Big Ten foes weigh in: Are Illini worthy of College Football Playoff talk?

LAS VEGAS — How much better has Illinois football gotten? Consider this nugget coach Bret Bielema mined from days before the first full-go scrimmage of spring practice.

“In the past, I’ve held out guys that I feel are, like, winning, All-Big Ten-type players from scrimmages in the spring,” he said during Big Ten media days at the Mandalay Bay resort. “Usually, it’s two, three, four [of them]. This time, I think I had a list of 16 guys.

“I was like, ‘[Expletive], I gotta practice somebody.’ ”

Guess that’s just life when you’re coming off a 10-win season, have a conference-high 16 starters back — most importantly, your QB1 — and already are in the broad College Football Playoff conversation.

Nobody’s crying for Bielema and the Illini as they gear up for a high-stakes 2025 campaign. Quite the opposite. The Sun-Times spoke with current and former conference coaches, players and analysts about fifth-year coach Bielema, third-year starting quarterback Luke Altmyer and whether or not this playoff talk is warranted.

“Oh, yeah, it is,” said Rutgers coach Greg Schiano, whose own improving team gave up 23 fourth-quarter points in a loss at home to the Illini last season. “And Bret’s a seasoned, excellent football coach. He’s the exact right fit for Illinois.”

Big Ten Network analyst and former Vanderbilt, LSU and Indiana coach Gerry DiNardo takes it a step further.

“I think Bret’s one of the best coaches in the country,” DiNardo said. “He’s certainly one of the best coaches in the Big Ten. He knows exactly what he wants and how to communicate it. …

“Going into the season, I still think it’s going to be Penn State, Ohio State, Oregon — whatever order — but then after that, I think it’s probably Illinois and Michigan. Illinois could be a playoff team.”

Penn State center Nick Dawkins started 16 games last season and faced one big-dog defense after another — Oregon’s, Ohio State’s, Notre Dame’s — en route to a top-five finish nationally. The physical play of Illinois, which held the bruising Nittany Lions to 14 points through three quarters in Happy Valley, measured up.

“They were in the upper echelon comparatively,” Dawkins said. “We had a dogfight with them. We had a good stretch last year, and we handled most opponents better than [we did] them. They’re just going to continue to be a tough, tough, tough team to play. You know when you go play Illinois, you’ve got to set your jaw.”

In Northwestern’s first season under David Braun, it scored 24 points off Illinois turnovers in a regular-season-ending win in Champaign that kept the Illini from reaching a bowl game. Altmyer didn’t play in that game, but he was back at the controls last year as the Illini took care of rivalry business at Wrigley Field.

“I was really impressed with their quarterback play last year,” Braun said. “I think they really caught their groove and there was a level of confidence, but personnel-wise, other than the quarterback position, I didn’t really notice dramatic differences. But there was definitely a level of confidence that, in my opinion, came back to [Altmyer].”

Fox Sports analyst Matt Leinart, who was a Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback at USC, is more swayed than most by what Illinois has at QB compared with what the blue-bloods might or might not have.

“Ohio State’s got a young QB, Michigan’s got a brand-new QB, Oregon has a new QB, so you never know,” Leinart said. “Illinois has all these guys back who are experienced, and then you’ve got a quarterback who’s a baller? You’ve got a chance.

“The short answer is yes, I believe Illinois can get to the playoff. All signs point to that type of season.”

BTN analyst Howard Griffith was an Illinois running back three-plus decades ago, during the John Mackovic years. The Illini had momentum going then, but it was clear Mackovic was after a bigger job, which he eventually got at Texas. To Griffith, this year’s team has a playoff ceiling — and the timing with Bielema is driving it all.

“He doesn’t need to take the next job,” Griffith said. “He wants to be exactly where he is right now. We’re getting the best version of Bret Bielema right now. That’s the game changer.”