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Illinois vs. South Carolina

AikenGameFan

AikenGameFan

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So, what do you think?
Right now, they have us as 9.5 pt. favorites. Personally, I think they give Illini to much credit.
Looking at their stats, they really do not look like much. They beat Kansas, Nebraska, and Michigan when they were still ranked but none of them are in the top 25 now. They lost to Penn St., Oregon, and Minnesota.
Their offensive line has not done that good. They give up 2.5 sacks per game. They gave up 7 sacks against Penn. St.
I think our D will have a field day against them. Dylan Stewart will be covered a lot allowing Thomas to show he learned plenty filling in for Kennard this season. TJ and Tonka will have a great day too. I think we will have at least 5 sacks. Their QB only has 5 Int's but he gave up 2 in his last game against Northwestern when he was only sacked twice. I think once he is busy running from our DL he will throw a couple more.
Adaway is going to have his best day yet in this game. and Howell will finally show why being the FCS Freshman All-America and MEAC Rookie of the year can translate into being a good RB at the FBS level.
What do I think?
Gamecocks 42 Illini 13
And Ashford will get to play when we hit 35-6
 
AikenGameFan said:
So, what do you think?
Right now, they have us as 9.5 pt. favorites. Personally, I think they give Illini to much credit.
Looking at their stats, they really do not look like much. They beat Kansas, Nebraska, and Michigan when they were still ranked but none of them are in the top 25 now. They lost to Penn St., Oregon, and Minnesota.
Their offensive line has not done that good. They give up 2.5 sacks per game. They gave up 7 sacks against Penn. St.
I think our D will have a field day against them. Dylan Stewart will be covered a lot allowing Thomas to show he learned plenty filling in for Kennard this season. TJ and Tonka will have a great day too. I think we will have at least 5 sacks. Their QB only has 5 Int's but he gave up 2 in his last game against Northwestern when he was only sacked twice. I think once he is busy running from our DL he will throw a couple more.
Adaway is going to have his best day yet in this game. and Howell will finally show why being the FCS Freshman All-America and MEAC Rookie of the year can translate into being a good RB at the FBS level.
What do I think?
Gamecocks 42 Illini 13
And Ashford will get to play when we hit 35-6
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I hope you're correct on all accounts.
 
I would take that score right now. We played really well mid-season and not quite as well toward the end. I hope we play at mid-season form for the bowl game.
 
Shula calling the game, excited to see how play calling changes. Hopefully we don’t see 2 runs up the middle then a deep drop back play that takes 17 seconds to develop and requires Sellers to break 5 tackles…
 
carolina_corpsman said:
Shula calling the game, excited to see how play calling changes. Hopefully we don’t see 2 runs up the middle then a deep drop back play that takes 17 seconds to develop and requires Sellers to break 5 tackles…
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We haven't had a deep passing game all year, so seeing that in the bowl game would be a good sign, but I would also like to win said bowl game, too.
 
I did not expect Illinois to be as good defensively, credit the scheme as they seem to give multiple looks up front and we just missed on plays set up well.
I thought the 9 man fronts late in the game were sneaky wrinkle from Brett on offense that we struggled to find an answer. They continued to go to things that worked until they didn't and we tried to set up big plays. We let the refs and other coach effect our rythym on more than one occasion, seeming to try and get cute instead of take what the defense is giving imo
I will say that it amazes me how 5 grown men watched Illinois play 4 quarters of football and only saw them commit 2 penalties- 🙄🙄 not one for holding our DL or for pass interference/face guarding a pass catcher
 
@GMB2USC23 I agree. They played smart defensively and instead of coming after LS, they just zoned up and used their front. He never really pushed the ball downfield accurately and continued to take the dump off passes. LS looked confused and hesitant at times, almost human. The offense should have stopped the subs and went to the line immediately and not allow Illinois/refs to dictate the offensive pace. O didn’t adapt and just kept complaining about it. Even with the defensive struggles late to stop their running game, defense did enough to win the game for us. O just didn’t deliver the big plays we had become somewhat spoiled with late in the season. I wish we would have won but try to look for positives in anything. I hope this refocuses LS, the team, and the coaches for games that count next season. LS needs to work on timing with his WRs and QB coach and this game should give them all the more motivation to do that.
 
Defensively, Illinois schemed to to try and make Sellers beat them with his arm, and he couldn't do it. He consistently either overthrew receivers (early season issues) or threw low and behind receivers. I'm not sure what was going on with Sellers, as he just didn't look himself. There were at least 5 or 6 opportunities when he had clear running lanes which would have resulted in more yards than the short check-downs he instead chose. I hope Shulu isn't trying to turn him into a pocket passer. The reason he received a $2.7 million NIL deal for next year is because of his ability to scramble. As a pocket passer, he is at best an average quarterback.

Give Illinois credit, they completely owned our coaching staff. Now I think their substitution strategy was a complete gaming of the system and a douche move, but SC should have quit giving them the opportunity by finding a personnel package they could keep in the game -- maybe even go up-tempo. Additionally, I'm starting to get a little tired of Beamer ball...you are not surprising any teams anymore, and you're not executing perfectly to overcome their lack of surprise. There were multiple times this season when questionable coaching decisions just led to head scratching. I think we were in the redzone 3 times on Tuesday, and didn't come away with points -- that's just unacceptable in a close game.

Losing the chance for a 10 win season is a big miss for a historically mediocre football program. This one left me hurting.
 
