Football

August 30, 2025

(Cover photo courtesy Illinois Athletics)

CHAMPAIGN — IlliniGuys.com’s Matthew Stevens is handing out his Illini Report Card, assessing Illinois’ performance in several areas.

Here are the grades coming out of the Illini’s' season-opening win over Western Illinois:

Run Offense

The 52-3 victory over Western Illinois served as nothing more than a dress rehearsal for games where this team will be more harshly evaluated. But that reality doesn’t take away from Illinois being 1-0.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

August 30, 2025

(Cover photo courtesy Illinois Athletics)

CHAMPAIGN — And now the 2025 season can unofficially start.

Yes, Illinois will have a 1-0 overall record when they take their show on the road next weekend to Duke. However, yes, basically the same amount of questions involving practically the same topics still exists following the 52-3 dress rehearsal victory over Western Illinois - a developing Football Championship Subdivision program.

Please don’t get me wrong, dress rehearsals (when you can figure out how to schedule them properly certainly serve a valid purpose and this four-hour run through is no different.

For a program where history likely needs to be forgotten than relied upon, beginning a season in the win column should obviously never be taken for granted. Bret Bielema’s 29th victory as he begins his fifth season as the Illinois head football coach is the perfect way for him to begin the summer’s final holiday weekend into a fall season.

No. 12 Illinois makes it an easy 18-0 all-time […]

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

August 29, 2025

WESTERN ILLINOIS AT ILLINOIS

Date/Time/Place: Friday, Aug. 29, 2025: 6:30 p.m. CST, Memorial Stadium, Champaign, Ill.

Surface: Field Turf

Capacity: 60,670

Series notes: Illinois leads the season series 3-0 with the last meeting being a 34-14 win in 2018. Illinois opens the season at Memorial Stadium for the fifth straight season and the 14th time in the last 15 seasons (2020 at Wisconsin).

TV: Peacock; Paul Burmeister (play-by-play), Phil Simms (color analyst) and Zora Stephenson (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, the SiriusXM App, and at FightingIllini.com/live.

CHAMPAIGN — So, you want to play the gunner position on the punt team, huh?

Well, here is your assignment: First, run as fast as you can for a 40-45 yard sprint where you can physically either outrun or outphysical your 1-on-1 matchup on the outside. Next, have the instincts while you’re going full speed to get near the opposing team’s returner while keeping your head up the whole time as to observing the invisible circle the rules provide for the returner to make the catch of the punt. Finally, you have to essentially love the idea of physical contact because if win your 1-on-1 battle and time the play up correctly and there’s no fair catch signal, your hit/tackle could be the most violent collision on the field on that given day because of the amount of speed generated from your 40-yard sprint.

“I get it. Trust me, I get it.

August 29, 2025 The new season is here and […]

Illinois head coach Bret Bielema says only Xanai Scott currently on pace to play more than the four-game threshold in 2025 season to preclude a redshirt year.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

August 28, 2025

(Cover photo courtesy Illinois Athletics)

CHAMPAIGN — Basically every Division I college football team adheres to a injury prevention protocol during preseason camp practices that requires a lack of full-contact tackling during the month-long preparation. Illinois was no different in August 2025. It is this fact that what scares Illinois defensive coordinator as they approach a season-opening contest against Western Illinois on Friday night (6:30 p.m. CST, Peacock).

“We’ve got to do the best we can at limiting the damage because they have explosive players and the number one thing a defensive coach is going to say bothers him about a Week 1 game is tackling because we just don’t do much of it in the preseason and in college football there’s no preseason games to get you used to four hours of tackle-to-the-ground action,” Illinois defensive coordinator Aaron Henry said. “Nobody does full tackle scrimmaging in the preseason for as long as everybody is going to play a game this weekend.”

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

August 26, 2025

(Cover photo courtesy Illinois Athletics)

CHAMPAIGN — The closer we get to the 2025 season beginning, the less interested the folks who work inside the Smith Family Football Complex sound about making their play evaluations complicated.

While nobody surrounding the University of Illinois football program would deny Hudson Clement has found some adversities since arriving in Champaign-Urbana from West Virginia this past spring. Clement himself during the on-campus media day two weeks ago would admit the transition has had setbacks on and off the field including adjustment to the Barry Lunney Jr. offensive scheme and some nagging injuries that hampered not only his confidence but his summer conditioning program before entering preseason practices this month.

And after all of the meetings, practices, film work, conditioning drills and every analytical tool used to evaluate skill position players on a football field, Lunney Jr.’s answer to what he likes most about Clement since his arrival from the transfer portal was a back-to-the-basics formula that practically everybody can and should understand.

Bielema hints that players who were dealing with nagging injuries in preseason camp may be on a play snap count in Friday night’s season opener vs. Western Illinois.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

August 26, 2025

CHAMPAIGN — After he confirmed his star left tackle had returned to the practice field with full medical clearance, Illinois head coach Bret Bielema hinted that J.C. Davis may not be the only player on the roster being intently watched by this coaching staff.

As Bielema stated last week, the Illini head coach said Davis was given full medical clearance to return to practice on Saturday and was on the field for a Monday morning practice just four days before the No. 12 Illini host Western Illinois Friday night (6:30 p.m. CST, Peacock) at Memorial Stadium after being held out of most of the preseason training camp due to plantar fasciitis in his left foot.

