It doesn’t seem that hard, snag a good quarterback and the Illinois football team will be decent.
Even in the down years of the Bret Bielema era, the Illini have managed to win five games and be on the verge of getting to a bowl game. That was a goal at one time in the last decade or so, a bowl game, but that is now essentially the floor for the program.
Winning just six games in any season from now on is a bit of a disappointment, especially for the 2025 campaign. Illinois is poised to do some special things on the football field, and it all starts with who is taking snaps.
Luke Altmyer transferred in from Ole Miss and started off on shaky ground. He had an injury-plagued first season in 2023, but he also wasn’t playing well, as I called for his head numerous times.
Altmyer rebounded in a big way last season. Illinois managed to win 10 games for the first time since 2001, and we won the Citrus Bowl over South Carolina.
Normally, an injury like Altmyer sustained in 2023 would have put Illinois down and out without hope of making a bowl game or even sniffing six wins. That wasn’t the case, though. Bielema has done two things for the Illinois quarterback room.
The first, get a competent starting quarterback. That is clearly achieved, as Altmyer is now on the Maxwell Award watch list for the most outstanding player in college football.
The second, build depth at the quarterback position. With past coaching regimes, Illinois losing the starting quarterback in 2023 would have led to two or three wins, at most. Instead, we had John Paddock in the second string, and he won us some games.
Bielema’s ability to pull in good quarterbacks hasn’t gone unnoticed. It is why Illinois is in a position to potentially make the College Football Playoff in 2025.
Since Bielema has been in Champaign, he has accounted for bringing in five quarterbacks who have registered stats. The combined stats for those five quarterbacks are 9,364 yards, 65 touchdowns, and 26 interceptions in four seasons.
How does that compare to prior coaching regimes? Well, let’s take a look at the last two-ish.
Love Smith’s run with the Illini was marred by the lack of quarterback play. In his time with the Orange and Blue, Lovie tallied nine different quarterbacks who registered stats. Those quarterbacks threw for 8,905 yards, 58 touchdowns, and 51 interceptions in five seasons.
So, for those counting at home, Lovie’s era of Illinois football had just one more season and accounted for seven fewer touchdowns and 25 more interceptions.
The Tim Beckman and Bill Cubit era was a bit better than Lovie’s, but the production still wasn’t up to snuff. Their recruited quarterbacks who registered numbers consisted of 6,874 yards, 42 touchdowns, and 19 interceptions in four seasons. In the same amount of time, Beckman and Cubit’s quarterbacks threw for about 2,500 yards, 23 touchdowns, and just seven interceptions fewer than Bielema’s era.
Bret Bielema is nowhere near done being successful with talented quarterbacks at Illinois
Make no mistake about it, Illinois football is more than just a quarterback. Bielema has built depth at numerous positions that we haven’t had depth at in previous regimes. He has this program hustling.
But the quarterback position is the conductor. Without a good conductor, the band is out of tune. Bielema realizes this, and he isn’t letting the quarterback play slip up anytime soon.
Altmyer is done after the 2025 season, and it wouldn’t shock me to see him get selected in the top four rounds of the 2026 NFL Draft. Backing him up this season is an experienced quarterback in Ethan Hampton.
Illinois also has a bullpen of quarterbacks waiting for a chance. Trey Petty was the Mississippi 7A Mr. Football. Carson Boyd and Jershaun Newton were both on the cusp of being four-star recruits.
In 2026, Illinois has a solid quarterback, Michael Clayton II, coming in from Florida. On Sunday night, we landed another quarterback for 2027, Kamden Lopati, who is a four-star recruit.
I will never take for granted what we have with Bielema. He might make some mistakes here and there, but having a competent head coach trickles down to the rest of the coaching staff and roster. His quarterback competence is something this program hasn’t seen in years, if not decades.