Leatherneck Nation

Gene Honda Booming from the South end zone has in the past two outings against the Leathernecks been enough to intimidate the Leathernecks into zero points. Guess that's why they employ his services.

No, the Fighting Illini are not a very good P5 team.

WIU Sticking Together As They Prepare for Next Test.

From WGEM Sports:
http://www.wgem.com/story/39025262/2018 ... -next-test

I am very nervous with this game, not because I don't think we can beat Illinois but because we need to win. Montana will be tough next week too and being 2-1 or dropping both games to the Montana school with a FBS school win would keep us in the mix. If we lose all three of our non-conference games we will probably have to win out or only lose one conference game to make the playoffs. I bring up UM because they will be better than UofI.

I root for the hometown 'Necks every game except this one when they travel to play my Alma and the flagship U. I honestly wish both teams didn't have to play these games. I get the $$ aspect of it, but beyond that, it doesn't benefit anyone.

I'm a Lovie fan. I think he coaches the right way and progress will be slow, but steady, from this year forth for the Illini under him. They looked terrible in the first half last week, but the talent and potential is much better than years prior through my orange tinted glasses. The problem is, the whole B1G is better and deeper too. If this Illini team isn't as good as the 2015 version, I'd be disappointed.

On the other hand, I don't think this WIU team is as good as their 2015 version, and we know how that game ended up. I'm very much in a "wait and see" holding pattern on WIU this year; I thought they did some things well last week and other things not-so-well. Q Moon and the guys in front of him better come to play this week or it won't be pretty, particularly if it rains.

40-10 IL is my prediction in a wet one.

Saturday's latest forecast for Urbana-Champaign:

Periods of rain. Becoming windy in the afternoon.
High = 67.
Winds: ENE at 20-30 mph.
3-4 inches of rain expected. Locally heavy rainfall possible.

wiu712 wrote: Fri Sep 07, 2018 8:52 am Saturday's latest forecast for Urbana-Champaign:

Periods of rain. Becoming windy in the afternoon.
High = 67.
Winds: ENE at 20-30 mph.
3-4 inches of rain expected. Locally heavy rainfall possible.

Just FYI, the weather forecast that's shown in the first post actually gets automatically updated every 10 minutes up until gametime.
That's this bit:

I expect a very tough game. A win would be nice and is within reach. I think we will need to pound the ball on ground better than we did in Montana. Long sustained drives mixing up the pass and run well and controlling the line of scrimmage throughout is always the key. IMO, we started out well in Bozeman probably because we had a good script of plays going into the game and our guys executed it well. After the script was over and play calling became "on the fly", we seemed to struggle. Urbana is much closer to sea level, maybe even feeling like playing on a sea at times because of the rain, so I expect our O and D lines to hold up a little better later in the game than they did out west. FYI, I noticed the altitude effects out there just walking up four flights of steps in the hotel, subtle but very noticeable.

I am a realist not a homer but hoping the ol' alma mater can prove me wrong.
Orange 27
Purple 21

Some more detailed TV info that could apply to some of you from the BTN website:
7:30: Western Illinois at Illinois
DISH - 588 (HD: 5441) Hopper: 405-2
DIRECTTV - 610-1 (SD/HD)
AT&T - 693 (HD: 1693)
Verizon FIOS - SD: 330

Comcast in Macomb - 65, 255 or 958, 1313 (HD) and BTN2Go
Looks like channels are similar for most Comcast users...for example, Aurora IL is channel 67, 255 or 256 (HD).
My brother-in-law in Sandwich, IL has the same...255 for SD and 256 for HD.

More info here: http://btn.com/btn-gamefinder/

Leathernecks move on from loss to Montana State.

From the McDonough County Voice:
http://www.mcdonoughvoice.com/sports/20 ... tana-state

Looks like I'll be listening to the radio.