Who Are You and Why Do We Care?: Illinois Fighting Illini

Is there a rivalry here?

Even though they were an original member of the Western Conference, Illinois is not a team Michigan has a traditional rivalry with. In 93 all-time games, Michigan has a 68-23-2 record. Michigan is 8-2 in the last ten meetings between the two teams. 

When did we see them last?

Last season Michigan marched into Champaign, Illinois with a 7-2 record to play the Illinois Fighting Illini who were 6-3. Even though the scoreboard didn't show it, Michigan demolished the Illini in the first half. On the second play of the game Fitzgerald Toussaint ran for 65 yards leading to a 9 yard Denard Robinson touchdown. Michigan got the ball back and ran the ball down to the Illinois 27 before a Robinson fumble gave the ball back to the Illini. Towards the end of the first quarter, Justin DuVernois punted the ball, which was returned 32 yards by Jeremy Gallon. The punt return would lead to another Denard Robinson rushing touchdown. The rest of the first half included the pattern of Illinois going 3 and out (or fumbling) followed by Michigan doing something to not score points (Turnover on downs, Robinson fumble, Gibbons missed field goal, Denard interception to end the half). Illinois would not cross enter Michigan's end of the field during the first half. 

The third quarter started the same way the second quarter ended. Michigan went three and out on its first possession and Denard got injured. Neither team was able to move the ball, and the game looked like it would continue that way until a Will Hagerup punt was fumbled by Ryan Lankford, and recovered by John McColgan. Devin Gardner entered the game at quarterback, and lead the Wolverines to a Brendan Gibbons field goal. On the ensuing possession Illinois finally crossed midfield and scored a touchdown on a thirteen yard run by Nathan Scheelhaase. In the fourth quarter a JT Floyd interception lead to a touchdown pass from Devin Gardner to Martavious Odoms. Illinois responded with an 18 play 80 yard drive, which ended in a Jason Ford touchdown run. Illinois tried for an onside kick, but the Wolverines recovered. Two plays later Toussaint was in the endzone  for the game's final score. Michigan would go on to win 31-14.

What do they look like?

Their official colors are "Illinois Orange" and "Illinois Blue." Here is a sample of each of their current uniforms, and here is what they look like on football players standing indoors. They are a Nike school so they have lots of piping and weird stripes and such. Next year they will be implementing a new uniform set with these helmets. 

Do they have good coaches?

Bob Zuppke was a good Head Coach from 1913-1941. During that span, Illinois went 131-81-12 including four National Championships and seven Big Ten Championships. For the past seven seasons, Ron Zook was the man in charge. Zook was the head coach at the University of Florida from 2002-2004. In 2004, he was fired before the end of the season, yet Florida let him coach the rest of the season. Zook took the job at Illinois before the Gators played in the Peach Bowl. 22 of the 24 starters on Florida's 2007 National Championship team were recruited by Zook. His first two seasons at Illinois were terrible at best, with a combined 4-19 record. 2007 was Zook's best year as a head coach and Illinois best season since 2001. The Illini went 9-3, and due to Ohio State's National Championship bid, a trip to the Rose Bowl (and Disney Land). In Pasadena, they got stomped by USC. Zook was never able to repeat this success and only had one winning record after 2007. This past season, after starting the season 4-0, the Illini went 2-6, and Zook was fired. 

Tim Beckman was brought in to replace Ron Zook after three years as the head coach of the Toledo Rockets. Before working at Toledo, Beckman was the Defensive Coordinator at Bowling Green for six years, the Corner Backs Coach at Ohio State for two seasons, and the Defensive Coordinator at Oklahoma State for two seasons. After an improved 2009 where the Rockets went 5-9 (in 2008, the Rockets had 3 wins... one over Michigan), Toledo had back to back 8 win seasons. So far Beckman has gone 2-4 as head coach at Illinois. He has also shown that he loves to dip on the sidelines. 

Have they won any Big Ten or National Championships?

As I previously mentioned, Zuppke won four National Championships in his career at Illinois. The most recent National Championship was won in 1951. The Illini have won 15 Big Ten Championships, winning most recently in 2001. 

Where do they play?

Memorial Stadium was opened in 1923. Here are some pictures of what it looks like. According to the University, during construction of the stadium, "a rainy season caused a bulldozer to sink into what became the football field." It is still there to this day. Also, miscellaneous white man with fro in front of the scoreboard. This season, the university added an outline of the state of Illinois to the field surface. In honor of Illinois great Red Grange, Grange Rock sits in the Northeast endzone of the field, where the Illini tunnel is. 

What traditions do they have?

