Football

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

May 14, 2025

(Cover photo courtesy Illinois Athletics)

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Illinois has made a new contractual commitment to Bret Bielema for at least the next six years and what could be the next decade.

University officials announced the new signed deal with its fifth-year head coach on Tuesday afternoon that would keep Bielema in charge of the Illini football operation through at least the 2030 season. This six-year contract would be the third brand new agreement that University of Illinois officials have signed with Bielema since he agreed to become the Illini new head coach in Dec. 2020.

Bielema’s new contract will need to be voted on for approval by the Board of Trustees at its regularly scheduled meeting on May 22 in Urbana.

Less than four years ago, Art Sitkowski came off the bench to help Illinois win in Bret Bielema’s Illini debut. In the spring season of 2025, that ‘be ready’ mentality is still being preached.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

May 10, 2025

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The motivational tale of being one snap away from action is a story Art Sitkowski has lived and isn’t conjecture when he passes it down to the quarterbacks on the Illinois roster.

The House vs. NCAA settlement ruling by U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken has forced the Illini head coach to maintain three different roster plans heading into preseason camp in a few months.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

May 5, 2025

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Illinois head coach Bret Bielema is no longer fully committed to an outline plan of a 105-player roster when preseason camp opens in August.

The recent directive handed down by U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken in the House vs. NCAA settlement talks has forced Bielema and to have a primary plan but also backup plans for his roster size for the upcoming 2025 season.

The federal judge told the lawyers for the NCAA and its member schools last month that she would not approve the multibillion-dollar antitrust settlement that is expected to reshape the economics of college sports unless the language of the proposed policy for limiting roster sizes was change.

Illinois veteran defensive back Tyler Strain will be returning to the 2025 roster after investigating transfer options.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

May 2, 2025

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Tyler Strain will not be playing his final year of eligibility elsewhere.

Within the back-and-forth movement of the Illinois roster in this post-spring transfer portal window, the veteran defensive back has elected to return to Bret Bielema’s Illini roster for the 2025 season after initially entering the transfer portal to gauge interest in his services outside of Champaign-Urbana.

By Steve Sturm - IlliniGuys Football Analyst

May 2, 2025

Not that the Illinois recruiting budget is suffering with a surge of fan support, not to mention the influx of CFP money, but hat's off to Bret Bielema for saving recruiting money by adding yet another brother of an Illinois player under Bielema (that makes 7!).  Nathan Knapik, who played only 23 snaps for Idaho in his redshirt freshman campaign last year, is joining his brother Ayden in transferring to the Illini from Idaho.  Ayden was an all-conference player in his last year at Idaho, but Nathan is largely an unknown so when Coach Bielema offered him a spot it was largely... based on Ayden.

What does he bring to the Orange and Blue?

By Steve Sturm - IlliniGuys Football Analyst May 1, […]

Pat Bryant’s “traits” all led to the former Illini wide receiver being the perfect player to grab in the third round of the 2025 National Football League draft this weekend.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

April 29, 2025

Several reasons can be cited for how Pat Bryant became the perfect candidate to be drafted earlier than most, if not all, draft analysts had the former Illinois wide receiver hearing his name called in the draft this past weekend.

Pretty much all of those reasons center around the idea that the two highest ranking football people inside the Denver Broncos facility (general manager George Paton and head coach Sean Payton) are in philosophically in sync on an old-school gut check way of scouting and evaluating prospects.

By Kedric Prince - IlliniGuys Director of Recruiting

April 28, 2025

(Cover photo courtesy player's X page)

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Illinois football continues working the transfer portal to fill needs, and on Sunday the Illini landed a commitment from Northern Iowa transfer Carter Hewitt to beef up their defensive line play.

By Steve Sturm - IlliniGuys Football Analyst

April 26, 2025

What do you make of a guy who has numerous Big Ten and SEC offers plus Miami and Louisville from the ACC, yet isn't rated by any service as one of the top 20 prospects in the State of Illinois?  What do you make of a guy who plays with tremendous aggression, violent hands, and quickness on the offensive line, yet looks like an overgrown linebacker compared to his peers?  Well, you make him a defensive lineman.  That's what Tony Balanganayi is going to be at Illinois, and that is why you can look into his background and see that numerous great football programs want him despite his poor fit at the next level at his primary position.

What does he bring to the Orange and Blue?

Bryant represents the highest drafted Illini wide receiver in […]

Luke Altmyer didn’t suddenly become a better person for spurning the post-spring transfer portal in the same way he wouldn’t have become a worse person for making the opposite decision.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

April 25, 2025

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Luke Altmyer has the right to consider himself the same person this week as he was last week.

Altmyer, who turns 23 years old in October and graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign this past December, has the same value system this week that he had a months ago. And it’s a pretty safe bet he’ll be of the same moral character a few months from now too.

In the effort of full disclosure, I will admit to having a very high opinion of Altmyer. I voted for the Illini quarterback to win the 2024 version of the newly-formed Loren Tate Award given by our local group of beat reporters to “the Illinois football player who not only is most cooperative with local media but exhibits himself with professional integrity in all interactions”.

Illinois loses potential defensive line starter for the 2025 […]

Steve Sturm, IlliniGuys Football Analyst

April 21, 2025

The Illini should probably just move their offseason defensive backs camp to Florida at this point.

By Steve Sturm - IlliniGuys Football Analyst

April 20, 2025

Illinois finally closed the deal on a longstanding recruitment of Jacksonville (Florida) Raines linebacker Tony Williams on Monday.  Williams is the type of athletic linebacker that linebackers coach Archie McDaniel has made a priority, and in fact, McDaniel had made no secret of his desire to feelings about Williams throughout the recruiting process.  McDaniel had been pushing for a commitment for months but Williams held off until he could visit the campus last weekend. 

Kedric Prince, IlliniGuys Director of Recruiting

April 19, 2025

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Just like that, Victor Singleton, a 2026 four-star cornerback from Central Catholic (Toledo, Ohio), who had recently been on campus at the University of Illinois, has decommitted, according to On3Sports.