Illinois football has spent the back half of the season flipping its own script, and now the Illini might be able to mess with everybody else’s too.
What looked like a lost season four games in has turned into a 6-3 push after four straight wins. The turnaround has Illinois sitting in a spot where it’s not just bowl-bound, but potentially positioned to shake up the College Football Playoff picture over the final stretch.
Bret Bielema’s team closes with three games that could send ripples through the bracket race: at No. 4 UCLA, home against No. 15 Iowa, and then at Northwestern.
That first one could get messy for the committee. If Illinois beats UCLA on Friday night, the Bruins would suddenly have to be sorted out as a one-loss Big Ten team. The question then becomes simple: how far do you drop them?
The guess here is somewhere in the No. 9 to No. 12 range, which would leave UCLA hanging around the edge of the conversation rather than safely inside it.
Then comes Iowa.
The Hawkeyes are right there on the CFP doorstep, and a loss to Illinois could slam it shut. Depending on how things look when that game arrives, Iowa might already be carrying a playoff spot. If Illinois wins, the Hawkeyes could be out entirely.
So over the next two weeks, Illinois could have two teams’ postseason lives in its hands. It could put UCLA on alert and force the Bruins to sweat out the final weeks. It could also send Iowa packing and turn a playoff contender into a mid-level bowl team.
And that’s not even the wildest version of this story.
Illinois could also crash the playoff race by making a case for itself.
That sounds outrageous, but the path is there. If the Illini win out, they’d finish 9-3 overall and 7-2 in the Big Ten. At that point, the resume starts to get interesting when you line it up against ESPN’s Football Power Index.
Those wins would include No. 9 Oregon, No.
18 Iowa, No. 23 Nebraska, No.
27 UCLA, and No. 31 Northwestern, according to the FPI.
That list also includes teams currently in the College Football Playoff field: No. 4 UCLA, No.
15 Iowa, and No. 16 Oregon.
The losses would be to FPI No. 5 Ohio State and No.
29 Duke, which are manageable enough. The one blemish that stands out is FPI No.
67 Purdue, the game that came during the season’s chaos and would likely be the biggest strike against Illinois.
Still, if the Illini finish the job, they’d have a resume worth discussing. At the very least, they could become the team that throws a grenade into the fight for one of those 12 playoff spots.
In Other News...
Illinois Loss Exposed One Big Problem Fans Cant Ignore
Illinois had enough on the defensive side to keep UCLA from running away with the game, but the offense never found a steady rhythm in the 22-14 loss. Katin Houser had a rough day, and the problems up front were hard to miss as UCLAs defense kept disrupting Illinois plans. Even so, there were a few encouraging signs, including Kaden Feagins smooth move to tight end, which added a different dimension to the offense and gave the Illini something to build on.
The bigger concern is how often Illinois looked stuck when it needed a response. The defense did its part and gave the Illini chances to stay in it, but the offense could not consistently take advantage of them. For a team trying to find its footing, that kind of imbalance is tough to ignore, especially when the pressure keeps landing on the quarterback and the line to sort things out before the next game. [Read more 🡒]
Illinois Just Lost More Than A Winning Streak In Pasadena
Illinois trip to the Rose Bowl ended with more than just a loss on the scoreboard. The Fighting Illini fell 22-14 to UCLA, snapping a four-game winning streak and running into a Bruins defense that made life difficult from the start. Illinois also had to navigate a thin rushing attack because of injuries, which only added to the pressure on quarterback Katin Houser.
UCLA got enough from Ty Dieffenbach to control the game even after he missed part of it with an injury, as the Bruins quarterback still managed 232 passing yards and two touchdowns. Illinois could never fully recover from Housers three interceptions, and the drive-killing safety only deepened the frustration on a day when the Illini had chances to stay in it but couldnt finish enough possessions. [Read more 🡒]
Illinois Has A Duke Problem After This Sloppy Sam Houston Win
Illinois got the result it needed against Sam Houston, but the way it got there offered a reminder that cleaner play will be required once the schedule tightens. The Illini were sloppy in the first half before settling in and lighting up the scoreboard after halftime, with upperclassmen Tomislav Ivisic, Andrej Stojakovic and Stefan Vaaks helping steady the offense and push the game into comfortable territory.
Quentin Coleman also gave Illinois a useful lift as a freshman, even if the growing pains showed up along the way, and Zvonimir Ivisic added a defensive spark off the bench. For a team trying to build toward bigger tests, the win was encouraging enough on the surface, but the uneven stretches are the kind of thing that can become a real issue when the competition rises. [Read more 🡒]