Illinois Football: The Illini are making Champaign important again

Illinois football sees themselves in a position they haven’t been part of in over a decade — in discussion to win a Big Ten West title.

Like most Illini fans younger than 35 years old, something to cheer about has not been easy to come by. Several losing seasons, coaching changes, frustration within DIA, and a lack of positive culture have seen a once-storied program fall into the abyss of college football.

The 2022 season, however, is beginning to shape up as something special. Heading into the first big road test of the season last Saturday, the Illini had not won in Madison since 2002 and were 6.5-point underdogs to then-head coach, Paul Chryst.

The Illini controlled the line of scrimmage and played complimentary football, as Chase Brown ran all over the Badger defense for 129 yards and a 49-yard scamper that seemingly put the game out of reach. Tommy DeVito, the Syracuse transfer quarterback, accounted for three 1-yard scores while passing for 167 yards and completing 75% of his passes.

The Orange and Blue won the game 34-10, to the chagrin of ex-Wisconsin head coach, Bret Bielema. It was Bielema’s first trip back to Madison in a decade.

"”It’s a big deal. I told our locker room, ‘To do something that’s never been done in 20 years, that’s not common,” Bielema said after the game. “You don’t get those opportunities.’ To have that moment was very special. I just kept going and putting things in front of our team about game five, rematch number two. On Tuesday morning, I broke it out with, ‘Hey, you get a chance to do something. There’s been a lot of really good football players come through Illinois football over the last 20 years that haven’t been able to do this. For that reason, it was a big deal.”"

While Bielema was able to take it all in, he recognizes that there are bigger games ahead in what is being dubbed as the “rematch games” from 2021. Thus far, Illinois is 2-0 in those contests, having defeated Virginia and Wisconsin. The Illini improved to 4-1 (1-1 Big Ten) overall.

"“We have an opportunity this week to play against Iowa, which is another rematch game and a very physical football team that’s going to come into our place,” Bielema explained. “I would say right now, anything and everything that anybody can do to make Memorial Stadium next Saturday be as loud as you can at 6:30. It’s a perfect kickoff time. You can come and tailgate and experience Champaign with all of your friends. Bring a couple of friends with you and let them bring a couple of friends, and let’s make Memorial Stadium what it should be.”"

Illinois football has not beaten Iowa since 2008.

The Illini have an opportunity to crack the AP Top 25 with a win against the Iowa Hawkeyes (3-2, 1-1 Big Ten) Saturday night at Memorial Stadium, as the Orange and Blue received six votes in Monday’s edition of the weekly poll.

Obviously, this Illini team is much different now than where it was 14 years ago. Since the win against the Hawkeyes, Iowa has gone on to have significant success, including a Rose Bowl berth in 2016 before losing to Stanford.

As for Illinois, the program is in the midst of a near-decade-long stretch of losing seasons, even though Illinois made a RedBox Bowl appearance in 2019 before losing to Cal.

For Illinois to take another step in the right direction, getting a win against the Hawkeyes and ending another drought will go a long way in re-establishing itself as one of the conference’s best teams.

Saturday night can’t come fast enough.