Tate: Don't whine, win
Win pregame party passes for Fresno State game
CHAMPAIGN – Oh, those lucky, lucky Illini!
After year-long whining and bleating about "having to travel to Cincinnati in late November," consider the fortuitous aspect of a schedule that allows an underachieving UI football team one last venture into the national spotlight (11 a.m., Nov. 27) ... one grand opportunity to cap a miserable season by engaging a 10-0 Bearcat club on the doorstep of a perfect season.
For the weenies who would rather see Illinois play Williams & Mary, with William staying home, Tatelines says "phooey." Go play somebody.
Or as Ray Eliot famously said, "Be Somebody!" Where is the sense of accomplishment in defeating overmatched Division II opponents? Where is the self-esteem in slinking around and "scheduling yourself" into bowl eligibility?
Sure, lots of teams do it. But that's their business. Only once in the last 15 years has Illinois failed to make a bowl after finishing at least 4-4 in the Big Ten, and that was in 2002 when Ron Turner's club went 5-7 after losing to San Jose State at home. My thinking is this: If you can't beat San Jose State, or you can't win half your Big Ten games, you shouldn't blame some outside agency for the failure to extend the season.
All we're offered in life is glorious opportunity, and the one on Nov. 27 is deafening to the eardrums. Redemption, oh wondrous redemption, is there to be had.
'What's to celebrate?'
Each of us has his preference, but would there be anything special about playing the 4-7 Bearcats of 2005 when those seven losses came by an average of 25 points? What's to celebrate? Let's play the 10-0 Bearcats, the best they ever had in Cincinnati.
They say the atmosphere will be unfriendly. Well, that's the way it was on a Labor Day in Los Angeles when Shawn Wax and Steven Williams caught TD passes in a rallying 14-13 defeat of No. 5 USC. Or check former Illini Howard Griffith and Moe Gardner for their memories in defeating Colorado's eventual national champions, 23-22, in 1990.
OK, Kurt Kittner, which of your preseason wins was more meaningful, a 41-3 rout of Arkansas State or the follow-up 41-36 triumph over Louisville ... a 35-6 defeat of Middle Tennessee or the 17-15 thriller against California. The true tests are the ones that we carry forward with us.
Did you hear Brigham Young complaining when the schedule maker sent the current Cougars against an Oklahoma team fresh off the national title game? In case you missed it, BYU grabbed that opportunity, 14-13.
A season of varying shades and patterns – Southern Cal was here one moment, gone the next – is made up of these surprises. Who picked Northwestern's travelers to upset then-undefeated Iowa? What were the Ohio State Buckeyes thinking when they invaded Purdue?
'Play somebody'
This stuff has been going on ever since David tried out his slingshot on Goliath.
So it must be asked: When did the populace conclude that the best way to advance is to avoid genuine competition? Where is the honor in that? Did defeating Illinois State on Sept. 12 send tingles down your leg?
This concept is foreign to me. Be Somebody. Play Somebody. All you have to lose is a sporting contest, and that's not a disgrace. Half the teams lose every week.
If Illinois has faltered this season, it shouldn't shake the ground. Look around. Folks in South Bend and Ann Arbor want their coaches fired too. And Missouri, which (tongue in cheek) Illinois should NEVER PLAY because the Tigers are too good (now we sound like Norm Stewart), lost to awful Baylor and stands 2-4 in the weak Big 12 North.
Before closing, here's a little secret. Just between us. Cincinnati is not unbeatable. Pressure always builds on an undefeated team, and that was apparent in the last two wins, a two-pointer against Connecticut and a three-pointer against West Virginia. The Bearcats may be swifter than the Illini and undoubtedly possess better quarterbacking, but they're no stronger or more experienced (10 Cincy starters on defense graduated). When they recruit somebody out of Ohio, they're getting someone Ohio State didn't want.
You wouldn't know it from 2009 results, but many of the current Illini players were on board in 2007 when they traveled into Ohio and defeated the No. 1 team in the nation.
Every game isn't center stage nationally. You don't draw the No. 5 team in the nation every week. Lady Luck has blessed Illinois with this opportunity.
Loren Tate writes for The News-Gazette. He can be reached at ltate@news-gazette.com.
Loren: you are such a dimwit / Guenther pacifist. My God, if we did not know any better, the two of you are sharing a dorm room at Bromley.
Why don't you just admit that your bosom buddy again screwed the pooch by scheduling complete idiocy in Cincy?
Great, we can see our beloved on national TV one more time, only to look like a high school team getting owned by a REAL college football program. Yep, can't wait. May as well get the popcorn ready now!!!
In closing, put the crack pipe down and move out of the dorm room.
Amen Loren. I'm sick of seeing bad non-conference games. I don't understand why anyone would want to go to a bowl game based on beating up 4 weak sisters and two conference games. It isn't like we scheduled the top 4 teams in the country for the non-conference, it was three duds and a surprising top 5 team. If you can't split those and go .500 in conference, it is better to save us the time and effort of going to an embarrassing bowl loss.
There is a reason why Illinois has played in just 5 bowl games out of 18 seasons with Loren's buddy Guenther as AD. There is a reason why the football program is 81-124-2 under Guenther's watch. It's called scheduling.
hey Loren, let us know the attendance for that Fresno State game in December!
