Featured

By Kedric Prince - IlliniGuys Sr. Recruiting Analyst

October 27, 2025

(Cover photo courtesy Kedric Prince/IlliniGuys)

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The Illinois men’s basketball program continues to work hard on the recruiting trail. This time, the focus is squarely on the frontcourt. Head coach Brad Underwood and his staff are looking to secure a big man, and it appears they’re down to the wire with a pair of highly touted prospects.

Luigi Suigo, a 7-foot-3, 240-pound center from Italy, has reportedly narrowed his list to Illinois, Northwestern, Notre Dame, and Purdue. However, sources believe the decision will likely come down to a two-team race between the Illini and Boilermakers.

By Kedric Prince – IlliniGuys Sr. Recruiting Analyst October […]

The Illinois defense and game management get failing marks in 17-point loss in Seattle.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

The four-hour plane ride from Seattle likely won’t be long enough for Bret Bielema and the Illinois coaching staff to come up with answers to why the No. 23 Illini allowed another opponent to score, convert third-down situations and do whatever they wanted when Washington quarterback Demond Williams Jr. had the football in his hands.

To make matters worse, Illinois (5-3, 2-3 in Big Ten Conference) also found itself playing from behind most of this 60-minute affair causing quarterback Luke Altmyer to surrender two turnovers that secured another disappointing road loss, which ended all hope of Illinois being in a 2025 College Football Playoff discussion.

More importantly, Bielema - a former defensive coordinator and defensive line coach - was left without answers to why his 2025 defensive unit failed to provide much resistance against a Big Ten opponent.

Run Offense
Illinois clearly spent the bye week

Following the 42-25 loss at Washington, Illinois head coach Bret Bielema said he doesn’t believe it would be prudent for him to inherit defensive play-calling duties on game day.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

October 25, 2025

SEATTLE — While acknowledging the obvious of several answers needing to be found in his defense, Bret Bielema doesn’t believe him taking over play-calling duties is one of them.

Following the 42-25 loss at Washington, the Illinois fifth-year head coach said Saturday he doesn’t believe it would be prudent for him to inherit defensive play-calling duties from coordinator Aaron Henry on game day.

“There’s so many things that go on in my daily journal (and) I know there are some guys out there that can (call plays as a head coach) but I just think that gives a little bit of mixed messages to the players,” Bielema said.

Whether that change is a what or a whom, something has to be different about what Illinois is doing on the defensive side of the football. And Bret Bielema knows it.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

(Cover photo courtesy Matt Stevens/IlliniGuys)

October 25, 2025

SEATTLE — Illinois has finally reached its first rubicon game in the last two seasons where its faulty defense absolutely cost them a game.

Before, during or after the four-hour flight home to Champaign, Bret Bielema will have to look at his beloved son he never had, Aaron Henry, and be forced to reconcile with the fact that if the defense could have played about 15-20 percent better, Illinois would’ve won.

Before today, the best argument to be made on Henry’s behalf was likely that the Illini’s record would’ve still been 5-2 if the defense had found just a couple more stops in the 60-minute contest. The results at No. 2 Indiana and versus No. 1 Ohio State in Champaign would’ve likely come up the same - loss - even if Henry’s defense had stood tall.

This is certainly not the case today in Seattle.

By IlliniGuys Staff (Cover photo courtesy Illinois Athletics) SEATTLE, […]

The Illini coaches have commented on how past plans for Kansas, Michigan State and South Carolina could shape how the Illini defend Washington quarterback Demond Williams Jr.

No. 23 ILLINOIS at WASHINGTON

Records: Illinois 5-2, 2-2 in Big Ten; Washington 5-2, 2-2 in Big Ten

Date/Time/Place: Saturday, Oct. 25, 2025: 2:30 p.m. CST, Husky Stadium, Seattle, Washington

Surface: AstroTurf 3D3

Capacity: 70,083

Line: Washington by 4.5

Series notes: Saturday marks the 12th meeting between Illinois and Washington in the series that began back to 1950. Washington leads the all-time series 7-4. This will be the first matchup between the Illini and Huskies as Big Ten opponents since Washington joined the league prior to the 2024 season. The meeting on Jan. 1, 1964, a 17-7 Illini victory in the Rose Bowl, capped the 1963 campaign. The 1964 win over Washington marked the Illini’s last victory in the Rose Bowl. Illinois made its first appearance in Pasadena in 12 years, led by linebacker Dick Butkus and fullback Jim Grabowski, and getting a victory that saw Illinois post an 8-1-1 record, win the Big Ten Championship, and finish No. 3 in the final Associated Press Top 25 poll. Illinois is 1-4 in its previous five trips to Seattle. The Huskies have won four straight at home against Illinois since the Illini captured a 27-20 road victory en route to the 1951 national championship. Since that first matchup in Seattle in 1951, the Illini have lost road games at Washington in 1956 (28-13), 1962 (28-7), 1972 (31-11), and 2014 (44-19).

Illinois is 3-1 when ranked inside the top 25 when facing Washington. The No. 8 Illini defeated the No. 20 Huskies, 27-20 in Seattle in 1951. The following year, the 13th-ranked Illini won 48-14 in Champaign, and the third-ranked Illini captured the 1964 Rose Bowl title, 17-7, vs. Washington. In 1956, unranked Washington upset No. 13 Illinois, 28-13, in Seattle.

