Seven straight coaches with losing records, spanning 32 seasons. Back-to-back bowl appearances only once in all that time, in Ron Zook’s final two campaigns — 2010 and 2011 — which didn’t save him from being fired. Eighteen losing seasons in the last 22. Three 10-win seasons — 1983, 1989 and 2001 — in the lifetimes of the very oldest Illinois fans on the planet, whoever they are.
We could go on citing Illini football trends, all of them negative, that paint a picture of a bleak, barren landscape — with an all-too-often half-empty Memorial Stadium at its center — that’s been that way for far too long, but why belabor it? It would be news to no one.