• Beginning in 1910, there was a section of stands called the Block "I". The students in this section do tricks with cards. Video here
• This season the Illini are trying to add this ridiculous dance to their traditions. 
• Just as we have GO/BLUE chanted, Illinois chants I-L-L/I-N-I.
• The Illini have trophies for games with three of their opponents. 
• The Illibuck Trophy with Ohio State
• The Land of Lincoln Trophy (Previously the Sweet Sioux Tomahawk) with Northwestern
• The Cannon with Purdue

Do they have a goofy mascot?

Not anymore... Here's Chief Illiniwek's last dance:

If you notice, this was a game against Michigan

For years, Illinois used the Chief Illiniwek head as their main logo. In 1926, the assistant director of bands wanted a Native American war dance during halftime of football games. Starting in the mid-1970s the Chief was subject of much debate over its political correctness. In 2006, it was decided that Chief Illiniwek could no longer be the official university symbol. 

Prediction based on everything but football: Michigan 41 - Illinois 13.

HTR's Top 25: Week 6

Previous dubious assertions: HTR's Official Meaningless Preseason Top 25, Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5

With most of college football having exited the realm of Cupcake City, we were treated to our first weekend of mostly good football. This past Saturday was rife with upsets, derailed hype trains, and general shenanigans. 

"Stop it with the dumb penalties, fergodsakes!" 

(HT: Mike DeSimone)

Rank	Team
1	Alabama
2	Oregon
3	South Carolina
4	West Virginia
5	Florida
6	Notre Dame
7	Ohio State
8	Kansas State
9	LSU
10	Oregon State
11	USC
12	Florida State
13	Texas
14	Oklahoma
15	Georgia
16	Louisville
17	Stanford
18	Texas A&M
19	Rutgers
20	Cincinnati
21	Mississippi State
22	Iowa State
23	TCU
24	Michigan
25	Louisiana Tech

Out: Northwestern, Nebraska, UCLA, Washington, Texas Tech

• Northwestern...no longer undefeated. All of you that predicted an Alabama-Northwestern national title game, I'm sorry. The dream season is over. No completely unironic--no, really--Northwestern fight song linking this week. 

• This year in college football insanity: Oregon State, in the top 10. This is "expectations exceeded" personified. I'm not sure how Mike Riley has navigated this team to a 4-0 record a season after losing to Sacramento State, but he has and is clearly a graduate of the Bill Snyder School of Sorcery. On the not so bright side, Oregon State QB Sean Mannion is out indefinitely after sustaining a knee injury against the Washington State Pirates. Luckily, OSU has a manageable slate throughout the rest of this month (@BYU, Utah, @Washington, Arizona State). If Oregon State can somehow get through that stretch without a loss, Riley has to be the coach of the year, right? 

• Other dreams vanquished. Texas Tech finally fell this past weekend after surprising basically everyone by playing this thing called "defense" during its first four contests. Unfortunately, the Fightin' Tubervilles fell to the Sooners in Lubbock. The Red Raiders gave up 17 points in each of the second and third quarters. With that said, the TTU defense still did okay, giving up a relatively okay 4.2 YPC and under 400 yards of total offense. An Oklahoma pick 6 essentially ended the game midway through the 3rd quarter, taking the score to 38-13, putting it out of reach even for a pass-happy offense like TTU's. 

• Michigan: back! Not back as in "returning to glory" back, but hey, Michigan's schedule has been tough and a thumping on the road against what figures to be a bowl team of some sort is enough to vault the Wolverines back into the top 25 for now. It means literally nothing but hey, being ranked 24th feels much better than being a "receiving votes" team. 

• This week in my unrealistic and/or irrational preseason conjecturing. Virginia continues to plummet, making me look like a fool after spending the offseason hyping up Mike London. The Cavs lost at Duke, 42-17, putting them at 2-4 halfway through this 2012 season. Everything about that last sentence is really, really bad. 

• Speaking of ACC failings...the Seminoles Florida Stated it up this weekend, losing to an NC State team that got destroyed by Tennessee. Virginia Tech continues to slide, adding a loss to UNC to its resume. Boston College lost to Army, Miami didn't even put up any sort of fight against Notre Dame in Chicago, and Georgia Tech lost again (also dropping them to 2-4). To make matters worse, the Ramblin' Wreck also relieved defensive coordinator Al Groh of his duties on Monday. Times are not good in Atlanta these days, and I'm not even talking about the Braves. Oh, by the way, Duke is 5-1. DUKE IS 5-1. 

• West Virginia: legit. Okay, that defense is still very, uh, shaky, but a win in Austin is a win in Austin. It's fairly clear that, unlike Missouri, West Virginia will be perfectly fine in its new conference. 

Shameless Self-Promotion Time (Purdue)

Michigan flexed its muscles on Saturday...Denard demonstrates. 

