What you need to know about the Illinois Fighting Illini
Nebraska (3-4, 2-2 Big Ten West) takes on a resurgent Illinois Fighting Illini team at home on Saturday at 2:30 PM as they vie to stay in the hunt near the top of the Big Ten West.
The Fighting Illini are having a better season than anyone could have expected in 2022 with a record of 6-1 (3-1 Big Ten West) and come into the game ranked No. 17 in the AP Top 25 and No. 18 in the USA Today Coaches Poll. Illinois leads Purdue by half a game and Nebraska by one game for the lead in the West division.
Bret Bielema’s group started the season 1-1 after a heartbreaking 23-20 defeat to Indiana, in which the Hoosiers were beneficiaries of a controversial no-touchdown call on a catch by Brian Hightower. Convincing wins over Virginia, Chattanooga and Wisconsin followed, with Badgers head coach Paul Chryst getting fired after the loss.
Illinois grinded out a 9-6 win over Iowa in Week 6 and continued their win streak with a 26-14 victory against Minnesota before their bye week last Saturday. The Fighting Illini are bowl eligible for just the second time since 2014 and have their best record since 2011, where they started the season 6-0 before losing their last six games of the regular season.
Senior running back Chase Brown and the defensive unit have been the catalysts for Illinois this season. Brown’s name is being discussed for Heisman contention and the Fighting Illini have the country’s leading scoring defense by allowing more than 14 points on just one occasion.
Illinois Background
City: Champaign, Illinois
Stadium: Memorial Stadium (capacity 60,670)
Colors: Orange and blue
Head Coach: Bret Bielema (2nd season)
Last season record: 5-7
Conference titles: 15
National Championships: 5 (all are claimed and not official)
2022 Team Stats
Points Per Game: 26.0
Rushing Yards Per Game: 198.9
Passing Yards Per Game: 216.9
Total Offense: 415.8
Turnover Margin: +4
Points Allowed Per Game: 8.9
Opp. Rushing Yards Per Game: 77.9
Opp. Passing Yards Per Game: 143.3
Opp. Total Offense Per Game: 221.2
Players to Watch
QB Tommy Devito: The transfer from Rutgers has been a breath of fresh air in the line of Illinois’ recent quarterbacks. Devito’s Pro Football Focus rating was third in the nation through Week 7. The senior has completed 70.4% of his passes for 1,415 yards, scored 14 touchdowns (10 passing, 4 rushing) and thrown 2 interceptions.
RB Chase Brown: After spending previous years sitting behind Reggie Corbin, all Brown has done is lead all FBS schools in rushing for a majority of the 2022 season. Only one other running back in FBS has over 1,000 rushing yards heading into this weekend. Brown has 192 rushes for 1,059 yards (5.5 YPC) and 4 touchdowns rushing. Receiving-wise, he’s caught 15 passes for 107 yards and 2 scores.
DB Jartavius Martin: Martin is among the team leaders in tackles with 33 (2 TFL’s). The senior also has a pair of interceptions and eight pass breakups, helping the Fighting Illini to the FBS’ leading scoring defense.
Series History
Nebraska leads the all-time series between the two schools 13-5. The Huskers have not beaten Illinois since a 42-38 victory in 2019. Last season, the Fighting Illini won 30-22 but since joining the Big Ten, Nebraska is 6-3 against Illinois.
Head Coach
Bret Bielema has pent over a decade combined coaching at Big Ten West schools and is seeing major returns in his second year at the helm of Illinois after three seasons in the NFL. The Illinois native spent three years as an assistant; two of them with New England and one with the New York Giants.
The Fighting Illini coach got his start at Iowa in 1994 as a graduate assistant, eventually becoming their linebackers coach. Bielema was co-defensive coordinator at Kansas State in the 2001 and 2002 seasons before moving on to become the defensive coordinator at Wisconsin. When Badgers head coach Barry Alvarez took over the athletic director position, Bielema filled the role and led the team to a 68-24 record and three Rose Bowls between 2006 and 2012. Afterwards, he had a middling tenure from 2013 to 2017 at Arkansas, going 29-34. His contract at Illinois runs until the 2026 season.
Bielema is a defensive specialist and also excels at recruiting. Since he and his staff at taken over at Illinois, they have been aggressively pursuing in-state recruits more often than previous Illini head coaches.
Notable Former Fighting Illini in the NFL
CB Nate Hobbs (Las Vegas)
OG Kendrick Green (Pittsburgh)
DT Akeem Spence (San Francisco)
DE Dawaune Smoot (Jacksonville)
K Chase McLaughlin (Indianapolis)
OG Nick Allegretti (Kansas City)
S Kerby Joseph (Detroit)
C Ted Karras (Cincinnati)
K James McCourt (Jacksonville)
OLB Jihad Ward (New York Giants)
LB Milo Eifler (Washington)
S Tony Adams (New York Jets)
S Clayton Fejdelem (Miami)
LB Jake Hansen (Houston)
LB Del’Shawn Phillips (Baltimore)
C Doug Kramer (Chicago)
OL Vederian Lowe (Minnesota)
CB Justin Hardee (New York Jets)
WR Malik Turner (San Francisco)
DL Roderick Perry II (Cleveland)
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