Football

Jordan Anderson is back in the running back room for his final season of college football and looking to provide quality depth for new positional coach Tyrone Wheatley.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

August 7, 2026

CHAMPAIGN — Don’t ask new Illinois running backs coach Tyrone Wheatley what he expects to get from the oldest player in his positional room.

Wheatley isn’t sure how the 2026 campaign will work out for sixth-year running back Jordan Anderson but he’s sure he doesn’t enjoy hearing the word ‘expectations’ in early August when the first-year assistant coach has been in Champaign-Urbana only seven months.

What Wheatley is already sure of is having Anderson transfer in to his meeting rooms quickly began to advance the level of teaching he was able to do for a positional group that already returned two ball carriers (Ca'Lil Valentine and Aidan Laughery) that accounted for 1,127 rushing yards and 11 touchdowns on the ground last season.

“You said expect and I don’t like that word because I have to manage those for him,” Wheatley said. “The expectation for him is the role he’ll be given. And right now, we don’t know what that role is. As we go here, it’ll unravel and show itself to all of us. I know this. When it does, he’ll do a great job at that role.”

Illinois seventh-year center Jake Renfro was nominated among 40 projected starting centers named to The Rimington Trophy watch list.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

August 6, 2026

(Cover photo courtesy Matt Stevens/IlliniGuys)

CHAMPAIGN — For the first time this summer, Illinois has a player on a preseason watch list.

Illinois center Jake Renfro has been named to the preseason watch list for the 2026 Rimington Trophy, released Thursday by the Rimington Trophy Committee. The 24-year-old transfer from Cincinnati and Wisconsin, who is entering his seventh year of college football, was one of 40 players listed among the top centers in college football entering the upcoming 2026 season.

“When it comes to his experience in the game and in college football, he’s a guy that has not only read the book but he’s seen the movie,” Illinois offensive line coach Bart Miller said of Renfro on Wednesday. “For him to come in and he wasn’t able to take reps in the spring but he took mental reps on every play. He was with me the whole spring and he was making calls and communicating with [Illini projected backup center T.J. McMillen] and he was kind of a player-coach.”

Will Holmes, a 25-year-old former professional baseball player with only two years of organized football as his experience, will be a hybrid-type player at Illinois in the 2026 season.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

August 5, 2026

CHAMPAIGN — At the conclusion of his first preseason camp practice as the defensive coordinator at Illinois, Bobby Hauck looked down at the first and top note from the two-hour session that he wrote dow and just smiled.

“My note from the practice yesterday is Will Holmes is going to be hard to handle,” said the Illini’s 62-year-old defensive play-caller, who is entering his first ever season in that job position.

Holmes, a 25-year-old transfer pass rusher from Utah State, has been moved into a specialized role in Hauck’s 3-3-5 defensive scheme where the 255-pounder will be in the defensive line meeting room on a daily basis but Holmes is likely to line up in a variety of unique ways before the snap.

“He’s going to kind of be a hybrid guy for us,” Illinois head coach Bret Bielema said on Monday night. “He’ll live in the defensive line room but probably do a variety of things for us as it plays out.”

IlliniGuys.com details noteworthy items from the 30-minute media viewing portion of the second practice of the Illini’s 2026 preseason camp session.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

August 4, 2026

(Cover photo courtesy Illinois Athletics)

CHAMPAIGN — Good evening and welcome to the second preseason camp practice for the Illinois program for the 2026 season in the sixth campaign of Illini head coach Bret Bielema.

Tonight was simply a 30-minute viewing period after the team stretching pre-practice period but, as per usual, did not involve any full-team activities but highlighting the individual positional work early in this camp. Per NCAA and Big Ten Conference rules, the practice on Monday night and tonight’s practice was just in helmets, shorts, and spider pads (basic cushioned pads that are used on non-contact days) so there’s practically nothing to be gleaned from the line-of-scrimmage play.

Local media, including IlliniGuys.com, had a media session with Illini offensive coordinator Barry Lunney Jr. and defensive coordinator Bobby Hauck. It’s the first time that both coordinators have addressed the media since late April. The IlliniGuys.com video of those media sessions should be available on our YouTube channel, X (@matthewcstevens) and on the IlliniGuys.com football board.

We’ll keep the positional change chart up for a few more days in case folks didn’t see it or there are more items to add to it in the coming days.

