Tuesday, January 01, 2008
Rose Bowl summary
My eight thoughts to start '08 after watching the game (with thoughts especially in mind for any national media thinking of piling on how Illinois didn't deserve to be here):
1. Last year we only won two games. Last I checked we only won two games the year before that as well. No one in America thought we'd be playing USC to end the season this year. There. Thanks for letting me get that off my chest.
2. USC is stacked with talent that could be playing in the NFL right now. We are getting stacked with talent that will be playing in the NFL in two or three years (not counting Rashard who pretty much ensured with his performance today that he will be playing on Sundays next year).
3. If Zook's recruiting continues as it has been, we are about two years away from being able to compete against the "goliaths of college football" as Herbsreit referred to USC.
4. That said, we were still in this game until we gave the ball away with some costly turnovers.
5. The defense played very well but obviously was extremely tired by the 4th quarter, hence the tackling difficulties.
6. I'm sure this will be beat to death over the next week or two but forcing our offense to run the ball over and over to start the game and for practically the entire first half didn't do our boys much good as every single USC defender pretty much played the run. Once we started to air it out at the end of the first half we got some breathing room. Not sure what Locksley and Zook were thinking there but it's sort of ironic that we kept hearing how great Locksley was this week and how he is being looked at for head coaching jobs and, in my opinion, did a pretty subpar job of calling plays at the beginning of the game.
7. No one likes a sore or arrogant winner (at least I don't). I know Illinois had its share of personal fouls (which didn't make me happy) but USC's players were beyond ridiculous when it came to taunting etc. Please. Act like you've been there before (because you have). You may have won the game big but you looked classless doing so. Congratulations.
8. Speaking of taunting I had a good friend who is a Nebraska fan text me after USC went up 14-0 talking smack (you know who you are). Must I say it again? Please. Where was Nebraska playing this New Year's Day? Did they even have a winning record? Do people who live within the state lines even believe their program is heading in the same direction as the Illinois football program? Yeesh. People.
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1. Last year we only won two games. Last I checked we only won two games the year before that as well. No one in America thought we'd be playing USC to end the season this year. There. Thanks for letting me get that off my chest.
2. USC is stacked with talent that could be playing in the NFL right now. We are getting stacked with talent that will be playing in the NFL in two or three years (not counting Rashard who pretty much ensured with his performance today that he will be playing on Sundays next year).
3. If Zook's recruiting continues as it has been, we are about two years away from being able to compete against the "goliaths of college football" as Herbsreit referred to USC.
4. That said, we were still in this game until we gave the ball away with some costly turnovers.
5. The defense played very well but obviously was extremely tired by the 4th quarter, hence the tackling difficulties.
6. I'm sure this will be beat to death over the next week or two but forcing our offense to run the ball over and over to start the game and for practically the entire first half didn't do our boys much good as every single USC defender pretty much played the run. Once we started to air it out at the end of the first half we got some breathing room. Not sure what Locksley and Zook were thinking there but it's sort of ironic that we kept hearing how great Locksley was this week and how he is being looked at for head coaching jobs and, in my opinion, did a pretty subpar job of calling plays at the beginning of the game.
7. No one likes a sore or arrogant winner (at least I don't). I know Illinois had its share of personal fouls (which didn't make me happy) but USC's players were beyond ridiculous when it came to taunting etc. Please. Act like you've been there before (because you have). You may have won the game big but you looked classless doing so. Congratulations.
8. Speaking of taunting I had a good friend who is a Nebraska fan text me after USC went up 14-0 talking smack (you know who you are). Must I say it again? Please. Where was Nebraska playing this New Year's Day? Did they even have a winning record? Do people who live within the state lines even believe their program is heading in the same direction as the Illinois football program? Yeesh. People.
Labels: Kirk Herbstreit, Rashard Mendenhall, Ron Zook, USC
# posted by Chief : 8:55 PM
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Another mistake...seriously...and another
Anyone as frustrated as I was after watching us give this game to Michigan? Mike Hart is on the sideline and our defense sends Henne and Manningham to the locker room and we still can't capitalize.
Obviously the penalties and silly mistakes killed us. We gave them the game.
I can't help but wonder if it's because we're such a young team and our guys were riding on so much adrenaline. Still, it's no excuse for most of the mistakes...especially Mitchell. Can we just go ahead and give the opposing team a personal foul penalty on him to start the game and get it out of the way? Invariably he either gets too hyped up or loses his cool or both and shoves someone after the play is over or comes flying in out of no where for a late hit. Drives me nuts. The refs have him pegged.
We don't rough the punter (which even though I understand the rule I see no way you can avoid touching the guy when you're coming in for a block) and drop that punt return and we win that game. Frustrating!
In addition, I do not see the reason why Juice was taken out. He was completing passes and seemed to be in a good rhythm.
In any case, there is still a lot to look forward to as this team matures. The stadium sounded loud on TV. Musburger and Herbstreit called a great game and gave Illinois a lot of props.
Finally, the interview with Jeff Jordan was GOLD.
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Obviously the penalties and silly mistakes killed us. We gave them the game.
I can't help but wonder if it's because we're such a young team and our guys were riding on so much adrenaline. Still, it's no excuse for most of the mistakes...especially Mitchell. Can we just go ahead and give the opposing team a personal foul penalty on him to start the game and get it out of the way? Invariably he either gets too hyped up or loses his cool or both and shoves someone after the play is over or comes flying in out of no where for a late hit. Drives me nuts. The refs have him pegged.
We don't rough the punter (which even though I understand the rule I see no way you can avoid touching the guy when you're coming in for a block) and drop that punt return and we win that game. Frustrating!
In addition, I do not see the reason why Juice was taken out. He was completing passes and seemed to be in a good rhythm.
In any case, there is still a lot to look forward to as this team matures. The stadium sounded loud on TV. Musburger and Herbstreit called a great game and gave Illinois a lot of props.
Finally, the interview with Jeff Jordan was GOLD.
Labels: Brent Musburger, Chad Henne, Juice Williams, Kevin Mitchell, Kirk Herbstreit, Mario Manningham, Mike Hart, Ron Zook
# posted by Chief : 10:38 PM
