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CHAMPAIGN — An impressive crowd filled Memorial Stadium on Friday night for Illinois football’s season opener against Western Illinois.
Not one of the multiple sellouts already on the books this season, but still impressive.
A crowd that produced one of its biggest pops during the first timeout of the first quarter. Not for what was happening between the Illini and Leathernecks on the heels of a turnover on downs by WIU, but for the 2004-05 Illinois men’s basketball team back together at its old stomping grounds for the first time in 20 years.
Safe to say their accomplishments — a second straight Big Ten title, national runner-up finish and an eye-popping 37-2 record — still resonate with the Illinois fan base.
“The love is strong, but I get it,” former Illinois forward Roger Powell Jr. said. “I’m coaching at (Valparaiso), and I’ve got Illini fans at my games. Everywhere I’ve been, they love us.
“I think they love us because, obviously we all stuck together, and we did something special. My team, I told them where I was coming. I said, ‘Guys, we want to bring you back to Valpo because you’ve done something special.’ If you do something special — if you grind together and you win — fans appreciate you. That’s what we did, and it’s a blessing.”
Dee Brown put it simply. Win at Illinois and “you become a rock star.” The former Illini guard, who was the Sporting News National Player of the Year in 2005, certainly qualified for rock star status.
“We appreciated the love,” Brown said. “We never took it for granted. It made us work even harder once we saw the look and the vibe of Champaign and how everybody just took to winning. It was an awesome feeling. You wanted to keep going to the gym and working on your craft to make sure you were still winning.”
There were only two blemishes on that 2004-05 season — a home loss to Ohio State in the regular-season finale and the national championship loss to North Carolina.
James Augustine hears about the latter. A lot. The former Illinois forward fouled out having played just nine minutes against the Tar Heels. A game Augustine said he hasn’t watched in the last two decades.
“At the beginning, it was kind of difficult to get over it,” Augustine said. “It’s not the best time of your life where you’re in the biggest game of your life and you foul out.”
Bruce Weber contends Illinois “was the better team,” and the former Illini coach would have liked to see Augustine on the court more in that 75-70 loss. Weber said he tries not to complain about the officials but …
“I will tell this story,” Weber said. “I got thousands of letters and emails. I opened up a big envelope and it was a picture of a toilet. I was like, ‘What the heck is this? I’ve got to read this letter.’
“The letter said, ‘Look at the toilet closer. There’s a gold plaque with the names of the three officials on the toilet.’ She said, ‘Every time I go to take a you-know-what I think of those three officials, and I will always do that.’”
Deron Williams has made a couple trips back to Champaign during Brad Underwood’s tenure as coach and keeps abreast of what the Illini have accomplished.
“I love Brad as a person, and I think he’s a phenomenal coach,” Williams said. “I’ve had the chance to see him in practice situations and, obviously, see him in games. I think he’s doing a phenomenal. He hasn’t gotten over that hump yet making an impact in the NCAA tournament, but he’s right there knocking on the door. In today’s age with the turnover of talent, it’s about getting hot and staying healthy and getting the right breaks at the right time.”
What Williams can’t really do is compare the current Illini to his team. College basketball is simply too different two decades later.
“Some of these guys are probably making more than I did in my rookie season,” Williams joked, referencing the massive name, image and likeness deals now commonplace. “ I had a baby at 18. Dee did, too. We were surviving on $180 after we paid our rent. We were a little hungrier than some of these guys. That’s the biggest difference.
“I don’t know if it’s a good thing or a bad thing. It’s a good thing because I could have used it, for sure, but part of what got me to where I was was the struggle. My junior year I had a baby, my now ex-wife was living with me and she had a job here nannying. We could have used that money.”
Underwood and Bret Bielema connect on the phone frequently. Mostly because their schedules are basically polar opposites. But there’s a level of respect between the Illinois men’s basketball and football coaches that has developed a strong bond since Bielema arrived in Champaign in December 2020.
“It’s amazing how much we think alike,” said Underwood, who was at Memorial Stadium on Friday night both for the Illinois football opener and the return of the 2004-05 Illini basketball team.
“He just gets to do it with pads and outdoors, and I get to do it indoors,” Underwood continued about Bielema. “The mentality, the characteristics, he’s instilling are the things that I value. … He’s won Big Ten championships (at Wisconsin). We’ve won Big Ten championships. We just keep striving to find the next level of greatness. I appreciate that about him. Couldn’t be any more happy for what they have going right now, which is a very good football team.”
Phil Simms got a chance to spend time with Luke Altmyer this week in the lead up to Friday night’s season opener against Western Illinois. The two-time Super Bowl champ was on the call for Peacock, and a sit-down with the Illinois quarterback was part of his pregame preparation.
Simms, who spent 14 seasons in the NFL with the New York Giants, came away impressed by the Illini quarterback.
“Too hard on himself,” Simms said was part of his impression of Altmyer. “He was talking about 2023. Well, hell, those are gone. Well-mannered, down-to-earth kid. … Everybody was very complimentary of Luke. You know why? He’s very understated to be a star quarterback. There’s nothing worse than a star quarterback who thinks he’s a star quarterback. You got me?
“I thought he really did a good job last year. He’s tough. He throws the ball well. He told me he thinks he throws it better now and had worked on some stuff. He gained some weight, so that made him stronger. If you get stronger, you’re going to throw it harder, and I’m sure that will come in handy for him.”
That Altmyer is in his third season working with Illinois offensive coordinator Barry Lunney Jr. was something Simms called “a miracle” in this era of college football. The continuity within the program from last year’s 10-win season and Citrus Bowl win has helped fuel the interest and expectations for the Illini heading into the 2025 season.
“Expectations are not high, they’re extremely high,” Simms said. “If they finish 10-3, it’s going to be a disappointment. You can’t say that too often about a team anywhere at any level, but they did 10-3 last year and they improved the team. Expectations go up.”
SCOTT RICHEY