Where I Come From: The Rose Bowl Illini of 2007

This post is sponsored by EA Sports NCAA Football 2011.

Shocker! My favorite Illini team is the only one to have made a bowl in the last five years and also the team that inspired me to pick up blogging!

The term catching lightning lightning in a bottle may never be more appropriate than in the case of the 2007 Fighting Illini. Many of the players on that team had the best personal seasons they ever would in the Orange and Blue, whether it was all star freshmen or grizzled sixth year seniors. Everything just came together so beautifully. The spread option offense actually worked, and really well. The defense while prone to give up plenty of yards seemed to always come through in the end with a huge turnover.

The amount of personality and talent on that team boggles my mind looking back, for a school that has produced relatively few NFL players over the previous decade, seven players from that roster were drafted, and that doesn't even include incredibly important players like J Leman, Brit Miller or Juice Williams who were undrafted free agents.

The team had personality that recent incarnations lacked J Leman was as great on camera as he was on the field, back when Martez Wilson and Arrelious Benn were confident to the point of cockiness, when Vontae Davis would knock himself and another player out on the same play, only to pop back up and show the other team up. Back then we didn't think it was unnecessary or hot dogging, because the team was winning and it had been so long since we had had any success.

That team, specifically the players and personalities that made that team so unique , stands apart from the last two seasons. There was not the same senior leadership, not the same optimism and not the same quality of play, but most of all they just haven't been as fun. Looking forward to this year, two of the most important keys to the 2010 Illini were merely afterthoughts on the 2007 Illini Eddie McGee and Martez Wilson. That team was the highpoint Zook's tenure at Illinois and probably will be the high point for the next few seasons, until we can find the right mix again. So you'll excuse me for not wanting to let go of how good it felt to root for that team.

I am an Illini fan, and that is where I come from.