Illini Football 2026

Second place is 1st loser said:

At some point you have to pay your good players.

If they don't play as freshmen, then they'll play as sophomores, just with less experience and we have to live with growing pains. Then, they'll have to get paid as a junior. This is all based on the assumption that they stick around and don't transfer to a place where they will play immediately. This is a instant gratification world with these kids/parents. They want things, they want it now and they'll leave if they don't get it.

If they play as freshmen and do well, then they are much more seasoned going into their second year, but they'll get paid sooner.

So, they're either get paid as Sophomores or Juniors. You're not going to get around paying these kids. We either accept that and raise the money to keep them or we continue to go into the portal and get what we can afford, which as we've seen on the defense.....what we can afford isn't very good.

It all comes back to the same conclusion.....either have the money and be good or don't and have a ceiling of average.

There is a third option, which is go the Iowa route and put what we do have on the defense and on the offensive line. Get an average QB, some average receivers, a decent back and win games in the trenches. A defense travels, an offense doesn't. You can win with a dominant defense and an average offense. The reverse isn't true. It's not the most exciting brand of ball, but I'd rather win 14-10, then lose 42-21. That's a money management decision.

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Realistically we will never be able to afford to have the dline depth we had last year. I’ve said it a million times but this roster construction is flawed because you have a ton of money tied up to offensive linemen who aren’t playing. You take a couple million from that room and use it towards the defense. We will have a lot of money coming off the books we just have to be smart. Hopefully they budget increases another 5-10 million also.

that was a good game:

the juiceman cometh said:

This is a far more central question than you make it out to be though. Nobody, not even Larry Gies of Shad Khan, is giving Illinois athletics a blank check. There is an upper limit to anyone's generosity. And so where those resources get allocated is a crucial decision. It's not mere happenstance that we apparently have one of the most expensive basketball rosters at the same time our football coach is complaining that we're getting outspent. Those things are intimately related.

So I'm going to ask again, but in a non-rhetorical way, if you could would you change the allocation for this season? Would you give up Andrej to the NBA so that we could have Coenen and McCollum, and Durojaye, and Olano back? (Would that be enough to get all of them?)

And given what we've seen on the field and on the court, would you change that allocation going forward? Would you reduce Brad's budget by $5 million so you could give Bret an extra $5 million?

I actually want people to answer because I think it's an important question. No wrong answers, it's a judgment call. To put my cards on the table, I would not. I would keep basketball as the number one priority. I think BU's consistency and recent track record make us far more likely we win in that sport, and I think we have a clearer path. I also am more a basketball than football fan so I'll admit that bias as well.

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Completely agreed. We just came off of a Final 4 and have the capacity to keep a solid chunk of the core for the next season...you must prioritize that and be one of the front runners to get to the Final 4 again (if not national champ contenders if all comes together perfectly). When you think of March, all you think about is the Big Dance. College football season competes with the NFL, and nobody truly thinks of December/January as College Football, the way that March is almost solely seen as college basketball. I think we almost have no choice but put the chips all in the basket for trying to get that elusive national championship in basketball.

I know that this sounds crazy in some ways, but the football team took a slight step back last season. Yes, it was a great season from a traditional standpoint, but we were supposed to compete for a CFP spot. We ultimately were nowhere close to belonging there (and you could see wind in the sails from a fan perspective deflate a lot after the humbling loss at IU). In addition, with the expansion of the CFP, the bowl games are becoming increasingly less meaningful (though I would never complain about beating SEC schools two years in a row in bowl games). With the way this football season was supposed to take a step back to begin with, I am completely fine with the allocation of resources going more toward basketball, IMO.

However, I am still adamant that our current 3-3 record is not because we did not pony up enough NIL for the football program (mental mistakes killed us against Duke and not even sure where to classify the Purdue game). Sure, we were never going to compete for a CFP spot, but we still should have been able to get to 6-7 wins (if we could get to 6 wins we should all celebrate that with how difficult the second half of the season is shaping up). Football is just so hard in the sense that the roster sizes are much larger and you have to get creative with how the money is spent. More NIL would have helped this season, but in now ways would be all of a sudden be contenders. We simply had too many holes to fill with the roster turnover that was expected from last season.

During the lull of the Bye week, thought I'd do a check-in to see what Bobby Hauck is up to since his departure

the juiceman cometh said:

This is a far more central question than you make it out to be though. Nobody, not even Larry Gies of Shad Khan, is giving Illinois athletics a blank check. There is an upper limit to anyone's generosity. And so where those resources get allocated is a crucial decision. It's not mere happenstance that we apparently have one of the most expensive basketball rosters at the same time our football coach is complaining that we're getting outspent. Those things are intimately related.

