Definitely will be interesting. We will be rooting for USC to continue to win throughout the season (as will ND...with exception of when they play each other).
We would be 4-1. They would be 5-1.
I think your disdain for Notre Dame is blinding you of what Notre Dame actually accomplished last season. Yes, they had the ugly loss vs NIU, but they had the following wins: @#20 Texas A&M, #15 Louisville, #24 Navy, #19 Army, @USC, #8 (AP) Indiana in CFP, #2 Georgia in CFP, and #4 (AP) Penn State in CFP.
I don’t really know where we stand talent-wise on the defense but our defense is objectively bad. We are worse than 80th in many categories including rushing defense (90th) and passing defense (111th). Things that help us win are offense and turnovers in critical moments (with an amazing ability to punish teams on those turnovers). Edit: and an outstanding field goal kicker.
www.ncaa.com
www.teamrankings.com
Which of the two top 5 teams on there schedule would we have beaten?
I don’t really know where we stand talent-wise on the defense but our defense is objectively bad. We are worse than 80th in many categories including rushing defense (90th) and passing defense (111th). Things that help us win are offense and turnovers in critical moments (with an amazing ability to punish teams on those turnovers). Edit: and an outstanding field goal kicker.
NCAA College Football FBS current team Stats | NCAA.com
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Illinois Fighting Illini
Illinois Fighting Illini team page with results, picks, power rankings, odds and stats.
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I don’t really know where we stand talent-wise on the defense but our defense is objectively bad. We are worse than 80th in many categories including rushing defense (90th) and passing defense (111th). Things that help us win are offense and turnovers in critical moments (with an amazing ability to punish teams on those turnovers). Edit: and an outstanding field goal kicker.
NCAA College Football FBS current team Stats | NCAA.com
Discover the current NCAA FBS Football leaders in every stats category, as well as historic leaders.
Illinois Fighting Illini
Illinois Fighting Illini team page with results, picks, power rankings, odds and stats.
Our class rankings have been around 40-50, but I think last year was vvg (10th?), so it would seem were slightly underperforming for our talent, unless those rankings are positively skewed towards our offense and less for our defense. Obviously those rankings are impacted by number of players in each class but that’s as far as I’m willing to dig.Texas is ranked #4 in 247s team composite rankings with (14) stars and (44) 4 stars. Penn St is ranked 9th with (4) 5 stars and (58) 4 stars. We’re ranked #64 with (0) 5 stars and (7) 4 stars. Us being ranked top 30 in the advanced metrics and top 20 in the AP poll is us exceeding expectations based on talent big time.
2025 College Football Team Talent Composite
In order to create the most comprehensive Team Recruiting Ranking without any notion of bias, 247Sports Team Recruiting Ranking is solely based on the 247Sports Composite Rating.
Those stats are useless because they aren’t opponent adjusted. SP+ has our defense ranked #51, which sounds about right to me. That’s an average defense. SP+ has our offense ranked #18. So an elite offense and average defense.
Likely not a playoff contender, but an 8-9 win team that’s a lot of fun to root for.
2025 college football SP+ rankings for all 136 FBS teams
The final SP+ rankings, plus strength of schedule and résumé SP+, for the 2025 season.www.espn.com
Not sure what class you thinks was #10 in anything. 247 has us as the #46 class for 2025. Highest ranked composite class Bielema has ever pulled in was the 2023 class, which the composite ranked as #38.
There are 136 FBS teams, so 51st is slightly above middle overall. The 68 P4 teams aren't ranked 1-68 in defense, so it's not really the low side of average overall.
247sports.com
Blame it on AI summary from a lazy google search. Not sure I could even replicate the response lol.
Thank you for the detailed and data-driven response. I’ll keep that in mind while I’m pulling my hair out on Saturdays (what’s left of it anyway).Here’s some stats:
Our total talent composite rating according to 247 which takes into account every recruiting class on the team is 64th:
2025 College Football Team Talent Composite
In order to create the most comprehensive Team Recruiting Ranking without any notion of bias, 247Sports Team Recruiting Ranking is solely based on the 247Sports Composite Rating.
Diving deeper into those numbers:
Of the top 30 highest ranked players on our team, 20 are freshman or sophomores and aren’t quite ready to contribute.
Continuing to look at those top 30 players, only 6 are juniors or seniors on the defensive side of the ball.
Could coaching be better? Probably. But experienced talent on the defensive side of the ball (especially when factoring in the injury to X) is severely lacking.
It is improving. We have a ton of young talent, but it’s going to take some time to develop.
Being ranked where were ranked with this level of talent is a miracle and a testament to the program and staff Bret has built.
For the record I’m not quite dumb enough to think that all P4 teams are ranked 1-68th, but I didn’t have enough context otherwise.
3 top 10 teams no longer ranked. 5 top 10 teams no longer in the top 10.
