We Love No Other

Hard to believe we're here. 19 wins in two years. Beat South Carolina in the Citrus Bowl and then beat Tennessee in the Music City Bowl. Just... hard to believe we're here. 

This FTS is From The Field. The very cold, slippery, snowy, awesome field. 8-4, baby. 

I recorded this on my drive to Wisconsin. So if you detect me being chipper here, it’s because the 27-10 loss hadn’t happened yet. But here’s me answering questions from Slack for 90 minutes. 

I'm flabbergasted. Confused. That's just not the kind of game we play against a 3-7 football team. This is me trying to process it for 17 minutes. 

Come for the football talk, stay for the old man ranting about children climbing on a howitzer. 

This is one of the more random From The Standses that I've recorded. It bounces around a lot. But I stuck my phone up to my face and recorded 20 minutes after a terrible loss. 

Not much you can say. We handed them the game on a silver platter. 

I paced for half of the third quarter and all of the fourth quarter. And, in a game where we were favored by 8.5, we won by 16. This whole "calmly win on the road with big plays" thing will require some adjustments on my part. 

It’s rather chaotic because I nearly passed out after the field goal went through but here’s ten minutes from the stands. 

There are no words. But here are some words about what has to be one of the worst losses by a top-10 team in the history of college football. 

I have no idea why this one is 15 minutes long. I didn't really say much of anything. But here's tonight's From The Stands. 

The shoe feels SO GOOD on this other foot. 

I hope you can hear me. The decision was made to make Club Memorial Stadium even louder this year, so... I hope you can hear me. Sixteen minutes from the stands after the Western Illinois game. 

I had to take my wife to the Indianapolis airport last minute. So with a two-hour solo drive back to Champaign ahead of me, I asked for questions on Twitter and Slack and then answered those questions from I-74. I restricted the questions to four categories: Illini football, Illini basketball, Illini golf, and my high school tennis career. 

Martin & I sat around my kitchen island talking about the 4-month celebration that was the 2024 Illini football season. 

I have no words. I'm still trying to figure out where this one ranks among greatest wins of my lifetime. So here I am wandering around for 24 minutes trying to talk about it. 

I tried to go on the field but they wouldn't let me (said my press pass wasn't one of those with field access. So I went back up in the stands and recorded this as the Illini fans came down to celebrate with the team near the dugout (yes, dugout). What a win. What a season. What an emotion. 

I knew I had to hit record immediately. So I recorded this one (very short) immediately after the final horn. I have no idea what just happened but I love it. 

The audio gets better after the first minute. Not much better, but better.This one is just me taking listener questions as I drive from Birmingham to Piscataway dodging snowflakes. 

Just a workmanlike win. It’s so comforting to watch a game like this. So I started talking about it with two minutes left in the game. 

I don't know why, but I started recording during our final drive attempting to tie the game. And then I just kept recording my thoughts immediately after the game. And then I walked out very sad. 

This one was From The Parking Lot as I was headed out. Went on the road, got thumped, showed we still have a long way to go to compete with the best of the best. Here's my ramblings as I sat in traffic. 

Sorry I'm so late with this. I tried and tried to upload it after the game but it just wouldn't go. But here's TWENTY NINE MINUTES of me wandering around on the field after the game. 

I have no idea what to say. As you will hear after these 22 minutes of ramblings. It’s the worst I’ve ever felt about a win and I have no idea how to process that. 

I thought I had an empty end of the pressbox so this From The Stands is From The Pressbox. But near the end, this Penn State media member starts pacing behind me (no idea why) so I get a little... scattered. It's just hard to gather your thoughts when someone is standing directly behind you while you're seated. Anyway, here's my thoughts after Penn State beats Illinois 21-7. 

That was rather fun. I wandered around the field afterwards trying to put it all in perspective. 

If you want to hear what it’s like inside my random brain, here you go. 

It’s not really From The Stands. It’s from the stands, and then from the stair tower, and then from the fire truck. Winner winner chicken dinner. 

Live from the stands after the Illini beat EIU 45-0 in the opener. 

Each year, Tyler and I record a postseason therapy session to discuss our latest NCAA Tournament loss. This year, after making the Elite Eight, there's not much "therapy" needed. It's more of a... celebration. 

I asked for questions on Twitter and Slack and then answered those questions as I drove to Omaha for the 1st & 2nd Round of the NCAA Tournament. I got to every single question, which is why this is 2 hours and 40 minutes long. 