Loren:
I suggested the "Minnesota Plan" (4 patsies @home + 2 conference wins = bowl elligibility) as a means of overcoming our atrocious record of bowl appearances (5 in the last 18 years).
The old show biz saying "any publicity is good publicity, just spell my name right" applies here. Any bowl is better than no bowl--even the Poulon Weedeater Bowl.
Bowl appearances on a consistent basis are huge for many reasons: revenue, recruiting, and allowing your players to have practice time for an additional 4 to 5 weeks after the end of the regular season. This is huge for the following season.
Finally, the "Plan" is not meant to be a permanent solution, merely to kickstart some bowl appearance consistency. After the program has improved in quality, so also can the quality of the non-conference opponents be improved.
From yesterday's Tate and Turpin chat:
"We are still looking for reasons to be optimistic about next year, and we haven't found any yet."
So, yesterday there were no reasons to be optimistic about next year, but today there are reasons to be optimistic about a game against the undefeated #5 team in the country during our 3-7 campaign?
Also, continued references to games and coaches from 20 years ago or more. That was then and this is now. College football is an entirely different animal these days. The Illinois program is light years away from the days of Shawn Wax and Howard Griffith. Those teams could compete with anybody. More often than not, that hasn't been the case in recent years.
I will never understand why we wouldn't want to play a softer schedule to try and get this program back on solid footing and into bowl games from year to year. Once that happens, then feel free to start scheduling more competitively.
Just an awful article. FYI - some Illinois fans would like to go to a bowl game more than twice a decade. Playing at Cincinatti, Fresno St (next year) and Missouri does not help a program of Illinois' status achieve that.
It DOES keep us in the black though, which is much more important to this University than fielding a winner is...
Lets see wins over #1 Ohio,2 back to back wins over Mi, a dream win over Cincy in the last 5 yrs. How many Bowl appearance in 5yrs?(one)how many in last 20yrs? Illini nation is not difficult.We are a Big Ten school why is this so difficult? We would like to see are team to go to bowls games 3 of 5yrs and compeet for a big ten title 1 out of 3yrs we go to a bowl. When have we done that? Lets start some where like that before we think we could go for a top 10 or 15 in the nation. Could we please start with a top 25 team for more the one yr in a roll and start to go to some bowl games.If we have a dream game with Cincy I feel like we will have writers and fans that think that it will be enough to keep Ron. Its time to make a decision on where the Illini football program needs to go. Like the past 15-20yrs or to the present with hope that we could put some back to back 6 to 8 win season and go to a bowl game.
I find it amusing IlliniHimey can't put a coherent thought together or write a gramatically correct sentence yet calls others names such as "dimwit." After reading his posts over the last several weeks, and I'm not even commenting about the thoughts I surmise he's attempting to convey, I'll bet IlliniHimey never even sniffed college.
Okay IlliniHimey, hit me with you vitriol. I need a laugh.
Loren, I agree. I also think that Illinois should get their act together,get prepared and win the first game and BEAT MISSOURI! Don't change the schedule.That is the same old losers mentality.Get prepared from camp Rantoul with a real plan and mindset to win the first game.Then come out and prove yourself and BEAT MISSOURI.Missouri is no big deal, Illinois has made them a big deal. This Illinois team and staff have simply not been prepared early, to play and win the first game for several years now.
Right on dstork i read some of these comments and it blows my mind all we are missing now is the guy who usually know everything peterborich where are you come on lets here how terrible everything is and how you no how to fix it i miss reading your negatives post come on.
Loren, please for the love of God, retire.
Tell me about the quality of opponents until we are good enough to go bowling on an annual basis.
I want this team to go bowling every year. Until then, schedule cupcakes if necessary.
Guenther did a poor job of scheduling, period.
I don't see any other team playing 3 good nonconference teams and a single cupcake. They do the exact opposite. Winning formulas exist for a reason, and your lovemate Guenther did not follow it.
I don't believe some of you people. You don't want to fire the AD, you don't want to fire the head coach, and you don't want to temporarily downgrade the non-conference schedule. What is your solution to this mess of a program? Status quo?
If you have no solutions, and you don't like any of the above, then apparently 5 bowls in 18 years is acceptable to you. That is why the program is where it is: ACCEPTANCE OF MEDIOCRITY.
Hang in there georgia. Team status quo has only a few members and they randomly post with attacks on those that want vast improvement in Illini football. They don't post with facts and beliefs to explain current reality. They know the wagons are circled and it is their last gasp.
illinifaningeorgia, I have said since the first time I began posting here that I do not understand the calls for firing the AD over the state of the football program. To my way of thinking the AD is responsible for all sports not just football. As some people like to point out he has a losing record in football. But he has a quality winning record in basketball. If you are going to hold him accountable for football, shouldn't you commend him for basketball, or tennis, or vollyball, etc.
The #1 team in the country-Florida is playing that powerhouse Florida International today. Their 2 other non-conference games were against equally tough Charleston Southern and Troy. (Their only decent opponent Florida State is there only because it's a traditional game.) Who the hell are well to schedule tougher opponents?
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