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Talking Illini Football with Sunny Verma from Illinicast
82 Plays1 year ago
Sunny Verma and talk about the season the coaches and expectation of the Fighting Illini
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Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
Well, welcome back, my friends. I hope you had a good Thanksgiving holiday. Been a couple of weeks, but I'm back. We are up here in the bleachers by my regular spot. We dusted off the bleachers, had a little snow over the evening, so they're all cleaned off. I got some hot chocolate going. There's cold drinks in the cooler. Bring your koozie, bring a seat cushion. We're going to talk some sports today. You've got to get it done. This is Gateway City Sports. The rumors are true.
00:00:34
Speaker
This is Talking Sports on the Bleachers with John Glenn. A confident young man. A superb athlete. A look at the sports issues of the day. Grab a seat, pop a cold one, and let's talk some sports. See, that sounds kind of interesting. Gentlemen, start your engines.
00:01:09
Speaker
Gromo on the shotgun here at the snap, Gromo looking, dumps it off, breaks that, intercepts it! Intercepts it with a goal line by Woodson! And there is your Gallagher! The line spread stands, arms out over the place. Deckford from the threat. The 1-1-5.
00:01:45
Speaker
$2.99 and $700 at Dodger Stadium on September 23, 2022. Playoffs? What are we talking about? Playoffs? You kidding me? Playoffs? Are you crying? There's no crying! There's no crying in baseball!
00:02:17
Speaker
You don't understand I could have had class. I could have been a contender. I could have been somebody. Holy cow!
00:02:47
Speaker
Hey, dad? You wanna have a catch? I'd like that.
00:03:04
Speaker
All right.
Illini Football Season Review
00:03:05
Speaker
Welcome to the show today. And I have with me via the gateway city sports phone line, Sonny Verma from a line I cast. We're going to talk some, a line I football today. Um, and it's kind of appropriate yesterday, uh, was our bowl hopes, uh, squashed quite, quite, uh, heavily. Um, but let's start with the beginning of this season. Um, you know, we heard in all the off season about.
00:03:32
Speaker
Altmeyer coming in and the loss of chase Brown and how McCray and love would fit into that and hopefully Fagan could help out. And, you know, they had the, the, we lost a lot of the secondary, but you had the law firm coming back on the front part. Was it overhyped?
00:03:50
Speaker
I mean, it depends on who you ask. If you watched our show, Alina cast both season previews. My co-host had us winning 10 games. I had us winning nine games. So if you listen to me, absolutely it was overhyped. But what it comes down to is, at least in my opinion, I think Brett made what ended up being a grave error.
00:04:13
Speaker
when it comes to the transfer portal. I think we use all our NIL funds just to kind of keep our top guys here, which is a great move. You know, obviously the law firm had a great impact on our team. So did Jackus and Coleman, the other guys, but we lost a lot of NFL talent last year and we weren't really able to replace it. We replaced it by younger guys, younger freshmen,
00:04:37
Speaker
you know, transfer portal guys who didn't exactly have big names or come from big schools. And I think that was kind of the fatal flaw of this team this year. He saw Johnny Newton even now. He's still, you know, the final five of almost every defensive award out there. You know, like we have that top end talent, but the problem was
00:04:57
Speaker
It took us five or six games to figure out what to do with our offensive line. We kept moving this guy there, this guy, this guy there. Defensive line still just needed help. The linebackers for the better part of the season just didn't really make much of an impact on the game.
Fan Reactions and Coaching Challenges
00:05:14
Speaker
So I mean, overhyped, yes, by the ones who drank the blue and orange Kool-Aid, hand raised. Me too. Yeah.
00:05:23
Speaker
But it's just one of those things where you kind of have to keep perspective. And that's what I'm trying to do. I'm done, as you probably know. Illini Twitter is a very negative bunch. They have a lot of energy, but there's a lot of people calling for heads. I try to be the opposite of that.
00:05:42
Speaker
And so I tried to combat that with looking at more of a positive perspective to kind of balance things out, because I've always struggled with just reading constant negativity, negativity, negativity. And I think people are just kind of forgetting where we're coming from, from the pre-Bred Bielma era, where we have it right now. So, you know, here I am trying to tell Alina Nation that not all is bad.
00:06:09
Speaker
Well, and, and I think you're right there and, and I totally get the whole Twitter X, whatever you want to call it now. Um, you know, I, I, I do. I've been looking at some of those going, all right, guys, are you jumping off the bridge now or are you still falling? What is going on here? Because yes, it has the coaching staff made some mistakes. Yes, they have. But.
00:06:32
Speaker
I can look at every coach Illinois has ever had and I can point out a season or a game or a couple of seasons where they totally, you know, uh, screwed to pooch, if you will. Um, so, you know, I'm not saying the, and, and I, when, when they fired Levy Smith, uh, I wrote an article for gave you a city sports that, um, and who the, the, uh,
00:06:55
Speaker
predecessor was going to be, or the other, the guy who the next coach was going to be. And I, I had beat him a tab. I had him tab from day one. I said, this is the guy they're going to take it. This makes sense to me. He's, he's, he's big 10 program builder. The guy knows what he's doing.
00:07:14
Speaker
And, you know, luckily for me, it happened in that respect. Cause I can, I can pin my hat on that one, at least one right prediction. Uh, you know, and I think we got a little fooled last year, a little spoiled last year. We went, you know, we're going eight and five or eight and four in the regular season. Uh, I think we'll, it should have been a very big tell what this season was going to be like when we played the bowl game without Chase Brown, without Devon Witherspoon.
00:07:40
Speaker
without Sydney Brown, you know, I think we were exposed in that game. And I agree with you. I don't think they did enough in the portal to address that. Now, not to say the what we had back there, the guys back there, Nicholson, and they've done a fantastic job for who for what they are. I mean, let's face it. They're not Devon Witherspoon. They're not Sydney Brown. They're not. Well, Quan Martin. Yeah, I couldn't think of the other name. You know, they're not those guys.
00:08:10
Speaker
but they're still pretty good, but they've just been exposed because they didn't play.
00:08:16
Speaker
You know, well, one of them was a freshman that started the Bailey, I think was a freshman started the bowl game last year. Was it right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He had a fantastic freshman year. And that's also one of like, he was going to be, you know, one of the captains on defense, a guy we were going to absolutely count on to kind of man that safety position for us this year. Right. And as you said, he played a couple of snaps this year. He wasn't there. So.
