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Illinois Football vs. Minnesota: Illini's Quest for 10 Wins Gets Real This Week

The 6-2 Illini will be favored in their last four regular-season games, which is a new kind of pressure

Steven Greenberg

Oct 26, 2024; Eugene, Oregon, USA; Illinois Fighting Illini quarterback Luke Altmyer (9) throws a pass during the second half against the Oregon Ducks at Autzen Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Troy Wayrynen-Imagn Images
Oct 26, 2024; Eugene, Oregon, USA; Illinois Fighting Illini quarterback Luke Altmyer (9) throws a pass during the second half against the Oregon Ducks at Autzen Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Troy Wayrynen-Imagn Images / Troy Wayrynen-Imagn Images
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The No. 24 Illini (6-2, 3-2 Big Ten) held on to a spot in the Top 25, for what that’s worth, after getting smoked 38-9 at No. 1 Oregon. In simple terms, play time – as in, fanciful thoughts that the Illini might contend for a conference championship – is over.

That’s OK, too, because there still is a ton left to play for. With a November closing stretch at home against Minnesota (Saturday, 11 a.m. CT, FS1), at home against Michigan State, at Rutgers and against Northwestern at Wrigley Field – all games in which the Illini will be favored – a 10-win regular season is possible. It would be the first for an Illini team since the Sugar Bowl season of 2001. Win out – and then win an 11th in a bowl game? No Illinois team has won 11. Not ever.

But Minnesota – winner of three straight and coming off a wickedly good 48-23 blowout of Maryland – is lurking.

This week’s theme: Will the Illini avoid falling apart as they did after a 7-1 start in 2022? They began that November with a completely unexpected and extraordinarily ugly 23-15 loss to a bad Michigan State team in Champaign. They followed that by getting upset at home again, by a 31-24 count against Purdue. By season’s end, they were 8-5 and lamenting what had gone wrong, not celebrating what had gone right.

The Gophers (5-3, 3-2 Big Ten) are hot, quarterback Max Brosmer plays fearlessly and P.J. Fleck’s defense is stout. They will take Illinois' lunch money if the Illini aren’t locked in after a long trip home and what might be some doubt that has crept in.

Coach Bret Bielema doesn’t want the Oregon experience to turn into a second loss as a residual effect. This team – not as star-driven as the 2022 rendition – must come together and protect its home turf.

The Biel-o-meter: Viewers barely had time to blink at the screen before the Oregon game was a blowout. That had much to do with the Ducks’ talent, but the Illini weren’t ready for what hit them and were so slow to gather themselves at all, and that’s on the coaches. Bielema took a real ding. On a scale of 1 (losing five games again) to 10 (plowing ahead to 10-2 and a killer bowl assignment), he’s back down to a 6½.

The line: The Illini are early 3-point favorites.

Illini forecast: vs. Minnesota (win), vs. Michigan State (win), at Rutgers (win), at Northwestern (win) for a regular-season record of 10-2.

More From Illinois on Sports Illustrated:

Big Ten Football Week 10 Power Rankings: Oregon Soars, Illinois Tops ‘Others’

Instant Analysis: No. 1 Oregon Defeats No. 20 Illinois 38-9

Illinois Football Postgame Injury Update: Receiver Pat Bryant and Others

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Steven Greenberg
STEVEN GREENBERG

Steve Greenberg, a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, has written about college sports since the early 1990s.

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