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Illinois will open the 2022 season in a transfer portal era with two quarterbacks (Syracuse transfer Tommy DeVito and Art Sitkowski) who have over 10 career starts in their college football career.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

August 3, 2022

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- While winter conditioning drills were being completed, Illinois head coach Bret Bielema sought out an opinion from inside his locker room on his top two quarterbacks.

While walking the halls of the Smith Center facility, Bielema nearly bumped into star wide receiver Isaiah Williams and posed the question immediately about the newly arrived Syracuse transfer Tommy DeVito.

“When Tommy was around him and throwing to him on their own but I don’t think we were yet in spring drills, I bumped into Isaiah and said ‘What do you think of Tommy?,” said Bielema said.

The question makes sense for several reasons - the least of which being Williams had made the transition from quarterback, a position he’d played his whole life up to the spring drills leading into the 2021 season, and the chemistry between QB1 and the leading receiver needs to be there.

Why Illinois outside linebacker coach Kevin Kane thinks Seth Coleman emerging early in 2021 but then finding the bench late will translate to an exciting 2022 campaign for the Illini pass rusher. 

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

August 3, 2022

(Cover photo courtesy Nikos Frazier/Journal & Courier)

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- In eyes of his position coach, the best thing that happened to Seth Coleman last season was experiencing the joy success and then low feeling of being benched. 

As an inexperienced 235-pound pass rusher trying to make the transition from an undersized defensive end in Lovie Smith’s 4-3 scheme to a perfect body type at stand-up, outside linebacker for new Illinois defensive coordinator Ryan Walters’ odd-man front system, Coleman found a way to make an instant impact in 2021. 

With the graduation departure of two senior starters (Owen Carney Jr. and Isaiah Gay), it is Coleman, a redshirt sophomore entering his fourth season of college football, who instantly finds himself inheriting a leadership role in the meeting room of outside linebacker coach Kevin Kane. It is the outside linebacker spot that arguably has the most questions entering a 2022 campaign where the Illini return all but three starters from last year’s season-finale victory over Northwestern.  

Mike Farrell, IlliniGuys National Football Recruiting Expert August 3, […]

By Kedric Prince – IlliniGuys.com Director of Recruiting

August 2, 2022

(Cover photo courtesy Prospective Insight)

Zoom Diallo is a 6-foot-3, 180-pound PG/SG from Tacoma, Washington, who plays his AAU basketball for Elite Sports Academy. Diallo played in the UAA Finals held in Chicago last month. 

Diallo is a guard who can score at all levels, with his long range jump-shot being his weapon, which, in return, set up his crossover move that had recent Minnesota commit Cam Christie on his heels.  With rosters changing yearly, having another four-star weapon like Diallo would keep the rich guard history moving forward.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

August 1, 2022

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Welcome to the third day of fall preseason football camp for the Illinois program for the 2022 season in the second year of Illini head coach Bret Bielema.

It was simply a 15-minute viewing period (with a quick 5-minute introduction by Bielema) but here’s the quick notes:

Monday morning’s two-hour practice session was the first day in shoulder pads or “shells”, as the players and coaches refer to the shoulder pads but no extensive padding lower than the shoulders per the NCAA’s acclimation period rules.

Mike Farrell, IlliniGuys National Football Recruiting Expert August 1, […]

By Kedric Prince - IlliniGuys.com Director of Recruiting 

July 31, 2022

The official AAU basketball season is over; there will be a few late tournaments, but the live session is now over. 

Illinois head basketball coach Brad Underwood said, “Although the class of 2023 is deep, there's not a lot of players out there next year who a lot of coaches feel can come in and make a difference right away. Right now, we’re all going to be fighting for those players who can.”

Amani Hansberry is the one key player in the class of 2023 who many slept on early. Illinois assistant coach Chester Frazier has been in constant contact with the 6-foot-8 power forward. 

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

July 30, 2022

(Cover photo courtesy Illinois Athletics)

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Welcome to the first day of fall football camp for the Illinois program for the 2022 season in the second year of Illini head coach Bret Bielema.

It was simply a 15-minute viewing period (with a quick 5-minute introduction by Bielema) but here’s the quick notes:

The most newsworthy portion of the day began hours before the horn at Memorial Stadium blarred for the start for the first 90-minute practice session. Redshirt freshman quarterback Samari Collier announced on social media he has entered the transfer portal. On3.com first reported the news on Saturday afternoon with Collier later confirming the information with a message on Twitter.
“I would like to give a thanks to Coach Lovie Smith and Coach [Stoker] for giving me the opportunity to attend the University of Illinois as a student-athlete," Collier wrote on Twitter. "I enjoyed my time at Illinois and I have formed great relationships with the coaches, teammates and the fans. Thank you Coach Bielema and Coach Lunney for allowing me to be part of the team. With careful consideration, I have decided to enter the transfer portal with four years of eligibility [remaining]. I wish nothing but the best for everyone in Champaign, IL.”