00:08:43
Speaker
Not only did we lose, you know, our top three guys in the secondary to the NFL, but then we lost the fourth guy who was to become our number one guy to injury. So, you know, it's, it's an unfortunate, you know, events. Um, I think, you know, Aaron Henry had a, you know, tough year. Um, you know, he's transitioning obviously, you know, his first year as a defensive coordinator, but
00:09:08
Speaker
You know, it's just the talent isn't there. And I think that's the ultimate concession I'm making. And, you know, kind of what I'm calling Brett and the staff out on now, I'm not huge into recruiting rankings. Cause I think, uh, no Brett Billman team's ever going to be a top ranked recruiting team. Even when he did it back in Wisconsin, that was never his point. He'll, he'll take the, like the, the guy with the impantables, the high three star, and he'll make them eventually play like a four star or a five star.
00:09:38
Speaker
But I think that right now,
00:09:43
Speaker
We're just at our talent level is not quite there with the other teams. A lot of our players are very green as it is, you know, his recruiting classes. And we're going to have to be aggressive this offseason because we've got four teams coming in next year.
Strategies for Talent Acquisition
00:10:00
Speaker
And the Big 10, obviously the Big 10 West is gone. So it's not like we can kind of, you know, count on those quote unquote easier wins, the easier schedule.
00:10:09
Speaker
I believe in our coaching. I think Brett was the right guy. I didn't agree with the hire at first. Just because I had so much of the SEC, what happened at Arkansas happened in my mind. But the minute I saw the first press conference and the words he said, like how committed he was to the state of Illinois, he won me over them. So it was a very short-lived non-approval. Let's put it that way. We're talking about a matter of a couple of days.
00:10:37
Speaker
But I think, you know, Brett and his staff are having meetings right now and talking to his coaching staff about what they need to do to upgrade that talent level. Because I think, you know, right now, I think we might be losing our top three wide receivers, our offensive linemen who finally
00:10:55
Speaker
You know, we're able to play at an average level by the end of season. We're going to be decimated there. Obviously, Newton's gone. Newton's gone could be gone. You know, our defensive line could be gone. Seth Cole and Seth Coleman, he could be gone, too. Yeah, I think he's right. He's going to get some pro looks.
00:11:11
Speaker
And the SEC has been sniffing around Gabe Jackiss for a while now. So, you know, we're going to have to try to keep him. And, you know, I think we need at least one quarterback to bring in. That's a lot of money for a transfer portal from a school that doesn't really have the funds, you know, the aggressive, rabid fan base to go out and spend that much money. So it's
00:11:35
Speaker
It's going to be a long off season, but I think it's going to be a key off season for Brett Beaumont because, you know, as you talked about, like there's already a lot of people whispering, it's just the right guy, blah, blah, blah. You know, this season was a failure, this and that. I don't think it was a failure. I think it was a transition here, but next year, you know, the seats only didn't get warmer. Well, that's true. And, you know, I, I'm, I kind of agree with it.
00:12:00
Speaker
Biedlman is in the same position that Underwood on the basketball team was in after last season. He told, I guess, I think he was talking to Dion and Dion mentioned it on my last show that Brad looked at him and said, I've got to change my way of thinking.
00:12:18
Speaker
I've got, I've got, we got to get old in a hurry. And I think that's going to have to be the same thing with the football program. They're going to have to get old in a lot of positions in her now, whether that's getting guys out of the junior college routes or whether that's getting some, uh, portal guys. Um, but you know, like, like we just talked about, you're going to, you're going to be minus almost all your defensive line. You're going to be minus at least two linebackers. Um, and you know, who knows if, uh, uh,
00:12:47
Speaker
McRae sticks around. I mean, he's looking at love and he's looking at fagin. You know, he's three on he's number three on that depth chart, no matter how he looks at it. I mean, we got another four star running back coming in. Yeah, we got a four star coming in that could so you're probably gonna be losing him.
00:13:07
Speaker
Do we need, I'm going to be a little different on the quarterback. Do we need a quarterback? I don't know for sure at this point, uh, because I think a lot of Altmyer's issues were the offensive line, especially early, the first four or five games. I mean, where a year ago, Tommy DeVito was saying, Hey, I'm not spending any time on my back. I love this to Altmyer running for his life on almost every play. And I think you really saw that in the last few games with paddock.
00:13:37
Speaker
Who is not as mobile as alt meyer and you know he i think i'll end in a way i'm not trying to diminish what john paddock did it but you know there's a couple situations there wish alt meyer had normal probably could've got positive yards instead of a sack or things of that nature but when you don't have that offensive line.
00:13:58
Speaker
giving that quarterback time. That's why Paddock was going to that quick two or three step drop because if he dropped back further, he was getting pressure all the time. So it's kind of a six and one half dozen and another. So I'd like to see what Altmaier could do with a good line, with a good solid line in front of him. I'm very high on Luke Altmaier. I think he's a kid with a lot of potential. A lot of people,
00:14:25
Speaker
You know, this was his first full season as a college football quarterback. You know, he's going to have growing pains. And we put a young quarterback without much game experience and told him to go up against Big 10 defenses with a horrible offensive line in front of him and a running game at the time that was not established. We struggled with our running game, you know, at the beginning of the season. I think we still are in some respects. Sure. Yeah. I absolutely agree with that.
00:14:53
Speaker
But Altmaier, I don't think Altmaier necessarily lost his job to John Paddock. I think John Paddock just took that job from him. Like, you know, like it's very rare to see a quarterback catch fire the way he had. I was talking about this with my fellow, you know,
00:15:10
Speaker
podcast mates. They were a little younger. I'm a little older. So like for me, it reminded me of like Kurt Warner during the Ram, you know, run where basically he was thrown for 400 yards. He was just quick snaps. You know, he knew where the guy would be. He would trust the guy to be there. That's what kind of reminded me. Right. But Luke can do a lot of things that padded can't do. And like you talked about is he can extend a play, you know, if it's third down and five,
00:15:35
Speaker
and the receiver just, it doesn't get open. Luke can get you seven, eight, 14 yards to extend that drive, which sometimes when you have a bad offensive line, which, you know, next year, as we just kind of talked about, it doesn't, we're going to be replacing a lot of guys. You know, it, I have a high ceiling for Luke. I think Luke is the best quarterback in the big time West, or I guess it's not existing moving forward, but I think for the first time in a long time,
00:16:04
Speaker
I'm very comfortable knowing who our quarterback is going to
Team Performance Analysis
00:16:08
Speaker
be. You know, we're not just bringing a one year guy and like, okay, what are we going to do next year? What are we going to do after that? For me, when it comes to the quarterback room, it's going to be more interested. I'm more interested in seeing if like a guy like Donovan Leary, you know, the freshman we got a couple of years ago, is he ready to be the backup? Yeah.
