Illinois (6-3, 3-3) dropped their recent home game of the 2024 season disappointingly on Saturday. After a season that began with a lot of hype, expectations were brought back down to reality after dropping three of the last five. 

Still, a nine — or more, considering a bowl game — win season is in the cards, and Illinois expressed its confidence in getting there following the loss to Minnesota. There are three winnable games left on the schedule, but the boys are banged up and on a losing streak. 

Cue the much-needed bye week

“We’re going to do a lot of self-evaluation,” said senior linebacker Seth Coleman. “We played well in the first half of the season, just getting back to what we do.”

Evaluation of the coaches, players and team as a whole were emphasized in the postgame interviews. While everyone was dejected, there was a sense of determination among players that this wasn’t the style of football they would play the rest of the year. 

“Not happy with the loss, we felt like we were the better team,” Coleman said following the loss, despite the Gophers being favored to win. 

This mentality might’ve made them take the loss harder than needed, but that’s not bad. The Illini have been beat up lately, and an extra week to get healthy is crucial. 

Illinois lost junior linebacker Dylan Rosiek for the season with a fracture over the weekend. Its secondary has also been stretched thin, with multiple contributors missing the Minnesota game. Star senior receiver Pat Bryant also missed practice time with a concussion and hurt ankle, and he clarified how important the time off will be for him and the team.

“I got rolled up on,” Bryant said. “I’m going to get x-rays to see everything, but I feel like I’ll be straight. We got a bye week. Got enough time, you know, get a little recovery, and I feel like I should be ready to go.”

No pointing fingers

There have been some glaring issues over the rough stretch for Illinois, but nobody is shedding the blame. The maturity and accountability has been impressive from everyone, and it starts with the team leaders. 

“There’s no looking out the window and pointing fingers at other guys,” Bryant said. “Just looking in the mirror.”

Junior quarterback Luke Altmyer’s production has significantly decreased in the last three weeks. He’s averaging just a 53% completion rate, 156 yards passing and 1.33 turnovers per game in that span. Still, everyone has his back.

“I didn’t put him in a position to be successful,” said head coach Bret Bielema. “Luke is a very talented quarterback who has got an incredible, bright future in front of him, and we’ve got to do our best to help him out.”

Praise after such a rough stretch does wonders for young quarterbacks like Altmyer, and his coach still having utmost faith in him says a lot. Everyone recognizes they could have approached Minnesota and Oregon better, which illustrates the strength of their chemistry. 

Things still aren’t that bad

Illinois still only has three losses this year. There is plenty of time left to take advantage of a great start to the season and play in a good bowl game.

“It kind of hurts the soul a little bit,” Bryant said. “But at the end of the day, we gotta come back and fix things and work.”

@benfader7

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