I love this kid!

Hates Iowa

I love when players have a similar passion about hating a team as the fans. Makes the rivalries fun, even though we don't get them in his final year!

Looking back at the preseason Illini posts is great fun, especially this one...

I love Benn too, the penultimate Illinois player....oh look, he just ran another bad route and/or dropped another pass.....

And I love Hawkeye fans showing off their edumacation.

Hating Iowa is as loyal Illini as one can be.

Right back at you...you can never be a true Hawkeye until you hate Illinois with every ounce of your being.

Then go away...

You don't know what penultimate means. Nice try.

I understand if you don't watch much Illinois football being an Iowa fan. Hell, I haven't watched as much this year myself. However, if you are going to post and make a comment about our football team, at least make one that can be justified and doesn't expose your lack of football IQ. Not to mention your horrible vocabulary skills.

Just another Idiot Out Walking Around.

Penultimate–adjective 1. next to the last

Benn is not the last end point in this sorry saga fellas, the Juicer is....so in context, I have no worries....

As for football IQ, please tell me how he has made the catches and run the routes to justify his hype, if you can show me the stats from last year or this year to back up that argument, by all means please do.

Look who is throwing to him. An unproven O-Line who gives the QB no time to throw. Benn is as tough as they come, great hands, and runs good routes. As an Iowa fan, you would love to have him on your team. I'm just glad he's an ILLINI!!

Dude, are you from Ottumwa or Marshalltown?

"the last end point" is redundant. Your command of the English language is lacking. You should probably stop posting.

Actually, Springfield, grew up on the Lou-Do, Dave Wilson, Jack Trudeau et al...

Nice guess though....

I don't know about that. I'd rather have a guy who's out practicing instead of flapping his jaws about how he hates other teams in the Big 10. DJK and McNutt have much better highlight reels this year. Benn would never be able to adjust to Iowa's multiple packages that rotate out the receivers frequently, he'd be bitter that he wasn't getting more PT.

So your logic skills that made me conclude you were from the armpit of the buttcrack of Iowa were actually developed in Illinois, not in Iowa? Hmmmm, interesting.

So, clearly you didn't get accepted to Illinois... and you don't know much about Benn's skills. The ball actually has to be thrown to him once in a while.

Mel Kiper called... he thinks you might be sipping a little too much of the homer-ade. While those guys are solid receivers, they are not on the same level as Benn, sorry. Watch the combine, you'll see a free clinic. He and Dez Bryant are the two most NFL ready receivers out there.

......

Somebody, PLEASE, delete this totally useless thread.

Well, the Iowa team is 8-0 without Benn and has plenty of guys who have fewer reps than him this year but with better stats. I don't see why you think an 8-0 team would love to have him. While guys like you who think that 5 stars and good combines mean awesome football players, I'll take the guys who have consistently performed on the field. Bob Sanders and Dallas Clark have both had great NFL careers, but their combine results had absolutely no bearing on Iowa's record while they were at Iowa. In fact, Bob Sanders was "too short" to play in the NFL according to the "experts" on ESPN. Benn will make a fine addition to the Tampa Bay Bucaneers, the losing records his teams will have when he was in a leadership position is just what a team like Tampa will be looking for with its early second round pick.

Wow ralph, I'll have to respectfully disagree with you. I usually consider your postings to be pretty on the money for the most part, but wow.

No offense, but Benn is a world's better WR than anyone Iowa has. Your knocks on his me 1st attitude and the team's record under his "leadership" are completely baseless. I understand your point about guys who just get it done and I agree. I actually like watching Iowa play because of that attitude that the players have. Benn is one of those guys though. He's just caught up in a crappy situation.

In all seriousness, do you really think Ferenz or Stanzi wouldn't kill to have Benn on that team? Again, no offense, but your team is 8-0 but we're not exactly talking Florida or Alabama here. Your D is good, but not especially fast and your offense isn't anything special at all. Benn would start over anyone you have now and make Stanzi that much better.

Good season so far at 8-0 and kudos for it, but c'mon man. It's not like you guys are world beaters or anything.

IA would get smashed by FL or USC. We are talking about success in a not so good FB conference.

Look, I know Benn has 5 stars by his name and I know that he is a physical specimen and he will run a great 40-time in the combine, toss up a ton of weight and have a great vertical. He's a great athlete, looks awesome on paper. But when he goes out and has THREE catches for 16 yards against Purdue in a game where the team is down and needs to pass, I just really don't understand how you can say he is world's better than anyone on Iowa. Are you one of those guys who thinks Juice is the best QB Illinois has ever had because of his career yardage?

