88 Illini: #8-#5
I believe that I'm going to write more than 10,000 words today. It was a rough day yesterday connecting my brain to my fingers, but today I've been in a good groove with the preview. It comes out on Monday, and after yesterday I was behind, but I think I'm on pace once again.
Let me do the very difficult math real quick. I believe I wrote around 8,500 words on the preview today, so if this post reaches 1,500, that's 10,000 words. That has to be a personal record. Of Mice And Men is 29,000 words, so I wrote one-third of Of Mice And Men today. Take that, John Steinbeck. I could have written your book in three days. (I couldn't have written his book in 30 years.)
I'd also like to note that this is a terrible business plan. We're eight days from the most anticipated Illini season in 35 years and I'm writing nothing on the website. I could break up the preview into 30 individual posts and it would probably drive subscriptions. But I don't do that. I go silent on the website for nearly a full week, I put out no content during a week where there's this massive thirst for content, and then I email all the work I've done in secret to only the upper tier IlliniBoard subscribers. And then I sleep for two days.
Let me know if you want me give a lecture on smart business practices, Gies.
I still love it, though. This kind of brain dump fits me perfectly. I am a ruminator, and ruminators make the best football preview writers. My thoughts drift to the negative, I fight them off with intentional positive thinking, and then I write about that back-and-forth struggle. The process helps me understand the team, and writing about it helps you understand the team, and that makes me happy.
Should it be a series of posts on the website instead of a PDF? Probably. But there's something about that thicc PDF that just feels right. Whenever a new subscriber says "Robert, I can't even get through this thing", I still know that there are people out there – nerdly people – who read it like I used to read my sports almanac as a kid. I can provide something they connect with like that, and that makes me happy.
Anyway, the preview comes out Monday. It's gonna be a long one. 80% of you will hate it.
20% of you will print it out and use a highlighter.
8. James Thompson Jr.
Defensive Lineman
Uniform number: #90
Year in school: Senior (1 year to play 1)
Height: 6'-6" – Weight: 310 lbs.
Hometown: Cincinnati, Ohio
High School: Roger Bacon HS
Transfer from: Wisconsin
Background
