Is 2025 going to be the year that the Illinois Fighting Illini football program finally starts stacking winning seasons? It certainly looks that way on paper. And while there was obvious cause for optimism in 2000, 2002, 2008 and 2023 (four seasons that followed major program breakthroughs), it just didn’t work out that way, and all four of those years were mere five-in campaigns.
There is something much different this time- pretty much everybody is coming back.
Come on @ESPNRittenberg if #20 team beat a top 15 team and returns 18/22 starters and they get ranked outside of the top ten next season…. I have some ocean front property in Champaign I would like to sell you #famILLy #ILL #keepstackindays https://t.co/rYPCRjuJD7
— Bret Bielema (@BretBielema) January 7, 2025
The Illini will likely return about 16 of 22 starters next season, so it’s essentially the same team, more or less as the one that just tied the program record for single season wins (10).
Quarterback Luke Altmyer announced his return for next season well before the 21-17 Citrus Bowl win over #14 South Carolina, a SEC team that believed they deserved a playoff berth.
Altmyer is the team’s MVP while center Josh Kreutz is their captain, vocal leader and anchor of the offensive line.
“I just try to be myself most of the time, and if that’s who I am, that’s how it comes out,” Kreutz said in an exclusive with RG. The Bannockburn native will be be back, as will his brother, James Kreutz. The sons of Bears legend Olin Kreutz prepped at Loyola Academy, where the football program is coached by Illini legend John Holecek.
Saturday saw All-Big Ten left tackle J.C. Davis announce that he’ll be back for this upcoming season. Illini head coach Bret Bielema revealed, ahead of the Citrus Bowl, how he had to fly out to Oakland on Christmas Eve, in order to convince Davis, an All-Big Ten Third Team selection, to play in the postseason game.
Obviously, Bielema’s Illini re-recruiting efforts have paid off with Davis.
Re-recruiting is critical, even though it doesn’t get the attention and media coverage that transfer portal additions and recruiting gets.
However, who you retain can be just as important, if not more so, than who you obtain. The Bielema era Illini have been phenomenal at this.
Turning to the receivers, while yes, Pat Bryant and Zakhari Franklin will obviously be missed, you now have Hank Beatty ready to step in and become the new WR1.
At running back, Citrus Bowl MVP Josh McCary is gone, yes, but Aidan Laughery seems to be filing in for the Illini just fine.
Ca’Lil Valentine is back too while questions surround the overall outlook for long-term injury absentee Kaden Feagin.
Shifting to the Illini defense, Sunday saw a return announcement All-Big Ten first team DB Xavier Scott. He was a Jim Thorpe Award semifinalist, which distinguishes him as one of the top 15 defensive backs in all of college football.
And just yesterday, edge rusher/outside linebacker Gabe Jacas announced his return. The All-Big Ten third team selection had eight tackles and 3.0 TFLs in the Citrus Bowl, and received special individual praise from South Carolina coach Shane Beamer.
“The nickel No. 14 [Xavier Scott] is a really good player, and the linebackers are really good at what they do,” Beamer said.
“What’s the defensive end, 17 [Gabe Jacas]? He is a really good player on the defensive line, and 23 [TeRah Edwards] is a handful.”
Edwards is a graduating senior. However the Illini return secondary studs Matthew Bailey and Miles Scott (no relation to Xavier), so the core of a very underrated defense will be back.
And despite his disastrous performance versus a woeful Purdue team, defensive coordinator Aaron Henry grew and developed into the role this past season. He did a phenomenal job against LaNorris Sellers and the Gamecocks.
Henry is legit, and Miles Scott fielded a question about Henry now succeeding, after taking so much heat throughout the season.
“It comes with experience, like, what experience you get better at doing, or you can get worse, honestly,” Scott said in Orlando.
“And Coach Henry has gotten much better, like, just the way that he goes about the preparation. Like, and you see it. You see it within him, day in and day out. I love seeing it, because that’s my coach. I’m proud of him, definitely.”
Scott also spotlighted this defense’s emphasis on ball-hawking
“That’s the key to defense, taking the ball away, giving as many opportunities to our offense as possible, so that the other team’s offense isn’t on the field,” Scott said. “That’s how you win games- time of possession, takeaways.”
Next week, we’ll cover the other Illini position groups and the rest of the Illini depth chart that we didn’t get to here, when we publish our Way Too Early 2025 Illini In Depth Season Preview.
Paul M. Banks is the Founding Editor of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He currently contributes to USA Today’s NFL Wires Network, the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America and RG. His past bylines include the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. His work has been featured in numerous outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, the Washington Post and ESPN. You can follow him on Linked In and Twitter.