00:16:26
Speaker
Because the way Luke plays, the way he runs, um, you know, he is susceptible to getting hurt. An injury, an injury could, couldn't probably will happen. Exactly. Especially again, you know, big 10 gets a lot tougher next year. So, you know, for me is like, do they seek out the transfer portal to fund? Cause you know, it's going to be hard to find another paddock.
00:16:48
Speaker
We're talking about, you know, year, year four of the Brabilla era. So like you would think that now the quarterbacks that we've been bringing in every cycle, they should be ready. Exactly. To get on the field, like in case of emergency though. So that's kind of what I'm going to have my eye on this off season, whether we're going to seek out a veteran, you know, to back up Altmeyer or if he's got the trust in the guys that he's been developing the system for a couple of years now.
00:17:17
Speaker
Yeah. Well, and I think they've had, you know, those guys have had a chance to learn under, you know, under DeVito and now they've seen Altmaier. They've seen Patek, you know, these guys, Patek had the experience coming in. So maybe he was able to work with a couple of those kids. They've seen what Altmaier was doing, you know, just taking, taking what he can get. So maybe they've learned something. I will see what happens. Let's take a quick break and we'll be right back with Sonny Verma.
00:17:42
Speaker
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Speaker
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00:18:27
Speaker
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00:18:51
Speaker
We're talking some Illinois football. We talked a little bit about the overall look of the team and what we're kind of looking for next year. Uh, let's kind of get into the season now in the preseason. Did the half to come from behind to beat Toledo was, was, was that the scary point at the start of the season? I mean, we knew Kansas was going to be tough, but everybody, I think glossed over Toledo. I think.
00:19:16
Speaker
At the time, it looked worse than it is now. Because take a look at Toledo now. They went 11-1. They only lost one game, to us, you know? So I think Toledo is a very good, or I guess we can say at this point, the best Mac team. Now, again, we look at it from two different perspectives. On one hand, it's like, okay, yeah, you know, it's not an average Mac team. It's a very good Mac team that won 11-1. We were there only to loss. We should be proud of that victory. On the other hand,
00:19:47
Speaker
we as Illinois football don't want to be in the position where we should be battling any sort of MAC team to the last possession. So again, you look at it from two different perspectives, like for me,
00:20:00
Speaker
This was very much a transition year, a rebuilding year, just because of all the talent that we lost. So I think at the time, the Toledo game looked worse than it was, but now that the season is over and I can kind of reflect back and see what Toledo has done the 11 weeks since or the 12 weeks since. They are a very good football team. You know, they dropped 70 points a couple of times during the season. So.
00:20:26
Speaker
that victory I'm not as upset about. Um, you know, I guess, you know, as we move on, it's like, you know, Kansas just, we had the bad luck of going up against there. What's a quarterback who decided to come back and play, you know, against. Yeah. I can't remember the name either, but it's, yeah. Uh, I agree. I mean, they were, they were primed and ready. I mean, uh, cause they made an impact last year on the big 12 and everybody said, but the guys they had coming back, they were going to make another big impact. And, uh,
00:20:56
Speaker
You know, I, I, when I was looking at the pre-seed or the games and trying to figure out what the record could be, I had that one pegged as a, as a, as a possible loss. I had that one as a 50-50 toss up. It was in Lawrence, Kansas, you know, and like I said, they had played very well the year before.
00:21:14
Speaker
Uh, they had guys coming back that we didn't have coming back. And I thought, I thought that was a game that could have. Was going to be a stumbling block and one either way. So, I mean, I was kind of actually in one, one respect, it was kind of. Surprised we did as well as we did and, and hanging with them for as long as we did. Yeah. But, uh, you know, it's one of those games where I'm really hoping that Lance Leipold
00:21:36
Speaker
ends up getting called by Indiana or some button because I want to, I'm not looking forward to that. You know, this Illinois curse, you know, as if you're, I made a joke about this on our show.
00:21:48
Speaker
If you're a fledgling program who is considered a doormat of college football, just schedule Illinois on a future schedule and that immediately will turn you guys around. It happened with Kansas. Kansas was a doormat when we had these games originally scheduled. A couple of years later, now next year, we start with Duke. Duke and we signed on that schedule. Like they were again, the doormats of the ACC.
00:22:17
Speaker
And they're the tops of North Carolina and at ACC now in football. I mean, they're there. What are the eight and five, eight, eight, eight or nine wins this year? Something like that. You know, they got to ask the coach again, you know, he's another guy who I just hope finds a better opportunity somewhere. But, you know, the message to the eighties out there, you know, don't worry about finding a new coach, this or that. No, just put Illinois on your schedule. And then two years, two years when you get ready to play us, you'll be good. Exactly. No doubt. No doubt.
00:22:45
Speaker
Uh, Florida Atlantic again, another game, another game we struggled against the, obviously a lesser team, nothing against them. Uh, because they're a good football team, but they're not power five big 10. And yet we struggle again, you know, and then you got, you're looking at, at what's coming up in the, in the big 10 conferences, like, holy crap, we're in trouble.
00:23:08
Speaker
I think the question you asked about Toledo, whether that was the first glaring sign that we glossed over, I think FAU was. Now granted, if you watch the game, if I recall correctly,
00:23:22
Speaker
we were down 10-0 in that first quarter. And then we did kind of take control of the game after that. But most people remember being down 10-0. And the final score didn't look all that impressive because I think FAU scored... They scored late in the game, yeah. Very late in the game to make the game look a little bit closer than it was. But FAU themselves is a struggling program. That's a game that
00:23:48
Speaker
it should have been a two, three touchdown win. One of those where we got to get the freshmen in, let them, you know, get some game experience for the upcoming big 10 schedule. Yeah. And, you know, the one thing that really, and I was kind of the press conference after that game when, when Fagan had that
00:24:10
Speaker
Had the obvious touchdown run in front of him and he slides, um, and to preserve or to, to keep the clock running. And I'm thinking, and Bailam said, well, you know, that was big because, you know, I'm like, wait a minute, you were going to score. You were already up more than one score. Why not? Why are you saying preach? I didn't quite understand that part. Um, and it can, can, did you understand it? What he was talking about with that?
00:24:35
Speaker
I mean, the only thing I can think of is he was talking about the unselfishness of the individual play. As a freshman coming in, you would think that you'd be excited to get your first touchdown. He may just be talking about how he put, here's a young kid with enough character that
00:24:56
Speaker
He went down to waste the time on the clock, forsaking his own touchdown. So I think, you know, he may have been complimenting. Yeah. It was just a weird comment. It was kind of like that. He didn't want him to score because he didn't want FAU to get the ball back. I'm like, okay, the thing on the screen, if you score the touchdown, they're not going to get ahead of you in one possession. It just didn't make any sense to me, but maybe you're right about that.
