Illini Football 2025

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#76      
Mr. Tibbs
lstewart53x3 said:
By the 247 talent composite, the is one the least talented rosters in the P4 (ranked in 60’s, 2nd lowest in the B1G).

To win 19 games, along with two SEC bowl wins in two seasons with this roster is incredible.
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Luke’s WAR (if there was such a metric in cfb) would be about 3. fully 6 of those 19 wins can be attributed to him .

the staff squeezing 19 wins over these last two seasons is indeed remarkable. no doubt about it
 
#77      
WhereDoWeStandWithStorr?
lstewart53x3 said:
By the 247 talent composite, the is one the least talented rosters in the P4 (ranked in 60’s, 2nd lowest in the B1G).

To win 19 games, along with two SEC bowl wins in two seasons with this roster is incredible.
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Talent does not immediately equal recruiting rankings. Gabe Jacas was the big ten sack leader, but wasn't even a top 1,000 recruit.
 
#79      
lstewart53x3
WhereDoWeStandWithStorr? said:
Talent does not immediately equal recruiting rankings. Gabe Jacas was the big ten sack leader, but wasn't even a top 1,000 recruit.
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Yes, of course guys can play above their rankings. But the original poster graded this season as a B+ because “this roster should have won 2 more games”.

I was simply pointing out that this roster, with less 4 stars than Northwestern, greatly exceeded it’s talent expectations.
 
#81      
phats22
altgeld88 said:
It's splendid, for sure, but Mike White went 19-7 from the final two games of the '81 season through the 1984 Rose Bowl. 21-7 until he lost to Stanford the third game of my frosh year in '84. RIP: let's give him his props.

Mack did nearly as well in '88-'90 despite a 6-5 initial campaign.
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only with 19 wins in 2 seasons then? don't think this was meant to minimize the other coaches but for comparison,

MW 19 wins- 11/14/81-1/2/84- 779 days
MW 21 wins- 11/14/81- 9/15/84- 1036 days
MW 2 seasons best 17 (yes, fewer games)

JM 24 wins - 9/17/1988-1/1/91 - 836 days
JM 2 seasons best 18 games

BB 19 wins - 8/29/24- 12/30/25- 489 days

going backwards,
BB 23 wins either 779 or 836 days ago and 24 wins 1036 days. I'm banking on more than 24 wins 836 days ahead (12/13/26).

all these coaches are Illinois greats but Bielema truly has done something noteworthy. esp when considering the prior 5 year win record as a proxy for where the team was before a coach took over in light of JMs 24 wins (MW- 16 wins, JM- 30 wins, BB- 17 wins.....yeah, both White and Bielema inherited a mess)
 
#82      
SescIllini
WhereDoWeStandWithStorr? said:
Talent does not immediately equal recruiting rankings. Gabe Jacas was the big ten sack leader, but wasn't even a top 1,000 recruit.
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They are exceptions but goal is to do what we did this year and finish with top 25 ranked class. Devon Weatherspoon was the last recruit offered, just before school started. The class ranking was very weak and Weathspoon was the last one chosen, he is a generational Illini talent and consistent NFL Pro Bowler.
 
#83      
bdutts
SescIllini said:
They are exceptions but goal is to do what we did this year and finish with top 25 ranked class. Devon Weatherspoon was the last recruit offered, just before school started. The class ranking was very weak and Weathspoon was the last one chosen, he is a generational Illini talent and consistent NFL Pro Bowler.
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Rankings will never be able to account for work ethic, want to and heart. Otherwise known as intangibles.
 
#85      
Illiniguy74
Yes, JM had some success at Illinois but i would not call him an Illinois great. Much of his success was due to MW holdovers. Then, he went south faster than a Yankee carpetbagger.
 
#86      
DeonThomas
Taking a biased shot at the final AP rankings, based upon results through 12/31/25:

TeamSeedCONFRECLAST
IND1Big Ten13-0
UGA2SEC12-1
TexTech3Big 1212-1
OREG4Big Ten11-1
MISS5SEC11-1
ALA6SEC11-3W
MIA7ACC11-2W
OSU8Big Ten12-1L
TAM9SEC11-2L
OKLA10SEC10-3L
BYU11Big 1212-2W
ND12INDEP10-2DNP
TEX13SEC10-3W
UTAH14Big 1211-2W
ARIZ15Big 129-3TBD
VIRG16ACC11-3W
IOWA17Big Ten9-4W
VANDY18SEC10-3L
HOU19Big 1210-3W
NTEX20American12-2W
MICH21Big Ten9-4L
WASH22Big Ten9-4W
ILL23Big Ten9-4W
USC24Big Ten9-4L
TCU25Big 129-4W
 
