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While Friday night will be Connor Bazelak’s first action at Indiana, it will certainly not be his first experience trying to move the football against a defense led by coordinator Ryan Walters.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

August 31, 2022

(Cover photo courtesy IlliniGuys/Jonah Cagley)

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- The Illinois defensive coordinator has felt fully prepared for months to scout the likely candidate to be Indiana’s starting quarterback.

During his final season leading the Missouri defense in Eli Drinkwitz’s first season as the Tigers head coach, Walters found himself working his first-string defensive unit against the quarterback he’ll likely see on Friday night when Walters’ Illini defense opens Big Ten Conference play.

Ryan Walters was the defensive boss at Missouri less than two years ago when Connor Bazelak emerged as the quarterback of the present and the future when he competed for the starting quarterback job in preseason practices.

Mike Farrell, IlliniGuys National Football Recruiting Expert

August 31, 2022

(Mike Farrell also has his own website: https://mikefarrellsports.com/)

Bret Bielema’s defense looked great in the opener against Wyoming.

By Zain Bando - IlliniGuys Student Correspondent

August 30, 2022

(Cover photo courtesy Illinois Athletics)

Illinois took care of business in front of 37,000 strong against Wyoming on Saturday, winning handily 38-6 behind a three-touchdown performance from Chase Brown and a mistake free day from Syracuse transfer Tommy DeVito.

It’s exactly the start the Illini needed to get back to national relevance again, and with a weak Friday night slate, many viewers will tune in at 7:00 p.m. CT to see an old rivalry renewed between the Illini and Indiana Hoosiers in Bloomington. The game airs on FS1, and according to Vegas Insider, the Hoosiers open as three-point favorites against its counterparts from Champaign.

By Steve Sturm - IlliniGuys Football Analyst

August 30, 2022

Welcome to the first trench report of the 2022 season.  For those who missed these columns last year or are new to Illini Guys, I break down the line play for the Illini on both sides of the ball each week with a little closer look at what worked and what didn't work the previous week.  This week should be an especially interesting look for Illini fans as Illinois changed things up on both offense and defense from what we've seen earlier.  As with everything else on Saturday, things were generally pretty good for the Orange and Blue, but after watching the film I saw some things for Barry Lunney Jr. and Ryan Walters to think about for coming weeks.

I'm going to start with a look at the offense this week.  When Chase Brown averages 7.9 yards per carry, the offense averages 6.3 yards per carry overall, and the QB is generally clean and doesn't take a sack, that's a good day.  However, on second look...

In every offseason, Illinois fans not familiar with Bret Bielema’s mindset always want to move Illini tailback signees to new positions but Josh McCray’s injury shows why that’s a bad idea. 

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

August 30, 2022

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Bret Bielema sometimes likes re-watching the last game he ever coached the Wisconsin Badgers program. 

And why not? Wouldn’t anybody want to, every now and again, watch the most successful moment of your career over and over and over as many times as you can?

For Bielema, that moment is the 70-31 victory over Nebraska in the 2012 Big Ten Conference Championship Game when his squad totaled 539 rushing yards and 10.8 yards per attempt against a program with a head coach in Bo Pelini who made his name in the business by being a highly-coveted defensive coordinator. 

The main reason Bielema loves reliving that 60 minutes of action is the depth his Wisconsin program had at tailback as Montee Ball won the Doak Walker Award, given to the nation’s best running back. Behind Ball on the Badgers depth chart was James White - who was the Big Ten Freshman of the Year selection two years earlier and would finish with 4,015 career rushing yards and 45 career rushing touchdowns. Behind those two nationally-recognized rushing machines was a freshman named Melvin Gordon - who would go on to be a unanimous All-American selection two years later and also take home a Doak Walker Award in 2014. 

By Kedric Prince - IlliniGuys.com Director of Recruiting 

August 30, 2022

How successful has Illinois recruiting been?  Barring a surprise, their class of 2023 is now complete with priority target Amani Hansberry committed.  That leaves the coaches to spend their valuable time on the class of 2024 and, yes, even the incoming sophomore class. 

