By Woodrow Carroll
Lovie Smith is in his fourth season as head coach of the University of Illinois football fortunes.
The Orange and Blue are 9-27 after his first three years. Smith is the first Illinois head football coach not to get a team into a bowl game within three years of arrival in Champaign since Gary Moeller in the late-1970s. Mike White, John Mackovic, Lou Tepper, Ron Turner, Ron Zook, and Tim Beckman all had Illinois in bowl games within three years of their arrivals at the school.
Among the 14 teams in the Big Ten Conference, the Illini are viewed as the weakest link.
The 2019 Illinois season will get under way at 11 a.m. Saturday as host to Akron. A trip to Connecticut September 7, then a home game with Eastern Michigan September 14 will conclude non-conference games.
Illinois is part of the Big Ten’s West Division. The media mind-readers have accorded the East Division preseason glory by ranking East Division stalwarts Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, and Michigan State ahead of any team in the West.
The Big Ten West Division is balanced and loaded. Wisconsin, Iowa, and Nebraska, are in the top 25 presason rankings with defending divisional champion Northwestern and upcoming Minnesota waiting in the wings. Illinois is up against rugged competition.
If Illinois is to find success it will require solid quarterback play, in short supply in Champaign in recent seasons. University of Michigan transfer Brandon Peters, a graduate transfer, will be under center against Akron.
Peters is a former four-star recruit and the No. 3 pro style quarterback in the Nation coming out of high school, according to 247Sports. He was graduated from Michigan in three years and transferred to Illinois this Summer with two years of eligibility remaining.
The former Mr. Football in Indiana played 10 games with four starts at Michigan. He passed for 680 yards and four touchdowns. He completed 58 of 110 passes, 53%, in his first two collegiate seasons, including a career-high 20 completions for 186 yards in the Outback Bowl against South Carolina to finish his redshirt freshman season in 2017.
Peters has started work on a master’s degree in recreation, sport, and tourism at Illinois. Illinois will play host to Michigan Saturday, Oct. 12.
Senior running back Reggie Corbin must be counted on as key to the rushing game. Corbin has 11 career touchdowns and could double it this season.
Senior Dre Brown of DeKalb High School was third on the team in all-purpose yards last season and will be counted on heavily. Last season Illinois gave up more than 500 yards per game on defense. The defense earned its bad reputation with home defeats such as a 63-0 to Iowa and a 46-7 whipping by Purdue at the Illinois Homecoming game.
Illinois’ three non-conference games probably will tell us very little. Illinois will begin conference games with Nebraska in Champaign September 21, when the real world for the Orange-and-Blue will have arrived.