#88      
altgeld88
phats22 said:
only with 19 wins in 2 seasons then? don't think this was meant to minimize the other coaches but for comparison,

MW 19 wins- 11/14/81-1/2/84- 779 days
MW 21 wins- 11/14/81- 9/15/84- 1036 days
MW 2 seasons best 17 (yes, fewer games)

JM 24 wins - 9/17/1988-1/1/91 - 836 days
JM 2 seasons best 18 games

BB 19 wins - 8/29/24- 12/30/25- 489 days

going backwards,
BB 23 wins either 779 or 836 days ago and 24 wins 1036 days. I'm banking on more than 24 wins 836 days ahead (12/13/26).

all these coaches are Illinois greats but Bielema truly has done something noteworthy. esp when considering the prior 5 year win record as a proxy for where the team was before a coach took over in light of JMs 24 wins (MW- 16 wins, JM- 30 wins, BB- 17 wins.....yeah, both White and Bielema inherited a mess)
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I don't for a moment disagree that BB has "done something noteworthy." As I've often noted on the Board, IMO the most important thing he's done is to create a culture of winning in a long-term, sustainable manner. Winning 10 and nine games in consecutive seasons is, of course, special. I believe a statue of BB will materialize upon his retirement here after many further seasons of success. I'm also all for trumpeting our program's current success as a matter of PR and necessity.

However: I give side eye to calculations that fail to normalize for longer seasons and compare like with like.

Comparing coaching performance across seasons today with seasons decades ago is difficult. Mike White didn't coach in an era of ample bowl games for all, nor the possibility of playing more than 11 or 12 games per season (usually 11). And if NIL had existed in 1980 the trajectory of White's Illini tenure would likely have been much longer and much more successful. The sanctions in '84 kneecapped the program until the recruiting class of '88 showed up and we benefitted form the absolute dumb luck of Purdue hiring an option-oriented coach (Fred Akers) after the '86 season, alienating a guy named Jeff George.

As for the number of days it took BB and MW to win the same amount of games, that's irrelevant if MW didn't have an opportunity to play the same number of games within the same period.

Compare Mike White's first five seasons ('80-'84) with BB's ('21-'25). MW took a program at an absolute nadir and, by my calcs, won 59.6% of his games during those five years (a pinch more than that if you give him partial credit for a tie in '80 that I'm counting as a loss.) BB inherited a program in much better shape, and with much better talent, and has won 58.7% of his games.

Both achievements are fantastic. And we're in much better long-term shape now than on New Year's Day 1985. But BB's achievements on the field to date don't yet outstrip Mike White's. I'm confident they will when we're celebrating the 2026 season results next January.
 
#89      
mhuml32
A couple pre-season predictions I mentioned in August 2025:


Altmyer finishes his career at Illinois as:
- 5th all-time in passing yards (Scheelhaase, Kittner, Trudeau, & Juice) ✅
- 2nd all-time in passing TDs (Kittner) ✅
- 1st all-time in passing efficiency with more than 400 passing attempts (currently DeVito) ✅

Feagin and Laughery both move into the top-30 in career rushing yards (30th right now is Bill Brown at 1,269 yards) Feagin is 31st currently and Laughery is 40th.
 
#91      
Fighter of the Nightman
Number of Illini home games with fewer than 50,000 tickets sold by season. And yes, it's tickets SOLD ... that's the only publicly available stat, so save your comments about the Northwestern snow game. :ROFLMAO:

2014: 7 out of 8 home games ... high crowd of 50,373 vs. Iowa
2015: 5 out of 6 home games ... high crowd of 51,515 vs. #3 Ohio State
2016: 6 out of 7 home games ... high crowd of 60,670 vs. North Carolina
2017: 7 out of 7 home games ... high crowd of 43,058 vs. Nebraska
2018: 6 out of 6 home games ... high crowd of 41,966 vs. Purdue
2019: 7 out of 7 home games ... high crowd of 44,512 vs. Nebraska
2020: N/A (COVID season)
2021: 7 out of 7 home games ... high crowd of 40,168 vs. Wisconsin
2022: 6 out of 7 home games ... high crowd of 56,092 vs. Michigan State
2023: 4 out of 7 home games ... high crowd of 54,205 vs. Wisconsin
2024: 1 out of 7 home games ... high crowd of 60,670 TWO times
2025: ZERO out of 7 home games :cool: ... high crowd of 60,670 FOUR times

Amazing increase in fan support, and we should be proud. It was exhausting explaining to both outsiders and even some of our own fans back in the day that the fan support would return rather quickly if we got this thing goin' ... there is nothing "in the water" in Illinois that would prevent us from having the type of fan support of a Wisconsin, Iowa or even better with sustained success. I am glad we are starting to see the proof in recent years!
 
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