Illinois sophomore tailback Josh McCray left Memorial Stadium on […]

Mike Farrell, IlliniGuys National Football Recruiting Expert

August 29, 2022

(Mike Farrell also has his own website: https://mikefarrellsports.com/)

After wrapping up a successful opening day game against Wyoming where the Illini won 38-6

In a 38-6 season-opening win, Illinois held an opposing team to 20 points or less for the fifth time in its last six games, dating back to Oct. 23, 2021 

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

August 29, 2022

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- The season-opening performance for the Illinois defense where the opponent didn’t find the end zone, managed just five completions for 30 yards and didn’t convert a third down situation until was treated as a "been here, already done that" scenario. 

Illinois completed a 32-point dominating victory over Wyoming Saturday thanks to a defensive effort involving just one player making his first career start (linebacker Ezekiel Holmes) from coordinator Ryan Walters’ turnaround campaign of last season. After 60 minutes of play in the 2022 season, Walters’ group showcased the several months of work this unit executed almost immediately after the 47-14 blowout of Northwestern last Nov. 27.

“Today was like a build-on that type of thing,” Illinois linebacker Tarique Barnes said. “It’s a confidence thing to be able to get out of this one and say that now, we know it, we saw it and we did it. The next thing is keep doing it and do it again.”  

Mike Cagley, IlliniGuy August 29, 2022 The Illini football […]

Brad Sturdy, IlliniGuy

August 28, 2022

Amani Hansberry became the first

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Illinois offensive coordinator Barry Lunney Jr.’s offensive philosophy was on full display Saturday in a 38-6 win over Wyoming. 

Matt Stevens, IlliniGuys Staff Writer

August 28, 2022

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- The first touchdown of the 2022 season for Illinois highlighted exactly what Barry Lunney Jr. wants this offense to be defined by - setting up easy one-on-one matchups that his star athletes can win. 

Illinois sold Tommy DeVito on a run game and offensive protection and kept its promise Saturday in a 38-6 season-opening win. 

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

August 28, 2022

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Tommy DeVito is living in a brand new world. 

The new Illinois starting quarterback was sold on the program by head coach Bret Bielema this past winter mostly on the ability to have two things to help him succeed: a running game and a huge offensive line capable of protecting him. 

Bielema and the Illini coaching staff certainly lived up to their word after a 38-6 victory over an overmatched Wyoming squad in the 2022 season opener. 

In 2020, Syracuse’s offense boasted the worst rushing attack in the Atlantic Coast Conference and the sixth-worst rushing average among 127 Football Bowl Subdivision programs across the nation. The Orange only supplemented their four-star savior quarterback prospect with 92 yards per game on the ground and five rushing touchdowns in 11 games.

y Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

August 27. 2022

(Cover photo courtesy Ron Johnson/USA Today Sports)

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- With any other player, it would’ve seemed like Bret Bielema took an enormous gamble with a preseason strategy. 

Bielema elected to not have his returning leading rusher, Chase Brown, receive any physical contact through the month-long process that is training camp. No tackling, no thudding and the Illini’s second-year head coach didn’t want any defensive players breathing too heavily on his 205-pound, All-Big Ten selection tailback. 

“I’ve had a lot of good running backs in my career, right? I’ve been very blessed but I told (Brown) last spring that the last hit you took in that Northwestern game would be the last time you were going to get tackled until the opener so you’ll need to prepare that way,” Bielema said after the Illini head coach won his second consecutive season opener at Memorial Stadium. “He had a great spring. He had a great fall (camp) and we didn’t let anybody tackle him. I was a little nervous in seeing how explosive he’d be but he’s got a really great understanding of how to play behind his pads.” 

Following a season opener performance where the senior tailback recorded 151 yards and found the end zone three times in a dominating 38-6 victory, Bielema’s August plan for his star was proven to be a no-brainer.