For a Power Five school, Illinois, especially in football and basketball, has taken a huge step down in the past decade or so. Growing up an Illini fan, it’s been tough to watch. I have fuzzy memories of the 2004-05 basketball season, which included this comeback against Arizona in the Final Four, led by dynamic junior point guard Deron Williams. The #1 Illini went on to lose in the National Championship against powerhouse North Carolina, but the standard set by this season seemed to declare that the Illini were there to stay, at least in basketball.

Illini football has been dismal for my entire life, aside from the most surprising and random season in program history: the 2007 Rose Bowl appearance. The Illini had already impressed most with a 5-3 start, but closed the season on a tear, winning four straight. This included a win over #1 Ohio State in what I affectionately refer to as the “Juice Williams Game”. Their 9-3 record vaulted them suddenly into the Rose Bowl, in which they were soundly shellacked 49-17 by John David Booty (remember him?) and the USC Trojans.

These two seasons gave us Illini fans high hopes for the future. In the end, they turned out to be only isolated incidents, just flashes in the pan.

The football team, in its subsequent nine seasons, has not finished with a regular season record better than 6-6. The basketball team, since its magical 2005 run, has never made it past the Round of 32 in the NCAA Tournament. They haven’t even made a tournament appearance since the 2012-13 season.

So, the burning question is: what the hell happened? Why are the Illini so bad at everything?

My simple answer is coaching and recruiting. They’re tied very closely together and a good coach can usually do good recruiting. Think about today’s premier coaches: Saban, Harbaugh, Calipari, Krzyzewski. They built their programs up through exceptional recruiting (although Harbaugh stepped into a fantastic situation and proceeded to go bananas with his recruiting tactics). In the 21st century, Illinois has had nothing of the sort.

In basketball, the Illini had Bruce Weber for the better part of the 2000’s and into the 2010’s. I really liked the guy. We used to see him in Champaign all the time and he was a great guy, but he just couldn’t attract the talent like he used to in the post-Deron Williams era. He was fired in 2012 and replaced with John Groce, a somewhat unproven coach with limited experience in the MAC. Groce maintained the standard of mediocrity and was fired this offseason. The program could be on the upswing again with the hiring of Brad Underwood, but the hole it’s dug itself into may be too difficult to crawl out of. The Illini have acquired a few solid recruits since hiring Underwood, but it remains to be seen if they can bring the program back to relevancy.

Football, on the other hand, is trapped in the football equivalent of the Pit of Misery. Dilly dilly! After 2007, the football program under head coach Ron Zook could never break .500, and he was fired in 2011 amidst heavy fan criticism. However, things didn’t get better. Tim Beckman, the former Toledo head coach, was his replacement, but only hurt the team. He was fired just before the 2015 season after allegations surfaced of physically abusing his players. Yes, this is a messed up program. Bill Cubit was the interim coach for the 2015 season, but was fired in favor of Lovie Smith.

Lovie is a name, yes, but in reality he just doesn’t have it anymore. Even in the NFL, his schemes and coaching style were out of touch. Imagine a pro coach straight out of 1997, coaching college football in 2017. That’s Lovieball. I’ll give him another season to really see what his recruits can do, but with another 2-10 season likely on the horizon this year, the outlook is bleak.

I love Illinois sports, I really do, but at this point I’m becoming apathetic. So, Illinois: show me why I should care again. Take me back to the glory days of 2005 and 2007, even if just for one season.