A really good wide receiver makes his QB materially better. He works with his QB and makes his QB think he's a safety blanket. A really good receiver who has been with a QB for 3 years should put up astronomical numbers. Don't get me wrong, Benn's gonna get drafted fairly high and he might be a fine WR in the NFL (I think he will end up with a similar role to Dallas Clark when Indy runs the spread and could be an absolute monster due to the matchup problems he can create) but he simply has not shown me anything to believe that he is an all-world WR right now. He is not like Calvin Johnson, Braylon Edwards, Michael Crabtree, etc. at this point - those guys are kind of guys who are world's better than DJK or McNutt. I think Zook should give Benn 3 years of his salary for the damage he has probably done to his draft stock, but I just don't see Benn as a guy who goes out and looks unstoppable every week like the truly elite WRs in the college game.

So does that mean we'll be seeing these 'astronomical numbers' and a vertical passing attack out of Iowa later this year or next year? Your best player on offense is Moeaki, and it's not even close. He's a beast, when healthy. The fact that you just put Benn as a similar type player to Dallas Clark shows how little you know of Benn. And comparing Benn to guys like Crabtree or Edwards is comical... their offenses were very pass oriented and centered around them. The Illini 'offense' has no direction and no plan whatsoever. Again, if the offense was even mildly directed at Regus, he'd still be putting up good numbers on an awful team. It's about touches, and he isn't getting them.

By the way, I'll be watching your 'good' WR's against OSU... if you thought Sparty was tough that's a whole nother level.

McNutt - 6 for 77, 2 TD
DJK - 3 for 71, and a 99 yard KO return TD (and probably would have been over 100 with a TD if our freshman QB didn't underthrow a ball that got picked)
Benn v OSU - 4 for 33

I take back my words though, if Benn was the number 3 target on the Hawks, we would have won the game because our number 3 option dropped a really easy TD. Benn would be nice to bring in to spell DJK or McNutt or when we use a 3 or 4 wide set. McNutt's only a sophomore with about 8 complete games under his belt at WR (he is a converted QB) and he looks much more like an all-B10 ball player than Benn.

BTW - I'd trade you guys Ferentz for Zook straight up after Ferentz's decision to sit on the ball at the end of the game rather than trying to win it. Iowa is dangerous with a lead or in a tied ball game because Ferentz puts the team into the prevent offense and prevent defense. At least Zook tries to win ball games in the clutch.

You must be delirious. Zook ran out the clock against MI at the end of the first half when there was a chance to score. Against IU he did not call any time outs and we end up on the IU one yard line and not scoring because we ran out of time. Zook has so many brain freezes and time management programs in a game that one wonders if he has ADD. But, I agree with you. Ferentz should have played for the win during regulation.

Just wondering, will the troll "Hawkeyes Rose Bowl" now change his name to "Hawkeyes Citrus" now that Iowa has blown two games in a row?

Tressel practically begged Iowa to win that game yesterday by being so conservative in the fourth quarter, and Iowa still couldn't do it.

I guess since the regular season is now over and basketball is starting, we won't see him around here.

Ralph.

You have been dead on in this thread.

First of all, Benn is a loud mouth who thinks more of himself then he can actually produce on the field. He and Juice came into the program highly rated and the Illini fans were proclaiming national championships before they even took a snap.

Second, I agree with you that on paper Benn makes a solid NFL prospect, but anyone who says he is on the same page with DJK and Marvin M. is just trying to make themselves feel better. The Hawks are so lucky to have the wide outs that they do!

The chances are good that he will be the same bust in the NFL that he has been in college. His attitude and on the field work ethic will lead him to be just another one of the many high draft choices who fails in the NFL.....and I wouldn't shed a tear.

Hawkeye Rose Bowl was clearly an Illini fan trying to get a rise.

I wouldn't say Iowa really blew two games, they lost their QB and simply got beaten without him. I would never say that any team blew a game or choked or what not going into the 'shoe with a redshirt freshman starting his first ever game coming off of one week of practice. The kid looked like Wheaton's own Charles Long sporting number 16 and playing a perfect first quarter.

Tressel and Ferentz are undoubtedly the two most conservative coaches in the B10 and watching them both throw up the white flag at the end of regulation disgusted me as a fan of B10 football. I think the kids on those two teams can go toe to toe with any team in the country, but the lack of risk taking by the respective staffs could hold both teams back.

