Illini Football 2026

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#251      
jimbo72
My favorite part of year. Humidity, dog days of summer, right before football. God Bless America, and our Fighting illini. Football brothers. It's gonna be a battle this year. Yet we have a Leader, Coach B!
 
#252      
jimbo72
Stability, Brotherhood, improvements in stadium, biggest score board in country. 🤣 🤣.
Can you imagine saying that in past. Wow
 
#256      
Fly Illini Fly!
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#261      
IlliniWu
Illwinsagain said:
I really can't argue with 9th in a preseason poll. I hope for better, but I can see where people get this.
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Preseason polls are pretty much useless. And yes I disagree with the team ranking as well. Felt they've heavily swayed things with other teams not being as good but yet above Illinois due to it's preseason ranking. This was especially true in '24.
 
#267      
molinefan
Does anyone know why there is not much information being given about the football team practices? My understanding is that division 1 teams started practicing on July 15th. I thought there would be interviews of coaches and players by now since practice has started.
 
#268      
fuddrules
molinefan said:
Does anyone know why there is not much information being given about the football team practices? My understanding is that division 1 teams started practicing on July 15th. I thought there would be interviews of coaches and players by now since practice has started.
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Practice starts somewhere between the August 3rd and 6th. Not sure of the exact date.

So far preseason hype is as exciting as watching grass grow.
 
#270      
mhuml32
Generally, I have too many concerns on both lines to be over the Vegas line on the season. I'm also dubious about this defensive scheme being a success, especially in year one. Overall, it's a re-tooling year and going 7-5 a year after pushing all of their chips in would be incredible. I'm sure there would be fan disappointment if this season unfolds like I'm predicting blow and Illinois starts 6-2 and limps to 7-5.

UAB (home) - Win (38-10) 1-0
Duke (home) - Win (31-20) 2-0
SIU (home) - Win (52-3) 3-0
Ohio State (away) - Loss (38-14) 3-1
Purdue (home) - Win (28-23) 4-1
MSU (away) - Win (30-28) 5-1
BYE
Oregon (home) - Loss (41-17) 5-2
Maryland (away) - Win (33-13) 6-2
Nebraska (home) - Loss (34-24) 6-3
UCLA (away) - Loss (24-20) 6-4
Iowa (home) - Loss (19-18) 6-5
Northwestern (away) - Win (32-20) 7-5

The Maryland-Nebraska-UCLA-Iowa-Northwestern stretch to end the season is going to be tough. Maryland should be a bad football team but they have a front-loaded schedule and they have the bye week right before the Illinois game. I would say it's fairly likely that Maryland fires Locks after the Ohio State or Rutgers game and then gives their interim a week to install new schemes before they play Illinois. Then Nebraska has a rest advantage. Then Illinois has a short-week and travels to UCLA. Illinois then has a rest advantage against Iowa but the Hawkeyes will be the best team remaining on Illinois' schedule. Finally, I think Northwestern is better than last year and will be playing in their new home stadium to close out the season. The Wildcats have a really hard schedule, and their bye is week 2! They'll likely need that game to make a bowl.

I'm worried about all of the non-Ohio State road games being very winnable for a program that hasn't gone 4-1 or 3-1 on the B1G road in a long time.
 
#271      
Joel Goodson
molinefan said:
Does anyone know why there is not much information being given about the football team practices? My understanding is that division 1 teams started practicing on July 15th. I thought there would be interviews of coaches and players by now since practice has started.
Click to expand...

early August. teams that have week 0 games start first
 
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