CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The Illini suffered a tough loss against Washington on Saturday, but they still have a lot of football to play this season.
To round out their 2025 campaign, Illinois has four games remaining on the schedule with Rutgers, Maryland and Northwestern coming to town and a road matchup against Wisconsin.
Currently sitting at a 5-3 record, head coach Bret Bielema’s squad still has a chance to finish with the first back-to-back seasons with at least nine wins in program history.
First up,
the Rutgers Scarlet Knights come to Gies Memorial Stadium on Nov. 1 for a sold-out Dad’s Day matchup, a good opportunity for Illinois to get back in the win column.
When asked about what it means to have the opportunity to play in front of a home crowd again, defensive back Miles Scott spoke on how important it could end up being for the team.
“Man, it’s huge, just being able to change, truthfully, the momentum of the whole season,” Scott said. “So, being able to get a win, definitely would be huge.”
The Scarlet Knights will be entering Champaign with a 4-4 record, coming in hot after getting their first Big Ten win on Saturday, by way of a big comeback against Purdue.
When the line opened on FanDuel sportsbook, the Illini were listed as 12.5-point favorites over Rutgers, so the people in Las Vegas certainly seem to think they have a good chance at winning.
Right after this next game, the Illini have a bye week, something that could really help set them up for success down the road if they’re able to level things out.
“If we’re able to do that this week, then we get a bye week to correct things that we might not have done well in this next game or things that we do really well in this next game, and we’re able to just keep it going and parlay it into these next three games,” Scott said.
Odds are good that Illinois will be favored in all four of their remaining games, something that would certainly be a sign of encouragement for the fan base.
Building up to the season, and really up to this point, the expectations surrounding the Illini have been the highest in recent memory.
Members of the national media and fans alike saw Illinois as being a serious contender for the College Football Playoff, and they’ve been ranked in the AP Poll Top-25 multiple times this season.
In terms of dealing with those expectations, Illini defensive lineman Angelo McCullom said that it’s been huge for the team to just stay focused on what they can control.
“I mean, we have a really talented group and the expectations are high,” McCullom said. “We just try to go 1-0 each week, just focus on that, doing our job and getting better daily.”
With that being said, there’s certainly still a lot of time for this Illinois squad to improve, as their final game isn’t until the end of November.
And while it’s easy for fans and the media to get ahead of themselves by looking forward to how the rest of the season may pan out and which bowl game the Illini might be fighting for, for the players, it’s all about taking things day by day.
“Taking it one day at a time, really, we can’t really focus on what’s to come after the next four guaranteed games; it’s just Rutgers. That’s it, that’s all we’re looking forward to,” Scott said.