Collier, who was a three-star signal-caller from DeSoto (Texas) High School, was the first verbal pledge of Illinois’ 2021 class on Dec. 7. The 6-foot-3 and 210-pound quarterback was expected to compete with walk-on returner Ryan Johnson and freshman Donovan Leary along with walk-on Kirkland Michaux to be the third-string quarterback who travels on road games.

From a slow freshman start, a COVID-19 season, a coaching change, a position change or learning a third offense, Isaiah Williams knows he’s been through plenty of adversity at Illinois. 

Matt Stevens, IlliniGuys Staff Writer

July 30, 2022

INDIANAPOLIS -- The book stack currently going on Isaiah Williams’ summer checklist reads like a young man trying to find inspiration. 

By Zain Bando - IlliniGuys Student Correspondent July 30, […]

With Rico Jackson de-committing from his Illinois verbal pledge, half of the Illini’s 14-player commits in 2023 class have only one Power Five Conference offer.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

July 29, 2022

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Rico Jackson has become the first renounced verbal commitment of Illinois’ 2023 football recruiting class. 

The 6-foot-6, 295-pound offensive lineman from Dillard High School in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. announced Friday afternoon on social media that it is his intention to not sign with Illinois and to re-open his recruitment. 

Jackson made the decision to become the fifth verbal commitment of Illini’s 2023 recruiting class during his official campus visit last month. Jackson was the “late arriving official visitor” that Illinois head coach Bret Bielema was referencing during his June media availability at Atkins Golf Club in Urbana and gave his commitment before leaving the Champaign campus. Jackson had several other early scholarship offers from Power Five Conference programs including Michigan, Miami, Arizona State, Georgia Tech, Indiana, Colorado and Boston College. Illinois’ late momentum in the recruiting process that included a lot of personal attention from Bielema and other highly interested schools having off-the-field issues (including Miami’s coaching staff change and Arizona State’s notice of allegations from the NCAA pushed them over the top.

July 29, 2022 CHAMPAIGN, ILL. - The multi-media website […]

By IlliniGuys Staff

July 28, 2022

(Cover photo courtesy Joe Clark/IlliniGuys)

It's the last weekend in July.  That means the start of the fall semester is just around the corner AND we're now less than 90 days away from the Illini basketball team starting preseason drills in its quest to climb higher among the nation's elite.

After a whirlwind spring that saw two-time All-American Kofi Cockburn change his mind and enter the NBA draft, a pair of athletic, veteran Big 12 transfers join the roster, and arguably the most talented Illini freshman class in years step onto campus, the time is drawing near to see what this group has - and what it needs to do.

IlliniGuys Insider/Analyst Brad Sturdy takes a sneak peek inside the still-being-renovated Ubben practice facility and updates us on the refurbished project that is Illinois basketball.  A program that's coming off a Big Ten tournament title and conference regular season championship in consecutive years isn't satisfied.

Here's Sturdy's scouting report after two months of the guys working together:

By Zain Bando - IlliniGuys Student Correspondent

July 28, 2022

(Cover photo courtesy Illinois Athletics)

INDIANAPOLIS – Illinois athletic director Josh Whitman did a scrum session with local media Wednesday morning during day two of Big Ten Media Days. A variety of topics were discussed, including the departure of gymnastics coach Justin Spring, the possibility of Notre Dame joining the conference soon, and the early success of the Tailgate Tour.

The Tailgate Tour had been in the works for quite some time, giving Illinois fans and alumni a chance to meet and interact with some of the most prominent coaches at the University, including names like head football coach Bret Bielema, head men’s basketball coach Brad Underwood, and newly minted women’s basketball coach Shauna Green. The tour took place throughout the late-spring and month of June with stops in Aurora, Belleville, Springfield, the Quad Cities, Peoria, Rockford, and Winnetka.

By Kedric Prince - IlliniGuys.com Director of Recruiting

July 28, 2022

(Cover photo courtesy Illinois High School Basketball)

Illinois women’s basketball coach Shauna Green and staff are taking a page from football coach Bret Bielema: when you see talent in your backyard, you try to go get them.

Earlier this month, Green and company offered Chicago Whitney Young sophomore-to-be Destiny Jackson, a 5-foot-8 guard who already is listed as one of the nation’s top players.