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Illinois Football: North Carolina Game the Most Important Since 2008
When the Illinois football team defeated Murray State last week the fan base let a collective sigh of relief.
As an Illinois Fighting Illini fan, I joined in the excitement about kicking off the Lovie Smith era.
The sigh of relief after beating the Racers was not because they were a tough team. It was because, for the first time in a while, things went the Illini’s way.
For years now, Illinois fans have dealt with agony from their revenue-generating sports programs because things weren’t going their way.
One can go from the injuries on the basketball team to even the injuries on the football team. How about the bad calls by refs at the end of basketball games or a coach being fired a week before the season?
All of these bad things have happened to Illinois fans just in the last four years. But, the tides of positivity have started to turn in favor of the Illini.
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This transition all started with the Lovie hiring. After that hiring came the commitment of Jeremiah Tilmon for the basketball team.
Both of these occurrences in the last six months have helped bring joy and hope to the fan base.
But, that joy and hope has to continue on and the programs have to continue to build to sustain this momentum.
This is why the upcoming game against North Carolina means so much to this prideful Illinois fan base.
The Illini fan base is made up of many walks of life. There are the dedicated alumni that attended the University of Illinois and graduated with that proud degree.
Then there are the fans that grew up in some fashion rooting for the Illini because they were born with orange and blue blood.
You also have the displaced fans that had to move away for one reason or another but stay tried and true to the Illini.
No matter how you became an Illinois fan one attribute is shared by the entire fan base. We all just want to win.
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Lovie was brought in to win football games and to get this program back on track. As a fan, I got a sip of that against Murray State and now I want the whole drink.
This weekend marks arguably the biggest game for the Illini since the Rose Bowl back on January 1, 2008.
Has Illinois had big games since then? Yes, they played in three bowl games in which they won two of them.
But what meaning did those bowl games really have? It was fun seeing the Illini win back-to-back bowl games but they were just low-end games that solidified mediocrity.
There is a different feeling about this game against North Carolina, though. This game means more to me than any game I have seen the Illini play since that Rose Bowl massacre.
Illinois heads into the game against the Tar Heels to show that they are heading on the right track. To show the world that Illinois can compete with the more successful programs of late.
But more importantly, this game against North Carolina has the opportunity to show fans that the hope and excitement they are feeling towards this program is real.
To instill such great feelings into a fan base is one thing, but to keep those feelings going strong and to validate those feelings is a whole different ball game.
This weekend is crucial to the future of the program on and off the field.
The Illinois fan base needs to continue to have hope and excitement for their football team. Those feelings are real and this weekend they can be validated.
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