So I'm going to ask again, but in a non-rhetorical way, if you could would you change the allocation for this season? Would you give up Andrej to the NBA so that we could have Coenen and McCollum, and Durojaye, and Olano back? (Would that be enough to get all of them?)

And given what we've seen on the field and on the court, would you change that allocation going forward? Would you reduce Brad's budget by $5 million so you could give Bret an extra $5 million?

I actually want people to answer because I think it's an important question. No wrong answers, it's a judgment call. To put my cards on the table, I would not. I would keep basketball as the number one priority. I think BU's consistency and recent track record make us far more likely we win in that sport, and I think we have a clearer path. I also am more a basketball than football fan so I'll admit that bias as well.

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I've always said that a football championship would be sweeter, just because it would be harder to do / longer odds / would elevate the national perspective of the whole school (a la Indiana).

But by the same logic, we are far more likely to have national success (and have had some already) in basketball. So my head tells me that Brad gets the money. It's not even a question of football vs basketball (I like them about equally) or even Brad vs Bret. It's more a debate between a great / below-average combo of teams, or having two mediocre teams (given our limited funds). I prefer the former.

A select few schools can afford great teams in both. I don't think we can, and at Illinois, that means basketball gets the cash.

Fighter of the Nightman said:

Lol, GOD I wish I were a billionaire who could just waste his extra cash on making the Illini elite.

"Alright, Josh ... I have $150 million here that I want to go toward my beloved Illini. And you can have $5 million of it today for NIL."

"... and if you use this $45 million to fix the ugly-!!! Horseshoe, I will give you the remaining $100 million to also use for NIL."

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You don't know how much we wish you were a billionaire, Fighter!

Battle89 said:

I've always said that a football championship would be sweeter, just because it would be harder to do / longer odds / would elevate the national perspective of the whole school (a la Indiana).

But by the same logic, we are far more likely to have national success (and have had some already) in basketball. So my head tells me that Brad gets the money. It's not even a question of football vs basketball (I like them about equally) or even Brad vs Bret. It's more a debate between a great / below-average combo of teams, or having two mediocre teams (given our limited funds). I prefer the former.

A select few schools can afford great teams in both. I don't think we can, and at Illinois, that means basketball gets the cash.

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but Brets “ budget “ was determined in Dec-Jan, WAY before Josh et al had any idea how the hoops season was going to end .

you know you're old when pics of your contemporaries are in B&W:
very good player

this was a good game too:

Mr. Tibbs said:

but Brets “ budget “ was determined in Dec-Jan, WAY before Josh et al had any idea how the hoops season was going to end .

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It's easy to lose sight of it on this board sometimes, but under BU the basketball program was already in a great place before that Final Four run. The Elite Eight run was still a pretty recent memory for the silent majority who didn't want to run BU out of town and replace him with Chris Beard.

Battle89 said:

I've always said that a football championship would be sweeter, just because it would be harder to do / longer odds / would elevate the national perspective of the whole school (a la Indiana).

But by the same logic, we are far more likely to have national success (and have had some already) in basketball. So my head tells me that Brad gets the money. It's not even a question of football vs basketball (I like them about equally) or even Brad vs Bret. It's more a debate between a great / below-average combo of teams, or having two mediocre teams (given our limited funds). I prefer the former.

A select few schools can afford great teams in both. I don't think we can, and at Illinois, that means basketball gets the cash.

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Hence the reason I'd like to understand how Bret plans to improve talent identification and allocation of funds before I'd donate a large chunk of $ to the program. I don't need to see results before I donate, but I'd want to understand how we are going to correct past poor performance in that area. That money could go a long way in terms of supporting not just basketball, but other sports such as track, baseball, volleyball, etc.

I'm not keen on seeing my $ go to TJ Taylor's or Christian Martin's when the same $ could bring in top caliber athletes in the other sports.

