When it comes to college sports, you often hear about tiers.
Should the Illini win out, it will be the first time in school history that they will have had back-to-back regular seasons of 9 or more wins.
During the first three years of Bret Bielema (2021-23), Illinois was 18-19. The Illini are currently 17-6 over the last two seasons, with two regular-season games and one bowl game left. That is quite a turnaround and has many people talking about the Illini moving from the Competitive tier to the Contender tier.
It is no secret that, with the new age transfer portal and NIL, many teams get competitive quickly. Maintaining that competitiveness and moving up to a contender can be tricky. It takes a coaching staff that not only can navigate the portal and NIL but also maintain a crop of high school recruits they can develop and keep in the program. Bielema has been very good at adapting to the changes over the years, and it is beginning to show with back-to-back bowl seasons. They are being mentioned as a team to watch, but are they a contender?
FamILLy
The Illini have maintained a stable roster of talent and, for the most part, retained key players. That was clearly evident this past season with the return of players like Luke Altmyer, who received a lot of attention from SEC schools.
They did lose a key backfield piece in Josh McCray to the transfer portal, but others like Matthew Bailey, Josh Kreutz, and Xavier Scott stayed around for another year. That has to be, in large part, not only the winning culture achieved under Bielema, but also the FamILLy culture. But what does FamILLy mean for the players?
- Interesting fact: Illinois has five sets of brothers currently on the roster. DBs Xavier and Xani Scott, OL Josh and LB James Kreutz, WR Hudson and Murphy Clement, Tywan and Torrie Cox, and OL Ayden Knapik and Nathan Knapik, and Illini Freshman QB Jershaun Newton is the brother of former Illini Jer’Zhan “Johnny” Newton.
A lot of the recent success can also be attributed to Bielema’s ability to blend high school recruiting with the transfer portal. He has developed players like Hank Beatty, Collin Dixon, Ca’Lil Valentine, Gabe Jacas, Matthew Bailey, Torrie Cox, and Xavier Scott. He has also brought impact players like Luke Altmyer, JC Davis, and Melvin Priestly. Most recently, Dennis Briggs, Leon Lowery, Hudson Clement, and James Thompson Jr.
So is this sustainable?
Going into next year with expected losses of Luke Altmyer, Hank Beatty, and 4/5 of the O-Line, Gabe Jacas, Miles Scott, Torrie Cox, Dylan Rosiek, Leon Lowery, Tanner Arkin. How do the Illini keep the momentum going? One thing that has been a consistent theme under Bielema is the next man up philosophy.
We saw that this year with Beatty and Dixon stepping up. We have seen the emergence of guys like Joe Barna, Malichi Hood, James Kreutz, and Saboor Karriem.
But Illinois will need outside help.
Now, where Bielema can’t find internal options, he will have to look elsewhere. He has 24 committed recruits, including five edge rushers and four defensive backs.
Offensively, they have three interior offensive linemen, including 4-star recruit Kai Pritchard from Donovan Catholic (NJ), and three wideouts, including 4-star recruit Nasir Rankin from Morgan Park.
It will be evident that Illinois will have to go shopping to plug some of the holes. One of those positions he could be shopping for is an experienced quarterback. The Illini have four QBs on the roster and only one has any college experience redshirt-senior Ethan Hampton, a transfer from Northern Illinois who has played in four games this season and is 3 of 4 for 26 yards and an interception.
The other three QBs on the roster are redshirt-freshman Trey Petty, freshman Carson Boyd and freshman Jershaun Newton.
Going from 2024 to 2025, the big thing was holding onto talent like Altmyer, the offensive line, and the defensive secondary, as some Illinois players (most notably Luke Altmyer and Gabe Jacas). There are a couple of guys that he may have to work on to stick around. Matthew Bailey and Ca’Lil Valentine come to mind.
Given the Illinois schedule next season, the Illini already have two big games on tap: at Ohio St. and home vs Oregon. Those aren’t the only tough games, but the rest do seem winnable, and 9-3 seems like a very plausible possibility, and should vault the Illini into the contender conversation.