Whoa, there, I wouldn't call any WR who is unfortunate enough to have Juice and this coaching staff a bust. But with that said, the really good WRs are going to go out there and work with the QBs in off-times (the NCAA rules limit what you can do when the coaches are around) so they have timing and rhythm. If Benn was truly as great as everyone claims he is, dude would have at least 5 TDs right now and would have developed some rapport with Juice. He ain't a bust, but I don't see him as first team all B10, either. I just think he, along with several of his teammates, simply quit. But I think given his tools, if put into the right situation, he could be a dominant slot player in the NFL that is hard for a LB to cover because of his speed and is hard for a DB to cover because of his size, similar to Dallas Clark (but from what I've seen of him to date, I don't think a team would be wise to draft him with the hopes of him being a number 1 NFL WR, like Calvin Johnson). If he scores 15+ TDs in his first three seasons in the NFL, the Zook haters will become even louder critics and rightfully so.

I hear what you are saying about Juice being his QB Ralph. But, if memory serves me correctly, wasn't he the #1 wide receiving prospect coming out of high school!? I mean, I know it sounds harsh, but anyone with that amount of upside and ego should be able to get at least 10 TD's a year with Ron Zook himself throwing the passes.

Anyway you slice it, this kid has been a bust in my book. If he had come in with no fan fair, no hype.....then fine. But that was no where near the case. He was the "the one", or so that's what the so called "experts" and the Illini fans were saying.

Again, he might go on to have a solid NFL career...but I would put money on it.

Juice and Benn showed what they are capable of last season and the year before. Juice was a soph and Benn a frosh and they made big contributions to a Rose Bowl team. I saw every game and the stats show that, too. Just a normal improvement over last year's performance and they would have been all-conference performers this year.

Both of them have taken a big step backward this season and certainly not all of that is their fault. Both Juice and Benn are strong and durable players whose injuries have been the result of contact. Pulled hammies and torn back muscles from sneezing happen to injury prone players. Dislocated shoulders and concussions do not. If that knee to the head that Rejus took yesterday happened to my old noggin it might have landed in the third row.

have the people hating on benn's numbers actually watched him play?

he's under-utilized to a criminal degree and hardly ever gets the ball, but when he does get thrown to he makes catches and he's an absolute load. i have little doubt he'll be successful with an NFL QB throwing to him, if he can stay healthy

the injuries are the only thing that would worry me at all about benn if i were an NFL scout

Where does all the bitterness come from? I have to admit I'm not as familiar with the kids personality as I have been with others in the past but I've never heard anything to suggest the kid has an out of control ego. I've also never heard an Illinois fan try to crown the Illini national champions because for Juice and Benn, or anyone else for that matter.

Taking shots at the Illini coaching staff, who are well paid adults, or the team as a whole is perfectly legitimate. And, a little good spirited ribbing from a rival is fine too. But, when you start personal attacks on kids that really have done nothing to deserve it, you need to find a new place to spew your crap. I have a decent amount of respect for most Iowa fans so please giving the masses a bad name and get off our board.

Blm - I am sorry if I ruffled your feathers. Look, I NEVER used to have a problem with Benn, but he is not a 15 year old kid, and he wasn't a 15 year old kid when he made the comments he did to a media outlet about the Hawks. He didn't sem to care if he ruffled any Iowa fans or players feathers when he made those statements..did he? So, that is obviously where my problem with him comes from. Now, I never wish anything bad on anyone and if the NFL is where he wants to be then I hope he makes it. Now, I believe you when you say that you never heard any Illini fans talk national championships when he and Juice signed...but I did and there were a lot. Now, to be fair, if Iowa had had those kinds of recruits come in at that time we would have been doing the SAME THING.

Peace

Dude, I got my start on this site claiming (in jest) that with our (Iowa's) 2005 recruiting class and no OSU/Michigan on the schedule that Jake Christensen would lead us to a national title, perhaps two. But you know and I know that Iowa had plenty of guys squawking about the hardware that 2005 class would win. It's a two way street, pal, and no Illini fan I know would ever expect a national title in FB. They are more jaded than me, and I'm pretty jaded. However, my negativity during the end of Christensen regime made the current crop of Illini fans who post on here seem like recent lotto winners. They are much more optimistic than I was after we got destroyed by Western Michigan. Man, I'm glad Western isn't in the Big Ten.