63-0: Five Years Later

It’s been 1,826 days since Nov. 17, 2018.

It was a cold Saturday in Champaign, the second-to-last week of the regular season. Illinois hosted Iowa, with the Illini hoping to show some semblance of life down the stretch and maybe — MAYBE — make a bowl game.

Instead, we got maybe the worst Illinois game of the modern era.

A 63-0 loss at the hands of the Hawkeyes. Nine touchdowns to zero touchdowns.

In case you forgot, here’s what Block I looked like as the second half began:

At the time I was 21 and it was my Senior Day after four years in Marching Illini. Now I’m 26. And it still sucks.

I didn’t have anything good to say about it in 2019, and I don’t think I have anything good to say about it now.

Except for the weird fact that I think it made me a bigger Illini fan. If I sat through that, I can sit through anything.

And it makes the wins we have witnessed over the past five seasons — Wisconsin and Michigan State in 2019, Penn State in 2021, the eight wins in 2022, the 2023 Paddock games — that much sweeter.

Yeah, I had nothing good to say again this year. Maybe I will in 2028?