Good W!
Love beating Calamari!
Needed that after the Bear meltdown earlier

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The Illinois football team is ranked #23 in this week's College Football Playoff Top 25, the CFP committee announced Tuesday. The Fighting Illini moved up two spots after debuting in last week's rankings at #25.

Illinois (8-3, 5-3 Big Ten) is in the College Football Playoff Top 25 for the second consecutive week and the fourth time in program history. The Illini were in the CFP committee's rankings twice during the 2022 season, when Illinois finished 8-4 on its way to the ReliaQuest Bowl in Tampa.

Illinois is coming off a 38-31 win at Rutgers, ahead of Saturday's trip to Wrigley Field to take on Northwestern (11 a.m. CT, BTN). At Rutgers, Pat Bryant caught a 40-yard touchdown from Luke Altmyer on 4th-and-13 with 0:04 remaining to give Illinois its fourth fourth-quarter comeback win of the season.

The Illini close the regular season on Saturday in Chicago against Northwestern. Kickoff is scheduled for 11 a.m. CT on Big Ten Network.

Illinois All-Time CFP Rankings

2022 Week 9 — #16
2022 Week 10 — #21
2024 Week 12 — #25
2024 Week 13 — #23

Most outlets have Illinois pegged for the Citrus Bowl.

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Who you got?

Luke Fickell, Wisconsin
Ryan Walters, Purdue
Billy Napier, Florida

Anyone else?

With Dain Dainja doing well. Juat happened to turn it on. Maui Invitational.

I just saw DD score close to the bucket.

On right now on Ch 209.

Some great games Tuesday night.

No. 6 Houston vs. No. 9 Alabama. 7 pm. TBS.

No. 11 Duke vs. No. 1 Kansas. 8 pm. ESPN.

No. 4 Auburn vs. No. 12 North Carolina. 10 pm. ESPN

UCONN lost its second consecutive game, falling 73-72 to Colorado

San Diego State defeated No. 21 Creighton 71-53.

Illinois will watch Pearson closely during the high school basketball season. Geoff Alexander was at his high school last week. He could become a priority in the 2026 class if he continues to develop. Rapid improvement over the summer.

I've said this a few times lately but I think we have the rotation mostly figured out at this point. What appeared to be an 11-man competition has quickly been trimmed down to a standard 8-man rotation before Thanksgiving. Jakstys was always a redshirt candidate but he was surprisingly joined by Ty Rodgers. Jake Davis is also a bit player, which isn't really a surprise either. The other surprising development is that it now appears that Carey Booth is no longer getting regular minutes, as Morez Johnson is too good to just be the backup 5 and has taken all his minutes at the 4. I think Booth is the emergency foul trouble big (the BBV role.) So we are looking at the following preferred rotation in a typical competitive game.

PG: KJ (30), Boswell (10)
SG: Boswell (18), DGL (12), White (10)
SF: White (12), Riley (28)
PF: Humrichous (28), Johnson (12)
C: Ivisic (28), Johnson (12)

Here's the 8-man by total minutes:
KJ (30), Boswell (28), Ivisic (28), Humrichous (28), Riley (28), Johnson (24), White (22), DGL (12)

• Even though White starts over Riley, Riley plays more minutes and is one of our best 5 players. This is by design as Riley is young and seems to take a little time to get acclimated to games. White seems to fare better as the go-to guy in the first few minutes of games. We'll see if this dynamic evolves as we get further in the season. I think the fans will want to start Riley well before Underwood does. I thought Riley had an off night against Little Rock and still put up 13 points with a 143 ORtg. White is a nice all-around player. Riley has an interesting mix of skills but is mainly just a scorer right now.
• 24 minutes for Morez Johnson is more aspirational than reality-based right now. You may notice though that we play much better when Johnson gets more minutes (and I'm sure Underwood has.) It's probably because Johnson rebounds at an insanely high level on both ends and pretty much leads the team in all the "big man" per-possession stats. The guy is an absolute beast and if he can stay on the court (foul trouble) he is also one of our 5 best players. I'm mainly starting this thread to hype up Morez Johnson as he's somehow underrated at this moment.
• Ivisic seems very capable of playing starter minutes at the 5. Plug and play center. Not super flashy but very solid.
• Humrichous is a 6'9" guy that can hit a high-volume of 3-pointers at 40%. That gets you 28 minutes as a "spacer." His defense is the weak link. If Booth claws his way back into the rotation, these are some of the minutes he could take.
• KJ is the go-to lead guard "action guy." You can tell Underwood just loves the guy and he's the star freshman point guard that he always wanted. Underwood will be fighting himself to keep him to only 30 mpg.
• Boswell is the defensive stopper and the emotional leader for the team. When Plan A goes wrong, he's Plan B. When the freshmen get tight and the other team starts going on a run, Boswell is the guy who makes a play to turn things around. His offense is suffering for the sake of his defense right now but he'll figure it out.
• DGL is the bench sparkplug change of pace guy. His job is to just play balls to the wall for 12 minutes and mess up the other team's B unit. If he gets hot you can ride him for a while to turn a game around.
• KJ, Boswell, Riley, Johnson, and Ivisic are 5 absolute studs. They are a bit younger or inexperienced at the college level, but these 5 are going to go thermonuclear on someone in the NCAA Tournament.

