The 125th season of Illini football kicks off in mere hours, and it’s one that is greeted with as little buzz as any that I can remember in my lifetime. Being a third generation Illini, I’m struggling to recall a year that had as little anticipation as this one. The opening opponent (Youngstown St.) doesn’t help. Neither does the weakness of the home slate.
Penn State is the only name brand team on the 2014 Illini football home schedule, and that’s going to hurt attendance quite a bit this year.
Well, that and the state of the program under Tim Beckman. However, I’m still holding out hope for some mediocrity. I really think this Illini football team could be favorites in most, if not all of their home games. And just to be even Steven, they’ll likely be underdogs in all their road games.
So anywhere from 4-8 to 6-6 looks pretty likely. And there’s some fun to watch aspects of this team: QB Wes Lunt, in Bill Cubit’s offense.
And here below, the Fox Sports college football pundits talk Illini football expectations:
And in this podcast, ESPN pundits Jesse Palmer and David Pollack discuss how hot Tim Beckman’s seat is:
Let’s hope the Illini football season is more of a pleasant surprise than the experts think.
Paul M. Banks owns and operates The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with Fox Sports, Yahoo! and the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. He’s been a guest on news talk shows all across the world and been featured in hundreds of media outlets including NFL Network, Fox Sports 1 and ESPN2. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)