They only gave up 21 points, but i think the defense let us down too. It was a team loss where we essentially needed one more play made by either special teams, offense, or defense and they all failed. We get the interception up 10-7 and our driving then Howell fumbles and they recover. Ensuing drive our defense the worst situation we put them in all drive is a 2nd and 10 and a 3rd 2 and 3rd and 1 that they easily convert, it was all way too easy. Our offense answers to retake the lead on their next drive. Next key play 3rd and 8 huge mistake by Kilgore he's in position to at worst knock the ball away but he fades on the play expecting the ball to come to him instead of attacking it which the receiver does for an uncontested catch. Now this was early in the 4th so maybe we find a way to lose anyway but once again after that play our defense was completely on their heels for the rest of the drive. It was essentially the only time we put them behind the chains their last 3 possessions which is incredibly disappointing for a defense that played so well all season even without Kennard and Emmanwori. We didnt get enough pressure, coverage wasnt good enough, and guys just didnt make enough plays.

In a general sense i look at this loss like the Notre Dame loss. Do we pat ourselves on the back like we did for the wins at the end of that season ignore the bowl loss and coast through the offseason or is the mentality like it was last offseason that we need to improve. The loss sucks but im not devastated by it because it should be a wakeup call that as fun as the 6 game winning streak was that we havent arrived yet and even if we had pulled it out in the end it still wasnt the endgame.

As for Sellers he didnt have his best game, we needed one more play from him and it didnt come. Same thing where he needs to improve and im fine with him checking it down at times but i also feel like others have stated that he needed to take off on some of those plays to put added pressure on the defense because he is our best running threat while there was at least one other time where he bought time had someone 1v1 deep and took a sack rather than taking the shot which i believe was the 3rd and 9 at midfield to open up the 2nd half. Thats a chance you need to take if you and the deep receiver are on the same page. That said the offense bounced back after that drive and moved the ball every time into scoring position only stopped by a fumble on a 1st down screen and two imo bad passes to open receivers in the endzone on our final drive. So in that sense as sound as their defensive gameplan was, we executed well down the stretch, we just didnt take care of the ball when we were up 10-7 then it was two inaccurate passes by Sellers on 2nd down and 4th down that would have been touchdows. That just requires work to be better the next time youre in that situation next season.
 
Looking past the CFPs, only Mizzou, Ole Miss, and LSU won their bowl games if I am counting right.

Sark should be COTY if the Longhorns go all the way.
 
kingofnerf said:
Looking past the CFPs, only Mizzou, Ole Miss, and LSU won their bowl games if I am counting right.

Sark should be COTY if the Longhorns go all the way.
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The bowl games are no longer relevant, they do not mean what they meant 10-20 years ago when all but one or two were still just extra practice and a reason for fans to go party in FL, Vegas or celebrate butter at the Blue Bonnet Bowl on top of keeping momentum into next year and recruiting.
Better teams will have players with business decisions to make, concerning the draft, transfers, early recruits...the NIL effect. These teams will use it like practice and teams like South Carolina that had serious CFP considerations will have remorse, no excuse as Illinois, Ole miss and others felt the same, it's just not a apples to apples on the field imo.
I will say being able to add wrinkles and surprises per game is going to become a thing again imo or coaching 🤔 it will be nice to see teams not do the same thing every game, just different uniform as the talent gets spread out some...
Continuity and coaching a system, culture that you can throw wrinkles to get the other coach guessing, to be able to poke and prod for weaknesses in multiple ways and then be able to go at it in multiple ways when you find it while being confident you have a few plays you set up along the way. Loggains seemed to have found that with Sellers, Shula didn't call one play back to back in a different formation after exploiting that D... or better yet call the same play that was wide open after we missed it because it was wide open and the head scratcher was just quit subbing but if this is regular season or CFP those happen because we don't treat it like a practice...imo
 
kingofnerf said:
The NCAA needs to standardize its officiating across all FB leagues now.

The time has come.
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The time has come and gone... the NCAA should have got its act together long ago instead of having it's leash pulled by blue bloods of power... like notre dame who still pull the Jesus card or tobacco road or name the Purse of the month- looking at you Oregon and Phil Knight or Texas.
ESPN and the SEC are no different as they propagate to the highest bidder, turn a blind eye to one while happily throwing another under the bus... the almighty dollar busts in and ruins it all! High School and Olympics are not even righteous anymore but I love them all as much today as yesterday, they are just different!!
 
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Here is the sad thing,
NIL is the result of a Supreme Court decision. In July 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the NCAA could not prohibit student athletes from profiting off education-related payments.
But this is not going to stop there. Some young kid is going to get their parents involved and fight for NIL money in high schools. And high schools really cannot afford it without getting the counties to raise taxes.
My Daughter left school 18 years ago but I still pay taxes for schools. Maybe I could sue them for making me pay for schools my family no longer uses. I could fight it to the Supreme Court and blame them for letting this happen.
Seriously, I do not mind having to pay to help schools keep going. I just hate all the .01 cent option taxes. In Aiken they have different ones making our taxes be 8 or 9%; I don't even remember. I guess I should look at the receipt.
I just think NIL was wrong.
People talk about how the Bowls don't mean much anymore. Well, there is no such thing as amateur sports in college anymore. If a college pays enough, they will get a team talented enough to get in the CFP.
 
@GMB2USC23 and @AikenGameFan - I agree with both of your posts and you raise some excellent points. However, it seems that everything was basically fine and overlooked when the coaches, universities, conferences, tv networks, boosters, we‘re getting all the $. I’m not sure who should be paid what and by whom, but I do think about players like Marcus Lattimore who gave the school and fans both knees and got very little back for that. I’m sure there are many many other like him that came before all this. I wonder about the many players that left school early on the poor guidance of others that they would be drafted or picked up by pro teams. Many never were and had hired an agent, lost eligibility, etc. There’s no good answer and clearly not putting that genie back in the bottle but there has to be a balance. I just wish it were somehow better controlled and monitored, as well as tied to education and academic standing. Otherwise, this is basically minor league sports at best. Such as mess.
 
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