Featured

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

August 5, 2022

(Cover photo courtesy Illinois Athletics)

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Welcome to the sixth 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 again simply a 15-minute viewing period (with a quick 5-minute introduction by Bielema) but here’s the quick notes:

Friday morning’s two-hour practice session was a day where the players were in full pads today on the grass practice fields just outside the Smith Family Football Center and it is anticipated the Illini will conduct its first scrimmage at Memorial Stadium. I don’t have details on the scrimmage schedule but I assume it’ll be closed to the public and media.

Mike Farrell, IlliniGuys National Football Recruiting Expert August 5, […]

After leaving Southern California, Sean Snyder has found a […]

After voting to end a proposal in February to […]

By IlliniGuys Staff

August 4, 2022

The summer workout period is officially over and IlliniGuys Insider/Analyst Brad Sturdy gives his evaluations and hands out some end-of-summer awards.  Find out who performed the best and a couple of surprise nuggets that we haven't heard before.

Illinois assistant coach Geoff Alexander just arrived back in Champaign this week after watching French 2022 commit Zacharie Perrin shine in FIBA U-18 Europeans Championships. 

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Staff Writer

August 3, 2022

(Cover photo courtesy Zacharie Perrin's Instagram page)

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- The only absent member of the 2022-23 Illinois men’s basketball roster still has some work to do overseas.

Just over a month after verbally pledging his services to Illinois’ 2022 recruiting class, Zacharie Perrin - a 17-year-old international star player from France, is currently in Izmir, Turkey attempting to lead his home country to its first gold medal in the FIBA U-18 European Championships since 2016. 

Perrin, a 6-foot-11, 220 pound forward, doesn't turn 18 years old until the end of this month, which is around the time Illinois head coach Brad Underwood said Wednesday he expects the Frenchmen to arrive on campus.

“The FIBA tournament will end this weekend and then he’ll get a couple of weeks off before we expect to see him arrive for the start of school,” Underwood said. 

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.