Reflections

I was at the Smith Center yesterday for the Signing Day press conference. And something about being there – something about walking the halls – took my brain out of "during the season" mode and put me in "reflect back on the season" mode. I watched some game highlights last night. I went back and looked at some photos this morning. It's starting to sink in that we really did go 9-3.

So I figured I'd sit down today and just write. Everything during the season is so structured. I'm either writing about the game that just happened or the game coming up. I want this to just be random thoughts about this season. This nine and three season.

Defying Gravity

The lasting image of this season, for me, is the first image of this season. This photo, tweeted by the Illinois Football account the day after the EIU game, has stayed with me:

Why has it stayed with me? Mostly because of Pat Bryant. When I think of this season, I'm going to think of Pat Bryant. It's Bielema's fourth season, and his program is perfectly encapsulated by Pat Bryant. Here's the full list of seniors who arrived in the 2021 recruiting class (signed three days before Bielema got the job) and just completed their senior seasons:

1. Pat Bryant

End of list.

So this journey – from 5-7 and then 8-5 and then 5-7 again and now 9-3 – included Pat Bryant from the starting line to the finish line. Someone even reminded me last week that my From The Stands at Virginia in September of 2021 opened with me noting that the Illini media in attendance had just left the pressbox to go start the postgame process but I was staying in my seat because Pat Bryant was going to get some snaps and I wanted to see what the true freshman could do.

Why was I focused on Pat Bryant in 2021? Because I had given him my annual Asamoah Award in 2021. It is given to the recruit I believe to be ranked way too low in their class. There were a lot of Asamoah Award winners on the field this fall. I gave it to Seth Coleman in 2019 (and he was still here for his 6th year this fall). Pat Bryant in 2021. James Kreutz in 2022. Brandon Henderson in 2023. Joe Barna in 2024. (The one miss in there: I gave it to offensive lineman Kevin Tyler in 2020. He transferred to Prairie View A&M.)

So Pat was MY GUY in 2021 and I was excited to watch him at Virginia. And he progressed through each of his four seasons exactly like you'd want to see a player progress:

2021: 6 catches for 98 yards
2022: 34 catches for 453 yards and 2 touchdowns
2023: 43 catches for 560 yards and 7 touchdowns
2024: 54 catches for 984 yards and 10 touchdowns

His progression through The 90 Illini (my preseason rankings of each player):

#51
#27
#8
#1

There's no greater example of the exact progression you want through a college football program than Pat Bryant. Load every recruit into that machine and we could win 9+ games every year. The player gets better each year and then he's a team captain and 2nd Team All Big Ten (should have been 1st) as a senior. It's the machine that Wisconsin had running for 30 years (and then, for some reason, they decided to blow it up because Bret Bielema beat them 34-10 in Madison).

In the LLUOI article about Pat Bryant (and on Twitter), I kept sharing this play from his high school days. A receiver who has this kind of body control in high school should be a 4-star:

(They called him out of bounds which is why it says "they just robbed you dawg".)

This is what drives me nuts about recruiting evaluations these days. How could anyone watch a single play like that (float in the air like there's no gravity yet still get a foot inbounds) and say "yeah, that's the 142nd-best high school wide receiver." Come on, man. He had offers from Florida State, Penn State, Miami, Nebraska, etc. How do we have a system that shuffles that guy down to the 142nd-best WR just because he picked Illinois?

ANYWAY, Pat's senior season is yet another reason we should be excited about the Bielema era. That whole "come get developed" message that the coaches are always talking about in recruiting? Pat is the prefect example.

And I'm good with the choice to opt out of the bowl, Pat. Excited for your NFL future. Go be great.

(Can't wait to see what some of these underclassmen receivers can do in the bowl game.)

Par Excellence

This will be a short section. I just wanted to note something I've observed while covering this team over the last few years.

