Football

Illinois finds nearly every way to give away a conference road game Friday night and on the final drive of the drive, Indiana finally accepts the gift of a 23-20 victory. 

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

September 3, 2022

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Bret Bielema has previously expressed a long-standing theory that more games at this level are lost and then outright won. 

The roster of players that Bielema is employed to coach vigorously proved that point in their Big Ten Conference opener Friday night in a 23-20 loss at Indiana. 

On a night where Illinois outgained the host Hoosiers for the entire evening, Bielema’s squad had penalties, special teams mistakes, dropped passes and defensive secondary lapses that led to instant points and life for an Indiana team desperately looking to respond from a 2-10 campaign last season. 

“I’ve been in this business long enough that in order to win, you got to stop yourself from losing and I think as a head coach and us as coaches, we have to do a better job of emphasizing the things we did that were self-inflicting,” Bielema said after the loss. “I could literally go through the game from offense and defense all the nonsense things we did that we have to clean up.” 

Illinois falls 23-20 in an instant classic in Bloomington

Zain Bando, IlliniGuys Contributor

September 3, 2022 

I settled in to watch Illinois (1-0) take on Indiana (0-0) in Bloomington for the most important game of the regular season to-date.

September 2, 2022 The Illini travel to Bloomington, IN […]

With two new coordinators and several transfers coming in on both sides of the football, Indiana is hoping a plan of secrecy will work to its advantage against a veteran Illini squad. 

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

September 2, 2022

Game Preview: Indiana at Illinois

Date/Time/Place: Friday, Sept. 2, 2022: 7 p.m. CST, Memorial Stadium in Bloomington, Indiana

Surface: Field Turf

Capacity: 52,656

Records: Illinois 1-0; Indiana 0-0

Betting Line: Indiana by 1.5.

Series notes: Illinois leads the all-time series 44-24-3 but has lost each of the last three times the teams have played and is 15-15-3. Illinois head coach Bret Bielema is 7-0 all-time vs. Indiana dating back to his time as the Wisconsin head coach. Illinois has won three of the four games that have served as season openers for IU. The two teams are meeting for the first time since 2017 and the first time in Bloomington since 2013.

TV: FS1; Tim Brando (PBP), Spencer Tillman (analyst)

Radio (Illinois): Brian Barnhart (PBP), Martin O'Donnell (analysis), Michael Martin (sidelines) & Steve Kelly (Pre/HT/Post) » The broadcast can be heard live on TuneIn online radio, Sirius/ XM satellite radio & SiriusXM Internet and at FightingIllini.com.

Mike Farrell, IlliniGuys National Football Recruiting Expert

September 2, 2022

(Mike Farrell also has his own website: https://mikefarrellsports.com/)

I finish my look at the positional classes in the Big Ten looking at how Illinois stacks up at defensive back in 2023.

After not being sacked against Wyoming, Illinois quarterback Tommy DeVito said his body had never felt as fresh following a game.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

September 1, 2022

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Tommy DeVito might be in line for a rather large dinner bill in his near future. 

When asked if Illinois’ new starting quarterback might owe the offensive line a nice meal after keeping him sack free during the 38-6 win over Wyoming on Saturday, left tackle Julian Pearl certainly liked the idea.

“I think if we keep this up a steak would be nice,” Pearl said. “And he’s got that NIL quarterback money coming his way if he plays well so I think he’s good for it.” 

For the first time in DeVito’s college career as a starting quarterback, he was not sacked in a game after being sacked in each of his 14 career starts against Football Bowl Subdivision competition. And the former Syracuse star quarterback was likely the first one in the Champaign-Urbana area to know that stat.

While Friday night will be Connor Bazelak’s first action at Indiana, it will certainly not be his first experience trying to move the football against a defense led by coordinator Ryan Walters.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

August 31, 2022

(Cover photo courtesy IlliniGuys/Jonah Cagley)

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- The Illinois defensive coordinator has felt fully prepared for months to scout the likely candidate to be Indiana’s starting quarterback.

During his final season leading the Missouri defense in Eli Drinkwitz’s first season as the Tigers head coach, Walters found himself working his first-string defensive unit against the quarterback he’ll likely see on Friday night when Walters’ Illini defense opens Big Ten Conference play.

Ryan Walters was the defensive boss at Missouri less than two years ago when Connor Bazelak emerged as the quarterback of the present and the future when he competed for the starting quarterback job in preseason practices.

