Illinois Football: Class of 2022 will get Illini passing game on track

Illinois football has had one of the worst passing offenses in the country for as long as I can remember.

This past season, the Illini averaged 156.2 yards per game through the air, which ranked No. 121 in the nation. Sadly, this has been a trend for the past six seasons.

Weirdly enough, the 156.2 yards per game passing is actually an improvement from the 2020 campaign. Illinois was only throwing for 152.9 yards per game that season, which ranked No. 114 in the nation.

There is a clear dip in the Illinois passing attack throughout the past decade. In 2013, 2014, and 2015, the Illini ranked in the top 60 nationally in passing yards per game. At the height of this three-year run, Illinois was averaging 276.1 yards per game and the passing game ranked No. 28 in the country.

After that 2015 season, the passing attack took a major hit. In 2016, the Illini ranked No. 111 in the country in passing, averaging just 169.7 yards per game through the air. Since the 2016 campaign, Illinois has failed to crack the top 100 in passing yards per game. The best season in this six-year stretch was in 2019 when Illinois was throwing for 185.3 yards per game, which ranked No. 102 in the country.

Bret Bielema is doing everything right to fix the Illinois football passing game.

Illinois now has a new coaching staff, and they are getting their players into place to help this program win games and actually move the ball down the field via the passing game.

The talent that Bret Bielema and his coaching staff are bringing in will help the passing game tremendously. We were able to snag Syracuse transfer, Tommy DeVito, to help the quarterback situation in 2022. In 2019, DeVito threw for 2,360 yards, 19 touchdowns, and five interceptions. That is what I am expecting this season.

But it isn’t just about microwave players with the Bielema era. The previous coaching staff relied too much on transfer to win ball games. That won’t be the case this time around.

Illinois was able to sign five wide receivers in the class of 2022. This group of pass-catchers features two top 800 recruits in Shawn Miller and Eian Pugh. All five wide receivers are quality players who will help this team in the first couple of seasons.

Bielema is also bringing in two tight ends to help in the passing game. Owen Anderson and Henry Boyer are both 6-foot-5 or bigger monsters who will be great red zone targets.

The Illini will need someone to get these pass catchers the ball in the future, though. That is why Bielema landing a quality quarterback like Donovan Leary is huge. Leary has the winning pedigree at the high school level, and that should transition into the college ranks.

Leary isn’t going to be able to pass the ball if he doesn’t have time. That is why Bielema landed six offensive linemen for the class of 2022. All six of these hogs up front are going to play early in their careers. They will join a solid group of pass blockers already on the roster.

Illinois hasn’t had a top 100 passing game since the 2015 campaign. I am ready for that to change. Bielema is putting the pieces together for this program to make a big turnaround in the near future. Trust the process.