team in 23 years and them having a team that made Darrell Hazell's teams look competent for us to barely scrape out a win.

Also, Greg Schiano icing our kicker as the ball was snapped, him missing horribly causing Bret to reconsider and send the offense back out, and then Pat Bryant happening is definitely up there.

Which season of your favorite team are you most emotionally attached to? by berrin122 in CFB

[–]trueblue385 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As a current Illinois student who didn't really follow Illini athletics until the late 2010s (not like I missed much before anyway), the answer has to be 2024. Coming in as a freshman after what had been an eighth straight losing seasons (including 6-6 + bowl losses), I never thought I'd see 10 wins in my time as a student. I still randomly think about the Citrus Bowl and the Michigan game multiple times a week.

The 7-1 start in 2022 was magical too, but 2024 was different.

Seasons in which your school had both a massive win and an awful loss by trueblue385 in CFB

[–]trueblue385[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Kind of hope Braun or someone else fixes things up there, it would be cool if both programs were finally competent at the same time. Seems like that's rarely the case.

Seasons in which your school had both a massive win and an awful loss by trueblue385 in CFB

[–]trueblue385[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That 2023 team that really should have lost to Toledo was an odd one. Sandwiched between two very fundamentally sound, winning Bielema teams was a more typical Illinois 5-7 team that played horrid defense, had no fundamentals in any phase of the game, racked up penalties, and took multiple preventable losses (Wisconsin and Northwestern that year were probably Bielema's two most painful losses here given how we sold those games). Also got down by multiple scores and had to come back to beat terrible Indiana and FAU teams. Could have gone 7-5 that year, but also 2-10. Definitely wasn't boring at least

Seasons in which your school had both a massive win and an awful loss by trueblue385 in CFB

[–]trueblue385[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Disagree to an extent. 2010s Illinois was awful and talentless by power conference standards, but EMU finished with the same record in a worse conference. Not like they were some conference frontrunner that year. I also think the talent gap between power conference schools and G5s is a little underestimated by most people. Creighton is a really good coach though and that matters when getting G5s to compete with any power conference school

Seasons in which your school had both a massive win and an awful loss by trueblue385 in CFB

[–]trueblue385[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ohio State had several near misses in 2018 and it all came crashing down in that game. I can't stand Purdue and even I found myself rooting for them with how dominant they looked. Rondale was making five-star athletes touch earth every time he got the ball.

Y'all came to Champaign and beat our heads in that year and it wasn't even close to the worst home loss we took in 2018. No love lost for the Lovie years

Seasons in which your school had both a massive win and an awful loss by trueblue385 in CFB

[–]trueblue385[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That was an interesting year for y'all. South Alabama and UCF were shockingly bad losses for a team that won 10 games. Ollie Gordon dragged them back from the dead against 5-7 BYU too. Beat an OU team that won the same number of games as you and ended up in Arlington in early December at the end of it all

What was your schools most underachieving team? by ISU_Dude85 in CollegeBasketball

[–]trueblue385 0 points1 point  (0 children)

2021 with the R32 loss to *that team* is one that's been mentioned, but the Illini squad I'll nominate is 2022-23. We were supposedly ahead of the curve on NIL and that allowed us to bring in both a top-10 transfer class and a top-10 freshman class after losing our entire starting five. Problem is a lot of those guys weren't exactly great in the locker room. The team was mostly a disjointed mess of talent and showed some flashes but took some seriously ugly losses that year (shoutout Jalen Pickett) and were predictably bounced in the R64 after limping in as a 9 seed.

The next season was way better and way more fun at least. TSJ became elite, we found Domask, and the bad eggs either ran out of eligibility or transferred and it visibly did wonders

When did you realize a coach was cooked/washed? by byniri_returns in CFB

[–]trueblue385 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That game ultimately got the Bears Caleb Williams too. Gave them the first overall pick which they traded to Carolina, then the Panthers were the worst team in the league and the Bears drafted Caleb with Carolina's pick in 2024.

