The Offseason May 7, 2012
Wrote a couple things this weekend. One post was a complaint about Bruce Weber telling a Kansas reporter that Illinois “would have made the NCAA Tournament” if Mike Thomas had shown him support in the middle of the losing streak. My post was very HE’S DOING IT AGAIN. But I’ve written that post 12 times already, and apparently our former coach is going to keep blaming his failures on others for the rest of time, so I probably should stop writing about it. See how well I’m doing?
I also wrote some stuff on our new hoops transfer, Sam McLaurin, but I was trying way, way too hard to be funny. Get this – I was going to title the post “Play It Again, Sam” and make lots of Sam Maniscalco/Sam McLaurin comparisons. This post included, I kid you not, a bit about “who’s next – Sam Worthington?” and, AND, the word “ManiscalifragilisticexpialiAWESOME”. I’m not kidding – I was going to use that word. And it was going to be FUNNY. You people have no idea how much you’d dislike me if I published everything I wrote.
It’s especially hard to not post such things in the offseason, when there’s very little to write about. Topics are few and far between from May through July. There’s lots of basketball recruiting stuff, and I’m pretty excited about following that again, and I have an expansion on the “rank all 89 players who might contribute to the football team this fall” series planned for this summer, but beyond that, the topic pool is thin. Which leads me to type things like “who’s next – SAM WORTHINGTON?”
So when I find myself in that place, I delete those posts and write a post like this. It’s my way of apologizing for no new posts while also communicating my goal to never post anything substandard on this site (which invites great irony given the substandard nature of this post, but now we’re running in circles). I need Camp Rantoul to get here like Pat Fitzgerald needs substandard non-conference scheduling.
Hey, there’s a nice offseason statistic that would fit in a post complaining about the lack of offseason topics to write about: the absolutely incredible non-conference streaks that Illinois and Northwestern have compiled the last five years. Illinois hasn’t played a non-conference opponent with a below .500 record since Syracuse in 2007. Northwestern hasn’t played a non-conference FBS opponent with an at-or-above-.500 record since Nevada in 2007. Here’s the lists:
The Illinois Streak
1. Ball State 2007 – 7-5
2. Missouri 2008 – 9-3
3. Louisiana-Lafayette 2008 – 6-6
4. Western Michigan 2008 – 9-3
5. Missouri 2009 – 8-4
6. Cincinnati 2009 – 12-0
7. Fresno State 2009 – 8-4
8. Missouri 2010 – 10-2
9. Northern Illinois 2010 – 10-2
10. Fresno State 2010 – 8-4
11. Arkansas State 2011 – 10-2
12. Arizona State 2011 – 6-6
13. Western Michigan 2011 – 7-5
The Northwestern Streak
1. Duke 2007 – 1-11
2. Eastern Michigan 2007 – 4-8
3. Syracuse 2008 – 3-9
4. Duke 2008 – 4-8
5. Ohio 2008 – 4-8
6. Eastern Michigan 2009 – 0-12
7. Syracuse 2009 – 4-8
8. Miami (OH) 2009 – 1-11
9. Vanderbilt 2010 – 2-10
10. Rice 2010 – 4-8
11. Central Michigan 2010 – 3-9
12. Boston College 2011 – 4-8
13. Army 2011 – 3-9
14. Rice 2011 – 4-8
So if you include our other non-conference games in 2007 (11-1 Missouri and 2-10 Syracuse) and theirs (6-6 Nevada), here’s the cumulative totals for the regular season records of the last 15 Illinois and Northwestern non-conference FBS opponents:
Illinois Fighting Illini: 123-57 (.683)
Northwestern Purple People: 47-133 (.261)
An orange non-con schedule that makes me cry, and a purple one that makes me laugh out loud. The lesson we’ve all learned today: when struggling to come up with topics to write about in the offseason, point to the easiest non-conference schedule in college football history and laugh at Northwestern’s fake resurgence.
I don’t know about you, but I feel better already.
As McLaurin might say, “F-ITzgerald.”
Ah, Clowning the Fitz. Now there’s a worthy task for the offseason, in which all can participate and enjoy.
Teddy Greenstein said that Prater made 2 fabulous catches at the Spring Game. For a total of 6 yards. Just think, if he caught 2 more like that, he’d have a first down.
And Northwestern still only has Alviti.
We will never tire of posts poking fun at the Northwestern football program.
Robert, why dont you compare the Big 10 records of Illinois and Northwestern since 2007?
Then reassess what program is better.
I also find it ironic that for all of Robert’s whining about scheduling…Northwestern actually scheduled more BCS opponents than Illinois did during that time frame.
Northwestern also played 7 true road games.
Illinois played 4 true road games.
