The 2025 season isn’t over yet, and the Illinois football team is still losing players.
It is the way things are set up, but the Illini have now had three players hit the transfer portal since the regular season ended and four players overall. If you know you are going to enter the transfer portal, you have to announce it because if you do it too late, there won’t be spots open for you.
On Friday night, the third Illinois player hit the transfer portal. On3.com reported that Illini defensive lineman Jeremiah Warren has decided to depart the program.
Illinois DL Jeremiah Warren plans to enter the transfer portal, via @Hayesfawcett3
— Transfer Portal (@TransferPortal) December 6, 2025
The 6-foot-3, 305-pound DL played in 24 games the past 2 seasons. Has 2 years of eligibility remaining.https://t.co/twx2zKBxOG pic.twitter.com/fEmE53A4Sv
Coming out of Belleville High School in Michigan, the 6-foot-4, 285-pound defensive lineman was a three-star recruit who was the No. 1340 player in the class of 2023. Illinois ended up winning the recruit over UMass and a myriad of other MAC programs.
In 2023, Warren took a redshirt. Last season, he played in every game and amassed 10 tackles on the year. In 2025, Warren’s time on the field dropped, and this would likely be the case for him to hit the transfer portal.
Illinois football isn’t hit hard by the transfer portal departure of Jeremiah Warren
Losing a player is never fun. I always want to see players stick around and develop under Bret Bielema. In this case, the departure of Warren shouldn’t hurt the Illini.
Warren only played 97 snaps for Illinois this season. In those 97 snaps, Pro Football Focus had him finishing with a grade of 58.8, which is second-worst on the Illinois roster among all interior defensive linemen regardless of snap count.
Illinois should have some decent talent returning next season up front as well. Tomiwa Durojaiye and Curt Neal are both going to be seniors, and Angelo McCullom is going to be a junior. All three of those defensive linemen played at least 242 snaps last season and were three out of the four linemen who played the most on the team. The only one who is departing is James Thompson Jr.
With Warren entering his junior year, he saw the writing on the wall. He wasn’t going to get playing time in 2026. This departure makes sense for both parties. I wish him nothing but the best.