5 O'Clock Shadow
News you can't leave work without:
CHAMPAIGN — The sellout streak at Illinois isn't going to hit two.
Last time at Memorial Stadium, playing then-No. 2 Ohio State, the Illini filled Memorial Stadium. Plenty of credit goes to Ohio State fans, among the best travelers in the Big Ten. Good news for Illinois: they'll be back at Memorial Stadium in 2011.
But attendance projections for Saturday's homecoming game against Indiana are 51,000-52,000.
"I wouldn't be surprised to see it go a couple thousand more than that," Illinois assistant athletic director Jason Heggemeyer said.
The outlook for the Oct. 30 game against Purdue is lower, closer to 50,000. Heggemeyer said the crowd for the Nov. 13 game against Minnesota is approaching the Indiana total.
"The one we have more available for right now is Purdue," Heggemeyer said.
Though the team is a better-than-expected 3-3 and thinking about a bowl bid, attendance is right on the preseason projections.
"This is exactly where I thought we would be," Heggemeyer said. "I did think we would play well. I was pretty confident from talking to our coaches and our staff. Our numbers are right where they should be right now."
We are probably pretty fortunate to be getting 50,000 plus so far this year for games given the weak home schedule and low expectations for this year. Long gone are the 80's and early 90's when sell-outs of 70,000 plus were common. Thanks RG.
Had we beaten MSU there would be a little more buzz but it's hard to get the fan base excited when you already have 3 losses and you have Big Ten bottom feeders coming. OSU was our only marquee game at home to draw fans. The good news with the weak sister home opponents is that we SHOULD beat IU, PU and Minnesota. If not then the win at PSU means little as we'll need those wins to be bowl eligible.
Want to get the fan base excited for next year? Beat Michigan again and beat Northwestern at Wrigley! An 8 win season and a New Year's day bowl would go a long way in getting fans back in the seats. It is possible but passing has to improve.
Comments
IlliniHQ.com embraces discussion of Illini sports. We welcome you to contribute your ideas, opinions and comments, but we ask that you avoid personal attacks, vulgarity and hate speech. we reserve the right to remove any comment at its discretion, and we will block repeat offenders' accounts. To post comments, you must first be a registered user, and your username will appear with any comment you post. Happy posting.