Posts like this are why Illinois fans get the term whining Illini…All these pros and your whining about playing Lousiana Lafayyette and Arkansas State at home? Silliness.
Joe John- can you do me a favor and wear “Joe John” in big letters on your shirt when you go to an Illinois game? That way I can point out to my 6 year old what a complete fool looks like. Nevermind, you’ve probably never actually been to an Illini game.
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You are too intentionally obtuse to miss the point that the ONLY reason NW has the record they do is because of scheduling patsies.
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Playing Mizzou in St. Louis is hardly a neutral site game for football. And NW’s murder’s row of road games at EMU, Duke, Syracuse, Vandy, Rice, BC, and Army… is that really what you are hanging your argument on? Just about every one of those (save BC) is traditionally the doormat of their conference so NW knew exactly what they were getting when they scheduled them. They even got extra lucky and caught BC on a down year.
illinibacker – yes, Illinois has played a tougher non-conference schedule. But who cares? Northwestern has still won more Big 10 games over that time than Illinois has, so why even bring up this as a way to say Northwestern is somehow worse than Illinois?
Northwestern isnt a better program because they’ve been to more weedwacker bowls…they are a better program because they’ve won more Big 10 games.
Is Robert really trying to suggest that Illinois would be a better program if they scheduled 4 for sure wins….they did that last year. Didnt work out so well.
Good coaches build programs. Fitzgerald is a good coach.
Remains to be seen whether Beckman is….but if he makes as many excuses about the schedule as Robert does…then he’s not the guy.
You never offered to take my bet on Bailey in 2003, Joe John. Stunning.
In any event, Pat Fitzgerald didn’t build a program. Randy Walker won 13 conference games in his final three seasons. The two coaches before Fitzgerald won conference championships. The program was built. Fitzgerald coasted for a while, and now they are in decline. Unsurprising, really, when you hire a coach that never had to work his way up the food chain.
In any event, Fitzee has also missed the conference championship three of the last five years, so even the conference record is padded. After next season NWU replaces Indiana with Wisconsin and Penn State with Ohio State, and the conference schedule becomes not 120th out of 120 in the nation. Good luck, Fitzee.
I think Joe John should start his own blog as an official response, and everything opposite, to A Lion Eye. He can call it “Two Tigers’ Tails” and the logo could be the two tails hanging down in the shape of Js (for Joe John). Please start it so we readers can have access to the truth.
I wish everyone would just ignore Fitzgerald. He’s a bigger troll than Joe John.
Good idea Lou….the whining about the schedule thing has always bugged me. I can agree that playing at Western Michigan was dumb. As was playing at Fresno State…but there was nothing wrong with playing Missouri. Missouri had just about as long of run of futility in the 90s and 2000s as Illinois did when that series was signed…Difference was that Pinkel turned his 3 star players into a good team…and Zook turned his future pros into the unemployment line…but that Mizzou-Illinois game is a great game for the fans and a game Illinois should simply be able to win. Same thing with Cincinnati..that game was signed when Cincy was horrible. Just win the games. Stop whining. Schedule BCS games. Give fans a reason to pack Memorial Stadium…i full appreciate Arizona State game…more like that.
I actually like Fitz; a lot. He is loyal to his school, motivated and what’s not to like. Most head coaches lie to the public all the time. No one will ever trump Holtz, so Fitzee just looks amusing to me. I say go for it. And if you happen to motivate some Illinois fans and players, all the better.
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And I like Robert poking and picking at it, too. The whole thing is just amusing to me. I’m going to ride NWU all the way to the bottom of the heap with you, Robert, not because I have much against them – - – there’s not enough there to hate – - – but because I want to be better than everyone in the Big Ten and we need to start somewhere. Why not whoop on NWU? That gets us ahead of two schools, maybe three and starts the trend.
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Keep it going guys ! Every team needs an enemy. Why not NWU? They’ll do for now. But I would rather hate Iowa. We just need to get better first.
The Cincinnati series was signed on February 18, 2009, just nine months before the game was played. And Cincinnati was coming off an 11-2 Orange Bowl campaign.
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http://espn.go.com/blog/bigeast/post/_/id/1140/cincinnati-illinois-agree-to-deal
Fitzee sang the 7th inning stretch at Wrigley last night. During the bottom of the 7th while in the booth with Len and Bob he just would not shut up. What a tool.
JJ. You really don’t need to comment on every single post that Robert puts up. You either need to (A) get out of mom’s basement and get a life, or (B) get your own blog (as suggested above), but you could call it Why Is This Thing Purple? Try going for a week without commenting…
Check out when the last time Northwestern won a bowl game. 1948 (season) Rose Bowl.