Illini Football 2026
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It's been 52 years and I'm still pizzed about a call denying an obvious end zone catch made by Joe Smalzer at a pivotal point late in the '74 game against Michigan.
Chase Brown was also extremely underrated nationally. If we won 10 wins, he'd be given way more stature.
That team had two legitimate superpowers: 1) Chase Brown 2) The Defense.
It was incredibly heartbreaking how that season ended. Very possible we won't see a more talented Illinois football team in our lifetimes.
Tight End: Abney.
You must be new here. Apparently it’s easy to replace a kicker that makes 87% of his kicks. With our razor thing margins having a kicker that’s automatic is huge.
Fear not. He’s very well known and even holds our school record for longest kick at 59 yards. Welcome home!
Ethan Moczulski - 2026 - Football - University of Illinois Athletics
Ethan Moczulski (37) K - Pronunciation: muh-CHOW-skee 2026 Senior (Illinois) Transferred back to Illinois with one year of eligibility remaining 2025 Junior ...
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Fear not. He’s very well known and even holds our school record for longest kick at 59 yards. Welcome home!
Ethan Moczulski - 2026 - Football - University of Illinois Athletics
Ethan Moczulski (37) K - Pronunciation: muh-CHOW-skee 2026 Senior (Illinois) Transferred back to Illinois with one year of eligibility remaining 2025 Junior ...fightingillini.com
That’s nice but I think he has 2 attempts in his career. Supposedly he pushed Olano in training camp for the starting position so that’s encouraging.
TheFlyingIllini1317
- Chicago, IL
I think the most disappointing thing is that. The injuries really hurt us on defense late, and it was probably our best chances to win the league and go to the Rose Bowl. Some guys were young, but looking back it's crazy to see how many NFL guys were on that team.
Creative 
"KO specialist" - that alone makes him valuable, IMO, hopefully he kicks it consistently out of the end zone this seasonFear not. He’s very well known and even holds our school record for longest kick at 59 yards. Welcome home!
Ethan Moczulski - 2026 - Football - University of Illinois Athletics
Ethan Moczulski (37) K - Pronunciation: muh-CHOW-skee 2026 Senior (Illinois) Transferred back to Illinois with one year of eligibility remaining 2025 Junior ...
5 wins and people probably need to be fired. 6 wins and questions need to be asked if they should be fired.
UAB, Duke, and Southern Illinois all at home as is 3 wins.
Assuming you'd win the first 3 (as you 100% should), 5 wins would mean going 2 - 7 in B1G. Seeing as Purdue would most likely be the 1, that would mean you only beat one of NW, Maryland, Nebraska, Michigan State, and UCLA.
Duke is no gimme at all. Our OLine always struggles out of the gate.
Duke at home, projected to finish 10th in the ACC, really needs to be a win. They have an over/under of 5.5 for God's sake.
Maybe not a "gimme", but if it's not, it's about as close to that as it should be.
Joel Goodson
- it's all ball bearings, nowadays
Will be a blue out against Oregon.
I don't own anything blue, only ORANGE
If Duke is not a gimmie at home, our season is already doomed.
Definitely should add in Chase Brown would've won the Doak. Probably still should've regardless (His NFL career reflects this as well as a starting/impact/Pro Bowl RB).
Wanted more wins for sure but they're getting to that point now. I didn't like how it ended but with context and understanding how they got to that point, and the history of W/L, all in all it was successful.
Lovie built a lot of that even with reflections, and BB capitalized. Now they're set for a run as BB has put his program in place. Whitman at AD has Illinois is a golden era of athletics right now. I'm enjoying the wins piling up.
Time to put the "ILLINI" helmets with the all orange.
blackdog
- Champaign
Love Chase but he has some super star competition in his class in Bijan Robinson. Most other years he would be a clear cut favorite as the best back.
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