It look Lovie Smith just one year to turn the Chicago Bears into a playoff team. Making the Illinois Fighting Illini bowl eligible again however has been a much more difficult task. But such is life in college football. Heading into his third year in Champaign, Smith is under a thin microscope to get this team -at the very least- back to a general bowl game for the first time in four years. The Illini last won the Big Ten Championship back in 2001, but in order to get back to that level coach Smith needs time to recruit.
Over the last few months he’s been doing just that. He’s slowly adding the talent that’ll make this team a contender once again. There are some who are impatient and want the 60-year-old gone if this season doesn’t pan out, but then the program would have to start over again. So unfortunately the fan base and alumni will have to endure the growing pains and let Lovie shape the program the way he sees fit. The program seems to have a direction now, it’s just a matter of getting the talent to fully move the team in said direction.
Talent is the key word when it comes to the Fighting Illini. Whether it was transfers, injuries, graduations, or other various reasons, roster turnover certainly hasn’t helped Smith as he tries to make Illinois into a winner again. Here is the reset from last season….
W-L: 2-10 (0-9, Big Ten West)
Bowl Game: None
Best Win: 20-7 vs Western Kentucky
Worst Loss: 52-14 at Ohio State
Final Rankings: 117th overall nationally
Most Outstanding Players: Quarterbacks Jeff George Jr., Chayce Crouch, and Cam Thomas, running backs Kendrick Foster, Ra’Von Bonner, and Mike Epstein, wide receivers Ricky Smalling, Malik Turner, and Mike Dudek, linebackers Del’Shawn Phillips and Tre Watson, and defensive back Stanley Green.
Things looked bright when the Fighting Illini started the season 2-0 after beating both Ball State and Western Kentucky at home by a combined score of 44-28. But that enjoyment was short-lived as Lovie Smith would oversee an unheard of 10-game losing streak to finish the season. The Illini were outscored 350-141 the rest of the way but here’s a deeper look inside of those numbers…..
24 points was the highest number that Illinois reached offensively during the season. They were held under 20 points in eight of those ten games, and only reaching single digits in two games. On the defensive side they surrendered an average of 25 points per game, they gave up over 30 points on five occasions, and struggled to do simple things like rush the passer often, limit the big plays, and they ranked near the bottom of every major category in the nation.
Among the highlights, or lowlights if you will, of those losses were second half collapses against South Florida, Rutgers, and Minnesota, failing to move the ball against Nebraska, Wisconsin, and Purdue, and taking a pounding from Iowa, Ohio State and arch-rival Northwestern. The hope is that the Fighting Illini can show at least some remote improvement this year, especially in conference play.
Back to that roster turnover I talked about….. Cam Thomas was the only quarterback left standing at the end of 2017. George Jr. started the season under center but was eventually benched due to turnovers and inconsistent play. Crouch was more of a runner than a passer and got hit with some injuries. Both men are now gone from the team as George transfered earlier this year while Crouch walked away from football altogether.
Thomas started the final four games as a freshman and threw for 375 yards, ran for another 233, and learned on the fly in one of the toughest conferences in the country. He only had one rushing touchdown and threw five picks, but after having a full offseason to prepare to be the starter his fundamentals should be much improved. Kendrick Foster (1,064 rushing yards and 9 touchdowns in 2017) has moved on but Ra’Von Bonner and Mike Epstein (both sophomores now) return and they’ll take the majority of the hand offs from Thomas this season. Last year both players combined for 548 rushing yards, 64 receiving yards, and eight total touchdowns (Epstein also contributes on special teams). They’ll be asked to take a great deal of pressure off of their young signal caller.
It won’t be easy to replace the 1,804 career receiving yards and 10 career touchdowns that Malik Turner leaves behind, but Mike Dudek and Ricky Snalling will be more than happy to pick up the slack. Dudek was phenomenal as a freshman in 2014 (1,038 yards, 6 touchdown catches), but knee injures cut short his 2015 season and wiped out all of 2016. The Naperville native returned to limited action last year and he contributed 24 receptions for 262 yards and made one trip to the end zone in seven games. Now in his final year of eligibility, Dudek is hoping to make an impact similar to how he did in 2014.
Snalling was a nice surprise in his freshman season. He only scored two touchdowns but he had 510 yards on 31 catches, and he averaged an outstanding 16.5 yards per catch. He was definitely one of the few bright spots for the Fighting Illini in 2017. Sophomore Louis Dorsey was another freshman who made his mark last year. After averaging 18 yards per catch himself (finished with 22 receptions, 395 yards, 3 touchdowns), Dorsey -now a sophomore- is expected to be the starting tight end come September.
To make sure that the offense doesn’t repeatedly stall the way it did last year, Lovie Smith brought in Rod Smith to replace Gerrick McGee as offensive coordinator. Tre Watson transferred to Maryland and took his 188 career tackles with him. But Del’Shawn Phillips (senior) and Stanley Green (junior) return, and they’ll be accompanied by sophomore defensive end Bobby Roundtree. Phillips last year led the Illini defense in both total tackles (85) and tackles for loss (4). Green was right behind Phillips in tackles (70), while Roundtree was tied for the team lead in sacks (4).
Those three will be joined by a mixture of both youth and experience on the defensive side of the ball. With a new offensive coordinator handling the play calling, coach Smith can fully focus on the defense which has always been his specialty. Illinois will have to navigate another interesting schedule in 2018 that looks very similar to last year’s schedule.
They start the year again with a Mid-American Conference team when they host Kent State (September 1st) at Memorial Stadium (The Fighting Illini are 7-2 against the MAC since 2004 and won their last meeting with KSU back in 2015). The next week (September 8th) Western Illinois comes to Champaign for the third meeting between these schools in the last decade. The Illini are 15-0 against the Football Championship Subdivision since 2002 and won the last two games against WIU in both 2015 and 2007. The following week (September 15th) Illinois makes their first appearance at Solider Field since 2015 when they play South Florida and hope to avenge last year’s loss in Tampa (the Illini have lost two in-a-row at Soldier Field).
They finish the month of September by returning home to host Penn State (September 21st), who’s a favorite to win the conference, before taking their bye week. After the bye, the Illini will spend much of October on the road. They travel to Rutgers (October 6th) with whom they’ve split the last two meetings with, come home briefly (October 13th) to play Purdue who they haven’t beaten since 2015, then go back on the road to play west division rulers Wisconsin (October 20th), and Maryland (October 27th) to play the Terrapins as football foes for the first time.
The Illini will wrap up the regular season by taking on the rest of their division rivals in November. The order of the games looks like this…. Home against Minnesota (November 3rd) whom they haven’t won against since 2014, then travel to Nebraska (November 10th) to take on the new look Cornhuskers under the guidance of former Nebraska quarterback Scott Frost. Illinois has a subpar 1-4 record against Nebraska since “Big Red” joined the Big Ten back in 2011, and they’ve been outscored 156-69 in those five matchups combined. Making matters worse is that the up-tempo spread offense that Frost presents scores plenty more points than those of Mike Riley and Bo Pelini who coached against Illinois in those five previous games.
After Nebraska, Illinois plays their final home game (November 17th) against Iowa (four-game losing streak against the Hawkeyes), then they finish the the season when they come to Evanston to play Northwestern for the Land of Lincoln trophy (November 24th). When the Illini last beat Northwestern in 2014, they went to a bowl game that year. Just some food for thought.
Aside from putting everything together talent wise, Illinois must find a way to string six wins together against what could be yet another challenging slate of games.