This is kind of a no-brainer, I guess – we're winning now, so obviously the staff is doing a better job than previous staffs – but I wanted to note the excellence put into everything. Maybe I can best describe it by talking about... calling an HVAC company to come work on your house. I'll use random Heating & Cooling companies as my example here. I've experienced three types:

1) The guy with his name on the truck

You can trust this guy. Find a good one, keep his contact information. But you have to understand that there are things just a little beyond his capabilities. There are modern thermostats that just aren't compatible with certain furnaces and AC condensers. And that guy, God love him, just isn't going to be up to speed on all of the newest bells and whistles.

2) The big company that's pretending

They have matching vans. The logo on the billboard matches the logo on the van matches the logo on the shirt. But it's a group of people wanting to make money, not a group of people wanting to fix furnaces. Everything is upsold. It's obvious that every technician is trained on The Seven Ways To Make The Company More Money When You Are At The Customer's Home. They're going for the appearance of a quality HVAC company, not an actual quality HVAC company.

3) The actual quality HVAC company

They care. That's really the only difference. They care what you think of them when they leave your house. They'd prefer you call them 5 times and they make 20% profit each time rather than one time at 70% upsold profit (leaving you angry and never calling again). They over-train their technicians. They care about who answers the phone because the owner just can't stand the thought of someone calling her company and not reaching someone with complete awareness of all HVAC issues. It's a pride thing more than it's a money thing. Do everything with excellence.

This staff is the first time I've observed #3 in an Illini football coaching staff. I've observed #1 (God love 'em) and #2 in Champaign. I can't recall another #3.

The video staff is excellent. Remember those "the sounds of football" videos during the preseason? They hire the best to put out the best even though it costs a fair bit to do that. There's a GM and a Chief Of Staff. All over the building, from the football things to the non-football things, there's been this "we must be excellent at everything we do" overhaul.

And, like Company #3 above, they care. You might get frustrated when Bret Bielema chases after an official who failed to flag a late hit on his quarterback at the end of the Minnesota game, but you cannot question how much he cares. It bothers him deeply when he doesn't get a fair shake. I've always wanted an Illini coach who would be bothered by the "oh, it's just Illinois" treatment from the rest of the Big Ten. He cares.

And that trickles down to every part of the program. Combine it with a similar focus from Josh Whitman and his overhauled DIA and I think we're all seeing the results of a focus on excellence. It matters deeply to Josh Whitman and Bret Bielema that Illinois has a winning football program. It would keep them up at night if we didn't. And that's not something I've been able to say the last few decades.

Excellence in, I don't know, putting together a helmet rotation for the 100th season in Memorial Stadium = excellence on the field. Focus on all of those things and the results will come.

9-3.

Best Five Moments. Wait, no - Five Best Moments

It should be Five Best Moments, right? I gotta be honest, I'm really torn here. I have this sense that Five Best Moments is the proper way to say this but Best Five Moments is still sticking around in my head. I really should have paid attention in English class.

Here's my Best Five Best Moments of the season. And I'm writing this section SOC-style so I'm not going to give it much thought. Shooting completely from the hip here.

5) The Alex Capka-Jones first down catch against MSU

You have to think about our collective nerves at that moment. We're Illinois fans. We've been conditioned to think that things will always go wrong. And when they started going wrong at the start of the Michigan State game we were all trying to surpress those "it's not happening again, right? Tell me it's not happening again" thoughts.

I'll set the scene. First off, after the 6-1 start, we had lost two in a row to Oregon and Minnesota. We're playing a bad Michigan State team and we're attempting to get our season back on track. We scored first, but then Michigan State scored a little too easily on that blown play where the receiver was open by 15 yards. They missed the extra point but there was a "it's not happening to us again, right?" nervousness around Memorial Stadium.

We put together a decent drive but then two false starts in three plays turns 2nd and 5 into 3rd and 15. We had been in field goal range but now we have 3rd and 15 at the 40. What happens? A 16-yard pass to Alex Capka-Jones, his first catch of his career, and a first down. Four plays later Josh McCray runs it in from 11 yards out and we never looked back. For the rest of the season. Beat Michigan State by 22, beat Rutgers, beat Northwestern.

