The 25-17 loss to Minnesota Saturday means Bret Bielema’s Illini operation is trending toward another forgettable November.

Matt Stevens, IlliniGuys Staff Writer

November 2, 2024

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — And here we go again.

Illinois is well on its way to having another November that fans will want to do anything other than remember. The 25-17 loss to Minnesota makes Bret Bielema a robust 5-7 in the month where the fourth-year Illinois head coach has said he wants his team playing its best football. Instead, the Illini have very much done the opposite in the last three seasons where they’ve lost six of its last nine games in the final month of the regular season. A second fumble by Luke Altmyer this time late in the game on a potential game tying drive stopped the Illini rally short.

This is drastically different than a much younger Bielema, who also lost his first ever game to Minnesota and subsequently Gophers' head coach P.J. Fleck on Saturday, had his Wisconsin teams playing in November. Bielema finished his seven-year tenure with the Badgers with a 19-5 record in November and back-to-back seasons (2010 and 2011) of a 4-0 finish.

Saturday’s performance reminded folks of the slow demise of the 2022 season where Illinois started 7-1 and managed one more victory against a drastically awful Northwestern team to finish 8-5. In 2023, Illinois had a chance to get bowl eligible in back-to-back years but managed to drop the games at Iowa and at home versus Northwestern to remain home during the postseason with a crushing 5-7 record. The first losing streak of the 2024 season has made the 6-1 start seem like a distant memory at this point. Gone is any chance Illinois (6-3, 3-3 in Big Ten Conference) will be ranked on Election Day in the first made-for-TV extravaganza College Football Playoff rankings brought to you by the fine Mickey Mouse folks of ESPN/Disney. Gone is any chance of worrying about any hopes of Illinois backdooring a CFP berth and fading quickly is the idea of Illinois making road travel plans for a New Year’s Day bowl bid. Fleck and his magical boat invaded Kaufman Lake and planted its pirate ‘Ski-U-Mah’ flag right in the middle of the block ‘I’ logo at midfield. More specifically, the stamp Minnesota (6-3, 4-2 in Big Ten) left on this contest Saturday occurred at the point of attack regardless of who owned the football. The deed to this game was obtained at the line-of-scrimmage as Fleck’s large men took Bielema’s plan of run the ball, stop the run and cover kicks and consistently shoved it up right back in the face of the home team in orange all afternoon long.

Minnesota used its massive offensive line and NFL-quality tailback Darius Taylor to account for 189 all-purpose yards when the Gophers only accounted for 363 total yards on the afternoon. Illinois was simply ill-equipped to handle the physicality Minnesota has recruited on its offensive and defensive lines over the last few years and the lack of pressure by the Illini defensive front allowed Max Brosmer to settle in during a second half where he went 11 of 18 for 107 yards through the air in the final 30 minutes of action.

On the flip side, Illinois’ run game was practically a non-existent factor all afternoon beyond Josh McCray breaking two tackles on an inside trap run that ended with a 42-yard touchdown scamper. Yes, big plays count too but if you were to substitute Illinois’ biggest stuff (a three-yard loss) and biggest gain in the run game (McCray’s 42-yard score), Illinois finished with just 71 yards on the ground in 23 attempts.

Bielema’s key of run the ball, stop the run and cover kicks (another kickoff went straight out of bounds after an Illini score) basically went 0 for 3 on a Saturday where he was determined to not have his squad lose the Oregon game twice.

After today, Bielema might just be pleased to not see the horrors of previous Novembers while in Champaign repeat themselves once again in 2024.