Luke Altmyer looking to rewrite Illinois football record book with 2024 season

A lot of fans of the game have ignored the Illinois football team for a long time.

If you didn’t love the Illini, there was no real reason to pay attention to the program. We had a couple of good seasons in the 2000s and the 2010s were dreadful.

Bret Bielema signed on heading into the 2021 campaign and was the leader of the massive program turnaround. 5-7 in his first season turned into an eight-win campaign in 2022. This was only the beginning of some good, competitive, football once again in Champaign.

A big part of the turnaround was pairing the sparse talent on the field with skilled freshmen and experienced transfer portal talent. Bielema brought in Tommy DeVito at quarterback, and he helped orchestrate the 2022 season that saw us make a bowl game with eight wins. Bielema is trying to mimic that great run with another transfer portal quarterback in Luke Altmyer.

Season one of the Altmyer experience didn’t go as planned. He came in and almost immediately, I lost faith in the kid. He had a backup in John Paddock who looked more ready for the moment, and that ended up being the case on the field.

The offseason did wonders for Altmyer, though. He had time in the system and was able to develop chemistry and understanding of the playbook. The leap from year to year has been incredible, and I am fully on the Altmyer bandwagon.

Altmyer isn’t just an improved player. He is a high-level quarterback who I can make the argument deserves to be mentioned with the best of the best in the Big Ten. On top of that, Altmyer has a chance to cement himself in the Illinois record book.

Illinois football is likely going to need to make some adjustments to fit Luke Altmyer into the updated record book

It is impressive what Altmyer has done in 2024. He looks more poised in the pocket, and his clock is more in tune with what is going on during a play. He knows when pressure is coming and can step up in the pocket or take off for a run.

This developed ability has Altmyer on pace for 2,512 yards this season. That won’t do anything as far as the record book is concerned, but that would be fifth most by an Illinois quarterback since the 2002 campaign.

What stands out the most about Altmyer, particularly this season, is his efficiency. Right now, he has a quarterback rating of 164.0. If he finishes at that number in 2024, he will shatter the previous Illinois record of 141.6 held by West Lunt in 2014.

A big part of the passer rating is completions and accuracy. Altmyer is currently completing 70.0% of his passes this season. Finishing at this mark would land him No. 1 and narrowly passing DeVito’s 2022 season when he had a completion rate of 69.65%.

Altmyer has been pretty accurate since coming to Illinois as well. Projecting out the rest of this regular season, the Illini quarterback is on pace for a career completion rate of 65.8%. That would be No. 1 overall with a minimum of 500 attempts at Illinois.

Lastly, Altmyer has been able to throw touchdowns at a high rate. When you project his 2024 season out to a full 12-game schedule, he is on pace for 39 career touchdown passes. That would finish No. 6 all-time in the history of the Illinois football program.

Illinois fans have a special talent on their hands. We haven’t seen a quarterback of this caliber come through the program in quite some time. Let’s enjoy what we are watching.