Illinois Football: 3 players looking to rebound from the 2019 season
3. Brandon Peters
Quarterback play the past decade for the Illinois football program has been mediocre, at best. The potential has been there, but the end result hasn’t satisfied many in the fanbase for very long.
Snagging a former five-star passer in the transfer market was big news for the Illini. Once heralded as a top-six quarterback coming out of Avon High School in 2016, Brandon Peters had the world at his fingertips. The great pro-style passer could have picked any program in the nation but settled on Michigan as his landing spot.
A redshirt season and two lackluster campaigns with the Wolverines led to Peters entering the transfer portal as a graduate transfer with two years of eligibility remaining. Known as a transfer destination in recent offseasons, Illinois looked like a cozy landing spot for the talented passer. That is exactly what happened as Peters decided to pick the Orange and Blue for his final two years.
When I list Peters as a player looking to rebound from last season, I don’t mean that he had a back junior campaign. The Indiana native threw for 1,884 yards, 18 touchdowns and 8 interceptions in 2019, which is better than any Illinois quarterback in recent memory.
But Peters was a five-star recruit coming out of high school and has the talent to be one of the best passers in the nation. Throwing for fewer than 2,000 yards and 20 touchdowns is not meeting the expectations set by the rankings or the Illinois fanbase. I am not even including the lackluster 55.3-percent completion rate in 2019.
Whenever Peters gets a chance to step foot on a football field for a game, he is going to have the entire world watching. This kid has the potential to raise his draft stock higher than what it is now based on his talent and the talent around him. With Josh Imatorbhebhe returning and Brian Hightower becoming immediately eligible, look for the Illini offense to be a well-oiled machine.
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This could easily be Peters’ year to shine in the Illinois offense. He has the physical tools and the tools around him to be sensational. Let’s see this kid have a big rebound year and, potentially, double his yards and touchdowns from 2019 and raise his completion rate up to 60-percent this season.