I really can’t emphasize how bad Charleston Southern is. Their last win was November 13th, 2010 – the same day we lost to Minnesota at home and put our bowl in jeopardy. On that day, Charleston Southern beat Presbyterian 42-39. The next week, they lost to Costal Carolina 70-3. The first of 14 consecutive losses.

Their last six games against FBS opponents?

Lost to Florida State 62-10
Lost to Central Florida 62-0
Lost to Kentucky 49-21
Lost to Hawaii 66-7
Lost to South Florida 59-0
Lost to Florida 62-3

If this is close, at all, it’s probably a very bad sign. I know we’ll likely be without our starting quarterback (yep, still on the “he’s out until Louisiana Tech” train), so maybe we won’t find ourselves putting up 62 points like the Florida schools. But that doesn’t mean we can’t toss a shutout and put up seven touchdowns.

So let’s have some fun. Let’s get a special teams touchdown. Let’s find some receivers who are ready to make a statement. Let’s see a pick six. We’ve made most of our redshirt/don’t redshirt decisions by now – let’s see what these freshmen can do. Get out there, put together a blowout victory, get back on track, and have some fun.

Speaking of fun, what say we update the roster for THE 2015 ROSE BOWL ILLINI. Fourth year of the Beckman regime, best schedule in a long time (seriously, click the future schedules link above and look at it)… I’m sticking with “decent 2012, rebuild the defense in 2013, rebuild the offense in 2014, ROSE BOWL 2015″ until somebody tells me not to. And even then I’ll probably still be doing it.

So here’s the current look at the current freshmen and the 2013 recruits who I think will play a large role in the success of THE 2015 ILLINI ROSE BOWL TEAM. By 2015 this will need to be a full two-deep. But for now, I think we can count on…

QB: Aaron Bailey
RB: Josh Ferguson
TE:
WR:
WR:
OT:
OG: Teddy Karras
C:
OG: Ryan Klachko
OT:

Leo: Darrius Caldwell
DT: Jarrod Clements
NG:
DE:
WLB:
MLB: Henry Dickinson
Star: TaJarvis Fuller
CB: V’Angelo Bentley
CB: Darius Mosely
S: Caleb Day
S:

My rule for this list: Four-star guys who look great on film, like Bailey and Day and Klachko, immediately go on. Freshman who have impressed me so far, like Caldwell (last two Rantouls) and Fuller (in the spring) go on. And then guys like Mosely (4-star on ESPN) and Clements (lock 4-star if he didn’t tear his ACL) go on because I’ve already decided they’ll be awesome. And this doesn’t mean we’ll only have eight senior starters in 2015 – as freshmen find their way to the field and impress (like, say, one of the offensive tackles like Flavin or McDowell), they’ll find their way onto this list.

And yes, I’m totally and completely serious. My life is wife, kids, work, blog, and finding ways for Illini Football to advance to it’s rightful place on the second tier of Big Ten football programs. Our first large step towards that goal: 2015 Rose Bowl.

One more thing. Saturday will be about having fun, right? If we’re going to build a B1G college football environment while we build a team on the field, then the crowd is going to have to have some fun. Which means the students are going to have to learn the Gangnam Style dance.

If you don’t know what Gangnam Style is, don’t worry, the students do. It’s a song/video from Korea that has gone from a couple thousand YouTube views to 161 million. It’s the current Thing. And we played it during a timeout of the Western Michigan game. Which means it’s probably going to get played again. Which means I want the entire north endzone to be ready.

Yep, still totally and completely serious. We have the William Tell. We can also have the Gangnam Style. We can have a thing. We can have fun.

Now, I don’t expect everyone to learn it. Just the north endzone. Somebody get this to the Block I leadership and let them teach the Gangnam Style. The instructions are easy. When the song reaches the 1:09 mark in the video below, right after the pause and the words “oppan gangnam style”, be prepared to dance. It’s real easy. 4 bars like you’re riding a horse, 4 bars like you’re swinging a lasso. All while galloping. Repeat. That’s it.

Yes, I’m actually blogging about this. Why? Because I want games inside Memorial Stadium to be fun. The last four years haven’t been fun. The atmosphere could best be described as surly Zook anger boiling beneath the surface.

Now, we have a new coach, upgraded stadium environs, and our worst opponent in 25 years. Let’s have some fun. Gangnam Style.