Wistrom Disciple

This seems to be lost on the group of fans hemming and hawing for coaching changes six games into this season. Unfortunately, people see what other coaches do in their first year and assume that the success is sustainable and that every year they'll be plucking five stars out of the portal. What they often overlook is that many of the best programs in the country have a continuity within their coaching staff which has allowed them to develop into perennial powers.

The focus should always be on sustained success and improvement. Many coaches have benefited from inheriting talented rosters or finding splash recruits early to earn them praise. Numerous examples including: Mel Tucker, any Florida coach since Urban Meyer, Auburn, Texas A&M, etc. The challenge is building the program into a sustainable model that can be replicated year after year. Those are harder to find: Ryan Day, Harburgh, Saban, Smart with a few others in the conversation. Our key is to find continuity with the coaching staff and players that focuses on development and sound game strategy with excellent fundamentals. As @ColoradoHusk mentioned, coaches being on the same page and a consistent message and strategy could go a long ways. However, that may take a year or two to sink in to where every player on the team is working in unison. Hopefully we can continue building this year and see more success as the year goes on. For a local example: it is unquestionable that Pelini inherited a lot of talent from Callahan's staff. The key that made Pelini a really good coach was that he was able to maintain success with his own recruits and developed many into professional players. -- I still think his success is underrated as he did so while switching conferences and recruiting footprints.

Haarberg is a decent athlete and can help the team. Am I convinced that his best spot is at QB? Absolutely not. However, we have three scholarship QBs right now with the most experienced of the three working back from an injury. IMO Sims presents the best chance for success later in the year, but I understand the argument against him right now. While I understand the rush to judgment of the coaches, I think the requests to replace are ill-advised at this stage. Rhule is heavy on development and we're seeing improvements, even in the O-line... as much as some would make you believe otherwise. Is there room for improvement? Absolutely. However, had we been told that we would average rushing 200 yards per game (avg. 5 yards per attempt) through the first six games, most would be pumped with those numbers. Add in the fact that we lost Sims, Ervin, & Johnson, the accomplishment becomes a little more impressive. The sky isn't falling, the rest of the schedule has flaws so we're doing alright. Should be a fun rest of the year.

… Sims had the long TD run against Colorado. Hard to call HH equally “good” after the past two weeks. Coin toss at best

We watched the same game? Haarberg had poor judgment for nearly the entire second half. He was very lucky to not have more turnovers. Joe Ganz had better situational awareness and didn’t try to overextend himself very often. HH lacks the former and constantly does the latter, should just slide or fall down instead of turtling when he has nowhere to go at the line of scrimmage.

- Illinois might be in the coaching search business sooner than later. Bert doesn’t look happy and his team looks bad in all phases. - the Bye week comes at the absolutely perfect time. We need to heal up a whole host of players - Haarberg survives another week as the starter. I cannot tell if he’s improving or simply improvising. Each step forward seems to be followed by a step or two backwards. Ultimately we are winning which is most important, but man are we getting lucky.

HIP HIP

Haarberg dropping the snap on the first play put us behind the chains. I understand the frustration with Sims, but HH does not look like he's ready to be the starter and finish games. Plenty of opportunities today and has looked largely unimpressive.

You mean as a tight end?

Gotta love when that happens!

Haarberg couldn't hit him with the passes in the first half. They're trying to find ways to get him the ball with a limited passing threat.

I didn't mind the play calls as receivers were open and the line was giving him quite a bit of time. I did not like the decision making coming from the gunslinger. And based on Rhule's reaction after that third down pass, he also didn't like Haarberg's decision-making. FWIW, I didn't mention Sims or 2-minute drill. Haarberg is going to need to hit some more passes if we hope to get our run game going. They have stuffed Grant and Johnson as the first half progressed. If we hope to be able to continue running, we need some of the passes to connect and soften up the defense.

Which part was nope? The coaches being unhappy or HH making bad decisions? That said, I agree that we should have ran, but the play developments looked decent. We just didn't have a QB in who could complete those passes.

Let's not blame the wind for poor decisions by the QB there. Overthrew Kemp twice and the sidearm motion is just asking for the defense to pick him off. That said, the coaches should have taken the ball from his hands and just run it up the gut to get to halftime.

That was more on HH... coaches unhappy with his decision making.

You two gave me a good laugh back to back. He's made some good plays today, lucked out on a few more. We're very lucky Illinois looks more NIU and not Michigan.

Just leaning on the goal line... HH needs to keep the legs moving, that is a basic.

I don't think that was broken, I think that was by design. By HH never pitches it so the defense is keying in on hitting him. He hesitated and they hit him at the line.

A lot of drop back passes in a row. Need to keep running at them and not fall in love with the pass.

Fair point, our defense did have to regularly face 80+ plays a game so the new clock-eating offense this year has helped us a lot this year on defense.

Erik Chinander strongly approves this message.

Extending that steak without being shut out... looks like we've already won the day fellas (and ladies)!

Both penalties on Teddy, otherwise they've been looking solid to start today.

Haarberg looking more confident to start today, nice to see.

Van Poppel getting some early PT, nice to see some of the new guys getting in and making some impact plays. I think Rhule might have some of Bo's eye for talent in him. Cam, Van Poppel, Princewell look very promising at this stage.