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Illinois doesn’t have many healthy safeties for the 2025 spring season is a major reason Bret Bielema doesn’t wish to participate in a intra-squad scrimmage due to depth concerns.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

March 30, 2025

CHAMPAIGN — With all the offseason surgeries affecting the defensive backs, Illinois defensive coordinator Aaron Henry doesn’t have a robust list of healthy bodies this spring in his safeties and nickel cornerbacks meeting room.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Good evening and welcome to the fifth spring football practice for the Illinois program for the 2025 season in the fifth campaign of Illini head coach Bret Bielema begins in the early hours at Memorial Stadium.

Tre White’s time in an Illinois jersey has come to an end after just one season and 32 games of the 2024-25 season.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Staff Writer

March xx, 2025

Tre White has officially become the first consistent member of the Illinois starting lineup from the 2024-25 season to enter the transfer portal. 

The 6-foot-7 wing has informed the Illini coaching staff his intentions to entered the transfer portal after playing 32 games of the previous season at Illinois that ended with a second round loss to Kentucky in the 2025 NCAA Tournament. White started 31 games this past season with the Illini while averaging 10.5 points per game, 5.5 rebounds per game while leading all consistent starters in field goal percentage (50.7) and free throw percentage (82.4) in 23.4 minutes per game. 

Mike Cagley, Co-Host Sports Spectacular March 29, 2025 Just […]

The one-year playing tenure of Morez Johnson, the 2024 Illinois Mr. Basketball selection, at the University of Illinois has ended as he has elected to enter the transfer portal.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Staff Writer

March 28, 2025

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Morez Johnson has entered the transfer portal after just one season at the University of Illinois.

The 6-foot-9 forward/center played in 30 games with eight starts in his first season of college basketball after signing with his home state program as four-star prospect in the 2024 recruiting class. Johnson averaged 7.1 points per game and was second on the team in rebounding at 6.7 per game on a team that advanced to the second round of the 2025 NCAA Tournament.

Johnson had five points and seven rebounds in the 84-75 loss to Kentucky in the NCAA Tournament second round game that ended the Illini’s 2024-25 season.

Former Illinois sixth-year linebacker Ryan Meed put up numbers comparable to the highest ranked draft-eligle linebackers at the Illini Pro Day workouts earlier this month.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

March 27, 2025

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The only thing more impressive than watching Ryan Meed perform the track and field drill portion of the Illinois Pro Day workouts was watching his Illini teammates react in real time to his numbers.

Whether it was Meed’s 4.51-second 40-yard dash time, which would've been third among all linebackers invited to the NFL Scouting Combine, or the 37.5-inch vertical jump, which would've been sixth among all linebackers at Scouting Combine) or the 25 reps of 225 pounds on the bench press, which would have been third among all linebackers at Scouting Combine, the vocal reaction by his peers to the show being put on by Meed inside the Illinois indoor facility of the Smith Family Football Complex was audible.

6-foot-10 forward Carey Booth’s one-year tenure at Illinois has […]

By Kedric Prince - IlliniGuys Director of Recruiting

March 27, 2025

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The Fighting Illini's head coaches, Brad Underwood of the men's basketball program and Bret Bielema of the football team, appear to be teaming up to land the state's top football recruit, Nasir Rankin. The 6-foot-1, 170-pound athlete, who stars as a wide receiver, is also one of Illinois' top five basketball prospects in his class.

March 27, 2025

The transfer portal continues to heat up.  We call it "Portal Kombat" as coaches battle to land the best talent within their NIL budgets. 

IlliniGuys Insider/Analyst Brad Sturdy has this update from recent conversations regarding the Illini program:

Illinois third-year athlete Jordan Anderson is working full-time in the tight end room this spring after spending his first two seasons with the Illini at running back.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

March8 26, 2025

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Jordan Anderson has officially moved closer to the line-of-scrimmage in the Illinois offense.

The third-year athlete has officially been moved from tailback to tight end. Illinois head coach Bret Bielema confirmed the positional move is permanent in his media session inside the Smith Family Football Complex following the Illini’s fourth spring practice of the 2025 season.

March 26, 2025

It has begun!

The transfer portal officially opened on Monday and coaches, players, parents, agents, handlers, reporters, etc. are burning up the phone and text lines as everyone scrambles to find their new homes, find players that fit their rosters, and gobble up their share of what feels like hundreds of millions of dollars on the table among the power conference programs.

Our insiders Kedric Prince and Brad Sturdy have been non-stop as well since Illinois' season ended Sunday night in Milwaukee. Kedric starts us off with this report filed earlier this morning on the IlliniGuys premium boards, starting off with a couple of surprising updates:

By Kedric Prince - IlliniGuys Director of Recruiting

March 25, 2025

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – As the NCAA transfer portal heats up, Illinois fans shouldn't forget about the talented freshmen joining the program next year: Brandon Lee and four-star recruit Keaton Wagler, a 6-foot-4, 175-pound shooting guard from Shawnee, Kansas.

Lee, a 6'5" shooting guard from Hillside, New Jersey, currently attends The Patrick School and arrives at Illinois with a scorer's mentality. We caught up with his father, Butch Lee, to get the latest on his son's journey.

Illinois forward Ben Humrichous has the possibility for a waiver to gain eligibility for the 2025-26 season but neither he nor Illinois coaches are currently being definitive in the future.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Staff Writer

March 24, 2025

(Editor's note - there have been reports that an NCAA waiver has already been submitted and approved. We are working to confirm those reports.)

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A Vanderbilt quarterback has likely paved the way for Ben Humrichous to be eligible to play at least one more season of college basketball.

Only three questions remain: One, does the 6-foot-9 forward want to play another year of college basketball. Two, if he does want to play another year of college basketball, does Humrichous want to play that season at Illinois. Three, if he does want to play another year of college basketball at Illinois, do the Illini coaching staff want Humrichous to return to the 2025-26 roster.

By IlliniGuys Staff March 24, 2025 AUSTIN, Tx. - […]

In what was likely his last game at Illinois, Kasparus Jakucionis commits four first-half turnovers to dig Illini into early deficit in 84-75 loss to Kentucky in second round of NCAA Tournament.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Staff Writer

March 24, 2025

MILWAUKEE — If Sunday night marked the last time Kasparus Jakucionis takes off an Illinois jersey, he isn’t likely to have fond memories of the NCAA Tournament.

Following the 84-75 loss to Kentucky, the 18-year-old had plenty of self-awareness to know the major talking point of the evening and likely subsequent days would surround his six turnovers, four of which came in the first 10 minutes of the contest.

“I’m mad at myself that I let the team down today,” Jakučionis said while sitting in his post-game locker room stall inside Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee. “We lost tonight because of turnovers and I’m the one that turned the ball over.”