LAS VEGAS — On Sunday, Illinois football brass arrived in Las Vegas for what can be touted as the unofficial official start of the college football season: Big Ten Media Days.
And on Tuesday, beyond the typical suits and ties worn at Media Days, Illinois arrived sporting an unfamiliar brand of expectation and national attention. Perhaps highlighted by head coach Bret Bielema proudly donning his Citrus Bowl ring.
Even with all the turbulence and potential distraction of talk about greater college football issues like the House settlement and playoff formatting, Illinois pulled enough eyes to earn a fourth-place predicted Big Ten finish.
After a long time of Illinois flying under the radar, this season, the focus is on meeting and maintaining expectations.
“Expectations are earned. They’re never given,” Bielema said during his opening press conference. “Some people give expectations, and that’s great, but for us at Illinois, we have to earn them. We have to have a chip on our left shoulder and our right shoulder.”
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Even with 18 returning starters from last season’s Citrus Bowl season, and 22 returning players at large, Bielema maintains the same mentality ahead of his fifth season as Illinois’ head coach.
“We define ourselves more by our adversity than we do our success,” Bielema said on Big Ten Network. “There are enough guys on this team that the nucleus of what they are still goes back to the 2022-23 season.”
And all the messaging from the program indicates the team is even-keeled about handling the expectations for the upcoming season.
“We take this thing one day at a time, we’ve got fall camp coming up, we just want to sharpen our skills on both sides of the ball and trust the process that our coaches put in front of us,” said returning defensive back Xavier Scott.
Illinois quarterback Luke Altmyer credits the work done throughout the last calendar year for their recent success and sudden national attention.
“2023 had a lot of hardship, and the offseason in 2024 was when no one gave us a shot,” Altmyer said. “We understand what’s important to us: the work that we do every single day and our foundations and principles Coach B puts into place.”
Altmyer later explained that the 2024 offseason saw a lot of growth with the team. Last offseason, Altmyer took a number of offensive players on planned activities and grew further into the leadership role.
A leadership role that needs to continue in 2025.
The excitement ahead of an Illinois football season has almost certainly never been higher. With the mounting expectation for the team, the path to cementing Illinois as a college football playoff contender will officially start with fall camp next week.