Collin Dixon is currently ranking in all-time Illinois football receiving:

22nd in catches (100)
- Next Illini he will pass is E.B. Halsey
17th in receiving yards (1,420)
- Next Illini he will pass is Greg Lewis
8th in receiving TDs (14)
- Next Illini he will pass is Mike Martin

Doing some projections, he's likely on pace to finish this season at 12th in receptions, 11th in receiving yards, and 2nd/3rd in receiving TDs

mhuml32 said:

Collin Dixon is currently ranking in all-time Illinois football receiving:

22nd in catches (100)
- Next Illini he will pass is E.B. Halsey
17th in receiving yards (1,420)
- Next Illini he will pass is Greg Lewis
8th in receiving TDs (14)
- Next Illini he will pass is Mike Martin

Doing some projections, he's likely on pace to finish this season at 12th in receptions, 11th in receiving yards, and 2nd/3rd in receiving TDs

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With one year to go if by some miracle he decides to not go pro (he absolutely should)

bluemountain said:

Hence the reason I'd like to understand how Bret plans to improve talent identification and allocation of funds before I'd donate a large chunk of $ to the program. I don't need to see results before I donate, but I'd want to understand how we are going to correct past poor performance in that area. That money could go a long way in terms of supporting not just basketball, but other sports such as track, baseball, volleyball, etc.

I'm not keen on seeing my $ go to TJ Taylor's or Christian Martin's when the same $ could bring in top caliber athletes in the other sports.

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Honestly, Bret has done a really exceptional job for the most part. You’re just not going to hit on every recruit. Sometimes there are misses where a player is recruited based on physical attributes that just never get close to that lofty ceiling and some are flat out busts. Plus, when you consider Bret has had to gamble on 3 or less star talent for the most part, the wins he has had far outweigh the losses and his wins per talent/rating/NIL have been far better than average.

When you’re limited in budget you need to make the most of what you have to be competitive. And Bret has delivered there with the best 5 season stretch in my lifetime. The problem this year in my opinion isn’t Bret being a bad talent evaluator, it’s that he had a completely unbalanced budget that lowered the ceiling of the team. Yes, having some recruiting misses and dealing with an incredibly feisty injury bug have made that even worse, but that’s the crux of it.

The real theoretical question to ask Bret, is are you planning on spending a lot more evenly on offense and defense next year than you are this year? And he’ll almost assuredly say yes. Mistakes were made this offseason and that hurts, but Bret hasn’t said anything that makes me feel he doesn’t realize that or that he does have a path to get it right.

I know we heavily focus on what have you done for me lately, but Bret in my opinion has earned himself some leeway to have a bad season. Acknowledge the misses, get a plan in place, have a good offseason, and get us back into the upper half of the B10 again next year.

After our 3-3 start, I am sad for Hauser that he's out, but I think this is a huge opportunity to set the groundwork for next year at QB if Clayton plays well, and open up $$ for the defense.

I wonder if Lunney will have a couple of packages for Boyd. He will need to be ready for game action.

lstewart53x3 said:

There's a lot to think through here.

On a personal level, I'm one of Robert's seventeen. So if I were a billionaire donor, I'd allocate more of my resources towards football because I'm more passionate about it, but I also understand that's likely a minority opinion amongst this fanbase.

Regarding, bluemountain's original point which was:

If he were a billionaire donor, he'd need to see [blank: more wins, a better plan, etc] before he's willing to donate more, I think that's silly. Sure, there's a chance that if you donate, it doesn't lead to more wins. But NOT donating guarantees less wins, especially if other donors think just like you.

From an athletic department perspective:

I believe Josh has already said that roughly 70% of the allowable rev share ($21 million total) gets allocated towards football ($15 million or so). So the athletic department values football at a higher level. Which makes sense. It drives more revenue than basketball.

Now, that $21 million isn't all the money going towards paying players, of course. The basketball team is likely close to that all on it's own.

That money (anything above the $5 million allocated towards the basketball team coming from rev share) has to come from actual NIL deals.

Which would naturally lean towards the basketball team because the basketball team is just infinitely more marketable. They just made a F4. They had a top 10 pick in the NBA draft. They're one of a handful of preseason national championship favorites heading into this year. They've got a preseason All-American. Multiple All-B1G preseason selections. Etc. A lot easier to get Andrej in a commercial than Collin Dixon.

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I can not think of anything more short sighted than to give more money to basketball because it is "more marketable". College football is the most popular college sport in the United States by viewership, attendance, and revenue. It is by far the main source of financial support for sports programs at the vast majority of colleges an universities including he University of Illinois. Andrej in a commercial will have no meaningful affect on the health and success of University of Illinois athletics as a whole.

I still can’t believe how easy our schedule appeared heading into the season compared to how difficult it’s become.

