We should at least acknowledge the risk though.
With our roster and that schedule, a new coach is going to come in with something a new Illini coach hasn't had in awhile: expectations. Hype, even.
We're Illinois so it will be an absolute unmitigated disaster a la 2012, and at that point, not unlike the Beckman situation, our shiny new coach might be a dead man walking after a handful of games, but the rest of us are left to watch 2+ more seasons of it knowing there's only one outcome.
Just what's in my black little heart this afternoon, but in any event it needs to be acknowledged that 2021 is gonna be tough. We graduate more seniors than we can replace in recruiting, with a billion career starts between them, and then inexperienced and down on scholarships we travel to (of course, because we're Illinois) a suddenly very strong looking Virginia program in the noncon.
And then the next year Virginia comes to Champaign, and somehow our three games against the B1G East are Penn State, Michigan and Michigan State (parity-based scheduling my behind).
Oh and Les Miles has suddenly revived Kansas' recruiting. Guess who heads to Lawrence when they're seniors? Lol, you guessed it, that's our next non-con series after Virginia.