It was very very fortunate for me to experience most of my in-person Illini football (at the stadium) during 1984-1992. In this time the Illini were perceived as probably one level below the perennial big names of college football, at worst the program was "threatening" to join the ranks of one level below the big names.
At the end of the '89, '90, '92 regular seasons the team was ranked nationally, or in the case of the '92 season coming off of ruining #4 Michigan's chance to play for a share of the national championship. (Old guys might recall that Tepper's first team was a big underdog in that game, yet Michigan was on such a roll to that point that the betting spread was easily over 3 touchdowns.)
Even though going back to the early '90s is going back before almost anyone on the roster was born, sure there could be players like Reisner that came to college at age 21 or older, having seen those nines season in which the Illini always played respectable football with the occasional big win over a regional power and the rare win over a national power (Ohio State '85, Southern Cal '89 (AWAY), Virginia bowl game '89, Colorado '90), I can't "accept" the Illini as a sixth-place team in the West.
It's not helpful to any part of my life to be holding onto this idea that the Orange and Blue "ought to be" where Iowa, or for the love of Pete (!), Minnesota is now in the pecking order of the B1G West in football. But I love the University, what it did to help my family and train me for the work world, and it's crazy the Illini have "earned" a place where they are less respected than.. the Gophers.
A couple of years ago Gerry DiNardo stated pretty plainly that he felt that the expectations for the coach at Illinois are clearly a level lower than they are for the Iowa coach. (His statement wasn't just about the two schools but DiNardo said expectations for Iowa were on same level as PSU or Wisconsin.) Look at the history of Hawkeye football prior to 1981(Fry broke the "duo-opoly" of tOSU and Mich in '81) and tell me how this happened? I've lived here, Cedar Rapids, since '07 and I have a sense that a big part of what made Hawkeye Nation what it is was the terrible economic times in Iowa during the mid-'80s. Pride in the Hawkeyes made a great diversion from the farm/banking crisis of those days. Well, the state of Illinois has its own economic reckoning happening today with no sign of the light at the end of the tunnel (based on reports received here in CR). Maybe Whitman/Smith can give some hope to Central and Southern Illinois in these challenging times?
This diatribe excuse for a first post was prompted by the thread from two or three days ago which reported that the preseason mags have the Illini ranked below both Minnesota and Northwestern in their prognostication. It is not even JUNE, but nobody will convince me (before I see the Illini play the Tar Heels....) that the Illini won't beat both of those opponents in '16.
Go Illini!
At the end of the '89, '90, '92 regular seasons the team was ranked nationally, or in the case of the '92 season coming off of ruining #4 Michigan's chance to play for a share of the national championship. (Old guys might recall that Tepper's first team was a big underdog in that game, yet Michigan was on such a roll to that point that the betting spread was easily over 3 touchdowns.)
Even though going back to the early '90s is going back before almost anyone on the roster was born, sure there could be players like Reisner that came to college at age 21 or older, having seen those nines season in which the Illini always played respectable football with the occasional big win over a regional power and the rare win over a national power (Ohio State '85, Southern Cal '89 (AWAY), Virginia bowl game '89, Colorado '90), I can't "accept" the Illini as a sixth-place team in the West.
It's not helpful to any part of my life to be holding onto this idea that the Orange and Blue "ought to be" where Iowa, or for the love of Pete (!), Minnesota is now in the pecking order of the B1G West in football. But I love the University, what it did to help my family and train me for the work world, and it's crazy the Illini have "earned" a place where they are less respected than.. the Gophers.
A couple of years ago Gerry DiNardo stated pretty plainly that he felt that the expectations for the coach at Illinois are clearly a level lower than they are for the Iowa coach. (His statement wasn't just about the two schools but DiNardo said expectations for Iowa were on same level as PSU or Wisconsin.) Look at the history of Hawkeye football prior to 1981(Fry broke the "duo-opoly" of tOSU and Mich in '81) and tell me how this happened? I've lived here, Cedar Rapids, since '07 and I have a sense that a big part of what made Hawkeye Nation what it is was the terrible economic times in Iowa during the mid-'80s. Pride in the Hawkeyes made a great diversion from the farm/banking crisis of those days. Well, the state of Illinois has its own economic reckoning happening today with no sign of the light at the end of the tunnel (based on reports received here in CR). Maybe Whitman/Smith can give some hope to Central and Southern Illinois in these challenging times?
This diatribe excuse for a first post was prompted by the thread from two or three days ago which reported that the preseason mags have the Illini ranked below both Minnesota and Northwestern in their prognostication. It is not even JUNE, but nobody will convince me (before I see the Illini play the Tar Heels....) that the Illini won't beat both of those opponents in '16.
Go Illini!
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