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Illinois football might be the key to the 2025 Heisman Trophy winner

We are still months away from a clearer Heisman Trophy picture, but Illinois football could be the answer to who will win it in 2025.
ByRees Woodcock|
Dec 31, 2024; Orlando, FL, USA; The Cheeze-It mascot poses with a sign after the game at Camping World Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeremy Reper-Imagn Images
Dec 31, 2024; Orlando, FL, USA; The Cheeze-It mascot poses with a sign after the game at Camping World Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeremy Reper-Imagn Images | Jeremy Reper-Imagn Images

What if I told you that the Illinois football team might actually have the answers to who the 2025 Heisman Trophy winner is going to be?

Well, obviously, the Illini can’t have all of the answers, or whoever would be the fortune teller would be able to make a lot of money. But the more things change, the more they actually stay the same.

Let’s jump in the way-back machine and go to 2010. Illinois was coming off a disappointing campaign, but we rebounded well, finishing at 6-6 and getting to a bowl game. At the time, a bowl game was a pretty solid achievement.

Entering the Texas Bowl, the Illini played a Baylor team that seemed to be on the rise. They had gone through some tough years, but the Bears had a good program. The man behind center was a rising star in Robert Griffin III.

Illinois beat a good Baylor team in that Texas Bowl. During that 2010 campaign, Griffin threw for 3,501 yards, rushed for 635 yards, completed 67% of his passes, and had 30 total touchdowns and eight interceptions.

What the Illini did in that Texas Bowl in 2010 was not only beat a good Baylor squad, but we set into motion a Heisman campaign the following season. Griffin led Baylor to 10 wins, and he took home the coveted Heisman Trophy.

The 2024 Citrus Bowl win for Illinois could have set in motion another Heisman Trophy run

Griffin was a great player, and the Illini managed to beat him when he was starting to rise to the top. I believe there is a chance we could be saying the same thing, just with a different quarterback in 2025.

Last season, Illinois had another really good campaign. We made it to the Citrus Bowl to take on the South Carolina Gamecocks. In this game, rising star LaNorris Sellers was slinging the rock for South Carolina.

In 2024, Sellers had pretty comparable numbers to those of Griffin in 2010. He threw for 2,534 yards, rushed for 674 yards, completed 65.6% of his passes, and had 25 total touchdowns and seven interceptions.

On Friday, the preseason All-SEC first team was released. There are plenty of good quarterbacks in the SEC, but the player to make the first team at the quarterback position? LaNorris Sellers.

Sellers took the preseason crown as the best quarterback in what some consider the best conference in college football. On top of that, according to DraftKings, Sellers has the fourth-best odds to take home the Heisman Trophy this season.

While Sellers and Griffin are similar players, they aren’t exactly the same. Griffin was an all-world runner, but Sellers has a more accurate arm.

With that being said, don’t sleep on Sellers for the Heisman Trophy. Illinois served as a prelude to a Heisman Trophy run in 2011, and we might have done that same thing again in 2025.

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