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ILL expects 18 starters to return.

Hilarious. I actually was involved in the recruitment of a kid that made its way to The Illini back in the day. Let’s just say naming the current President and Vice President presented a challenge. This time s coming from a parent of a UofI graduate. Your right way may not be what you think it is,
“Its way”? I’m still confused.

Is “it/it’s” a preferred pronoun now?

Sign Of The Times

More like a stacked deck competition where coaches have particular hot buttons that sway the selection process. Add to that the bringing in some portal candidate that the kid would suddenly find himself behind. Just take a look at the Sullivan situation here at NU last year Thought he had a track and then finding out that they were bringing a new OC that has a different take on what he needs and then yet another grad transfer in front of him. For him that didn't look like a little fair competition but rather a stacked deck against him
Weak. He lost the competitive and he ran away from it, make all the excuses you want, he didn’t want to compete for the job.

ILL expects 18 starters to return.

His players love him. He gets results.

Until Northwestern learns how to be leaders at something other than sports media & materials science & other areas, I am proud to cheer on the Illini if they do things the right way.

My uncle, aunt, and many other friends studied in Champagne. It is a great school and their engineering program is better than NU’s, top to bottom. 🧮
Hilarious. I actually was involved in the recruitment of a kid that made its way to The Illini back in the day. Let’s just say naming the current President and Vice President presented a challenge. This time s coming from a parent of a UofI graduate. Your right way may not be what you think it is,

So, who do you despise more…

The media want ND to be in the finals; media do not want 2 B1G teams in the final. Look for all close calls, some not close calls, to go their way.
23-17, Insufferables.
I’d look for more suspect officiating in OSU-Texas. Since the final is on ESPN they may care more about getting Texas in and less so about the B1G channel backed PSU or NBC backed ND.

It’s Fine

PWB - do you really believe that changing lineups is a guaranteed way to change the outcome of a game? It’s what you imply every single time we lose, and more generally with your +/-. Do you really think that sitting Barnhizer and Martinelli (who were of course playing poorly) and leaving in Berry and Nicholson would have changed the outcome? Do you really think another coach could come in to NU and figure out a better mix of playing time and do materially better?
"PWB - do you really believe that changing lineups is a guaranteed way to change the outcome of a game?"

I believe lineups (specific 5 man groups) range from good to bad - all relative to the general abilities of the players on the roster.
In other words, your roster has a given amount of individual talent, strengths and weaknesses. The best coaches maximize the performance of the team by figuring out which lineups work best (in general) and deliberately relying on those groups. The top coaches can also make in-game adjustments to go against the numbers by using lineups that don't normally work too well, but will work today - because of what the opponent is doing or who is playing for them. There ae many variables that occur during a game that require a coach to respond in real time. For what its worth, I think Coach Collins has gotten much better at that.

"Do you really think that sitting Barnhizer and Martinelli (who were of course playing poorly) and leaving in Berry and Nicholson would have changed the outcome?"

I never said that. I think it was a mistake to give up on the starters (collectively) so quickly. I also think it would have been helpful to give Ciaravino and Windham court time with Nicholson, Martinelli and Barnhizer - subbing them in for Leach or Berry - because that is how they will help the most going forward. Nicholson did not play with Windham at all in the Purdue game. Ciaravino played with the starters (Berry out) for 1:45 and we won that segment 4-2. Thats all we got as far as tweaking the starting lineup.

"Do you really think another coach could come in to NU and figure out a better mix of playing time and do materially better?"

If all the D1 coaches brought their staffs with them and took over the Cats with 3 months to prepare, they'd all do things differently. Some would do better, most would do worse.

Cats are catching on

The cats are finally using the portal more aggressively to fill needs and plug holes. Better late than never! I am unsure if it's a bigger NIL budget, the new AD, help from Admissions, or just better program management. I have said all along that the NIL rules could turn out to be a huge advantage for second-tier teams like NU, Duke, Vandy, Indina, etc. Allows these teams to "buy" a few key high-level players they could never could get out of High School. The 4th and 5th linebackers at Georgia, Alabama, or LSU were probably 4 or 5-star recruits and are likely unhappy playing kickoff coverage and could be starting at NU. Admissions has always been an issue, but if that changes even a little bit, and the NIL budget is there, the team can get good in a hurry. Good to see the Cats are getting in the game!
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