Becks goes off again

[JournCat]

Apparently, it's the media's job to pump up his team and fanbase. "The challenge is still, how important is the University of Illinois to you?" That's something he actually said.

The worst part of it is I can't even put my heart into mocking Beckman after the beating they gave us in November.

CBS

 

[phatcat]

It is absolutely laughable that we are "looking up" at them.

 

[chicagocatfan24]

I heard the whole interview. He mentioned that 55 players had a 3.0 or higher, they've logged 2000+ hours of community service as a team and have had minimal infractions with the law. All great things. He's just not a great speaker in the least. I feel bad for him actually, because he seems like a standup dude for the most part. Also, his program is improving. Ours has gone the opposite way the last two seasons. I'll leave it at that.

 

[FanatiCat]

Absolutely. He is not a good public speaker but aside from that, we don't have much ground to knock their program since they beat us decisively this year, they are improving in the W-L column and went bowling, and our program is backsliding. I think we have a better team and better upside as evidenced by the ND and Wisc games, but if we can't put a season together and we lost to BOTH average UI and NIU in the same year, we have no grounds to criticize.
Posted from Rivals Mobile

 

[mikewebb68]

Originally posted by FanatiCat:
Absolutely. He is not a good public speaker but aside from that, we don't have much ground to knock their program since they beat us decisively this year, they are improving in the W-L column and went bowling, and our program is backsliding. I think we have a better team and better upside as evidenced by the ND and Wisc games, but if we can't put a season together and we lost to BOTH average UI and NIU in the same year, we have no grounds to criticize.
Posted from Rivals Mobile

If we had Illinois' nonconference schedule, we would have gone bowling as well. And if Beckman is supposed to receive credit for "improving in the W-L column" by taking a team that had back-to-back winning seasons to a place where there was nowhere to go but up, you must hand out credit quite easily.

 

[willycat]

Might be true but besides his winning season last year and the fact that they went bowling, NU has absolutely no room the look down our noses at the illini. Also every recruiting service had them at lest three notches above NU in this years recruiting ratings. Fitz needs to win a minimum of six games a season, go to a bowl, recruit some four stars and somehow get the football facility built ASAP. Yes, Beckman makes a fool of himself just about every time he opens his mouth but their program is pointing up and NU's not so much.

 

[mikewebb68]

Originally posted by willycat:

Might be true but besides his winning season last year

Winning season? They were 6-7.

 

[realcatfan]

"A stand up dude" I don't think so. A stand up dude does not send his entire coaching staff to Happy Valley to wait in the parking lot of the stadium to recruit their team after practice. Additionally, I know that Beckman didn't treat a lot of Zook's guys very well. Since my evidence involves a young man who is making a name for himself elsewhere, I'll leave it at that.

 

[Gladeskat]

Originally posted by realcatfan:
"A stand up dude" I don't think so. A stand up dude does not send his entire coaching staff to Happy Valley to wait in the parking lot of the stadium to recruit their team after practice. Additionally, I know that Beckman didn't treat a lot of Zook's guys very well. Since my evidence involves a young man who is making a name for himself elsewhere, I'll leave it at that.

Zook's guys didn't treat Beckman very well either, particularly their all NFL defensive line that put up half-assed, undisciplined play for much of the season. Illinois DL play actually has improved while the talent isn't half what they had in his first year there.

Beckman is a poor public speaker, but he's doing a lot of things well there so far and has gradually improved team play and recruiting. All this while receiving practically zero support from Illinois fans and alums. Until we beat them both head to head and in the standings, Beckman is doing a better job than Fitz and Co. Last year's Illinois game was disgraceful! Much of the season was disappointing.





This post was edited on 2/5 10:16 PM by Gladeskat

 

[Gladeskat]

Originally posted by mikewebb68:

Originally posted by FanatiCat:
Absolutely. He is not a good public speaker but aside from that, we don't have much ground to knock their program since they beat us decisively this year, they are improving in the W-L column and went bowling, and our program is backsliding. I think we have a better team and better upside as evidenced by the ND and Wisc games, but if we can't put a season together and we lost to BOTH average UI and NIU in the same year, we have no grounds to criticize.
Posted from Rivals Mobile

If we had Illinois' nonconference schedule, we would have gone bowling as well. And if Beckman is supposed to receive credit for "improving in the W-L column" by taking a team that had back-to-back winning seasons to a place where there was nowhere to go but up, you must hand out credit quite easily.

I'm not so sure we would have beaten WKU at the beginning of the season. Beckman also had 3 conference wins including a win against Minnesota. I think he has improved the program from the condition it was in when he found it, certainly more than what he had in 2013. Zook left him with nothing in the defensive backfield, hardly any decent receivers, and no depth on the DL.

 

[Cat In The Cradle]

Chicago Fan paraphrasing of Beck:

He mentioned that 55 players had a 3.0 or higher, they've logged 2000+ hours of community service as a team and have had minimal infractions with the law. All great things. He's just not a great speaker in the least. I feel bad for him actually, because he seems like a standup dude for the most part. Also, his program is improving. Ours has gone the opposite way the last two seasons. I'll leave it at that.




