College Football 2013 Season

[Ming]

At least I'm not the idiot that thinks Zook was a good coach... Now THAT'S STUPID.

[Tupac Shakur]

I never said he was a good coach. I'm saying that he's about the best coach a school like Illinois can hope for.

[Ming]

I never said he was a good coach. I'm saying that he's about the best coach a school like Illinois can hope for.

Then you are even a bigger moron. Claiming a .400 coach is the best a team can do shows what an idiot you are.

[SlowwHand]

I was under the imprssion that Illinois is a state school. If that's correct, any state school has a leg up on the competition in their state. See University of Texas.

[-Jrabbit]

Look at the competition in Illinois: Northwestern and Northern Illinois.

Tallest midget syndrome.

[Guynemer]

The only time in my life I can remember thinking, "crap, Illinois is going to be tough," other than the unpleasantness of 2008-2010, was when you guys had Simeon Rice.

That is it.

A quarter-century of fairly hardcore Michigan fandom, and that is the only time when I considered Illinois to be a frightening prospect.

You guys... just aren't relevent. Hell, Northwestern has had significantly more success in recent years. Once in a blue moon, you guys rise up and have a good season, but consistent success? I just don't remember it ever happening.

[Donegeal]

A turn around can happen. Look at my team. They were bottem dwellers for decades. A 6 win season would have been considered a success back in the 70's and 80's. Then they found Barry Alverez sitting in Nebraska as Coordinator. He turned the program around in just a few short years by focusing on recruiting mostly in Wisconsin. Now Wisconsin recruits nationally (but still focuses in Wisconsin).

Whoever comes in as HC doesn't have to be a good HC. He needs to be good in sales (recruiting) and focus on his own state. If whoever get the job draws in all/most of the kids from Illinois, they will become a formidable force and in Big 10 contention every year.

[Imran Siddiqui]

To be fair, Zook has always been known as a great recruiter and people were pleased at the types of players he was getting to commit to Illinois (Juice Williams being one of them).

[Ming]

To be fair, he had a .400 winning percentage. Enough said.

[rah]

To be fair, Zook has always been known as a great recruiter and people were pleased at the types of players he was getting to commit to Illinois (Juice Williams being one of them).

Actually I'm hoping that now that he's toast we don't start finding out about recruiting violations that he committed during his tenure that will hamper the program in the future. (speaking of things he was known for)

And being a great recruiter is only half the battle.

And the concept that since you haven't been traditionally good so you can't ever be good is laughable.

[Imran Siddiqui]

I was responding to Donegal - who said HC has to focus on recruiting to repair a program.

[Guynemer]

And this is why the Pac-12 has the right idea as far as their championship game site goes (via MGoBlog):

This popped up on Craigslist last night:


Event Seat-Filler (Indianapolis / Downtown)

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Date: 2011-11-29, 9:24PM EST
Reply to: gigs-utzft-2727703432@craigslist.org [Errors when replying to ads?]

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Saturday night event in downtown Indianapolis needs seat-fillers. Total number of seat-fillers needed will vary based on crowd.

Must tolerate loud noise and crowds. Must have red or dark green casual clothing to wear. Event will last all evening on Saturday night. All ages, sexes, races, etc.

Please use contact e-mail. Event planner will follow-up with exact details on location for staging of seat-fillers (additional information and instruction provided there).
Location: Indianapolis / Downtown
it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
Compensation: 75 dollars, parking validation and access to event

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I saw one of The Only Colors guys complain that ticket prices were collapsing on StubHub and he should have waited to pick tickets up; he had no idea. If you paid more than negative 75 dollars you've been had.

Stubhub is currently showing a whopping 38 pages of tickets totaling 9000(!) seats starting at ten bucks. Almost 15% of the stadium is currently being hawked on a single website. This is "sold out" in an extremely technical sense.

SEX APPEAL


"As you look at these games all around the country, all of them are going to be under face value,'' said Franksmann, whose site was listing $89 tickets for $29 on Tuesday. "You hate to say this, but people don't really care to go to a meaningless game.''

[rah]

I was responding to Donegal - who said HC has to focus on recruiting to repair a program.

Yeah, I know, and I was just pointing out that recruiting is only part of the answer. (I'll concede it as the more important aspect since I think it's easier for a bad coach to win with good players than a good coach to win with bad players. )

[Tupac Shakur]

If Michigan or Nebraska had a .400 record over multiple years, you guys would be screaming for blood. I don't see any reason why Illini fans shouldn't be doing the same thing.

Comparing Illinois to Michigan and Nebraska? Ya'll have an acute case of Clemson Syndrome.

On the other hand, looking to Michigan and Nebraska for guidance might not have been a bad idea for Illinois, as both schools are prime examples of the potential dangers of pushing out a merely good-enough coach and the depths that even storied programs can descend to once they strike out a couple times on potential coaches and get desperate.

[Guynemer]

Again: Carr was not pushed out. He wanted to retire, and remained a powerful force in the Athletic Department, many feeling that he actively undermined RichRod. I doubt that very much, but he was not pushed out.