TV: Big Ten Network; Jeff Levering (play-by-play); Jake Butt (color analyst) and Brooke Fletcher (sideline reporter)

Radio (Illinois): Brian Barnhart (play-by-play), Carey Davis (analyst), Michael Martin (sideline), and Steve Kelly (pre/half/post). The broadcast can be heard live on TuneIn online radio, SiriusXM 372, the SiriusXM App, and at FightingIllini.com/live.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

October 25, 2025

(Cover photo courtesy Illinois Athletics)

SEATTLE — The task of facing such a dynamic dual-threat athlete at quarterback isn’t foreign to the Illinois defense but Illini play-caller Aaron Henry may have to find the 2024 call sheets for the containment plan of Kansas’ Jalon Daniels, Michigan State’s Aidan Chiles and South Carolina quarterback LaNorris Sellers.

Illinois went 3-0 against that type of quarterback in the 2024 season with none of those opponents scoring more than 17 points in the trio of games.

“I will tell you this...

By Kedric Prince - IlliniGuys Sr. Recruiting Analyst

October 24, 2025

(Cover photo courtesy Kedric Prince/IlliniGuys)

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Just before the Illinois men’s basketball team boarded a plane for a “secret” scrimmage against Florida, the program received some major recruiting news. Lucas Morillo, a 6-foot-6, 185-pound guard from The Newman School in Boston, Massachusetts, announced his commitment to the Illini.

Morillo, a consensus four-star prospect and top-75 player in the 2026 class according to ESPN, visited Champaign on September 27 when Illinois hosted USC. At the time, he told IlliniGuys, “Illinois is a place I could see myself playing. Their program has been great under Coach (Brad) Underwood.”

October 24, 2025 The Illini travel to Washington in […]

For the third straight season, Illinois head coach Bret Bielema will be on the opposite sideline with Ryan Walters, the first defensive coordinator he hired in his Illini rebuild, on Saturday.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

October 24, 2025

(Cover photo courtesy Nick Wagner/Seattle Times)

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — When a reporter asked about the dynamic of Bret Bielema’s Illinois team facing a defensive unit led by Ryan Walters for the third consecutive year, the Illini head coach quickly corrected the accuracy of the question.

“I would argue this is five years in a row,” Bielema said Monday with a smile.

The two other years are the daily routine of first-string offense versus first-string defense in the Illini’s practice sessions in the 2021 and 2022 seasons. Bielema wouldn’t script those middle-of-the-week practice sessions in a way so the Illini could see some success in the type of way where in a given scenario and the defense could rebound in another scenario. No, this was Walters and his fellow lieutenants on the defensive assistant coaches including Terrance Jamison, Kevin Kane, Aaron Henry and Andy Buh game-planning to have success and build confidence against an Illini offensive unit where Bielema says he sat in on their meetings to scheme against Walters’ bunch.

“Even when (Walters) was here, I’d probably go over to the other side of the ball and work with them to even it up and make things fair and interesting,” Bielema said in his weekly media conference inside Gies Memorial Stadium.

Since arriving as the top-ranked junior college pass rusher in the 2024 recruiting class, Illinois OLB Daniel Brown has seen injuries delay what coaches have hoped is an instant impact.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

October 23, 2025

(Cover photo courtesy Illinois Athletics)

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Even two years later, Bret Bielema still tells the story of during an October bye week in the 2023 season, the Illinois head coach visited multiple junior colleges in the Iowa and Kansas area during a five-day period where nearly all of those program’s head coaches had the same question for the Illini third-year leader.

“They all stopped me and said, ‘Oh, you have to be in on (number) 32, that edge rusher from Hutch, right?,” Bielema said Wednesday.

While wearing number 32 at Hutchinson Community College in that 2023 season, Daniel Brown had already established a reputation as one of the nation’s best pass rushers at the junior college level.

Illinois defensive coordinator Aaron Henry believes his unit needs to become more focused on creating takeaways that have led to their five wins in 2025.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

October 23, 2025

(Cover photo courtesy Illinois Athletics)

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Just because it’s been almost 15 years since he graduated with as a consumer trends major while playing at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Aaron Henry hasn’t forgotten what a mathematical trend looks like.

So, when the third-year Illinois defensive coordinator is shown a spreadsheet or statistical analysis split, it won’t take him long to identify during the five Illini wins in 2025 is when his defense and the Illinois special teams unit has produced 10 takeaways. It will likely take Henry even less time to find that in the two losses, Illinois has produced a single momentum-shifting turnover from the opposing offense.

Henry’s assessment of his defensive unit through the first seven games in an internal self-scout that his boss and former head coach at Wisconsin, Bret Bielema, requires of all his three coordinators during a off week produced a simple conclusion.

By Kedric Prince Staff Writer

October 22, 2025

(Cover photo courtesy Kedric Prince/IlliniGuys)

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The Fighting Illini men’s basketball team is gearing up for what is expected to be another exciting season. Last week’s Big Ten Media Day offered an early glimpse into expectations for 2025-26, as the conference’s preseason rankings were released.

The media selected Illinois to finish fourth behind, in order, Purdue, Michigan, and UCLA. KenPom.com’s preseason rankings were equally high on the Illini, placing them at No. 6 nationally, the second-highest Big Ten team behind the No. 2 Boilermakers.

Illinois assistant coach Zach Hamer spoke about his expectations for the upcoming season and the energy surrounding the program.

October 23, 2025

IlliniGuys Sr. Recruiting Analyst Kedric Prince shared the following insider notes earlier this week following Illinois' 92-65 exhibition win over Illinois State on Sunday.  He gives an intriguing glimpse inside the program, looking at how players are developing 

What I learned yesterday at the State Farm Center, where Illinois defeated Illinois State 92-65 in front of 15,180 fans, goes beyond the final score.
Let’s start with what happened off the court. Recruiting is nowhere near what it used to be or how it’s done, and Illinois has adjusted its approach accordingly. In Brad Underwood’s early years as head coach, he had to sell his vision. Now, with the success he’s built, the Illini approach things differently.

By IlliniGuys Staff October 22, 2025 (Cover photo courtesy […]