(HT: Mike DeSimone) 

This week in self-promotion:

• I talked about the Purdue game over at Maize n Brew. There's not a whole lot to say, really. Purdue is probably not very good, but Michigan took care of business and Borges pretty much called the perfect game. Will we be able to run 51 times and pass only 16 times against, say, Michigan State or Ohio State? I'm not sure, but it was the perfect porridge for this game. On a basic level, watching Michigan just destroy a Big Ten opponent on the road was kind of cathartic, not to mention a pretty enormous relief. Hopefully, Saturday was the beginning of a nice run for the Wolverines (goodness knows the schedule sets up nicely for one). 

Who Are You and Why Do We Care?: Purdue Boilermakers

Who wears short shorts?

Is there a rivalry here?

Not really. Michigan has played against Purdue 57 times. Michigan has won 43 and only lost 14 of those games against the Boilermakers. Of the seven founding members of the Western Conference (not including Chicago), Purdue is the team Michigan has faced the least. 

What happened last year?

The Boilermakers entered The Big House with a 4-3 record. They opened the scoring just 1 minute and 24 seconds into the game on a 48 yard pass from Caleb TerBush to Gary Bush. Michigan responded with a 12 play 6 minute drive that ended in a Denard Robinson touchdown. At the beginning of the second quarter, Denard completed a 49 yard pass, then was taken out of the game, and Gardner went in at Quarterback. He proceeded to throw an interception. It was all part of the plan though, as Mike Martin sacked Caleb TerBush in the endzone for a safety. Brendan Gibbons kicked a field goal on Michigan's return possession. Robert Marve then replaced TerBush at quarterback, lead the Boilermakers down the field, and threw an interception of his own. In response, Michigan stormed down the field, and Fitz Toussaint ran for a two yard touchdown. The last score of the half was another Brendan Gibbons field goal. In the third quarter Toussaint ran for a 59 yard touchdown. Michigan ran the ball seven straight times to start the fourth quarter. The seventh was a 37 yard run by Michael Shaw for a touchdown. Purdue would score another touchdown with 15 seconds left, but the game was already in hand. Michigan won 36-14. The player of the game was definitely Toussaint who ran for 170 yards and 2 touchdowns. 

What do they look like?

Purdue's official colors are Old Gold and Black. This season the Boilermakers debuted an updated logo, and therefore received new uniforms from Nike. So out with the old, and in with the new (and from behind). Their home uniforms are black with gold numbers and have "Nike Lace" on the collar. They wear the home jerseys with either gold or black pants. Their away uniforms are white with black numbers. They wear either the gold or black pants, plus they have an all white option. The pants have a stripe up the side of the leg that starts at the bottom of the leg and does not quite reach the hip. Their helmets are gold with a black stripe and  the Purdue P in black with a white outline. 

Do they have good coaches?

If the amount of mustache a coach has was directly correlated to the amount of games a team won, then Purdue would have the best coaches of all time. Since 1997, Purdue has had a mustachioed man at the helm of their football team. Purdue hired Joe Tiller as head coach in 1997 after he coached for six years at the University of Wyoming. In his 12 season tenure at Purdue, Tiller took the Boilermakers to 10 bowl games and attained a 126-92-1 record. This was after Purdue had only had two winning seasons in the 18 years previous. Tiller is the winningest coach in Purdue history. Tiller retired in 2008 and was succeeded by fellow mustachioed man Danny Hope. 

Hope was an offensive line coach from 1985 to 2001. His first 9 years were at Louisville under head coach Howard Schnellenberger (hope I spelled that right). He spent one year at Oklahoma before joining Tiller's staff at Wyoming. Hope followed Tiller to Purdue, and was the offensive line coach their until 2001. After one season as Louisville's assistant head coach, he was hired to be the head coach at Eastern Kentucky. The Colonels had a 35-22 record under Hope, including a 9-3 season in 2007, which would be Hope's last. In January of 2008, Hope accepted a position as coach in waiting under Tiller. Tiller announced his decision to retire before the 2008 season began, so Hope knew would take over in 2009. Hope's Boilermakers have attained a record of 19-22, but seem to be on the upswing after two mediocre to bad seasons to start his head coaching career at Purdue. 

Where do they play football?

The Boilermakers play football at Ross-Ade Stadium in West Lafayette, Indiana. The stadium was named after the principal benefactors David E. Ross and George Ade. When the stadium first opened in 1924, it had a capacity of 13,500. Today after many renovations, the stadium has a capacity of 62,500. 

Do they have a goofy mascot?

The official mascot of the Purdue Boilermakers is the Boilermaker Special. The Boilermaker Special is a Victorian-era train built on a truck so it can be driven around campus. The Purdue Reamer Club has much more information on this mascot. The mascot you may be more familiar with is Purdue Pete. Purdue Pete was first introduced in 1940, and has been a mainstay on the sidelines of all their sporting events ever since. 

You may have also heard that Purdue has an enormous drum. the drum is 8 feet in diameter and called the World's Largest Drum. They play the drum at all football games, as well as the Indianapolis 500. When the drum is not in use it is defended at the Purdue University Armory. 

