Illinois Fighting Illini 2018 Football Preview

Don’t fall for the trap of automatically placing the Illini in the Big Ten’s West cellar. This young team might be better than some fans and sportswriters want to give them credit for.

It’s become somewhat commonplace to relegate Illinois to the cellar of the Big Ten’s west division, especially now that Purdue seems to be showing signs of life. That might be a touch premature, though certainly understandable based on how Lovie Smith’s NFL career ended up. Certainly, Illinois doesn’t show many signs of progress, if only because of the Illini’s ten-game losing streak. But you also have to acknowledge that Smith decided to just start fresh with his program last season. Illinois returns 16 starters from 2017: Nine sophomores, four juniors and just three seniors. Yes, NINE freshmen were starting last season for the Illini. So yeah, Illinois football wasn’t very good last season because they shouldn’t have been any good. But that raises the question whether Lovie Smith’s program will ever be good.

Smith rotated between three different quarterbacks last season, with injuries leading to Cameron Thomas (6’2” 190 lbs.) ripping off his redshirt midway through last season. He only completed 42% of his passes, throwing for 375 yards with no touchdowns and five interceptions in four games. Thomas is a dual threat who rushed for 233 yards and a touchdown, averaging 4.5 yards per carry. He’ll be joined in the quarterback room by a name that’s better recognized by Nebraska fans than Illinois fans, as well as several freshmen. Senior graduate transfer A.J. Bush (6’4” 223 lbs.) returns to the Big Ten after stops at Virginia Tech and Iowa Western the last two seasons. As a reserve at Tech, Bush completed seven of 11 passes for 99 yards and a touchdown while rushing for 129 yards, averaging 6.8 yards per carry. Many preview magazines anointed Thomas as the presumed starter, but it sounds like it’s actually a race between Bush and true freshman Matt Robinson (6’1” 180 lbs.), a three-star recruit who’s impressed during the early part of preseason practice. At this point, I think the edge goes to Bush to start the season, but by November, who knows.

Some early standouts today (watched mostly skill guys)