CFB51 College Football Fan Community
The Power Five => Big Ten => Topic started by: OrangeAfroMan on November 04, 2022, 02:09:53 PM
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What would Illinois have to do this year to be the best Illini team ever? (or of the past 60 years or so)
Let's toss out winning the NC...short of that, what would be the minimum to clear the bar as being the best?
Lose only in the B1GCG and win their bowl? Would it have to be the RB?
Lose again, but win the B1GCG?
Win out, win the B1G, and lose in the playoff?
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Do they necessarily need to win the B1G?
Can they go 11-2, with a non-RB win?
What do you guys think?
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Slim pickins that's for sure. 1984 was OK minus the bookend losses.
(https://i.imgur.com/uaxJYEs.png)
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Slim pickins that's for sure. 1984 was OK minus the bookend losses.
(https://i.imgur.com/uaxJYEs.png)
You obviously meant 1983. Illinois did something that year that no other team has ever done. They beat every other B1G team. That was during the brief 9-game league schedule era that coincided with the league only having 10 teams so Illinois played them all and went 9-0.
That much is great but . . .
- Their OOC was abysmal with a 10 point loss to Mizzou, a 10 point win over a horrible Stanford team, and a blowout RoseBowl loss to one of the worst RoseBowl Champions ever.
- They had a remarkably fortuitous H/A split. Of their five league road wins, only the one in Madison was over a team that finished above .500 and Wisconsin was 7-4 so not great. At home they got three 9-3 teams (Iowa, tOSU, M).
I think my starting point would be final AP ranking and frankly Illinois hasn't had many of those, only 13:
- #3 in 1963
- #4 in 1951
- #5 in 1946
- #7 in 1953
- #10 in 1989
- #10 in 1983
- #12 in 2001
- #13 in 1959
- #13 in 1950
- #15 in 1944
- #20 in 2007
- #24 in 1999
- #25 in 1990
1963:
Oddly, they lost at home to a bad Michigan team (M finished sub .500). They tied tOSU in Columbus, won the Rose Bowl, and finished 8-1-1 and #3. This is arguably their best-ever season as it is their highest final ranking and the loss to Michigan was close, 14-8.
1951:
They tied a mediocre Ohio State team (tOSU finished 4-3-2 in Woody's first year) in Columbus and won all the rest of their games including a blowout of Stanford in the Rose Bowl to finish 9-0-1. The final poll was still before bowls so it didn't reflect Illinois' blowout win over Stanford. This is probably their best-ever season.
1946:
They lost badly (26-6) to Notre Dame and lost by a TD at Indiana but won the rest to finish 8-2 and #5. Also, the final poll was before the bowls so it didn't reflect Illinois' blowout win over UCLA.
1953:
They tied a bad Nebraska team (Nebraska finished 3-6-1), got blown out by Wisconsin (34-7), and finished 7-1-1.
1989:
They got spanked in Boulder by a very good Colorado team (Colorado finished 11-1) and lost by two TD's at home to Michigan but won the rest of their games to finish 10-2 with a Citrus Bowl win over UVA.
1983:
This was the year the Badge displayed above.
That is all of their top-10 finishes. I think that 1951 was better than 1963 because they were undefeated in 1951. It would be tough to top a year that finished #4 (pre bowls) and 9-0-1. I don't think they'd get there this year without making is to the NC game.
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Yeah I was thinking 1984 Rose Bowl.
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How many times have they won the Illibuck, the Purdue Cannon, and the Land of Lincoln, all in the same season?
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think the real question is not if this is the best Illini team ever, but if BERT can keep this momentum up at Illinois and/or if one of the big boys are going to come after him to be their next head coach. I think he'd kill it at Florida. Yeah he sucked at Arkansas, but that's an impossible job. Especially with Saban there in the West.
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The best Ilinni team could have been something like 7-1-2, I don't have one in mind. I dimly recall when they were a decent program.
Pittman has shown Arkansas can be competitive, but not yet elite, just 7-5 to 9-3, which is pretty decent.
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think the real question is not if this is the best Illini team ever, but if BERT can keep this momentum up at Illinois and/or if one of the big boys are going to come after him to be their next head coach.
I think you are right. Illinois has had some pretty good teams but they've never had sustained success. Have a look at this:
http://collegepollarchive.com/football/ap/teams/summary.cfm?teamid=74#.Y2ViFqQpBSA
Their only consecutive years finishing ranked were:
They've never finished ranked in three consecutive seasons.
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Slim pickins that's for sure. 1984 was OK minus the bookend losses.
[img width=273.429 height=342]https://i.imgur.com/uaxJYEs.png[/img]
Not to mention, that was during the brief time when the Big Ten did a full round. Robin. I think they were the only 9-0 Big Ten team until 2013 MSU. Granted going 1-2 non conference suggest that that was not a particularly banner year for the conference. 2001 was probably the weakest big 10 I can remember, and they won it that year too
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2001 was probably the weakest big 10 I can remember, and they won it that year too
Michigan lost 3 regular season games by 6 points or less...breaking in John Navarre as a first time starter. Drew Henson was suppose to be a senior starting QB, threw it down the drain for a failed baseball career with the Yank-mes. Michigan is 11-0 and playing for the title in 2001 and Henson is the #1 pick in the 2002 NFL Draft if he just plays his senior season.
