“You play to win the game…Hello?”
Herman Edwards after a particularly galling New York Jets loss.
Bret Bielema went 8-5 in 2022.
He did so with Lovie Smith’s players.
That’s a bitter pill to swallow.
It shines a brighter light on roster construction. It also raises questions about the future of a program that could “mediocre” its way back to obscurity in the shadow of conference realignment.
So how did we get here?
We reveled in the fool’s gold of the first eight games of last season.
It was a glorious time to be an Illini fan.