Illinois Fighting Illini 2022 College Football Preview
July 31, 2022
2021 Recap
Record – 5-7
ATS – 7-5
Year one of the Bret Bielema experience wasn’t a complete disaster, as while the Illini failed to make the postseason, they had some decent wins along the way. CORN, Minnesota, and who can forget the impossible 9-OT (!) SNOT BUBBLER win at Penn St?
There’s a lot of work to be done after they allowed your pal Lovie Smith to CACK things up for years. Let’s see how 2022 is shaping up.
Illinois Fighting Illini 2022 Outlook
OFFENSE
Illinois had a horrific THROW GAME LY (#122 FBS pass offense) but they did some decent work on the ground (#55) thanks to the fine play of Chase Brown (1,005, 5.9) and Josh McCray (549, 2 TD). Both of those men are back and they’ll run behind a decent-looking OL that features over 70 career starts. The Illini made a good move bagging former Syracuse QB Tommy DeVito who booked a 28-12 TD to INT mark during his time with the Orange. We aren’t too impressed with the WR/TE talent but at least DeVito has the top-two targets from LY on board. Illinois has averaged 20 PPG in each of the last two seasons and we’ll call for slight improvement in 2022.
DEFENSE
The Illini made yuuuuge strides on defense LY as they went from allowing 34.9 PPG and 467 YPG to just 21.9 and 366 respectively. They also bagged 31 sacks (#5 Big Ten). There doesn’t appear to be much ‘star’ power in the unit but they return six starters including their top-two tacklers in safety Sydney Brown and LB Tarique Barnes. The DL also looks good as they have impressive GIRTH at NG and a pair of good pass-rushing DEs in Jer’Zhan Newton and Keith Randolph. This has the look of an “average” Big Ten defense.
SPECIAL TEAMS
RUH ROH. This will almost certainly be a problem area as the Illini will be undergoing a complete rebuilding project. They’re gonna miss their fine tandem of punter Blake Hayes (43.1 net) and PK James McCourt (18-23 FG LY).
Schedule Analysis
Overall – The non-conference slate opens up the chance of a hot start and it’s not inconceivable to see the Illini sitting with three or four wins as they exit September. The second half of the schedule is much more difficult and note that they play their final two games ON THE HIGHWAY.
Potential ATS Trouble Spot – Nothing heinous is noted.
Season Win Total
per BetOnline July 31
Over 4.5 -130
Under 4.5 +100
MEGALOCKS says:
Lean: Over
We don’t love the roster but they just need to win two or three games from October onward to hit the ‘over’.
MEGAmazing Tidbits
HC Bret Bielema has been good to degenerates over the years in conference play as he’s tallied a career ATS record of 59-46-2 (56%). Exhibit A – Bielema was 7-2 vs the number in Big Ten play last season.
Illinois’ last bowl win came back in 2011 when they took down UCLA in the Fight Hunger Bowl (W 20-14).
MEGALOCKS Outlook:
The roster doesn’t inspire much confidence but there are some opportunities for wins along the way. You know they’ll give 100% effort most weeks so we fully expect them to SHOCK the WORLD at some point during the campaign. We forecast them falling just short of bowl eligibility in 2022.
Want more Illinois football ?
WEBSITE
http://www.fightingillini.com/index.aspx?path=football
FORUM
https://247sports.com/college/illinois/Board/Football-Fan-Forum-103854/
http://www2.illiniboard.com/forum
NEWS
http://www.thechampaignroom.com/
http://www.news-gazette.com/sports/illini-sports/football
https://www.espn.com/college-football/team/_/id/356/illinois-fighting-illini