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I think you are right. Illinois has had some pretty good teams but they've never had sustained success.
Correct alot of the talent went to South Bend,AnnArbor,Columbus,etc.Be interesting if they could stay at home
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Correct alot of the talent went to South Bend,AnnArbor,Columbus,etc.Be interesting if they could stay at home
doubtful. the 4* and 5* kids from Chicagoland are always going to flock to ND/MICH/OSU. It's always been that way. Always will be.
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Never say never or always for that matter
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Ucla qb in that Rose Bowl... Skippy Neuheisal.
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Maybe Illinois can make some noise when they are decent, catch some breaks, and their schedule is mostly pastries and mediocre teams?
One might ask what was their most impressive win?
Ever.
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One might ask what was their most impressive win?
Ever.
2007 at #1 OSU?
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Yeah, maybe, though a big upset might not be the most impressive win. I was more thinking of when they had a very good team and beat another very good team soundly, but OSU 2007 is probably that anyway. They did beat #5 Wisconsin that year at home also.
2007 Illinois Fighting Illini football team - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Illinois_Fighting_Illini_football_team)
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2007 at #1 OSU?
Has to be.
For comparison Ohio State has NEVER defeated #1 on the road and Ohio State obviously has a lot more history of success than Illinois. The closest thing to a road win over #1 that Ohio State has is beating #1 Bama in NOLA:
- Over UW in Columbus, 1952.
- Over PU in Columbus, 1968
- Over Iowa in Columbus, 1985
- Over MiamiFl in Tempe, 2002/03
- Over Bama in NOLA, 2014/15
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Obviously, teams ranked #1 at the time get beat at home on occasion, I wonder if many ranked #1 at EOS lost at home. Probably a few.
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I like Cincy's point - upsetting #1 from out of nowhere is an impressive win, but there weren't especially high stakes going in.
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Very often, usually by teams that aren't used to being there, a team will overachieve and the moment they play a game with lots of hooplah, they fold and fold hard (see Illinois, 2001).
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Looking at their 3 most recent 'good' years (01, 89, 83)...
2001 - as soon as they enter the top 25, trounced by ranked Michigan
beat Purdue in a 20ish vs 20ish ranked matchup
trounced by LSU in the Sugar Bowl, despite being ranked higher
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1989 - actually beat #5 USC in the opener, but was only ranked 22, so while this counts, it was really just an upset
the very next week, top 10 matchup with Colorado, gets drilled 38-7
later in the year, back up in the top 10, vs #3 UM, loses by 2 TDs
won their bowl in a 11 vs 15 matchup vs UVA
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1983 - loses opener, but beats the shit out of #4 Iowa, 33-0 as unranked team (random big upset)
Ranked 19th, beats #6 OSU - another upset, but getting warmer
Here's the game we're probably looking for: #9 Illinois over #8 UM by 10.
Won the rest of their games before getting curb-stomped by a bad UCLA (as previously mentioned upthread)
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So I guess the "answer" in terms of the modern game is 9 vs 8 win in 1983. A relatively high-stakes game going in, with Illinois winning.
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One might ask what was their most impressive win?
Ever.
2007 at #1 OSU?
(https://i.imgur.com/4xbqlIT.png) I watched that Game,Juice Williams
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The 1923 Illinois team led in part by Bob Zuppke who coached some very fine Illinois teams, and led on the field by Red Grange is almost certainly the best Illinois team of all time.
The 1923 Fighting Illini were retroactively voted mythical national champions after an 8-0 season by several entities, and by Jeff Sagarin rankings, after outscoring opponents 136-20.
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Grange is interesting. His legend is largely based on one amazing quarter in a game vs Michigan in 1924. The rest of his career was much more ordinary than I expected.
He was good, of course, and he had an inordinate number of long TD plays.
And while he had a monster game vs Penn in 1925, his total yardage in that 1 game was about half his entire season production.
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The media's fixation on "broken field" runners probably was born of Grange's exploits, and they specified and valued those types of players for decades to come. He was great, but his college career was varied.
1923 - great overall team
1924 - Grange with a great season, legendary quarter vs UM
1925 - average team, Grange with 1 monster game, ordinary stats otherwise
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Points for playing a bad MSU team close?
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Grange is interesting. His legend is largely based on one amazing quarter in a game vs Michigan in 1924. The rest of his career was much more ordinary than I expected.
He was good, of course, and he had an inordinate number of long TD plays.
And while he had a monster game vs Penn in 1925, his total yardage in that 1 game was about half his entire season production.
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The media's fixation on "broken field" runners probably was born of Grange's exploits, and they specified and valued those types of players for decades to come. He was great, but his college career was varied.
Grange also had a long career in broadcasting from 1934-69 which included college football, and Bears games
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Congrats to 'Fro for putting a curse on Bert.
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I knew I had magical powers!