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Mike Hall's Bio: Mike Hall does it all: He anchors "Big Ten Tonight," reports from sidelines during Big Ten games and serves as host of the Friday Night Tailgate. He also blogs right here and posts his very own video reports. |
| Oct 6 2009, 4:51 PM | Topic: Campus chatter | ||||
Why should Illini fans be unhappy? Well, 1-3 doesn't make anyone that thrilled. Ya just gave up more than 330 yards rushing to Penn State. The week before you couldn't score a point. And you started the season losing your fifth straight game in your most important non-conference rivalry… in a game you were a seven-point favorite. Why should Illini fans be a bit more forgiving? Look who you've played! Missouri (ranked 18th in the coaches poll) and Penn State (12th) and Ohio State (8th). Those teams have a combined record of 12-2 (and those two losses came against teams currently ranked 7th and 14th!) Not that easy to score on those cats either. Out of 120 teams, Missouri is 21st in scoring D giving up only 15 points a game, Ohio State is 8th and Penn Sate is 7th. My point is… those teams are good! How many teams in the country could beat all three of those teams… maybe 10?! Here's another way to look at how odd their brutal schedule to begin the season has been. Illinois is the first non-title defending conference team since Michigan State in 1975 to start its conference play with the two defending Big Ten champs. However, the Illini upcoming schedule is Michigan State (Scoring Defense ranked 64th), Indiana (63rd,) Purdue (92nd.). I don't think any part of their remaining schedule is a cakewalk. And I'd be stunned if they went undefeated. But it certainly gets easier. And if they did win the rest of the way, they'd be 9-3 with three pretty decent losses. Perhaps a bigger question is whether Eddie McGee is the right man to start for the orange and blue at quarterback. He's been named the starter for this weekend. Our pal Adam Rittenberg described it as a desperate move at a desperate time. And that's a pretty good way of stating it. Cause, what if Eddie doesn't play dramatically better… can they possibly go back to Juice? How will that resonate in the locker room? And if McGee does play better, don't the stats I mentioned previously about how good the defenses Illinois played and how less impressive the upcoming ones will be matter? Switching gears, how about a quarterback who's younger but having a better season. Tate Forcier. I understand why some people are tired of the praise this young man's been receiving - cause there's been a lot. And despite the fact that some friendly Spartan fans sent my Twitter account some tweets my way after Saturday's game stating their unhappiness that I was impressed with the freshman's fourth-quarter drive, I still would like to point out some numbers: 11-16 for 121 yds, three touchdowns. Plus, six carries for 39 yards. Those are Forcier's statistics in the final drives of the late game situations against Notre Dame, Indiana and Michigan State. Not bad. Let alone for a froshy. Yes, his team lost this weekend, but he's still an impressive player to watch. And I think any Big Ten fan will look forward to see how he handles things in the blackout version of Kinnick this Saturday. Which defensive player has been most impressive thus far? How about a battle between Michigan State's Greg Jones and Minnesota's Nate Triplett. Triplett has a couple of picks and a couple of fumble recoveries, and is 8th in the nation in tackles, with 56. Jones is 2nd in the country with 60 tackles. FINAL NUGGET: I feel I need to apologize to America. This summer when we went to Iowa City, I saw Hawkeye QB Ricky Stanzi growing a sweet, thick beard. So, I had to comment on it and let him know how awesome I thought it was. Then, promptly before the first game of the year, he shaved it. This saddened me greatly. Well, this week I had a chance to talk to him again and addressed the pressing issue with him (watch the video to the right). He said I was the REASON he shaved it off! He said I made him self-conscious. Gah—I hurt the thing I love! I tried to explain it to him that those who CAN grow facial hair successfully have a responsibility to those of us who can't to let it grow plentifully. He said he'll try to keep growing it out, and then he said that if they keep winning I can take the credit for it. Ok, I will. |
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