The 2025 season has started, and the Illinois football program is still trending upward.
The Illini are currently the No. 12 team in the country, and there are some national pundits who are putting us in the College Football Playoff. Faltering in week one in any form or fashion would have likely caused Illinois to fall in the national eye.
That didn’t end up being the case, though. Illinois came out and put a thumping on Western Illinois, as we should. The Leathernecks were not a good team, and the Illini showed that throughout the entirety.
I would argue, and I don’t think I would get any pushback, that Illinois wide receiver Hank Beatty was the MVP of the game. He was sensational on a couple of fronts, but this isn’t just a one-off game against a bad FCS program. Beatty’s arrow has been pointing up for a while now, and he continues to play some incredible football.
In fact, I will go on record to say, I think Beatty is currently laying the groundwork for what I believe will be an NFL career. Not only that, I think there is a solid chance he works his way into the 2026 NFL Draft.
Let me explain.
The rise of Hank Beatty started during the magical Illinois run in 2024
Beatty’s great play didn’t just start in week one. You can go back to the Citrus Bowl in late December and find a big game by this budding star.
Illinois took on a talented SEC program in South Carolina. They had a lot of talent on the defensive side of the ball, but Beatty still torched the Gamecocks for four receptions for 90 yards, which was his best game of the season.
While Beatty’s numbers in the box score were good, Pro Football Focus graded him highly as well. They had Beatty as the fourth-highest graded wide receiver among all participants in bowl games. He graded higher than stars like Jeremiah Smith, Matthew Golden, and Jayden Higgins.
Bret Bielema even touched on Beatty’s jump at the end of last season during the postgame press conference after the Western Illinois win.
“Going into bowl prep last year, I thought I could see a really big jump. He played well in the bowl game, and then all spring, the confidence he had.”
In the first game after that big bowl performance, Beatty didn’t fall back into the shadows. In fact, he came out with the best game of his career on Friday night.
Beatty finished the Western Illinois dismemberment with five receptions for 108 yards. In those numbers, he showed he could run NFL routes with a double move that left a defensive back in the dust for a 59-yard reception.
While there are a few games left in week one, PFF has Beatty rated as one of the best wide receivers in the game right now. He is the eighth-highest rated wide receiver in the FBS.
This hasn’t even taken into account that Beatty can help a franchise in more than one way. While he would be a great slot option at the next level, his ability to also perform well on special teams makes him even more valuable.
Beatty is electric in the return game, as Western Illinois found out. He had four punt returns for 133 yards, and Beatty took one back to the house, too.
It is early, and there are plenty of games left in the 2025 season, but it sure does feel like there is a lot of momentum with Beatty’s game. He is a huge asset to Illinois’ offense and special teams. On top of that, since the start of the 2024 season, Beatty has had one drop on 34 targets. To me, that is someone who is setting himself up to hear his name called on draft night 2026.