You, the Illinois Fighting Illini football fan, are unfortunately, quite familiar with a certain phenomenon within this program’s history. The miserably disappointing season that immediately follows a breakthrough campaign. Illini football broke out of the doldrums in 1999 to finish 8-4. The next campaign saw Illinois go 5-6. The 2001 10-2 Sugar Bowl, Big Ten champions preluded a 5-7 team the following season. The 2007 Rose Bowl team that went 9-4 was followed up by a 5-7 showing in the next term.
Coming off a 8-5 record last year, with a very solid showing against a very good SEC team in a traditional New Year’s Day bowl, what is going to happen this time? Can Bret Bielema end his program’s nightmarish pattern?
Let’s take a look at our Way Too Early Season Preview, which we did right after the bowl game, and our Illini football segment on WGN News Now.
2023 Illini Football Winnable Games
With no Michigan or Ohio State on the schedule, you have to say that every game on the slate is very much winnable. And look at what happened in Ann Arbor last year, they really should have beaten the Wolverines.
They were pretty much one blown call away from taking that game.
Of course, on the flip side, this team that was honestly the best in the Big Ten West last year (despite blowing the opportunity to clinch the division), was AWFUL against the league’s superior division.
So while I really do think that every game on the schedule is winnable, beware those three games against the Big Ten East. Bret Bielema enters his third year at the wheel, and honestly, the last time the Orange and Blue had a “hey, this guy really does know what he’s doing” feel like this was…John Mackovic.
Honestly, it has really been that long since Illini football has had a true, legit Big Ten college football coach.
It’s going to be a huge season for both coordinators- second-year OC Barry Lunney Jr. and newly promoted DC Aaron Henry, who served as the program’s DBs coach the past two seasons. Lunney needs to get a real, functional forward passing game going finally, in order to get an offense that can really score points.
That hasn’t happened in the Bielema era yet, but given that the WRs have experience, and that the OL is once again solid, this should be the year it happens.
2023 Illini Football Guaranteed Ls
Illinois returns 10 all-conference players from one season ago, including Preseason All-Americans Jer’Zhan Newton and Keith Randolph Jr. They should be the most dominant interior DT duo in the league, and quite honestly, maybe even the nation. I don’t see any game on the slate as a guaranteed L. Penn State is a top ten team, so that will be tough.
Going to Maryland….yeah, I don’t know why this program has so many problems with the Terps. While the Illini did lose four of their last five down the stretch, every loss last year was a one possession game.
New QB Coming In
Illini football has their new QB1 in Ole Miss transfer Luke Altmyer. He doesn’t have a ton of experience, or gaudy stats, but he went to Ole Miss highly touted, and he learned a lot under offensive guru Lane Kiffin. The best part is, he’ll be a three-year starter, potentially. Would have been better to get Hudson Card, obviously, but this is a great consolation prize.
The most important position on the field brings most the highest optimism and the most concern, entering this season.
Revamping the Secondary is a Primary Concern
After the Reliaquest Bowl, Bielema was asked about how Henry did in his first day with the gig, and about the decision itself to elevate him.
“When you see coaches’ players play, when you see the growth that Devon Witherspoon is having, you see the things that are happening, physically, maturity, there’s talent development in the tank, but he learned to play the game at a different level,” Bielema said.
“I know that was what was bred into him in Aaron’s coaching.”
Now, how does Illini football replace 3/4 of their starters in the position group- including budding NFL stars Devon Witherspoon and Sydney Brown?
2023 Illini Football Fearless Predictions
7-5 Not sure how exactly they get to seven wins, but I am calling that they do! The floor is 6-6, with the ceiling 9-3. I hope you like Nashville Hot Chicken because you could be headed to the Athens of the South for the Music City Bowl this New Year’s Eve. I will die on the hill that the first Bielema Illinois team, who went 5-7 in 2021, was better than any side Lovie Smith put out, including his 2019 6-7 team. The Redbox Bowl team had one glorious, miraculous win (Wisconsin), and one exciting, fun win (at Michigan State), the rest was mostly blah and meh.
The ’21 team, although playing an ugly, less-than-entertaining style, got better as the year went on, and had a higher floor.
Now we’re going to see if Bielema can really do what he is paid so handsomely to do- bring consistency. Their national title odds are at +20000 or +25000. That’s fine! Because no one is expecting Illini football to contend for a College Football Playoff place. They just need to finish above .500, not only overall, but in the league.
Paul M. Banks is the owner/manager 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’s written for numerous publications, including the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. He regularly appears on NTD News and WGN News Now. Follow the website on Twitter and Instagram.