00:25:22
Speaker
Okay, so we went past that and we ended up our first game Penn State. Penn State, yeah. I had no fantasies of us coming out of that game and I was very surprised that we hung with them in the first half, as well as we did. And then you just saw that Penn State just wore us down and took over after that.
00:25:45
Speaker
Uh, like you talked about, I think that first half up until that point was the best half of football that Illinois had played up until that point in the season. We just had a young quarterback who played the absolute worst game of his life. Um, you know, he was, he was the big glaring red mark, uh, in that game. Um, we were getting to their quarterback. Drew Aller didn't have a very good game. Um, but as you said, in the second half, we just kinda.
00:26:14
Speaker
wore down, you know, Penn State's just throwing talent and size at you constantly, constantly. And we're just not built that way yet. Once we were down a couple of touchdowns, you know, it's Pat came in at the end of the game and he looked like, you know, Ball State walk on transfer quarterback in that game. So I, you know, it's just one of those games where just like you said, I had no hopes of winning. I just want to come out, you know, unscathed and everybody healthy.
00:26:43
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I, you know, like I said, I didn't have any great delusions of grandeur. We could win that game. And like I said, I was very pleased with that first half. And then, you know, we did kind of show that we weren't ready for the, uh, the big 10 championship game, which I guess now is no longer. I don't know how they're going to work that coming up with the new, with the new teams coming in, but, um,
00:27:08
Speaker
did that help fuel some of these negative Nellie's that are running around that, Oh, wow. Look at this. We can't eat. We can't even hang with Penn state. I mean, you know, let's say it's a good program. I don't think it was that game. I think it's the one coming up next, which really brought out the
00:27:25
Speaker
the pitchforks you know folks uh where because that was the rivalry game right it's my memory right i'm looking it up now here i gotta was that perdue i think i think it was perdue oh excuse me penn state was in front of fae we we we jumped a game there
00:27:48
Speaker
We went out. Yeah, we went out. So yeah, Purdue would have been the next game after FAU and it's been the whole pin. Yeah, that one. Well, the, those two, those next two games back to back Purdue, Nebraska, I think everybody in their, in their mother had that listed as, okay, there's two wins at this point in this season. We had at worst were four and two.
00:28:10
Speaker
And then you lose to Purdue as badly as we lost and Nebraska as well. I mean, we got beat by 13. It's only by 13, but we only scored seven points against Nebraska. Purdue is like, I think these two games are the ones that we wish we could have back. We played them today. You know, we would be.
00:28:31
Speaker
a touchdown plus favorite over Purdue. And I think, you know, we could soundly beat Nebraska. So I still have no explanations. Like it's one of those where again, I try to stay as positive as I can be, but I left that game and, you know, just the onslaught that Ryan Walters put on us in that second half, I had no response. Like I don't know what happened. That was probably one of the more demoralizing losses, just because as we've seen now, even now, like Purdue is just not a good football team.
00:29:01
Speaker
You know, like they lost a lot of players, you know, coach brome, like he took a lot of talent with them and a lot of players just left the program. So Ryan Walters had not only extremely difficult schedule this year, but he was playing with almost a brand new roster. That's a game where, you know, it's a rivalry game that we should have taken care of business and, you know, a win there would have,
00:29:29
Speaker
really kind of set forward, I think more of a positive momentum moving forward. But that loss there, when everyone knew Purdue wasn't a good team, that's when people all started getting scared. Like, okay, where we had it? Like, where's our team headed in general? And then we had what I think is by far the worst game that we had all year long.
00:29:51
Speaker
It was at Nebraska Friday night. It was on ESPN. The whole world was watching. The last time the country watched Illinois, it was on national TV. It was against Penn State and our quarterback through four interceptions. And on Friday against Nebraska, our team didn't even show up. There's not one facet of the team that played well. And I'm even to this day perplexed by it because Nebraska is an okay team, but they didn't play well that game.
00:30:21
Speaker
Right. Like, you know, it was a, it was a competition of ineptitude between the two, two sides of the football. And we were just considerably worse. And that's the one game, even now, when I think back and look back out, I just wonder like what went on there. Cause once we lost that game. So, you know, as you talked about Purdue and Nebraska, we counted on as wins.
00:30:43
Speaker
after Nebraska was going to be what, Maryland, like Maryland, Wisconsin, like that, we had, we were supposed to take care of the easy part of our schedule because Maryland, who was 5 and 0 at the time, Wisconsin, like the hard part of our schedule was still coming. Right. Yeah. Yeah. The trio of games are the Maryland, Wisconsin, Minnesota, uh, which all, you know, we're in our grand jury had a two week break or you had a week off between Wisconsin, Minnesota, but you know, those three games I was looking at like, okay, you know, we're at Maryland. I don't think.
00:31:13
Speaker
You know, that best 50 50 chance Wisconsin home, maybe Minnesota on the road. They always play us tough. Uh, you know, so I was looking at those three games and this, this is the maker break part right there. And, uh, but then again, that was counting on winning at Purdue and against Nebraska. And I think the other thing that made the Nebraska thing hurt as bad as it did.
00:31:38
Speaker
was the fact that it was at home after being embarrassed and West Lafayette. I mean, you know, had that game been in Lincoln, maybe it doesn't sting as bad, but losing like that after you just got shellacked by Purdue and you're at home, just, I think that set a lot of people off.
00:31:57
Speaker
And Illinois football fans are pretty fickle. It's one of those where they'll show up when there's a reason to show up. And I think the bad taste in our mouth from the Purdue game basically got enlarged. It maximized with that loss against Nebraska. Once we had that pitiful performance against our home fans, I knew at that point Memorial Stadium was just not going to be filled up the rest of the year at this point because
00:32:25
Speaker
you know, going O and two against the big 10 West against what's perceived to be the two worst teams. Now you're asking yourself, like, are you winning a big 10 game? Are you going to go one in X in the big 10? Are you going to win two big 10 games? Are you going to be lucky enough to do that? So like that's, that's when, that was a low point of the season to me. Yeah. And you know, then they come back and they go to Maryland and that was the shock of the big 10.
00:32:52
Speaker
We walked into Maryland and just said, no, you're not winning this game. And I, I was, I was kind of, I'm like, okay, maybe there's some life, maybe they finally got embarrassed enough. They're going to kick it into gear. You know, and of course, Caleb, uh, was it, uh,
00:33:10
Speaker
Give me his last name now. Griffin. Griffin. Yeah. Caleb Griffin. Uh, you know, he's, he's now had two, two hero tags laid on him and it's like, okay. Uh, you know, so what, what, what did you, how did you see that Maryland? Was that a game that we just got lucky at? Cause they were hurt a little bit too. Uh, did we get lucky that they had the right guys hurt, I guess, or did we actually play to our potential in that game?
