Illinois Football Preview and Predictions for 2025

The fighting Illini have been steadily building a solid program under head coach Bret Bielema. They have steadily won more games every year since he took over the position in 2020. Last season Illinois went 10-3 overall. They are returning 16 starters from last year’s successful campaign, including star QB Luke Altmeyer.

Altmeyer threw for 22 TD’s and only 6 int’s last year. He also ran for 212 yards and 4 scores. All 5 offensive linemen will return as well, making this one of the better lines in the Big 10. The defensive backfield is stacked as well.

Let’s take a look at their schedule:

Aug 29: vs Western Illinois
Sep 6: at Duke
Sep 13: vs Western Michigan
Sep 20: at Indiana
Sep 27: vs USC
Oct 4: at Purdue
Oct 11: vs Ohio State
Oct 25: at Washington
Nov 1: vs Rutgers
Nov 15: vs Maryland
Nov 22: at Wisconsin
Nov 29: vs Northwestern

Call me a little nuts but Illinois can win every game on this schedule, and yes, I am including Ohio State in that mix. The Buckeyes are in a little bit of a rebuilding mode right now. They lost a lot of players to the draft (14 in all). They will have an unproven untested QB1. Illinois doesn’t have the depth that OSU has but they have a better OL, QB and an equal defensive secondary.

Team total wins are set at 8.5 games at sportsbook BetOnline.ag – This Over should hit.

As you can tell, I am high on the Illini. I can see them winning 10+ games. My only reservation is that in years past, when Illinois was supposed to be really good, they always seemed to fail to live up to those expectations. However, 8.5 wins total tells me that they are not rated very highly in the public’s mind eye or with the oddsmakers, for that matter. Therefore, my bold prediction is not in line with zeitgeist.

This team could very well be in the Big Ten championship game (vs Penn State) and CFB Playoffs. Putting a hundo on Illinois to win the national title at +15,000 may be a longshot, but the bet will surely keep your attention throughout the season. If and when they make it into the CFB Playoffs, you will see those odds come way down. After round 1 of the CFB playoffs you can start thinking about hedging your futures wager.

Another sneaky little future bet you can place is Luke Altmeyer for Heisman. This bet pays out $30,000 for a $100 wager at Sportsbetting.ag (note: some sportsbooks have really low limits on this bet because of the large payout amount. I was limited to just $17 at BetOnline for this wager)

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