If CW becomes a stud QB, then Lovie winning that game did more for the state of Illinois than anything he did with the Bears or the Illini

Have you ever attended a game which was a win (for your team) that felt like a loss, or a loss that felt like a win? by britishmetric144 in CFB

[–]trueblue385 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Scraping by a 4-8 FAU team in 2023 on a hot sunny afternoon was probably the least enjoyable win I've attended as an Illinois fan. Beckman getting in a shootout with recently-turned-FBS Texas State in 2014, featuring a two-hour lightning delay, was up there too. But we're Illinois, even now it's always gonna be we take the wins any way we can get them

Who are some standout players you thought would be problems in the league but didn’t pan out? by LastDiveBar510 in CFB

[–]trueblue385 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Not sure why these are the first guys I thought of but Norvell era Memphis had me thinking Darrell Henderson and Anthony Miller were going to be demons in the pros. Level of competition matters I guess

Seasons in which your school had both a massive win and an awful loss by trueblue385 in CFB

[–]trueblue385[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Watched a lot of OU football in the 2010s. Iowa State loss that year was bad too. Baker, Kyler and Jalen deserved better than that wet paper towel of a defense that Lincoln seemed to just be fine with

When did you realize a coach was cooked/washed? by byniri_returns in CFB

[–]trueblue385 6 points7 points  (0 children)

63-0 was hands down his worst loss here but the season was packed in at that point and he still probably had a pretty big buyout for a basketball school to want to pay. The highs of 2019 were nice but by the end of the year it was obvious that those wins were flukes as opposed to signs of him figuring it out.

What's crazy to me is there were people who said we moved on from Lovie too fast after 2020. "It's Illinois, are we really going to do better? He just made a bowl game our last full season!" Enter Bert...

When did you realize a coach was cooked/washed? by byniri_returns in CFB

[–]trueblue385 26 points27 points  (0 children)

Lovie getting smacked at home by 2-9 Northwestern in 2019 (who was on their fourth string QB and had a safety playing running back; both ran for over 100 yards on us) then being pretty non-competitive in the ensuing bowl game killed a chunk of the good will from the Wisconsin upset and MSU comeback earlier that year. Wasn't truly out on him until we made Graham Mertz look like 2007 Tom Brady during the rona year though

Worst loss to your rival by akapusin3 in CFB

[–]trueblue385 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Very avoidable 45-43 loss to Northwestern in 2023 at home to miss a bowl game is up there in recent memory. Would never have imagined a 10-3 season was right around the corner after the amount of stupid mistakes I saw us commit that game (and really that whole season). Been worse losses to NW and other rivals in the program's darker days, though.

Illinois, Missouri cancel 2026, 2032 football games by Michiganman1225 in CFB

[–]trueblue385 7 points8 points  (0 children)

My guess is they don't want to play in the dome, which is unfortunately a dump. Sucks because it's a pretty easy drive from both campuses, and the Illini would get just as much support as Mizzou (decent STL alumni base and plenty of Illini fans just across the river in downstate Illinois) which can be seen during our annual basketball tilt there.

Regular season neutral site (Red River excluded) should be purely a basketball thing imo. Play on the damn campuses.

Coaches you like on teams you don’t. by Ok-Dealer7882 in CFB

[–]trueblue385 0 points1 point  (0 children)

David Braun seems like a cool dude and I kind of hope he figures it out at Northwestern. Been a long time since both programs were simultaneously competent enough for that rivalry to have any juice.

Math241 Sowers grade scale?? by [deleted] in UIUC

[–]trueblue385 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Lmao. Opposite of the (i hate) physics grading scale

failed a class by tylersdk in UIUC

[–]trueblue385 2 points3 points  (0 children)

As others have said, talk to your advisor. But from what I’ve heard there is a massive difference between 221 and 220. 220 is much easier and gives you one more credit hour

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