00:33:35
Speaker
I think, you know, up until that game, our coaching staff had been moving our offensive line around different pieces starting different guys. And I think finally, that game is where it just kind of clicked. And I can't recall exactly right, but I think that might have been the game where Reggie Love was out.
00:33:54
Speaker
And we were forced to bring in Caden Fagan to have his first start of the season. And I think Caden is kind of a catalyst for the turnaround of our season this year.
00:34:07
Speaker
You know, like Reggie was struggling against a bad offensive line, but Caden is a tank and Caden kind of was able to provide us that Brett Beelerma running back, you know, that was Feggen's first start. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. So I remember that to be right. And I think that was kind of, you know,
00:34:27
Speaker
the first five games or so, we had no running back. Our running back was our quarterback, Luke Altmeyer, you know, 70 yards. It's very easy for a defense to, you know, game plan for that. And it puts a lot of pressure on our quarterback who's in his first full season starting.
00:34:43
Speaker
But Kayden, if I recall, like when his first 80, 85 snaps without loot, like having negative yardage, he was just a bulldozer who just plowed people over. And that kind of brought some sort of semblance of balance to the Illinois offense, which is kind of what we needed that combined with, you know,
00:35:04
Speaker
an offensive line, which had been configured to again, all we asked for was average performance. And that's what they started doing. And so I think, you know, that plus the hangover for Maryland of like, you know, competing with Ohio State for the first half, and then losing in the second half, I think they may have let their guards down a little bit by Illinois. So, but you know, I think, you know, just the emergence of our running back,
00:35:30
Speaker
And you know, just balancing our offense was kind of the main key there and for the next couple of games. Yeah, Wisconsin, you know that game.
00:35:41
Speaker
many hated to see that one slip away. I mean, because they, they looked like they were in control the whole game. It was like the, you know, okay, they did this at Maryland. We're going to, this is now what we're going to see. And then all of a sudden at the end of the game, they just kind of went, went away. You know, which if you think about it in, in the first part of the season, you know, that's what happened at Toledo. That's why we had to play a last second win against Toledo.
00:36:04
Speaker
You know, the, the, um, the FAU game, the Kansas game is just, we faded away in that second half and let them back in and next thing, you know, we're, we're, we're down. Um, and, you know, so, but I was, I mean, I, I was pleased that we played as, you know, that we did go toe to toe with them, you know, uh, it's just like, again, and that's another one at home. You've got to win those games. You've got to.
00:36:31
Speaker
that you know yeah it's that's also one of the losses that just stings the most because you win that game and you almost control your own destiny in the big time west at that point and you're up 18 points and you know obviously johnny newton has that call go against him where you know he gets ejected from the game and that kind of goes back to the point that i started off with like you know
00:36:56
Speaker
Yes, Johnny Newton is a generational player for a program like Illinois, but your defense shouldn't completely collapse like that in the absence of one player.
00:37:10
Speaker
Because it's not like they don't have the talent on that defense, with Randolph, with Jacobs, with Seth Coleman, Barnes. You've got a lot of guys in that front seven that the loss of Randolph for half of one game and half of another should not have that big of an effect. Now, if he's gone two or three games where you've got to make it up, maybe I can see it having somewhat of an effect.
00:37:36
Speaker
But for just those partials, you should have had enough guys and Brett's a big one in preaching about next man up. You got to get out there and perform. And it just, it just didn't happen. I think that goes back to your point earlier of really not having that the right talent and in, in the reserve roles. Right.
00:37:58
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, we could have used another guy on the defensive line and you know, it's it's one of the stories of the season, you know, like I read the reason I had us winning nine games is because I had faith in our defensive line. You know, I knew our secondary would be a little rough, but I thought with the law firm with Jack is that essentially we're going to get to the quarterback constantly and that would kind of minimize the effects of having a bad secondary because the quarterback was not going to have a bunch of time to throw.
00:38:27
Speaker
But that's really not how it turned out this year. Yeah. And then we go up to Minnesota. And I don't know if we won that game or Minnesota gave it to us. I mean, they committed some egregious penalties right there at the end that just put us right in the perfect spot. But then again, good teams take advantage of those situations.
00:38:49
Speaker
And to be fair, like, you know, that happened. We do that a lot. We, we're usually the team that commits penalties and all that. So it's, it's nice to get things to go. Uh, in our favor sometimes, but like, in my opinion, like Minnesota was, you know, it's, it's, they're a good football team. You know, there, there were supposed to be a contender for the big 10 West at that point, they control their own fate to win the division and to go in there.
00:39:13
Speaker
I think was, was that in Minnesota? Yeah, that was that Minnesota. Yeah. So, you know, a way away game, you know, against a team who control their own destiny against the big 10 West, because I think they had just beaten Iowa the week before. For me, that was a good, good win, you know, a good solid victory. And again, at that point now, we had four good quarters against Maryland. We had three good quarters against Wisconsin. We had four good quarters against Minnesota. So, you know, for me right now, I'm starting to ride a high. I'm like, okay, here we go. Yeah.
00:39:43
Speaker
started to control our own fate. You know, we're competing. We've essentially become the Illinois team that I thought we were going to be at the beginning of the season. Yeah.
00:39:52
Speaker
Well, and, you know, and, and you had to look at the schedule, the upcoming schedule, the Indiana, Iowa, Northwestern, you had to figure, okay, we got, we should be able to win at least two of those games and at least make bold eligibility. I even thought we should have won and, and I watched the game and we should have won at Iowa. There's no way that Iowa should have beat us even at their place. I think maybe I got a little concerned when we had to go into overtime to beat Indiana. That shouldn't have happened. That shouldn't have happened.
00:40:22
Speaker
Yeah, that's, I completely agree with you. You know, that's one of those where there's a lot of conversations that's going to be needing to be had with Aaron Henry, you know, on the performance of our defense against Indiana and Northwestern and Nebraska.
00:40:42
Speaker
are not Purdue, Purdue. I mean, excuse me. Yeah. But like these last two games, as you talked about, we should have won. We were favored by almost a touchdown against both teams and our offense absolutely showed up. You know, they were there. We scored about 48 against Indiana and 43 yesterday, 43 yesterday. And I feel good about, I feel good about scoring 13 at Iowa. There's not a lot of things we're able to do that. You're right. Yeah.
00:41:13
Speaker
But, you know, it's just our, there's, you know, I know we lost a lot of talent, um, uh, yesterday, early in the game, I think, you know, Taz went down, went down for an injury. So I know we were severely depleted, but you know, those two games.