Heres the SP+ rankings of each of our final 6 games:

#11 Oregon
#16 Nebraska
#19 UCLA
#22 Iowa
#26 Northwestern
#88 Maryland

That is a gauntlet. 5 of our final 6 opponents could finish the season ranked. Unbelievable.

aaeismacgychel said:

Honestly, Bret has done a really exceptional job for the most part. You’re just not going to hit on every recruit. Sometimes there are misses where a player is recruited based on physical attributes that just never get close to that lofty ceiling and some are flat out busts. Plus, when you consider Bret has had to gamble on 3 or less star talent for the most part, the wins he has had far outweigh the losses and his wins per talent/rating/NIL have been far better than average.

When you’re limited in budget you need to make the most of what you have to be competitive. And Bret has delivered there with the best 5 season stretch in my lifetime. The problem this year in my opinion isn’t Bret being a bad talent evaluator, it’s that he had a completely unbalanced budget that lowered the ceiling of the team. Yes, having some recruiting misses and dealing with an incredibly feisty injury bug have made that even worse, but that’s the crux of it.

The real theoretical question to ask Bret, is are you planning on spending a lot more evenly on offense and defense next year than you are this year? And he’ll almost assuredly say yes. Mistakes were made this offseason and that hurts, but Bret hasn’t said anything that makes me feel he doesn’t realize that or that he does have a path to get it right.

I know we heavily focus on what have you done for me lately, but Bret in my opinion has earned himself some leeway to have a bad season. Acknowledge the misses, get a plan in place, have a good offseason, and get us back into the upper half of the B10 again next year.

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Good points. Reading your 2nd paragraph is a reminder that these budgets are relative. As other schools’ budgets increase and salaries soar in response, if our budget is flat, it’s actually decreasing a LOT in buying power.

lstewart53x3 said:

I still can’t believe how easy our schedule appeared heading into the season compared to how difficult it’s become.

Heres the SP+ rankings of each of our final 6 games:

#11 Oregon
#16 Nebraska
#19 UCLA
#22 Iowa
#26 Northwestern
#88 Maryland

That is a gauntlet. 5 of our final 6 opponents could finish the season ranked. Unbelievable.

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Path towards bowl eligibility:

Beat Maryland: absolutely gotta-have-it game.
Beat Northwestern: I'll keep reminding folks that Northwestern's bye was week 2 and Illinois plays them in week 13.
Beat one of the four remaining teams. The good news? Three of those four teams are coming in Champaign.

mhuml32 said:

Path towards bowl eligibility:

Beat Maryland: absolutely gotta-have-it game.
Beat Northwestern: I'll keep reminding folks that Northwestern's bye was week 2 and Illinois plays them in week 13.
Beat one of the four remaining teams. The good news? Three of those four teams are coming in Champaign.

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Agreed to all of this.

Crazy thing is that Northwestern (assuming they beat Rutgers Saturday) will be 6-1, but then have to go to Eugene, host Iowa, go to Columbus, go to Minneapolis, and then face us. It would not be all too surprising if Northwestern is 6-5 entering that game. I personally think that Northwestern is highly overrated to their current ranking (though still much better than expected going into season). They got props for playing close in Bloomington, and absolutely trashed Colorado and Penn State (both teams that are not good but when the game was played appeared like better teams). They also did not impress at all in East Lansing Saturday. So if the Illini do not collapse, I absolutely think that the final game will be a tossup.

Regarding one of the four other teams, I think the best chance of a win is on Friday night against Nebraska. They just took two backbreaking losses, and they have the potential to implode if they lose to Washington coming out of their bye week. If Nebraska is 5-3 coming into Champaign and the Illini beat Maryland (assuming loss to Oregon), I like a 4-4 Illini squad to possibly win. I do not like the matchup in Pasadena (even if it is not a road environment) or the home game against Iowa. The game on Saturday is a wild card, given Oregon's roster trouble.

Given how crazy this season has gone, I would not be surprised if the Illini are 3-8 going into Evanston or 6-5. Many of us have rightly criticized how poor the Illini have played for the first half of the season, but it appears that we might get some luck in timing against some of our opponents in the gauntlet of a second half of season (i.e., Oregon roster turmoil, Nebraska reeling, and potential of a wounded Northwestern squad entering final game). If the Illini get to bowl eligibility after the way this season is unfolding, it will have been one of the best coaching seasons for Coach B.

Simplest thing now is win on Saturday and start appearing on the mock bowl projections.

We beat Wisc 7 years ago. Was Jake Renfro on that team?