Illinois 27, Indiana 14…

BLOOMINGTON, IND. — For the last five seasons, Illinois made more than enough marks in the school history books. The bad side of the books.
But with Saturday’s win at Indiana, the Illini are starting to balance those ledgers  and the Ron Zook reclamation project continues to look better and better.
Here’s a sample of what Saturday’s [...]

Anyone care to relive 2004-05?

Since we’re starting to build a little bit of an audience here (and the start of college basketball season is just around the corner), I thought I’d reprint all 39 game stories from Illinois’ 2004-05 season.
Well, to be specific, these are the versions that I sent into the Daily Herald. Usually they ran verbatim, but [...]

Jerrance Howard is the man…

Illinois finally announced its poorly held secret on Wednesday: Jerrance Howard replaces Tracy Webster on Bruce Weber’s coaching staff.
For anyone who’s curious why Howard got the job, seeing as how he’s just 27 and hasn’t been anything more than a Director of Basketball Operations to this point, check out this nugget I found in my Daily Herald archives.
This was published [...]

Illinois 21, Western Illinois 0…

Illinois’ extended goose-egg shortage has come to an end. Crappy lede, I know, but it’s after 11 p.m. and we’re clearing out of the Memorial Stadium press box.
Illinois’ defense took advantage of a Western Illinois offensive game plan that would make Dubya look liberal (I know, tortured political cliche) and posted the school’s first shutout [...]

Webster’s gone…now what?

There wasn’t a good time for Illinois assistant coach Tracy Webster to leave for bluegrassier pastures. As the Illini’s point man in Chicago, as well as a guy who made connections from coast-to-coast, he was the closest thing the Orange and Blue had to a star salesman.
But for Webster to leave Illinois for Kentucky on [...]

Mizzou 40, Illinois 34…

ST. LOUIS — Once again, Illinois suffers through a loss that can either be viewed as the same old stuff or as another sign that wins are just around the corner.
Considering the Illini played the final 40 minutes with a redshirt freshman quarterback making his collegiate debut, there deserves to be an asterisk next to [...]

Ugly, ugly, ugly

It seems impossible, but Illinois hit the trifecta of worst-case scenarios in the first half of today’s game with Missouri.
1) Juice Williams gets knocked out of the game: Williams got sandwiched with a pair of helmet-to-helmet blows and left with 10:15 left in the second quarter. He walked to the locker room, towel over his [...]

Live from the Dome…

It’s 15 minutes before gametime and the Marching Illini are highstepping on the field. The Illini came out in orange jerseys (much better than Syracuse’s duds on Thursday) and white pants.
The stands are a little more than half-filled and it appears to be slightly more gold and black than orange and blue.
Here are the guys [...]

At last…GAMEDAY!

Nine months and 13 days since Illinois’ last game — a time filled with five-star recruiting, apartment burglarizing, defensive-coordinator ditching and optimism rising — Ron Zook’s fellas finally take the field today. Good seats, apparently, still available.
If I was a betting man — and I’m not — I might skip trying to pick a winner [...]