It's March. There's a Big Ten Tournament and then an NCAA Tournament ahead for the Illini. So Will and I sat down to discuss the Illini in March, past and present. 

John Gasaway is writing his Bubble Watch columns again (the original and the best), so that's my signal each year to bring him on the podcast to talk Illini basketball. Thankfully, it's not the "do the Illini have a chance to make it to the right side of the bubble?" discussion it would have been in the 2010's.

I asked for questions on Twitter and then pressed record as I was driving from Columbus to Champaign in my (totally not stolen) rental car. I say "totally not stolen" because, well, just listen to the first five minutes. 

You might have seen Mitch Gilfillan offering legal clarifications regarding the Terrence Shannon case on Twitter. With the news today that Shannon has been granted his TRO against the University, returning him to the roster and the rotation, I spoke to Mitch this evening to ask maybe a dozen legal questions. This was very helpful for me - I hope it's helpful for you as well. 

I asked for questions on Twitter and Slack and then answered those questions live on the air. And then Carmen called me while I was recording so his phone call went in this pod as well. Also, I finished by playing some Richard Wagner through the car speakers and recording it with my laptop. As always, this is the finest podcast audio possible. 

I had noticed him the first half. A guy wearing an Ayo jersey in the front row of the Illinois section getting his entire section to stand up and make noise. I tweeted about it, and then I tweeted about it some more, and then, after the win, I went over to talk to him. That's this conversation.After that conversation, I wander through the arena back to my seat while rambling on and on about how good we might be. 

I waited 45 minutes to see if I even wanted to publish it. It's 22 minutes long. I went to the spot where I recorded the audio during Covid and I just kept talking and talking. So this is a warning. I think this the most painful loss of my lifetime (not with the most on the line, just the most pain I can experience), and people immediately reacted to that statement negatively on Twitter, and so I talked about all of that. There's no game analysis here. Just feelings analysis. You have been warned. I decided to publish because of the promise I made 14 years ago. From The Stands = my raw emotions the moment a game is over. These are those emotions. 

What can I say? We were all thinking it, and then what we were thinking happened. And for me, he happened inside a giddy Iowa pressbox. I went to find an empty room to record this... and I ended up right next to an Iowa celebration in the booth next door. That kind of day. 

Apologies for posting this late but my granddaughter was at the tailgate so I recorded this, ran directly to the tailgate without passing go, and didn't even think about posting this until 4 hours later. Here I am trying to process ~all of that~. 

85 yards. He came into the game on 4th and 11 with a minute left at his own 15 and he needed to lead his team 85 yards for the winning touchdown. That's the distance he needed to go in that photo right there. And it took him three throws. For maybe the second time in From The Stands history, I have a special guest for this one. Ladies and gentlemen, here's crazy Illini fan John Paddock joining me for the first four minutes of this 15 minute FTS. 

I convinced Carmen to join me on the train for this road trip. And since we had nothing better to do, I asked for questions on Twitter and Slack and Carmen and I spent some time in the observation car answering those questions. We're interrupted by the conductor on the PA about ten times, but in between those announcements, we got to most of the questions. Sorry about the audio quality but... we're on a train. 

Skip ahead. Seriously, just skip ahead a few times. I kind of find a point around the 10 minute mark but really it’s just 22 minutes of me lamenting that pouring your heart into a team leads to pain while pointing and laughing at your team (and mocking those who believe) is a much safer way to go. Also, I had to check the “explicit” button here because I drop my first-ever From The Stands F-bomb. It just slipped out. Sorry. 

Well this stomach bug might have kept me from attending but it wasn't going to stop me from recording From The Stands. I simply turned it FTS into From The Back Yard.Special guest: Lucy. 

This is a long one (18 minutes) but it was a lot to process. Lose 20-7 to Nebraska? 2-4 on the season? 0-3 in the Big Ten? A LOT to process. 

I did not see this coming. At all. Lose to a 1-3 Purdue team 44-19? What?This is me sitting in the stands trying to process it all. 

This From The Stands is from the field after the 23-17 win over Florida Atlantic. And the first half is just me blabbering about when to take a knee. But... a win. 

I needed a quiet spot so I went into the empty AD suite after the game and recorded FTS. 1-1 and I feel... not great, Bob. 

I couldn't be more exhausted. I nearly pulled my hair out. But I'm going to sleep soundly because of one great throw and one great catch. 

As we do before each season, Craig and I choose our guys. The categories:Keeper pickOffensive starDefensive starOffensive breakout playerDefensive breakout playerFuture star on the offenseFuture star on the defenseWalkon