00:41:29
Speaker
our games that a program like ours should absolutely have. If we have any sort of, you know, expectations for Illinois, like Indiana, Northwestern, you know, I'm not trying to be, you know, cocky or condescending or anything like that, but that should be the bottom rung of the Big Ten. Like Illinois right now should be maybe in like, you know, the third quadrant, you know, the one right above that, but not in the bottom rung. And
00:41:54
Speaker
You know, Indiana had that and, you know, a dead man walking as our head coach. It's, you know, just one of those, um, games where again, like, I dunno, you know, there's a lot of heat on Aaron Henry right now. I think a lot of it is deserved. Um, I don't think Brett's going to make a move, but that has to be a growing experience because I don't think he called a very good game at all.
00:42:16
Speaker
All right, we're going to get more into coaching here in our next segment right after this from Fifth Street Motors.
00:42:26
Speaker
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00:42:56
Speaker
Check out what stress free car buying can be if Brandon or Donna call today at 573-259-1306.
Season Evaluation and Future Improvements
00:43:04
Speaker
That's 573-259-1306 and tell them Don Glenn from Talking Sports on the Bleacher sent ya.
00:43:13
Speaker
Okay. We are back and, uh, you know, it's, it's been kind of depressing. It's what we've been with everything we've been talking about. Um, in, in some respects with, with how things have gone, but, uh, I'm with Sonny Verma from a line I cast.
00:43:28
Speaker
And so we've talked about the team and we talked about the games and we've kind of hidden coaching here and there as we as we've gone along. I think we like you said there's going to be some discussions if they're not already going on with offensive line coach Brett Miller with Aaron Henry.
00:43:45
Speaker
Uh, even with very loony junior, uh, which I, I still don't understand how people are calling for his head when he's, when he's put up 90 some are a hundred and points in three games that, uh, you want to call for somebody who said that I don't think it's his, what happened in yesterday's game with the back, the, the muff punt.
00:44:03
Speaker
followed by the fumble on the kickoff return. I mean, it leads to 14 points for Northwestern. They don't have those 14 points. They don't win that ball game. That's all there was. So that's not on the coaches, but what is on the coaches, I think is like you said, with the offensive line with Brett Miller, um, struggling to find, I mean, you had, you had the, the, the whole summer to get that figured out. You had the,
00:44:26
Speaker
you know, the workups before the first non-conference games to get. And like you were saying, four games, five games into the season, you're still trying to figure out where that offensive line is. Is that a change that needs to be made or should or could be made or is it just as we've been talking about the level of talent?
00:44:46
Speaker
I think it's the latter. I think Bart Miller is a pretty good offensive line coach and our offensive line did improve eventually the second half of the season. I don't know if you recall, we thought we had Avery Jones, a transfer coming in from one of the smaller schools.
00:45:08
Speaker
We thought we had him to play center for us. And at the last minute, like move-in day, he decided to take the NIL money and go to Auburn. But, you know, like, let's be honest, like Crutes actually played very well at center. That was like the one position on the offensive line that you never heard anything bad about. And he had great people to upgrade from. But I think.
00:45:28
Speaker
I know I said this before, but I think right now what the big shake-up that our coaching staff needs is we need to find a guy who can bring talent in. We need an ACE recruiter. Look, we have a lot of Big Ten money coming in.
00:45:44
Speaker
Teams like Indiana are now shelling out $20 million to Tom Allen for a buyout to not coach the team. If a program like Indiana can infuse that sort of money into a program, Illinois, we've got beautiful facilities now. I think we have a very good head coach. We need to utilize that Big 10 money. And in my opinion, upgrade
00:46:10
Speaker
One or two of those assistant coaches just to bring in, you know, a guy who will bring in more four star talent. Cause you know, maybe the issue with the offensive line is again, we're just working with pieces that are so green that need to be coached up. And at this point just didn't have the time to be coached up yet. Like they couldn't rely on their talent alone.
00:46:31
Speaker
I think the biggest conversations a coaching room needs to have is how to infuse more talent in that locker room. Because as we talked about, it's just going to get a lot worse from here on out. Oh, yeah, no doubt. With Aaron Henry taking over as the DC, I'm like you. I don't see him being, Brett going to him and saying, OK, you're not what I want. Because like you said, he had growing pains, basically working with a raw secondary.
00:46:59
Speaker
You know, not having, um, all the pieces he needed when, when, when, you know, uh, Bailey went down and you had different times and different things. Uh, but is there maybe going to be a philosophy shift? I mean, I, I hope so. You know, I think that's what Brett said in his press conference yesterday. I don't remember the exact verbiage, but he talked about how, um,
00:47:22
Speaker
You kind of have to mold the defense to the talent that you have and that's going to be something that they're going to discuss moving forward. Now, like me personally, if I was Brett or if I was Josh Whitman and I'm having conversations with Brett.
00:47:38
Speaker
You know, I would have moved on from Aaron Henry, nothing wrong against the guy. I think he's got a very bright future, but I think, you know, as I just discussed, if we're supposed to have this infusion of, you know, big 10 money, we got to take advantage of it. We have a guy.
00:47:54
Speaker
you know, in our program right now, who's coached dominant defenses for the past four or five years in Jim Leonard, you know, that's a guy I would spend the money on half and run the defense. Aaron Henry, in my opinion right now should be the defensive quarter coordinator of
00:48:10
Speaker
like a group of five team or a head coach. Again, nothing wrong with him, but that's just where he is in the trajectory of his career. Will he be a good power five defensive coordinator, possibly head coach someday? Sure.
00:48:25
Speaker
here and now with Illinois we needed we need someone who's more established because we're not at the point where at one of our key coordinator positions we have someone growing into that position because right now we're getting passed by a lot of other programs and you know it's just tough it's tough to see you know because Brett's very loyal you know he obviously picked Aaron Henry over Kevin Kane you know he played for him
00:48:53
Speaker
all that. But if that's the one coaching staff position I would have personally made an upgrade on. But since that's not going to happen, yeah, I think basically they need to sit down in that secondary room and talk about hey, this is the this is the talent we have in the room now.
00:49:12
Speaker
These are the type of guys, these are the character athletic traits that our defense is best suited for. We don't have a Devin Weathersman back there anymore. We don't have a Sydney Brown back there anymore. This is what we do have. What kind of defense is Matthew Bailey, you know, Taz Nick, like what kind of defense best suits their needs because they're going to have to make an adjustment.
