Fourth-and-blog

Golden opportunity

Posted by: Bob Asmussen

Monday, September 21, 2009 6:23 PM

To see Illinois recent wins against Ohio State, click here.

To see how Bob Asmussen voted in this week's AP poll, click here.

 

During the next few days, you're going to hear the following term often: 7 of 10.

By now, you should know that means seven of the last 10 times Illinois has visited Columbus, it has left a winner. It's a statistic that might seem hard to believe, especially when you consider Illinois wasn't more than a one-point favorite in any of those games and was a double-digit underdog several times.

Why does it happen? We're going to try to find out. If Illinois makes it 8 of 11, two things happen: everybody gets off Ron Zook's back and all of the Ohio State fans jump on to Jim Tressel's.

Ohio State fans, generally, are much better than Tressel describes them. They love their team and he should be thrilled about that. Making fun of them ahead of the Big Ten opener probably wasn't a good tactic. As supportive as the Ohio State fans are, they are also quick to turn on their team if it starts to go bad.

If Illinois can take an early lead against Ohio State, it will make the crowd angry. And that will increase the chance of the numbers increasing to 8 of 11.

 

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