Secret Mailbag II

This is part two of me turning an email into a full-on mailbag post. But you don't want to read the first part. I already hate the first part. I took the question "what has surprised you the most since going full-time" and turned it into some long

Secret Mailbag I

Have a friend who has some friends who had some questions for me. I told him I'd just answer them all in a mailbag. So here are the questions that were emailed to me. And then my answers. Because it's a mailbag. And that's how mailbag posts go. First

Trading Halt

I promised myself - PROMISED MYSELF - that I would not buy any stock this time. Internally, I suspended all stock buying and selling. When Lovie was hired, his stock was trading in the single digits and then I purchased a bunch the next day at 55-something

Take Two

I just scrapped what I had been writing and started over. It's 2:12 am. So I don't know how many words I'll write about this game, but I feel like my opinion of the outcome changed a ton over the last hour. Take one was going in the wrong direction.

Run It Back?

I just want everyone to understand the dangers here. The dangers for me. I spent five years uttering the phrase "but in 2020...". It then fell flat on its face and I had to eat so much crow. And now a big portion of that 2020 roster is returning for a

On Or Off

I released some of my Illini basketball angst in the newsletter yesterday. Here's where my brain is this morning: "I don't think we're 'inconsistent' per se. I think we simply play at 95 or we play at 5. It's on or off. It's all or nothing." I need to

I Don't Know

With 15 seconds left to play, Illinois trailed Ohio State 83-81. After snoozing through yet another first half during which they trailed by as many as 18 points, the Illini had cut the Buckeye lead down to a single possession after an Adam Miller three

We Love No Other 4.14: Coach Bielema

Had the opportunity to have Coach Bielema on the podcast today. The first 12 minutes here are my thoughts on the first 27 days of the Bret Bielema era at Illinois. The final half hour is our conversation. We cover everything from a 30-minute conversation

An Attempt At A Depth Chart

Let's start with this: I really shouldn't be doing a depth chart yet. We still don't know if some seniors are returning or if they're leaving. And there will be several transfers coming in (and even a few more high school recruits). But the students

Looks Like University Of Illinois - Chase Hayden

I've decided that sometimes these posts will simply take a long time to put together. When making the move to doing this full time, I noted how I'll be able to evaluate recruits the moment they commit (and I have, sometimes), but other times I need to