00:49:35
Speaker
Oh yeah. Yeah, no doubt. And, and like you said, with, with Lynn, this is the one thing when they, when they did announce that Leonard was joining the coaching staff, I think a lot of fans looked at that like, okay, why is he just an advisor? Why is he not on the field? Why is he not running something? You know, and you talk about recruiting. Maybe he's that recruiting, that recruiting niche. Maybe he's the guy that says, okay, I see what we need. Let me go get it.
00:50:03
Speaker
You know, I don't know. What do you think? It would have been nice, but I mean, from what I've, you know, I've had a couple of people in the big 10 circles tell me that Lincoln Riley is about to make him a very nice offer to go out West. Oh, really? Yeah. Like, I think he's going to be a defensive coordinator somewhere. And, you know,
00:50:25
Speaker
If it's all of a sudden, you know, at USC, a team that's going to join the Big 10 next year, that's going to sting a little bit more because we had them under our roof. Again, you know, it's all about being patient with Aaron Henry. And I, it's, I respect Brett Bigelima. Like I know he's a loyal guy and he believes in the system and he believes in developing not only his players, but he believes in developing his coaches as he did with Brian Walters. But.
00:50:49
Speaker
I guess mine and his vision differ on where we are at as a program. I think, you know, right now, use the, you know, the position coach spot to develop your position players, you know, or your coaches. The defensive coordinator right now was, I think, you know, one of the main reasons that we're sitting home this full season. And, you know, it's,
00:51:15
Speaker
You know, it is what it is. You know, Brett, Brett makes a few million dollars more than I do. So, you know, I mean, I agree with you. I mean, you look at what, like, and again, we go back to the, the, the, the falling apart and late games or late in games, I should say, um, you know, letting teams like Indiana and Nebraska or, uh, Purdue put up 40 plus points, you know, there's just,
00:51:41
Speaker
It seems like we can play well at certain spots, but then either we get comfortable or, and next thing you know, uh, you know, a team like, uh, like produce is running right past us, or you've got a Florida Atlantic that's eight, that's 10 points down and, and makes it very interesting at the end of the game where you got to worry about clock management and all this. And.
00:52:02
Speaker
You know, you can blame the coach for a lot. You can blame the players for a lot of it. I mean, uh, but, and injuries go into it. Well, but like with, with, with Bailey, uh, but yeah, there's just doesn't seem to be that defensive mindset. And again, maybe we got spoiled with Ryan Walters. I mean, cause he was a heck of a defensive coach coming out of Missouri.
00:52:22
Speaker
And so maybe we got spoiled there for a couple of years with him. But I'm like you, I think if they're going to upgrade any coaching position, it's going to have to come in one of the two coordinators. And I don't see Lenny going anywhere anytime soon.
00:52:36
Speaker
And I don't think it should, just like I'm in complete agreement with you. You know, he was under a lot of fire, you know, possibly deservedly. So for like essentially a year and a half. Um, but you know, we're scoring 40 points a game. You know, we had the best offense in the big 10 West this year, um, between points and yardage. And that's after really slow start, you know, scoring seven against, uh, Nebraska and whatnot. And you kind of see what kind of quarterback thrives under.
00:53:05
Speaker
Lenny's system, you know, John Paddock, who can make very quick decisions because Lenny's system is just built that way. For me, you know, the focus is clearly on rebuilding that defense and just, I don't know if it's changing schematics and, you know, just, I don't know what it is, you know, but I don't have to stress out about it. All I got to do is talk about it.
00:53:27
Speaker
I hear you. I hear that. I hear that. No doubt. A couple of quick things. Um, what do you see? We talked a little bit about everything else, but what about on the recruiting trail? Uh, I know we've talked about having to go and kind of do what, what, uh, Underwood did with the basketball team and get old in a hurry.
00:53:46
Speaker
Um, and I know we've got some guys signed. Um, what do you look for in, in some of what we do have coming in next year? Is there any bright spots we can point at? You know, I don't follow recruiting as much, um, just because there's just so these are 16, 17 year old kids. And so like for me, all I can do is read a website and what a website tells me about a kid.
00:54:10
Speaker
So, you know, I know we, again, we have a stud running back coming in, but a running back is probably our biggest strength as a, as a position room, you know, coming into next year because you're losing a bunch of receivers. And I know we've got, we've got Elsie, but if Elsie stays, he didn't get a lot of playing time this year.
00:54:32
Speaker
I'm hearing you know we might be getting some LZ news on December 4th, which is not going to make people very happy. I hope it's not true, but that's a little little you know news.
00:54:43
Speaker
Well, it wouldn't surprise me because like I said, he got some playing time early and then all of a sudden it's just like he was the forgotten man on the bench. And you know what? I saw him early. I thought he needed more playing time. I think we need to take some of that Johnny Newton money that Keith Randolph money and basically offer backup of Brinks truck to Isaiah Williams to come back for his final season of eligibility. I think, uh,
00:55:12
Speaker
You know, we're going to need him, uh, just cause our wide receiver room is going to be so bare without him. It's going to help Luke moving forward. Um, you know, just, he wasn't one top. He could be all big 10, you know, wide receiver this year. He can do the same thing next year. Are Washington and Bryant both gone?
00:55:33
Speaker
Washington is for sure. I think Bryant is also. They're both seniors. I wasn't sure. Yeah, I I'm I know Washington. It was his last game. You know, I think Isaiah would be just key. You know, just sell him on the idea of breaking pretty much every Illinois wide receiver record in the books and you know, like he's going to get drafted by the NFL, but he's not going to be a top pick by any stretch of the imagination. So, you know, it's all on icon and.
00:56:01
Speaker
Illinois to try to put up a package attracted enough for him to stick around for his finals. All right. We're going to come back with a few quick minutes here right after this. Have you heard about the new number one powdered sports drink in America? It's called liquid IV.
00:56:17
Speaker
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Speaker
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Speaker
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00:58:02
Speaker
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00:58:25
Speaker
Okay. Final few minutes with sunny Burma, sunny. This has been fun. Um, been great to talk to somebody about, I, I've been having a dry spell trying to find somebody to talk a line of football with, and I can find anybody wants to talk about basketball team and anybody wants to talk football. Right. Yeah. There's not too many of us, uh, who, you know, Torture themselves from watching, uh, a line of football every single week. So I'm glad you reached out.
00:58:49
Speaker
Yeah, me too. You know, we, we talked about a lot of different things today. And, you know, uh, when we're talking about perception of the fans and the fan base and, and how things have gone as far as what they key on as a fan yourself and not taking off the podcast or hat here as a fan. What are you looking for?