4) The Xavier Scott pick-6 against Kansas

Man, what a terrible decision by the Kansas offensive coordinator. Talk about not understanding risk/reward. 3rd and 13 from their own 33 with 42 seconds left in the first half and they're throwing? What were they trying to achieve? Maybe pick up 40 yards and get into field goal range? All while risking 7 points going the other way?

7 points went the other way. Xavier Scott read the route and ran it back for a touchdown. Kansas was putting all of this risk into trying to make the halftime score 13-6 instead of 10-6 and instead they found themselves trailing 13-10. And our season was off to the races from that point forward.

3) Dylan Rosiek's sack to end the Nebraska game

I suppose I could just make this one "Dylan Rosiek's two sacks on the season" (one won the Nebraska game, the other won the Purdue game). But this is supposed to be "moments", and that would be two moments.

So I choose Nebraska. After nearly giving them an automatic-first-down penalty on 3rd and 42 the play before, I was not in any way convinced that the game was over when Nebraska had 4th and 29 in overtime. As an Illinois fan, I was fully convinced that we would give them an automatic-first-down penalty on 4th and 29. And I have 30 years of data to back up those fears.

Which means that the Dylan Rosiek sack to end the game sent me to my first (of many) "we didn't Illinois it away!" feelings of the season. It's going to take a lot to remove all of those triggers from my sports brain, but this season went a long way towards our collective healing. Close game after close game, win after win.

2) Pat Bryant's touchdown at Rutgers

This would normally be #1 because it was the biggest play of the year. 4th and 13, 14 seconds left, a free wind test thanks to Greg Schiano, and then a 40-yard touchdown to PB13. But I have something else I'm saving for #1.

I feel like this one needs no description? It happened less than two weeks ago. You might have forgotten the circumstances of Xavier Scott's pick-6 but you haven't forgotten Pat Bryant's "go down go down go down GO GO GO" touchdown. Let's move on to #1.

1) Lighting the I after the Michigan win

So five friends and I bought a fire truck. We painted it orange, put graphics on it, and drove it to Lot 31 for each and every game. I had no idea how much work would go into this (I'm the only one of the six of us who lives in Champaign, so I'm the default driver), but I loved every single moment with it this fall.

And what a season to buy a fire truck for tailgating. Seven tailgates with nearly perfect weather. Six wins and one loss. Early morning coffee around the fire truck and late night dance parties around the fire truck. Sorry if you heard the siren too much.

One part of the fire truck is the LED "I" that one of the fire truck owners made. You can see it here in this photo from when we were setting up at the Eastern Illinois game:

That "I" is ONLY LIT IF WE WIN. We do not light the I if we lose. So for six games this fall, we got to come out to Lot 31 and light the I.

The very best moment: Michigan. I still think about it all the time (honestly). We beat Michigan. I wander around the field in a daze. I swing by the press conference and then I head out to the tailgate. I filmed myself as I walked up because deep down I think I'm some kind of influencer millennial who has to film everything he does:

I mean, look at that setting. Sun going down on the 100th anniversary of the Red Grange Game. We just beat defending national champion Michigan 21-7 in the 217. And there's my wife, two of my kids, and a hundred friends all gathered around the fire truck to celebrate the win (set against the perfect sky).

It's going to be very, very hard to top that moment. I'll end this article with one last video. And you'd be so embarrassed for me if I told you how many times I've watched it. Late at night, I'll be getting ready for bed and I'll pull it up to watch it two or three more times just to feel it all again.

We light the I on top of Engine 77, the gathered crowd cheers, and then the six of us (the ones who paid for the damn thing) all started an I-L-L chant while our overly dramatic music continued to play.

9-3. Citrus Bowl. Michigan demons defeated.

I-L-L