Mike Farrell, IlliniGuys National Football Recruiting Expert

August 31, 2022

(Mike Farrell also has his own website: https://mikefarrellsports.com/)

Bret Bielema’s defense looked great in the opener against Wyoming.

By Zain Bando - IlliniGuys Student Correspondent

August 30, 2022

(Cover photo courtesy Illinois Athletics)

Illinois took care of business in front of 37,000 strong against Wyoming on Saturday, winning handily 38-6 behind a three-touchdown performance from Chase Brown and a mistake free day from Syracuse transfer Tommy DeVito.

It’s exactly the start the Illini needed to get back to national relevance again, and with a weak Friday night slate, many viewers will tune in at 7:00 p.m. CT to see an old rivalry renewed between the Illini and Indiana Hoosiers in Bloomington. The game airs on FS1, and according to Vegas Insider, the Hoosiers open as three-point favorites against its counterparts from Champaign.

By Steve Sturm - IlliniGuys Football Analyst

August 30, 2022

Welcome to the first trench report of the 2022 season.  For those who missed these columns last year or are new to Illini Guys, I break down the line play for the Illini on both sides of the ball each week with a little closer look at what worked and what didn't work the previous week.  This week should be an especially interesting look for Illini fans as Illinois changed things up on both offense and defense from what we've seen earlier.  As with everything else on Saturday, things were generally pretty good for the Orange and Blue, but after watching the film I saw some things for Barry Lunney Jr. and Ryan Walters to think about for coming weeks.

I'm going to start with a look at the offense this week.  When Chase Brown averages 7.9 yards per carry, the offense averages 6.3 yards per carry overall, and the QB is generally clean and doesn't take a sack, that's a good day.  However, on second look...

In every offseason, Illinois fans not familiar with Bret Bielema’s mindset always want to move Illini tailback signees to new positions but Josh McCray’s injury shows why that’s a bad idea. 

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

August 30, 2022

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Bret Bielema sometimes likes re-watching the last game he ever coached the Wisconsin Badgers program. 

And why not? Wouldn’t anybody want to, every now and again, watch the most successful moment of your career over and over and over as many times as you can?

For Bielema, that moment is the 70-31 victory over Nebraska in the 2012 Big Ten Conference Championship Game when his squad totaled 539 rushing yards and 10.8 yards per attempt against a program with a head coach in Bo Pelini who made his name in the business by being a highly-coveted defensive coordinator. 

The main reason Bielema loves reliving that 60 minutes of action is the depth his Wisconsin program had at tailback as Montee Ball won the Doak Walker Award, given to the nation’s best running back. Behind Ball on the Badgers depth chart was James White - who was the Big Ten Freshman of the Year selection two years earlier and would finish with 4,015 career rushing yards and 45 career rushing touchdowns. Behind those two nationally-recognized rushing machines was a freshman named Melvin Gordon - who would go on to be a unanimous All-American selection two years later and also take home a Doak Walker Award in 2014. 

Illinois sophomore tailback Josh McCray left Memorial Stadium on […]

Mike Farrell, IlliniGuys National Football Recruiting Expert

August 29, 2022

(Mike Farrell also has his own website: https://mikefarrellsports.com/)

After wrapping up a successful opening day game against Wyoming where the Illini won 38-6

In a 38-6 season-opening win, Illinois held an opposing team to 20 points or less for the fifth time in its last six games, dating back to Oct. 23, 2021 

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

August 29, 2022

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- The season-opening performance for the Illinois defense where the opponent didn’t find the end zone, managed just five completions for 30 yards and didn’t convert a third down situation until was treated as a "been here, already done that" scenario. 

Illinois completed a 32-point dominating victory over Wyoming Saturday thanks to a defensive effort involving just one player making his first career start (linebacker Ezekiel Holmes) from coordinator Ryan Walters’ turnaround campaign of last season. After 60 minutes of play in the 2022 season, Walters’ group showcased the several months of work this unit executed almost immediately after the 47-14 blowout of Northwestern last Nov. 27.

“Today was like a build-on that type of thing,” Illinois linebacker Tarique Barnes said. “It’s a confidence thing to be able to get out of this one and say that now, we know it, we saw it and we did it. The next thing is keep doing it and do it again.”  

Mike Cagley, IlliniGuy August 29, 2022 The Illini football […]