00:59:12
Speaker
out of this team next year or, or just in this off season or out of, cause like I said, we got four new teams coming in. I don't think we get any of those in the first year. I think maybe, maybe Washington. No, I think we play Oregon. Oregon is okay. I couldn't remember which one we, I thought maybe we get one, but, uh, uh, so, you know, and the whole schedule is going to look different. Uh, what are you expecting as a fan? If you look at our schedule next year, compared to a lot of other teams, it's really not that bad.
00:59:40
Speaker
Yeah, I know we miss Ohio State. We don't get Michigan. We don't get Penn State. Michigan comes to our place for that 100 year range game. Oh, okay. They do. Okay. So Michigan's coming to Champaign next year. We don't get Penn States when we don't get. Yeah. I think it's Michigan, Oregon, or the two big teams that we're going to be facing off against next year. Yeah. I think, you know, Brett.
01:00:02
Speaker
Again, I'm putting my positive fan hat back on. You know, we've won five straight games for three straight years now. Five games for three straight years now. It was something that Illinois as a program hadn't done in 30 years. I thought this would kind of be a transition year for Illinois football, and we won five games. If five games is the floor of the program,
01:00:25
Speaker
I think we're in a pretty good position moving forward. That's kind of what I want to be the floor. Next year, there's a lot of pressure on Brett because he's going to have to replace a lot of talent on this team. And the pressure is going to be on to make a bowl game. And I think that, whether it's fair or not, should be the bare minimum expectation kind of moving forward here. We have Purdue, Rutgers,
01:00:53
Speaker
I think maybe Indiana like we have a couple of easy easier games on next year's schedule but the year after that it gets drastically tougher and Illinois is the type of program that it needs that bowl game what do you call it like credibility when it comes to recruits you know because we're not making bowl games and if next year Purdue makes a bowl game we're competing with Purdue for a lot of the same recruits.
01:01:16
Speaker
And Purdue has a young hotshot head coach and say, hey, look, our trajectory, we're making bowl games now. Illinois, that was one flukey year. They made the bowl game once, but two years in a row now, they're just the doormat of the Big Ten.
01:01:30
Speaker
I think moving forward, you know, we have to establish that the baseline for this program moving forward is going to be six wins a bowl game as we build up, you know, then you want to kind of be that eight win team every single year. And then, you know, Brett will probably retire if that happens at some point and find the next coach with, you know, the big 10 money that we've been, you know, hopefully saving up to
01:01:59
Speaker
You know, and again, here's the positive B, you know, to build us to take us to the next level of starting to actually win those 10 games and sneaking into the college football playoffs.
01:02:11
Speaker
Yeah. Well, and, and, you know, and I, I'm kind of, I'm kind of with you. I mean, it would have been nice recruiting wise as a fan. You you've got those back to back bowl years. Now you can build on something saying, Hey, here's what we're doing. Uh, I mean, I guess you can point to if I, I've always said this, there's never any good loss.
01:02:31
Speaker
But I guess if you can point to something like a Wisconsin say, Hey, we went toe to toe with these guys, uh, you know, we played Penn state tough for a half. We, you know, you can use those, uh, you know, and I think they scored the only touchdown this year at Iowa by an opposing team.
01:02:49
Speaker
So you get, you know, you've got that. Uh, so there's, like you said, a lot of positives, but the negatives keep creeping in. You can't win the games at the end. Uh, you've only had that one good season, what now eight years, going back to the start of lovey. And if you can go back 10, 15 years with Beckman and cubit.
01:03:10
Speaker
Uh, you've only had one good eight wind season, you know, half of those guys went to the NFL. Uh, I mean, and I think they've got a good core group with, with Altmire right now. I think Fagan, if he stays is going to be just a absolute stud at the running back position. Uh, like you said, I think wide receiver, they need to get somebody in there. That's where I think they miss their boat by not having Elsie and a lot of these games. And hopefully maybe they're, they'll talk to him, smooth, smooth ruffled feathers and say, look, you know,
01:03:40
Speaker
I got your number two next year. If, if, if, if Isaiah stays, you know, maybe they can smooth the feathers there, but they're going to need more than those two. Uh, even, even if they have both of those, I mean, it's possible to have neither of them, you know? So it's a complete rebuild in the wide receiver room, a complete rebuild on offensive line, defensive line. You know, it's, we, we have a lot of, you know, talent to replace, uh, next year. And so that's what I mean. Like.
01:04:08
Speaker
Breton staff there they got a lot of pressure on them this offseason because You know the seats not warm yet, but someone trying to start the fire. Let's put that way Yeah, I mean it's they've had the graphic the other day comparing coaches first three years at Illinois and
01:04:28
Speaker
I think it went Turner, Beckman, Cubitt, Smith, all of them were like negative 100 and some odd points. And Brett was a positive 63. It's like, okay, so we know we're here when we were there.
01:04:45
Speaker
Right. So now how do we stay here and go further? So I think I think you're right. I think it's going to take this year is going to people are going to have to just curb expectations and say, OK, look, we've got to rebuild. You know, it's not this is not a reload. This is going to be a rebuild. We've got pieces left, but we're going to have it's it's it's going to take more of a
01:05:07
Speaker
incoming of talent to take care of business. So anyway, hey, I want to thank you for coming on. Tell folks where they can find you, Sonny.
01:05:18
Speaker
Sure. Again, thanks again, Don, for having me on. I'm always just feel free to reach out. I'd love to talk more online at football with you moving forward. You can find me at The Sunny V for more general sports takes. I like to talk Illinois football, Cubs baseball, Bulls, you know, basically more Chicago-centric.
01:05:38
Speaker
But you can also find us at AlinaiCast. It's basically an Illinois-centric show. We release a couple episodes a week. We've been focusing mainly on football. Obviously, our attention will shift a little bit more towards basketball moving forward. But yeah, you can find us on YouTube, on X slash Twitter, at AlinaiCast.
01:06:03
Speaker
OK, and as always, you can find the find me at Talking Sports on the bleachers.
01:06:10
Speaker
in your podcast as Spotify, Apple podcast, Google podcast. You can hit me on Twitter or X at T S O T B G C S or you can email the show T S O T B dot G C S at gmail.com. All right. For Sonny Berman, this is Don Glenn. As always have fun, stay safe, and we'll see you again next week. When we're talking sports on the bleachers. Good night, everybody.
01:06:52
Speaker
You've been listening to Talking Sports on the Leeches, a proud part of the Gateway City Sports Network. At Gateway City Sports, you can find articles from Russ Robinson, Tito Rivera, Brian Swope, Gene Bonds. You can also find different podcasts. I like the team of rivals with Ron Nuttle, Pete Geddes, and Elliott Dewey. The 243 with the Mighty Moose, Mike Stevenson, and coming back by popular demand, the Dairy King Sports Show with Dairy King.
01:07:16
Speaker
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