"Today was his most reps by far," Bielema said. "He took all the team (reps) today and didn't have any issues.”

Illinois head coach Bret Bielema would rather not hear about historical disappointments following successful seasons and subsequent preseason hype.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

August 25, 2025

CHAMPAIGN — Yes, Bret Bielema knows the history of the football program he’s in charge of.

He understands Illinois will begin its 2025 season with a number by its name for the first time since 2008 after being ranked No. 12 in both the Associated Press and Coaches preseason polls. Bielema has been informed the last time Illinois began a season ranked in the preseason and finished a year ranked was 1990. Oh yes, he’s very well aware of all of this.

“I always go back to everything here seems to always go back to either 1990 or 2008 for whatever reason. I mean, every single stat known to mankind seems to go back to 1990 or 2008.”

Mike Cagley, Co-Host Sports Spectacular August 25, 2025 We […]

Pat Farrell came to Illinois in the 2022 recruiting class as a 235-pound outside linebacker but is now in the mix to start as a 280-pound defensive lineman in Bret Bielema’s developmental system.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

August 24, 2025

CHAMPAIGN — If there’s a representation of Illinois as a player developmental program, it may very well be Pat Farrell.

As a 235-pound stand-up rush linebacker, Farrell was recruited out of St. Rita High School in Chicago due to his high explosiveness and motor that led him to be named a 2022 All-Chicago Catholic League first-team selection. Farrell’s highlight tape constantly showed up laying players out with excruciating hits and running sideline-to-sideline to make chaotic plays in open space.

After two years in the Illini defensive system as an outside linebacker, Farrell transitioned his body to make the move into the positional room of his primary Chicagoland recruiter - Illinois defensive line coach Terrance Jamison.

The Illinois coaching staff continues to carefully deal with the plantar fasciitis of its projected All-Big Ten left tackle as the Illini transition out of preseason camp and into game preparation.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

August 23, 2025

CHAMPAIGN — Amongst the laundry list of injuries of Illinois offensive linemen throughout this preseason camp, JC Davis is the only one still on the inactive list of Illini head coach Bret Bielema.

In his final preseason media session Thursday afternoon, Bielema expressed Davis’ extended absence from action might be an intentionally ‘overly cautious’ move from the Illinois coaching staff to possibly prevent future damage to the preseason All-Big Ten left tackle.

August 21, 2025

(Cover photo courtesy Illinois Athletcs)

CHAMPAIGN — In his first four seasons as the head football coach at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Bret Bielema has declined to produce any form of a player depth chart. With more immediate avenues of player movement, Illinois coaches have taken a conservative route to making public where players stand in terms of playing time and roles on the 74-player travel roster. The good news is here at IlliniGuys.com, we don’t work for Bielema or anybody else in the university’s athletics department so Matt Stevens decided he would produce a very unofficial depth chart for fans to use (for whatever it is worth) for the upcoming Aug. 29 season opener against Western Illinois (6:30 p.m., Peacock). Bielema and the folks are very much still encouraged to break tradition and produce a season-opening depth chart to make this one and any other fans might have seen during this preseason camp basically irrelevant.

Offense
Quarterback
Luke Altmyer

Alexander Capka-Jones is looking to break out as a known commodity after not getting much attention as a high school player, junior college talent or even a returning member of this Illini roster.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

August 20, 2025

(Cover photo courtesy Illinois Athletics)

CHAMPAIGN — In his first media session of preseason camp, Illinois wide receiver Justin Stepp spoke for eight minutes and 38 seconds on Aug. 5 and the noteworthy item from that interview was not about what was said but the name that wasn’t mentioned.

Stepp never mentioned the name Alexander Capka-Jones. To be fair to the Illini’s second-year position coach, nobody asked him about Capka-Jones, a receiver who had just two receptions for 21 yards in 2024.

Less than 24 hours after Stepp’s media session, the same player was first in line as an outside receiver for individual drills during the media viewing portion of the Illini’s preseason. It was the same outside receiver who had been first in line the day before and likely would be first in line the next days going forward - No. 7 Alexander Capka-Jones. It is for that level of consistency in his work, among many other things,

Luke Altmyer is excited about being named a team captain on a 2025 Illinois squad that will be attempting to produce back-to-back 10-win seasons for the first time in program history.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

August 20, 2025

(Cover photo courtesy Illinois Athletics)

CHAMPAIGN — It may be possible that Luke Altmyer can sense any potential uneasiness amongst Illinois fans about whether their favorite team can have back-to-back successful football seasons for the first time in a generation.

When asked Tuesday by local media, what kind of captain he wants to be on the 2025 Illini squad after the quarterback was named one of six team leaders by a vote of his teammates, it’s more than telling the second descriptive word Altmyer came up with.

“Captains are leaders, visionaries, people who are not afraid of new territory like this team,” Altmyer said. “We’re facing a lot of new expectation, a lot of new waters. I mean, approaching it with the right attitude of a Christlike mindset, being tough, resilient and a lot of love and care. I’m excited for it. Love the opportunity that’s in front of us as a team.”