Dominant from start to finish.

Illini roll 92-34.

I was fortunate to know Bruce as a football manager and an ATO. He was the best of the best as far as a caring human. He was pleasant to be around and always cheerful
with a big smile. His mother raised the perfect young man.

To know him, you have to be in your late 70's, early 80's and these senior citizens are fading away. So it is my good fortune to have known him. Bruce was not All Big Ten, but he played first string center, when Pete Elliot needed a center for short yardage he brought in #50. He was second string linebacker behind #50 and Don Hanson. All college linebackers would have been second string behind those two.

Everyone who knew Bruce loved him. I won't bore you with any more details, others who knew him and have comments are most welcome to share them. What really amazed me about Bruce, was this young man was so compassionate and caring, but when he crossed the sideline to play football he flipped on a switch and played very aggressive winning football. As a manager, I would see this and just shake my head. Wow, is this the same guy?

The Bruce Capel Award goes to the best of the best men who play football for the U of I. It is much more than about playing football, it is about being a classy human being.

Indiana loses…are they out of the CFP? Not sure where you rank them as they haven’t beaten anybody.
Penn State looks like they might lose. Illinois (8-3) is their best win so far.
Kansas is taking it to Colorado right now.

Since the 1996-1997 season:

11/23/98: 71-35 win over Tennessee Martin (67 possessions)
12/30/02: 63-37 win over Coppin State (56 possessions)
2/18/03: 70-40 win over Michigan State (61 possessions)
1/21/04: 80-37 win over Penn State (62 possessions)
11/13/06: 80-35 win over Austin Peay (68 possessions)
11/21/06: 81-34 win over Savannah State (65 possessions)
2/18/07: 48-37 win over Northwestern (54 possessions)
12/17/07: 58-35 win over Western Carolina (64 possessions)
1/27/08: 70-37 win over Northwestern (57 possessions)
2/18/09: 33-38 loss vs Penn State (56 possessions) - YUCK!

30 SECOND SHOT CLOCK ERA
1/5/20: 63-37 win over Purdue (62 possessions)
11/26/20: 97-38 win over Chicago State (74 possessions)
11/23/24: 87-40 win over UMES (73 possessions)
11/25/24: 92-34 win over Little Rock (69 possessions)


Not a home game, but we did also win 63-30 @NW on 2/19/2000.

Chicago State is terrible (but does play pretty fast) so they better watch out on December 29th. This Illinois team has enough raw talent and size to impose their will defensively against the bad teams. Still some work to do to be ready for better talent.

ROSEMONT, Ill. – Following Week 13 contests, the Big Ten Conference Football Players of the Week Presented by IFS.ai were announced Monday. Below are this week’s honorees:

Co-Offensive Players of the Week

Pat Bryant, Illinois

WR – Sr. – Jacksonville, Fla. – Atlantic Coast

• Caught the game-winning touchdown with 0:04 remaining as part of a 197-yard, seven-reception performance to lead No. 24 Illinois to a 38-31 win at Rutgers
• Scored his third game-winning touchdown in the final minute or overtime this season, the most in the nation
• Surpassed 2,000 receiving yards for his career on the game-winning touchdown
• Last Illinois Offensive Player of the Week honoree: Luke Altmyer (Sept. 23, 2024)

Will Howard, Ohio State

QB – Gr. – Downington, Pa. – Downington West

• Extended his school single season and career records with his sixth game with a completion percentage of at least 80 percent by completing 22 of 26 passes for 201 yards and two touchdowns in the win over No. 5 Indiana
• Found Emeka Egbuka on an 11-yard touchdown score after Indiana had taken a 7-0 lead, and then he hit Jelani Thurman with a one-yard touchdown pass to make the score 28-7
• Leads the nation in completion percentage at 74.0
• Last Ohio State Offensive Player of the Week honoree: Will Howard (Nov. 11, 2024)

#12 Illinois defeated #6 Missouri in a home meet by a score of 23-14, to move their dual record to 4-0.

The team looks strong this year, returning four ranked upperclassmen who did not compete collegiately last season. Byrd (133) is undefeated, and ranked #2. Luffman (285), D Braunagel (174), and Z Braunagel (197) have also contributed significantly after returning to competition this year. There are several other bright spots on the team, especially redshirt freshmen Kannon Webster (149) and Braedon Scoles (165). Both are undefeated, and have piled up bonus points in the early season meets. They are both ranked in their respective weight classes, and have the look of potential superstars.

A key difference of this team compared to other recent years is the "rest of the team." There have usually been a few weight classes that score very few points during the season, and offer no chance of scoring in the post season. This year's team boasts a ranked wrestler at all 10 weight classes, plus a few backups who have been productive in the past. Points can come from any weight class in every meet, although 125 hasn't produced much yet this season.

The BIG is once again the dominant conference nationally, but the Illini have their best chance in many years to be a real factor in the post season.