Illinois football kicks off the 2025 campaign on Friday, and there is one massive advantage the program will have this season.
The transfer portal has been great to the Illini. We had Tommy DeVito come in and lead us to a magical eight-win campaign. Following him was current quarterback, Luke Altmyer.
Altmyer has been with the Orange and Blue for two seasons and will start game one against Western Illinois to make season three. While he came in from the transfer portal after not getting his career off the ground at Ole Miss, he has at least planted his roots in Champaign.
The same can’t be said for the rest of Illinois’ schedule in 2025. This could end up being the slight advantage the Illini need to not only get back to 10 wins, but to potentially get to 11 or 12 wins and a College Football Playoff berth.
When you break the Illini schedule down, there are projected to be 12 quarterbacks starting against us, as there are 12 games on the schedule. As of right now, six out of the 12 quarterbacks are potentially going to be brand new to their team.
Illinois potentially has three new starting quarterbacks to go against in the first four games. Duke went from Maalik Murphy to Darian Mensah, Indiana went from Kurtis Rourke to Fernando Mendoza, and Western Michigan has a quarterback battle that could replace outgoing Hayden Wolff with JUCO transfer Brady Jones.
The final three games for the Illini could also feature new quarterbacks for their respective programs. Wisconsin goes from Tyler Van Dyke to Billy Edwards Jr, and Northwestern goes from Mike Wright Jr. to Preston Stone. Maryland also has a three-way battle at quarterback with a transfer in Justyn Martin potentially getting the nod.
Even the returning quarterbacks Illinois football will face don’t have a ton of starts under their belts
While the newcomers are plentiful on the Illini schedule, the returning quarterbacks are not exactly experienced.
Illinois has a stretch of four games – USC, Purdue, Ohio State, and Washington – that has their projected starting quarterbacks only having a combined eight starts for their respective teams. Jayden Maiava replaces Miller Moss, and he only has four starts. Hudson Card is gone at Purdue, and Ryan Browne will replace him with his two starts. Demond Williams Jr. replaces Will Rogers at Washington, and he only boasts two starts. And then you have Ohio State with Julian Sayin replacing Will Howard. Sayin hasn’t started a game.
When you break it down even further, only one team Illinois will face in the regular season has a quarterback who was the program’s opening game starter in 2024. This quarterback also has by far the most starts with his respective program with 13 starts.
That quarterback is where college football started, Rutgers. Athan Kaliakmanis is still in the college game despite it feeling like he’s been around for 55 years. He will once again start in the Big Ten, this time it will be his second season in Rutgers after spending two years at Minnesota.
So, at the end of the day, Illinois should have somewhat of an advantage when it comes to the quarterback position. Altmyer, who has 22 starts at Illinois, has one more start than the 21 combined starts every other quarterback on the schedule has with their respective team. Maybe, that will help the Illini get to that coveted 11th win in 2025.