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Expectant

I think I can officially say that I've never experienced a game like the 2024 Citrus Bowl. It's April 22nd and it's just not going away. I can't recall a game with so many residual effects. And I've been doing

97 Minutes: Position Groups

I'm in Idaho at the moment. Actually, at this exact moment, I'm in charge of watching my grandson while he takes a nap. The nap will likely be an hour and a half. I have this little monitor here with both video and sound so I

I'm Not Mad, I'm Just Disappointed

In 1997, less than a year into my Landscape Architecture career, I learned a valuable lesson. After graduating from Illinois with my Landscape Architecture degree in May of 1996, I spent seven months at one firm in downtown St. Louis and then moved to a different firm out in the

Recharging Batteries

This is your yearly reminder that I write on an inspiration basis. I am a columnist without a newspaper. A features writer who should be writing features alongside actual news stories except there's no actual news stories here. I do write game articles, obviously, but they're

The Language Of Football

When I was a kid, I had a penpal from Japan. If you're not familiar with penpals, well, this is going to be very difficult to describe in the digital age. Before you could grab your iPhone and FaceTime with someone in Japan with just a few taps

FamILLy Ties

It has taken me 48 hours to form this article in my head. It's one of those posts that has a maybe 25% chance of coming out like I'm hoping it will. I'll have to walk the thin line between observer and fanboy and

Mid-Spring Three-Deep

Time to update the ol' three-deep. I've been to three open sessions at practice (stretching and special teams work, mostly) plus the full open practice last Friday night so I think I'm ready to do some depth chart guessing. And I have to say... this

Walking In Memphis

I got off the train and put my bag on a bench. Grabbed my phone from my pocket to hail the Uber. This trip is a train to Memphis, then an Uber to the rental car place, then a rental car to the golf course, and then repeat the process

97 Minutes: Spring Football

I've said for nearly a year now that I need to write more short articles. Lately, when I flip on the writing switch, it takes me at least four hours to write something. Some of those NERDstat articles for football were pushing 15-18 hours last fall with one

State Of The Union 2025

I view this as the start of the offseason. Yes, there's still Illini sports to cover. The NCAA Golf regional is in Champaign (actually Urbana) this year. I want to get to a few baseball and softball games. But for the "I travel to every game, home

Reseating

I've been working on an Illini State of the Union address today but I've spent 75% of my time researching (and tweeting about) the reseating process that's going on right now. I finally just gave up on the State of the Union (I'

Boston And Orlando

My mind is still right there. I'm in Boston looking up at a scoreboard that says "Sweet Sixteen" and I'm in Orlando looking at the "I". You don't have to worry - this won't be a football post.

Out Like A Lamb

With around 10 minutes left in the second half tonight I got this text from my wife: “Wow - stressful game huh?” First off you gotta love wholly out of context sports texts from your well intentioned, but adorably under informed wife. Secondly, she could not have been more wrong.

It Was Always Kentucky

I will now tell you the Illini NCAA history that you don't know. You know Austin Peay in 1987 and you know Loyola in 2021 and you know Arizona in 2005 and you know Syracuse in 1989. You might even know Kentucky in 1984 because it was the