Illini Positional Changes and/or Jersey Number Changes for upcoming 2026 season
WR Jershaun Newton - positional switch from quarterback
TE Kaden Feagin - No. 83 from No. 3
DL Will Holmes - positional switch from linebacker to defensive end/OLB
WR Nate Cichy - late signee after decommitting from Harvard - No. 19
OLB Carter Smith - listed on roster as a DL but is working with Archie McDaniel’s OLB position group
LB Des Straughton - listed on roster as a DB but working with Roger Cooper’s LB position group
LB Kaedyn Cobbs - listed on roster as a DB but working with Roger Cooper’s LB position group

Illini Injury Report

Illinois received the fourth-most voting points of the program’s […]

Illinois coaches are using this month-long preseason camp in August to find out who will be the backup quarterback behind Katin Houser.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

August 4, 2026

CHAMPAIGN — The Illinois quarterbacks got a new piece of equipment before the start of preseason camp.

In order to see where their eyes are specifically looking during all live portions of a practice rep for the first time, Illinois coaches had a POV camera attached to the front of each signal caller’s helmet just above the facemask.

The camera, similar to a GoPro camcorder, can obviously record the visual aspect of what the quarterback sees before, during and after he makes a read, takes the snap and makes a throw or creates a play with his legs. The camera is prohibited under NCAA rules to be on the Illini’s helmets during game action but is considered a very valuable training tool that has bled into practices across the nation and all levels of football starting as early as the high school level.

However, Illinois head coach Bret Bielema, who enters his sixth training camp leading the Illini program, made a point to local media Monday night that he’s just as interested in evaluating the audio component of this new technology.

“Obviously because it’s a camera, everybody wants to see but it has a speaker on it and we definitely want to hear what our quarterbacks want to say,” Bielema said Monday evening before the Illini’s first preseason practice. “We say around here that volume reflects confidence. You hear Katin now and you heard Luke in the past. Sometimes when quarterbacks don’t get a lot of reps, they’ll not speak with great volume. People respect people with volume in their voice, especially in leadership positions.”

IlliniGuys.com details noteworthy items from the 30-minute media viewing portion of the opening practice of the Illini’s 2026 preseason camp session.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

August 3, 2026

(Cover photo courtesy Matt Stevens/IlliniGuys)

CHAMPAIGN — Good evening and welcome to the first preseason camp practice for the Illinois program for the 2026 season in the sixth campaign of Illini head coach Bret Bielema.

Tonight was simply a 30-minute viewing period after the team stretching pre-practice period but, as per usual, did not involve any full-team activities but highlighting the individual positional work early in this camp. Per NCAA and Big Ten Conference rules, tonight’s practice and Saturday’s practice was just in helmets, shorts, and spider pads (basic cushioned pads that are used on non-contact days) so there’s nothing to be gleaned from the line-of-scrimmage play.

Illini positional changes and/or jersey number changes for the upcoming 2026 season
WR Jershaun Newton - positional switch from quarterback
DL Will Holmes - positional switch from linebacker to defensive end/OLB
TE Kaden Feagin - No. 83 from No. 3
WR Nate Cichy - late signee after decommitting from Harvard - No. 19

Illini Injury Report
WR Hudson Clement - limited in a green, non-contact jersey and expected to get medical clearance by next week
LB Daniel Brown - lower body soft tissue injury in summer - expected to be cleared by Wednesday
WR Alex Perry - unknown injury but limited in a green, non-contact jersey for the fifth-year transfer from Florida International
WR Davon Grant - likely career-ending injury for the consensus 2026 three-star signee
LB Jaylen Stewart - hip and shoulder surgery - out for season for consensus 2026 three-star signee
LB Erik Gayle - torn achilles - out for season for second-year player
DL Cameron Brooks - season-ending injury for second-year player
TE Tanner Hollinger - season ending injury before spring practices
TE Grant Smith - season ending injury before spring practices

The biggest newsworthy item was Dezmond Schuster being granted a medical waiver to play his sixth season at Illinois a few weeks ago after being granted medical clearance to play late in the spring.

IlliniGuys.com addresses five topics/questions as Illinois begins its first preseason practice Monday night inside Gies Memorial Stadium.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

August 3, 2026

(Cover photo courtesy Illinois Athletics)

CHAMPAIGN — Following 19 wins over the past two seasons, the Illinois football program will begin its preseason camp with an evening practice under the lights with exactly 30 days to prepare for its season opener against the University of Alabama at Birmingham on Sept. 3 (8 p.m., Big Ten Network).

Illini head coach Bret Bielema will be preparing his sixth team in Champaign-Urbana with a near-completely remade defensive coaching staff, a new quarterback and some returning familiar faces in the defensive secondary. So, while a lot of preseason questions have been answered over the spring and summer months, a lot of topics still remain unsolved.

