A number of people in SEC nation have been saying it.
It wasn’t 9-3 Alabama that will’ve had an sincere likelihood to go all the best way within the Faculty Soccer Playoff. It wasn’t 9-3 Ole Miss, both.
It was 9-3 South Carolina, which was taking part in lights-out ball — proper up there with Texas and Georgia, for positive — because the common season ended.
When it takes the sector Tuesday in opposition to the Gamecocks within the Citrus Bowl (2 p.m., Ch. 7), Illinois, additionally 9-3, could have its arms greater than full. The Gamecocks completed fifteenth within the playoff rankings (14th AP), to the Illini’s twentieth (twenty first AP), however a double-digit level unfold speaks extra clearly to the perceived hole between these groups.
Buzz in regards to the Gamecocks grew steadily over their final seven video games. The primary of these was a 27-25 loss at Alabama, when 4 turnovers by the guests — who outgained the Crimson Tide and pushed them round lots — couldn’t be overcome. After that, nothing however “Ws.” The Gamecocks blew the doorways off Oklahoma, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt. They received at playoff-bound Clemson. They went from 3-3 to, “Get a load of us.”
Two of their greatest gamers received’t be in uniform at Tenting World Stadium. Main rusher Raheim Sanders and dominant go rusher Kyle Kenard, who received the Nagurski Trophy because the nation’s high defensive participant, have opted out, as did Illinois’ greatest participant, vast receiver Pat Bryant.
However the greatest star on both group will likely be on the market, and that’s Gamecocks quarterback LaNorris Sellers. The SEC freshman of the yr is constructed like a linebacker — he’s 6-3, 242 — however throws and runs so properly that many already think about him one of many favorites for subsequent season’s Heisman Trophy. Consider Alabama’s Jalen Milroe — or, heck, Justin Fields — solely with much more weight and pressure behind the shoulder pads.
“I noticed one play in opposition to Clemson the place it was like a cartoon,” Illini security Miles Scott mentioned. “4 dudes have been on high of him, and he simply escaped out of it and ran for like 30 years after. So he’s positively an issue. Numerous the quarterbacks we’ve seen are proficient for positive, however LaNorris Sellers is in a special class.”
The Gamecocks additionally rank fifteenth within the nation in whole protection. They’re an entire group and definitely much better than any opponent Illinois has overwhelmed.
On that be aware: Although this isn’t a playoff recreation — and the playoff leaves little oxygen for anything — a win could be Illinois’ greatest and greatest in a bowl recreation in no fewer than 35 years.
The Illini’s bowl report because the 1989 group beat Virginia proper right here within the Citrus Bowl isn’t a lot to have a look at. It features a Texas Bowl win in opposition to five-loss Baylor in 2010 and a Kraft Struggle Starvation win a yr later over a UCLA squad that really went into that recreation with seven losses.
The Tim Beckman years produced one bowl look, a 2014 Coronary heart of Dallas loss to Louisiana Tech, a group so harmful it had misplaced to Northwestern State and Outdated Dominion. The Lovie Smith years produced one bowl look, too, a 2019 Redbox loss to California, which had gone from September 21 till November 9 with out profitable a single recreation.
Bret Bielema’s 2022 Illini completed with eight wins after shedding to Mississippi State within the ReliaQuest Bowl. One may argue about whether or not or not the Illini are higher now than they have been then, however a tenth victory would finish any argument in a loud and everlasting means.
“I feel to get to 10 wins is an enormous deal in school soccer, irrespective of the way it comes about or what performs into it,” Bielema mentioned. “Any time you will get to that mark — I’ve been capable of do it [at Wisconsin] as a coach — I feel that units your group aside in school soccer.”
The 1989 group is in that class. Ranked No. 11 in a conflict of two-loss groups in opposition to No. 15 Virginia, a co-champion of the ACC, the Illini rolled 31-21 because the monstrously proficient Jeff George threw for 321 yards and three touchdowns. It was Illinois’ first postseason win because the 1964 Rose Bowl.
This group has had its enjoyable on this journey. They caught a Magic recreation. They visited Common Studios. They inhaled untold kilos of steak at Fogo de Chão. It’s all properly deserved.
However there’s a recreation to play, a really robust one. Will it’s a cheerful New Yr’s Eve? That may be one thing.
