Football

On the eve of Illinois’ first road test of the 2025 season, fifth-year head coach Bret Bielema takes solace in the idea that his teams have thrived away from home.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

September 6, 2025

(Cover photo courtesy Illinois Athletics)

DURHAM, N.C. — Please don’t misunderstand Bret Bielema because he couldn’t appreciate the announced attendance of 10,735 students for Illinois’ season opener last Friday night.

The fifth-year head coach is just as pumped at the idea of Illinois already having sold out of three games in a single season for the first time since 2008 and for the third time in the last 35 years (2007, 2008). The University of Illinois athletics department announced Thursday that the game against Southern California on Saturday, Sept. 27, is sold out.

But as he enters his 17th season as a college football head coach, Bielema knows the barometer for how special his team is will be determined away from Memorial Stadium in Champaign-Urbana.

“I would say that one thing going on the road does for a big football team is the routine of road games really allows you to come together as a group,” Bielema said Monday in his weekly media conference at Memorial Stadium.

September 6, 2025 The Illini go on the road […]

No. 11 ILLINOIS AT DUKE

Records: Illinois 1-0; Duke 1-0.

Date/Time/Place: Saturday, Sept. 6, 2025: 11 a.m. CST, Wallace Wade Stadium, Durham, N.C.

Surface: Grass

Capacity: 35,018

Series notes: The all-time series is tied at 1-1. The last time the two schools have played is 1965 when the Illini won 28-14 seven years after Duke won 15-13 in the first-ever matchup in Durham. Illinois brings a five-game winning streak to Durham, tied for the longest active streak in the Big Ten with reigning national champion Ohio State.

TV: ESPN; Dave Pasch (play-by-play), Dusty Dvoracek (color analyst), Taylor McGregor (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 382, the SiriusXM App, and at FightingIllini.com/live.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

September 5, 2025

(Cover photo courtesy Illinois Athletics)

The pre-game and post-game handshake on Saturday in Durham, North Carolina will be made between two men who certainly know what adversity looks like in a coaching career.

If one wasn’t aware beforehand that they barely knew each other personally, one might think Illinois head coach Bret Bielema and Duke head coach Manny Diaz have coordinated their messaging on their experience of being previously terminated as a power conference head coach. Bielema has spoken often about how his firing at the University of Arkansas after five seasons forced him to re-evaluate his perspective, confront his approach on things professionally and personally and reset himself with nearly three years in the National Football League “so I could be properly ready for this next opportunity”. Diaz’s words are no different after being terminated by Mack Brown as a defensive coordinator at the University of Texas and then let go as the head coach at the University of Miami (Fla.) while on a December recruiting trip after the 2021 season.

(From Illinois Sports Information Office) COLUMBIA, Mo. – Illinois soccer […]

Illinois will not have cornerback Jaheim Clarke this weekend […]

By Kedric Prince - IlliniGuys Sr. Recruiting Analyst

September 4, 2025

(Cover photo courtesy player's X page)

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – The Illinois football staff continues to line up potential prospects for game day visits as they build toward the future. Next week, when the 11th-ranked Fighting Illini host Western Michigan on Sept. 13, defensive tackle Emmett Easton will be in attendance as a guest.

Easton, a 6-foot-1, 275-pound defensive tackle from Coal City, Illinois, is beginning to generate more attention on the recruiting trail. He already made a visit to Northwestern for a spring practice, and Purdue has shown early interest as well. At this point, however, no offers have been extended.

Illinois is the fourth program in as many seasons […]

Illinois defensive coordinator Aaron Henry believes Duke’s 20-year-old quarterback Darian Mensah will be eventually be playing on Sundays in the three-letter league.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

September 2, 2025

(Cover photo courtesy Amy Zhang/Duke Chronicle)

CHAMPAIGN — Illinois gets a true taste of competing in the pay-for-play era of the 2025 season as they will face one of the best transfer portal quarterbacks money could buy this past offseason.

While it showcased their brand-new toy last Thursday in a 45-17 victory over Elon, a regional Football Championship Subdivision opponent, the matchup against the No. 12 Illini is where it is expected the $4 million quarterback, Darian Mensah, is expected to be fully unleashed Saturday (11 a.m. CST, ESPN).

“He's special. This dude is going to play on Sunday,” Illinois defensive coordinator Aaron Henry said. “I think they give him freedom in the offense. It's going to be a tall task to limit his explosives...they're paying him a lot of money, they probably don't want to get him hit."

After losing his starting role last weekend following his tartiness to a team meeting, Illinois third-year offensive lineman Brandon Henderson is back in starting five for matchup at Duke.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

September 3, 2025

(Cover photo courtesy Illinois Athletics)

CHAMPAIGN — When asked by a local reporter if the Illinois status of projected starting right guard Brandon Henderson was back to normal, offensive line coach Bart Miller had a very direct answer.

“Yeah, it should have been back to normal in the first game,” Miller said. “But we have a standard here and we’re going to uphold that standard. When guys make a mistake, it hurts everybody and that was the message to the group.”

Henderson was held out of the Illini’s starting lineup last Friday in the 52-3 win over Western Illinois after the third-year offensive lineman was late for a team/positional meeting inside the Smith Family Football Complex days earlier during the game preparation week. Henderson was replaced in starting lineup by the second-year talent who he was battling during preseason camp, Brandon Hansen, but Henderson still managed to be on the field for 36 of the 64 offensive snaps in the contest.