Bielema is slated to address the local media at 7 p.m. CST and we’ll bring you the video of that as soon as that media session wraps up inside the Smith Center.
Now it’s anticipated a majority of preseason camp will be behind closed doors to the public and media but we at IlliniGuys.com thought we’d detail five pressing storylines that we’d like to get a preliminary grasp on before UAB comes to Gies Memorial Stadium next month.

Bobby Hauck’s 3-3-5 Defensive Scheme Change: 

Despite it getting eleventh-hour approval from the Big Ten Conference, this version of the Protect College Sports Act couldn’t possibly be what anybody with Illini football wanted.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

August 2, 2026

The Friday night news dump of the Big Ten Conference and Southeastern Conference leadership giving its public approval for a revised Protect College Sports Act does provide a pathway for federal legislation to be voted before the congressional recess in early August.

Despite the fact that there isn’t a clear indication in the legislation language about whom exactly is providing the protection of violations of this future federal law, how that protection is getting implemented or what the penalties of those violators will be (sure, because despite over 100 years of history let’s just assume all college administrators and coaches will suddenly turn toward compliance) around 9 p.m. CST on Friday, July 31, the Big Ten and SEC struck a deal with federal lawmakers over legislation to regulate the college sports industry.

Sounds great, right? Wrong.

The negotiations between U.S. senators and conference executives over the bill resulted in legislation that doesn’t help University of Illinois athletics at all. Two of the three highest paid administrators inside Champaign-Urbana, specifically as athletics director Josh Whitman, and football head coach Bret Bielema) couldn’t have possibly wanted this result.

Illinois head coach Bret Bielema said at Big Ten Football Media Days that his program was unable to get in the mix for top transfer portal defensive linemen due to lack of money.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

August 1, 2026

(Cover photo courtesy Illinois Athletics)

CHICAGO — Bret Bielema would’ve obviously loved to sign an elite, highly-rated defensive lineman or linebacker out of the transfer portal but his reasoning for not doing that this winter involves kitchen table economics logic.

The Illinois football head coach said Tuesday at his individual podium at the 2026 Big Ten Football Media Day in Chicago the reason for the Illini not being as aggressive for defensive players in the portal was they simply ran out of money in their budget.

Bielema said Tuesday that he felt the priorities of finding a starting quarterback in the transfer portal (Katin Houser) and at least three plug-and-play offensive line starters (left tackle Christian Martin, center Jake Renfro and junior college signee Maika Matelau), an instant starter at cornerback (Jakwon Morris) and three wide receivers (Jayshon Platt, Alex Perry and Ty Robinson) were higher than spending a high amount for an elite-level defensive lineman.

“The reason I had to make change on the defensive side is I didn’t have the revenue share funds to afford these prices for defensive lineman and big guys,” Bielema said.

Illinois athletics director Josh Whitman says Illini and the […]

Illinois head coach Bret Bielema detailed his expected three […]

By Steve Sturm - IlliniGuys Football Analyst

July 29, 2026

Illinois continued its recent success in the Sunshine State with a commitment from Miami Central cornerback Trezavant Boyd this month.  Boyd was recruited by Florida State and the University of South Florida, yet the Illini managed to lure him to Champaign to join Floridian classmates Steven Alexis and Tyrone Howard.  Boyd is a skinny 5'10" player who lists himself at 160 pounds, but you'll see in the video below that he's not shy about throwing his body around.  He's playing against weak competition in these clips, but they're reminiscent of many videos I've seen of Illini defensive back recruits that the Illini have managed to sign with good competition by recruiting from schools that don't draw the big schools' attention.

Illinois is slated to, according to Bret Bielema’s comments at Big Ten Media Day, have three transfer players inserted its starting offensive line unit for the upcoming 2026 season.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

July 28, 2026

(Cover photo courtesy Illinois Athletics)

CHICAGO — Bret Bielema didn’t waste any time revealing the starting offensive line group at Illinois for the 2026 season.

In a response to the third question of his 14-minute media podium time Tuesday at the 2026 Big Ten Football Media Days, Bielema detailed what he considers an experienced offensive line, despite losing over 90 percent of the starting experience from a group that was key to 19 wins over the last two seasons.

Bielema more than indicated that Colorado State transfer Christian Martin will get the nod at left tackle with Maika Matelau, the No. 1 junior college interior lineman in the 2026 signing class by 247Sports.com, likely to start at left guard with Cincinnati/Wisconsin transfer Jake Renfro starting in the middle at center. According to Bielema on Tuesday, the Illini’s only returning starter from 2024 and 2025 season will be right guard Brandon Henderson and Nathan Knapik, who started at left tackle in the Music City Bowl win over Tennessee, will begin the 2026 season as the starter at right tackle.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst July 28, […]