How is the bolded out statement above even intelligible!? Everyone knows legal infractions and community service hours go hand in glove.






This post was edited on 2/5 9:21 PM by Cat In The Cradle

 

[olshin]

The non conference schedule had NOTHING to do with them bowling, and us not.

They were 5-6. WE were 5-6.

They kicked our ass.

THATS why they went to a bowl game.

 

[Catreporter]

Uh, let's see. They played West Kentucky, Texas State, FCS team and Washington who blew them out. We played NIU, Cal, Notre Dame and an FCS team. Which non-con would you have rather played to get to six wins? Illini schedule always has three "almost sure" wins on it every year. Sometimes they haven't even played a road non-con game. Look it up!

 

[Booty Maximus]

You had that schedule for what, 20 years?

Originally posted by mikewebb68:
If we had Illinois' nonconference schedule, we would have gone bowling as well. And if Beckman is supposed to receive credit for "improving in the W-L column" by taking a team that had back-to-back winning seasons to a place where there was nowhere to go but up, you must hand out credit quite easily.

 

[gocatsgo2003]

Re: You had that schedule for what, 20 years?

Originally posted by Booty Maximus:

Originally posted by mikewebb68:
If we had Illinois' nonconference schedule, we would have gone bowling as well. And if Beckman is supposed to receive credit for "improving in the W-L column" by taking a team that had back-to-back winning seasons to a place where there was nowhere to go but up, you must hand out credit quite easily.

Are you really going to argue that Youngstown State/Western Kentucky/Washington/Texas State is not significantly less daunting than Cal/Northern Illinois/Western Illinois/Notre Dame? Really?

Illinois' wins against Minnesota and Penn State are pretty nice, but also pretty similar to our wins against Wisconsin and Penn State.

Long story short is that we had two very similar teams last year and you guys won the deciding game at the end of the year. Not so sure why saying "if we had an easier OOC schedule we likely could have gone to a bowl" is really that laughable.

 

[Booty Maximus]

No, I'm not

I'm baffled that Jim Phillips stopped doing this:


Illinois
Missouri (10-2)
Northern Illinois (10-2)
Fresno State (8-4)
Missouri (8-4)
Cincinnati (12-0)
Fresno State (8-4)
Missouri (9-3)
Louisiana-Lafayette (6-6)
Western Michigan (9-3)
Combined record of opponents: 80-28[/B]

Northwestern
Vanderbilt (2-10)
Rice (4-8)
Central Michigan (3-9)
Eastern Michigan (0-12)
Syracuse (4-8)
Miami (OH) (1-11)
Syracuse (3-9)
Duke (4-8)
Ohio (4-8)
Combined Record of Opponents: 25-83
[/B]
There's no benefit to proving how tough you are in August/September. No one should know that better than Northwestern.
This post was edited on 2/6 10:35 AM by Booty Maximus

 

[Hungry Jack]

Re: No, I'm not

Booty wins the thread!

 

[Catreporter]

Re: No, I'm not

Here are Illini non-con skeds the last three years before this one:

2013 SIU, Cincy, Washington, Miami O ALL AT HOME (Wash was Soldier Field)

2012 W.Mich, At Ariz St, Charleston Southern, La. Tech

2011 Arkansas St, South Dakota State, Arizona State, Western Michigan ALL HOME

In 2012, NU played 3 BCS schools Vandy Boston College and at Syracuse. Tougher than any of those three schedules.

 

[willycat]

Re: No, I'm not


Booty, I'm really not sure what time frame your referencing but you have seemed to have"forgotten" that NU played Ariz. St. a few years back and NIU and that little college in South Bend last season. If you want to include bowl games, then NU can add UCLA, USC, Missouri, Auburn, Tennessee and Texas A&M.

 

[gocatsgo2003]

Re: No, I'm not

Originally posted by Booty Maximus:
I'm baffled that Jim Phillips stopped doing this:


Illinois
Missouri (10-2)
Northern Illinois (10-2)
Fresno State (8-4)
Missouri (8-4)
Cincinnati (12-0)
Fresno State (8-4)
Missouri (9-3)
Louisiana-Lafayette (6-6)
Western Michigan (9-3)
Combined record of opponents: 80-28[/B]

Northwestern
Vanderbilt (2-10)
Rice (4-8)
Central Michigan (3-9)
Eastern Michigan (0-12)
Syracuse (4-8)
Miami (OH) (1-11)
Syracuse (3-9)
Duke (4-8)
Ohio (4-8)
Combined Record of Opponents: 25-83
[/B]
There's no benefit to proving how tough you are in August/September. No one should know that better than Northwestern.

This post was edited on 2/6 10:35 AM by Booty Maximus

I'm confused... you decided to cherry-pick past opponents from 2008-2010? Aside from 2014, our issue has been winning conference games, which is exactly the same as Illinois.

Since 2008, Illinois' OOC record is 17-11 while NU's is 24-4. From 2008-2010 (your timeframe), Illinois' OOC record was 5-7 while ours was 11-1. That means Illinois's OOC record from 2011-2014 is 12-4 while NU's is 13-3.

With 2014 as a notable exception, our OOC record has stayed strong while our strength of schedule has improved. So... what's your point?