Prediction based on everthing but football: Michigan 42-Purdue 28

Shameless Self-Promotion Time (Purdue Preview)

This happened last year before the Purdue game, which was neat. No, really, it was, Grumbles McGee. 

(HT: Mike DeSimone)

It seems like I never really write any interesting things here anymore, which is unfortunate. I hope to be able to have the time to write some blank verse freestyling type stuff here, but with school and whatnot, that might not be in the cards. However, I have been writing things elsewhere, as you will see below:

• I wrote this week's preview for the Purdue game over at Maize n Brew after getting called from the bullpen by Zach. It'll be interesting to see what everyone else says, but I have a feeling that my overall gut feeling/prediction will fall on the extremely pessimistic side of this week's previewing spectrum. I don't know. I think we win, but it will be ugly and close and unsatisfying. There's a chance we lose, too, I think. So, please win guys. PLEASE. 

Shameless Self-Promotion Time (2007 and Now)

(HT: Mike DeSimone)

Due to a somewhat nebulous snafu, I scheduled a post for this morning over at Maize n Brew that only emerged from the concealed and winding tubes of the Internet in the last hour or so. Anyway:

• I talked about the 2012 season to date and the so called Big Picture vis-a-vis the 2007 season. It's by no means a perfect comparison, I admit, but there are some similarities worth pondering in these final coming days before the return of football, in all its glory and terror. I made sure to cater to your sensibilities by not directly referring to 2007's particular brand of catastrophe, but it is mentioned in an oblique way, so be prepared (I hope you read that with Scar's voice from The Lion King in your head). There's also some quality nostalgia-ing in there, which I'm known to do from time to time. Anyway, read it, because it's Tuesday and you just have to have exhausted all potential forms of Al Borges critique by now...right? 

HTR's Top 25: Week 5

Previous dubious assertions: HTR's Official Meaningless Preseason Top 25, Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4

Me during a bye week

Rank	Team
1	Alabama
2	Oregon
3	LSU
4	Florida State
5	Georgia
6	West Virginia
7	Texas
8	South Carolina
9	Notre Dame
10	Florida
11	Kansas State
12	Ohio State
13	USC
14	TCU
15	Oklahoma
16	Louisville
17	Stanford
18	Mississippi State
19	Northwestern
20	Texas Tecch
21	Oregon State
22	Rutgers
23	Nebraska
24	UCLA
25	Washington

Out: Michigan State, Boise State, Baylor
Idle: Michigan, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Kansas State, USC, Auburn, Mississippi State, probably some other teams that I'm forgetting about

• GO U NORTHWESTERN. Okay, I'll spare you this week since I wrote a full post on Northwestern this past Saturday (!). However, Northwestern is undefeated. As far as Michigan's relevance to this goes, the collapse of NU's defense in the second half against the hapless Hoosiers should make Michigan fans feel a little bit better about this game. 

• Texas Tech...plays defense? This is without a doubt one of the strangest happenings of the 2012 season. The Red Raiders are playing defense, well. Per Hinton, TTU leads the national in total defense and pass defense at this point in time. I don't even have anything witty to say about this. I'm honestly shocked that Tuberville was able to fashion some semblance of a defense in Lubbock, but apparently he has. Of course, the Big 12 will offer many opportunities for that defense to get shredded, particularly through the air. We'll see if this center can hold. 

• One more "why couldn't we do that?" data point. Ole Miss held the Tide to 125 yards rushing at 3.7 yards per carry. In addition to Alabama's modest output against Western Kentucky, you have to wonder how Michigan was not able to contain Alabama's running game even a little bit. True, Alabama has one less bullet in the chamber given Jalston Fowler's season-ending injury, but still: how were Ole Miss and WKU, of all teams, able to do so much better than Michigan did? This is truly one of life's greatest mysteries. 

• A brief note on WVU-Baylor. 2010 Michigan-Illinois, last season's Washington-Baylor bowl game, this WVU-Baylor game...all these games are stupid and should not be celebrated. Yes, I know that I'm being the stereotypical BIG TEN MAN that Shutdown Fullback satirizes, but that type of football just isn't appealing. Say what you will about the relative quality of Ohio State and Michigan State, but I was actually engaged in that game, unlike this glorified arena derby. 

• Speaking of little defense...Texas and Georgia, teams occupying the "not Alabama but still ridiculously good" rung on the defensive hierarchy, both proved to be somewhat vulnerable this past week against Oklahoma State and Tennessee, respectively. I have to think that this was an outlier for both teams, but especially for Texas, who take on Oklahoma State 2.0 this Saturday (i.e. West Virginia). We shall find out if: a) Texas's defense is as good as previously thought and b) whether WVU's ridiculous offense works on the road, away from the scent of gunpowder and the Morgantown fog.