Illinois Defense Preview 2025: The Fighting Illini D Will Be One of the Big Ten's Best
2025 Illinois Preview Illinois Offense BreakdownSeason Prediction, Win Total, Keys to Season- The secondary is loaded. Almost all of the stars are back, starting with All-Big Ten safety Xavier Scott and fourth-leading tackler Miles Scott. These two are all over the field - Scott is one of the conference's best ball-hawkers - and junior Matthew Bailey is getting to everything else. The team's leading tackler with 94 stops and seven broken up passes, Bailey is about to get a whole lot more recognition.The corners aren't as strong as the safeties, but they're good. Kaleb Patterson, Jameim Clarke, and Torrie Cox Jr. weren't always air-tight, but they're veterans who know what they're doing.
- The linebackers will push the safeties for the star power. Gabe Jacas is a game-wrecking pass rusher, earning All-Big Ten honors, making 74 tackles, eight sacks, and 13 tackles for loss. Fifth-year senior Leon Lowery comes in from Wisconsin - he was great at Syracuse for two years before going to Madison - to work on the other side. Dylan Rosiek eats up tackles in the middle, but he got knocked out with a broken leg. He's expected to be back and fine, and Kenenna Odeluga should step up after getting his feet wet last year. They'll do the dirty work to let the outside guys shine.
- The Illini might be loaded with experience across the board, but the defensive front will be all about the transfer portal. Former Wisconsin Badger James Thompson was one of the biggest and best gets in the portal - more on him in a bit - and Tomiwa Durojaiye has a world of upside, but without a ton of stats at West Virginia and then Florida State. 6-0, 300-pound Curt Neal (Wisconsin) is a bowling ball who can hold up on the nose. Season Prediction, Win Total, Keys to Season2025 Illinois PreviewIllinois Offense Breakdown
© 2025 The Arena Group Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
11 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Brice Turang's RBI single
Brice Turang singles to right field in the top of the 6th inning to score Christian Yelich and make it 3-2
Associated Press
13 minutes ago
- Associated Press
Waldrep strikes out 7 as Braves beat White Sox 1-0
ATLANTA (AP) — Hurston Waldrep struck out a career best-tying seven in seven innings as the Atlanta Braves beat the Chicago White Sox 1-0 on Wednesday night. Marcell Ozuna scored from third base in the fourth inning on an infield error as Atlanta took the rubber game of the three-game series. Raisel Igelesias pitched the ninth for his 21st save. Chicago has now lost six of its last seven games and 13 of its last 16. Waldrep (4-0) in the fifth start of his career allowed just four hits and walked one. White Sox starter Martin Perez (1-3) pitched a strong 5 1/3 innings, giving up just three hits and one run while striking out five. Atlanta's Michael Harris II had his 12-game hitting streak come to a close after an 0 for 3 night at the plate. The Braves picked up their 10th win in their last 12 games while taking their fourth straight series victory. Even so, Atlanta finds itself 16 games back in the NL East standings. Key moment Iglesias threw his 12th straight closing inning without allowing a run. Key stat Waldrep has 24 strikeouts in just 24 2/3 innings pitched this season. Up next Both teams get a day off before opening a new series. LHP Joey Wentz (4-3, 4.72 ERA) is expected to take the mound for Atlanta against the Mets, while RHP Aaron Civale (3-8, 4.88) gets the start for Chicago against the Twins. ___ AP MLB:
Yahoo
18 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Should the Cowboys be confident Micah Parsons plays Week 1?
Yahoo Sports host Andrew Siciliano and NFL writer Charles McDonald react to Dallas head coach Brian Schottenheimer's comments that he expects the All-Pro defensive end to play in the season opener against the Philadelphia Eagles. Hear the full conversation on 'Inside Coverage' - and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen. View more Video Transcript We got some news, Charles, as we're coming on the air. Brian Schottenheimer was doing his end of day Cowboys presser at the Star of the Ford Center. In Frisco, Texas. And how about this? He said he's pretty confident that Micah Parsons will be on the field week number one. He is still holding in. He still wants that deal. Adam Schefter said yesterday they are destined for a divorce. But when asked, are you confident? He said, Yeah, I feel good about it and confident, yes, I am. I'll be honest, I think it's the right thing for him to say. Um, I'm kind of surprised that he sounds as confident as that quote reads on paper though. Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, if he's wrong, he could just say, well, I don't make the decisions like that, you know, you gotta talk to Jerry. It's not confident I was confident, not so much. I'm confident. I, I, man, this is a tough situation because on one hand, I mean this is what the Cowboys have done in the past couple of years, right? With the Dak Prescott contracts, EA you wait until the last couple of days of training camp and boom, like there's your big cowboy story right as we're walking into week one. So I wouldn't be surprised if that happened now. Uh, I mean, I, I, I just can't imagine a world where you trade Micah Parsons. I, I don't care if you could get 11th round picks for him. It's so hard to find. Like a bona fide Hall of Fame, first round Hall of Fame player that's fully in the prime, you know, will be in their prime for the next, you know, what? 7-8 years potentially. Um, it's just I, I, we, we've talked a bunch about this on our show with Nate Ty Football 301 about how just kind of confusing this is, but ultimately at the end of the day, I do think Micah Parsons comes back because you need him back. I, I'm with you and I, I keep hammering home to people. They play in the opener. They play on Thursday. They play two weeks from tomorrow. This isn't like the Dak deal where Dak was there, right? And then they hit send on the press release at like 7 a.m. 8 a.m., whatever it was, on Sunday morning of week one. This one's a little bit different. I would argue you can trade Micah Parsons, but if you're gonna do it, it had to be in March or it had to be in April, and you, you had to have been able to navigate your offseason understanding that he wouldn't be there and have draft capital from the as you were on the clock in April to try to make this defense better right now, but to trade him now to pull a Khalil Mack, for example, when you think, when you, you demand, when you, when Jerry Jones says, you know, his window is closing like as an old man, and you want to win now, allegedly, like you, it only sinks your team. If you, if you're gonna do it, you had to have done it months ago, my 2 cents, and trading him now helps nobody other than the team you're trading him to. Close
