Illini Football 2026

#251      
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
 
#259      
SixthandWhite
mhuml32 said:
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.
Click to expand...
Losing all perceived toss-ups would be disappointing, here's my take:

UAB (home) - Win (40-14) 1-0
Duke (home) - Win (27-17) 2-0
SIU (home) - Win (45-0) 3-0
Ohio State (away) - Loss (35-13) 3-1
Purdue (home) - Win (31-17) 4-1
MSU (away) - Loss (24-21) 4-2
BYE
Oregon (home) - Loss (42-24) 4-3
Maryland (away) - Win (27-20) 5-3
Nebraska (home) - Win (30-24) 6-3
UCLA (away) - Win (21-20) 7-3
Iowa (home) - Loss (20-12) 7-4
Northwestern (away) - Win (35-17) 8-4

I'd be extremely happy with an 8-4 season.
 
#263      
Rad24
Man, are we lucky. Bret is a great spokesman for the Big Ten (there is good reason he has kicked off the media day 4 straight years now) and of course the Illini. I love hearing what he has to say and he is instilling the right/best culture. And wow! Josh sits down with the 2 local guys and they promise to not keep him long and he goes on to give them 25 minutes of honest focused discussion of all things Illini. We are in outstanding hands my friends!!!
 
Back