Illinois football

[hawk eyedoc]

Why is Illinois football usually so bad? I've discussed this with others before and no one has an answer. They are the main state university in a state with a large population. They are close to good recruiting areas of Chicago, Indy and St. Louis, yet success on the field is relatively rare.

I have thought for several decades now that they are a sleeping giant and all they need is the right coaching staff to turn it around for good. This just has not happened.

As an Iowa fan that has little love for the Illini I don't mind them being perpetually bad. I just can't see why they can't have the success Iowa or Wisconsin have had. Thoughts?

 

[hawkeye bb n fb fan]

They start 10 true freshman, 5 offense 5 defense

 

[And1Hawk]

Someone closer to the program probably has better insights. If I had to guess there's lots of competition for Chicago land talent and Champaign is not seen as a great destination. IL is not like states like Iowa where the majority of our kids enjoy showcasing their talents for an in-state program. Champaign is seen as 'down-state' ... almost out-of-state from Chicago.

IL has had some history of cheating/violations when they have been better in both basketball and football in order to secure players. There was probably a reason.

Last they got rid of a coach like Zook. Bad in game coach but did a good job of getting talent. Zook had them around 6 wins most years but that was not good enough. Then they had interim coach Cubit that seemed to be doing a solid job but they canned him to hire a name coach in Lovie who has no recent college experience. Watching IL play right now it's hard to recognize what they are playing as football. It looks like they think it's 7 on 7 two hand touch. Lovie really knows how to wear a headset though. I cannot believe their could be a worse team in the B1G right now.

 

[Hawkfan_08]

I guess I'm more surprised at the fall they have had in basketball. They were contenders to... uh... Not good.

 

[Gridiron24]

The Chicago ghetto kids don't want to go to Illinois to school to play football. Simple as that. They'd rather go to big name schools out of state than have to go to the 'state school'.

 

[bhawk24bob]

Illinois is at best the second most popular school in Chicago behind Notre Dame, and I think that's being generous

 

[OutbackBowl2017]

Iowa might be even more popular than Illinois in the Chicagoland area, Wisconsin too.

 

[MeetTheFerentz]

Someone closer to the program probably has better insights. If I had to guess there's lots of competition for Chicago land talent and Champaign is not seen as a great destination. IL is not like states like Iowa where the majority of our kids enjoy showcasing their talents for an in-state program. Champaign is seen as 'down-state' ... almost out-of-state from Chicago.

As someone who grew up in the Chicago area, I agree with every bit of this. Overall, college football is just not a big deal, and the passionate college football fans are usually fans of Notre Dame or Michigan, with Wisconsin and Iowa even having more presence than Illinois or Northwestern. My Dad has always insisted that Illinois would have more successful sports programs if it were located in Kankakee instead of Champaign, which according to him was one of the proposed locations for the State University way back when. The fact that Illinois has one of the worst and most dangerous campuses in the B1G sure doesn't help, either. But, like the rest of you, I don't spend any time feeling sorry for them.

 

[kceasthawk]

I guess I'm more surprised at the fall they have had in basketball. They were contenders to... uh... Not good.

Its all about hiring the right coaches. Same in basketball. The Illini were pretty good under Self, and of course the year he left Weber took them to the final four, but couldn't keep the recruiting going like Self did.

 

[speed4power]

In addition to the above posts it may also have something to do with tuition. I've heard instate tuition at Illinois is crazy expensive. Harder to pick up walk-ons maybe and overall people in the state may feel less loyal to the school.

 

[bhawk24bob]

In addition to the above posts it may also have something to do with tuition. I've heard instate tuition at Illinois is crazy expensive. Harder to pick up walk-ons maybe and overall people in the state may feel less loyal to the school.

There's a factor at play where it's extraordinarily hard for in state students to get accepted. The university prefers out of state and foreign students as the state continues to cut its subsidy to the school. That doesn't help its popularity