By Steve Sturm - IlliniGuys Football Analyst

September 2, 2025

(Cover photo courtesy Illinois Athletics)

While Western Illinois' football program has improved markedly in the last few years under new head coach Joe Davis, the opening contest with the Fighting Illini wasn't a fair fight.  However, as I said on the I on the Illini post-game, this turned into a good night for the Illini because they generally looked ready to play yet also revealed a few opportunities to improve.  So, take these highlights with a grain of salt and set aside the fact that the Illini players are just too strong and fast for their Leatherneck opponents.

Starting on the defensive side of the ball, I wanted to include a WIU highlight just to memorialize the early string of good plays that WIU put together based on Joe Davis' scheming.  He had a nice gameplan early the game that was based on Illini overpenetration and it worked.  However, where Illinois defensive coordinator Aaron Henry had terrible trouble adjusting to schemes 2 years ago in his first year as a DC, he showed that he's ready to make in-game adjustments.  First, an example of the WIU offense.  This was a nice outside-in WR screen that WIU executed pretty well.  It presumes that the Illini will send at least five at the QB and be out of position for a ball carrier to come in behind them and that's just what happened.  This was only a 10 yard gain, but take note of how well WIU executes here.  The blocks are well-timed and the right guard does a great job passing off the pass rusher and then getting out to make a block.  This had me wondering how much longer Joe Davis will be at WIU before he moves up.  However....

Illinois moved up one spot following the season-opening 52-3 […]

By Kedric Prince - IlliniGuys Director of Recruiting

September 2, 2025

(Cover photo courtesy St. Xavier High School)

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – With a roster built on both top-tier talent and quality depth, Illinois football is in position to recruit well into the future. The Illini staff is already doing just that, identifying and connecting with standout prospects in the 2027 class.

One of those early targets is 6-foot-3, 255-pound defensive end Josh Fasbender from Cincinnati, Ohio, who spoke with IlliniGuys about his growing relationship with the program.

IlliniGuys.com’s Matt Stevens gives his first weekly Top 25 ballot with analysis now that we have a data point of evaluation in this 2025 season.  

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

September 2, 2025

Every single time during the months of June, July and early August, I get asked a version of the same questions that start with ‘What do you predict….?’ or ‘Who do you think will (fill in the blank end-of-season result)?

The answer, if I’m being fully honest and I always try to be whenever possible, is three simple words: I. Don’t. Know. And then I usually add in the line of “And if anybody else tells you they do know what will happen, they’re lying to you and you would be wise to be skeptical of them going forward”. 

Does this frustrate IlliniGuys.com subscribers to no end? Probably. However, it is my journalistic hill to die on that predicting things before you have any data points to consider is not analysis work that you can trust but instead simply guessing. And if you’re guessing, you’re likely to be wrong more often than you’re correct and accuracy is something that still needs to have value in this society, regardless of the topic at hand. 

To predict much of anything over the course of a four to five-month college football season is the definition of a fool’s errand. Once you start to get some data points recorded, it can allow you to become much more accurate in your assessments. 

Doing such analysis work after Week 1 is admittedly almost as foolish but we do have at least one data point on every Football Bowl Subdivision program in the 2025 campaign so that’s well….something to consider.

Let the Week 1 overreactions (like trying to figure out how the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa can afford a $69.3 million buyout for the termination of Kalen DeBoer - Hint: They can’t) begin. This is always well….something we do as a college football society so let’s get it over with. 

Illinois seems insistent to use a three-way tailback attack of Aidan Laughery, Kaden Feagin and Ca’Lil Valentine in a way that is not unique to the way Bret Bielema’s offenses dominated at Wisconsin.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

September 1, 2025

(Cover photo courtesy Illinois Athletics)

CHAMPAIGN — The story has been told but, with the way Bret Bielema continues to speak about his current tailback depth, it deserves to be repeated one more time.

The 2012 Big Ten Conference Championship Game still serves as not only his finale at Wisconsin but also the peak of success of the running game of a Bielema-led program. Bielema’s 68th and final victory as the leader of the Badgers football program put a cap on what can happen with the optimal mixing of a power and finesse running game with three different tailbacks.

The 70-31 blowout victory in Indianapolis over Nebraska, then led by defensive-minded head coach Bo Pelini, will be remembered with three different tailbacks finding the Lucas Oil Stadium end zone in a game where Wisconsin set multiple school records including having two 200-yard rushers in one game. A freshman sensation named 

Illinois head coach Bret Bielema said Monday he expects all of the injured players from Friday’s 52-3 win over Western Illinois to be prepared when the Illini head to Duke for this Week 2 matchup.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

September 1, 2025

(Cover photo courtesy Illinois Athletics)

CHAMPAIGN — All signs are pointing to Illinois being able to take a fully healthy 74-player travel roster to Durham this weekend.

Even after some minor injury scares from the season-opening 52-3 victory over Western Illinois on Friday night, Illinois head coach Bret Bielema indicated Monday afternoon that his whole roster was able to recover from the wear and tear of the four-hour ordeal against the Football Championship Subdivision opponent.

"I think we got out of the game fairly healthy as we had a couple guys with some minor things to get treatment on during Saturday,” Bielema said Monday in his weekly media conference at Memorial Stadium. “To have that extra day of prep because of the holiday weekend allows us to take advantage of an NCAA rule that lets us come over to the facility and work a little bit more to get ready.”