State of Optimism for Illinois Football and Basketball?

Let's take a look at Illinois Football since 2000. Their 20th season is still in process, so we'll come back to that. In the previous 19:

Big Ten Record

Winning Seasons: 2

.500 Seasons: 2

Losing Seasons: 15

Overall Record

Winning Seasons: 4

Losing Seasons: 15

(That overall record got a boost from two seasons where they won bowl games after going 6-6.)

So in short, not great. 

The last winning season was 2011 under Ron Zook. The last Big Ten winning season, was 2007, also under Zook. 

They've only made 5 bowl games in 19 years. 

And yet, two of those bowl games were BCS Bowls. 

Take a team like K-State. They've made bowl games in 13 out of 19 seasons. That's a solid program. They've made two BCS Bowls, just like Illinois. 

So Illinois is mostly bad, but can sometimes hit pretty big. Which is why I've said this:

Of course, not everyone sees it that way. One person, in particular holds out hope that Illinois can rebuild/change the program identity like Wisconsin did. From 1963 to 1992, Wisconsin only made three bowl games (81-84). Since 1993, they've only missed a bowl twice. From dumpster to powerhouse. That person I mentioned is on twitter as @Alioneye and back when Lovie got hired he envisioned Michigan coming to Champaign as the turning point. Transcript from a podcast back in 2016:

Robert: "My Twitter bio has October 12, 2019 when Michigan comes to Champaign. I set that a few days after Lovie was hired and I said 'that is the moment that things start to turn around for Illinois football'. I had been waiting to set a moment for 25 years, and October 12th of 2019 is it."

Host: "Wow - calling your shot."

Robert: "Yes, I've called my shot and put it in my Twitter bio."

My reaction two years ago was this:

And then this year, Illinois couldn't beat Eastern Michigan, a last place MAC team.

Illinois was in position to beat Nebraska, up 35-21 in the 3d quarter, but ended up losing. 

And that famous Michigan game? It was 28-0 Michigan early. Illinois did reel off 25 straight points to get back in it, but lost 42-25. It was kind of fun to see Michigan twitter meltdown as it looked like Illinois might beat them but it was also embarrassing that just winning by 17 over Illinois is cause for panic.

So The Illini were 2-4 entering a contest against Wisconsin who was ranked 6th in the country. Great choice for an Illinois homecoming game, guys.

No seriously, great choice for the homecoming game. Look at this still:

It looks like Wisconsin is about to go up 27-14. But that's not what happened. That's a game saving tackle.

And then Illinois went out and beat Purdue and Rutgers and here we are. 5-4 on the year. 3-3 in the Big Ten. 3 games to go.

Win one and you're going bowling.
Win two and you've got a winning record in the Big Ten.

How are they doing this?

Those aren't Big Ten ranks. That's 1st in the country. Illinois football has an identity now? That's something.

Is this team good?

Sagarin has us 77th in the country.
Massey has us 66th in the country, ahead of Nebraska.
Football Outsiders has us 58th in the country.

Seems like we are who we think we are*, a decent team worthy of one of the 40 bowl games.

* = Lovie Smith was in fact the head coach for the Bears that Dennis Green said are who he thought they were.

I don't think Illinois will ever compete consistently at the top of the Big Ten, but it would be nice if they could be in the top 2 or 3 of their division. Here's that division by the way:

Beating Wisconsin was a huge upset, but there were also 2 games they should have won. Building to where Iowa is, isn't out of the question.

And for this year, it starts with getting to a bowl game.

 - - -

Meanwhile, across Kirby Avenue at the State Farm Center, Illinois basketball tips off their season tonight. They haven't made the tournament in their last 5 seasons, but experts are predicting that to change this year.

Of course, to do that you have to start strong, racking up those non-conference wins. Their first real test will be in their 3rd game, at Arizona on Sunday. Let's do it.