The rosier way to look back on Illinois’ 2022 season is focus on how they finished with at least eight wins for the first time in 15 years and earned a bowl berth.
The sobering side is to point out how they started 7-1 and lost four of the last five games, including a 19-10 setback to Mississippi State in the ReliaQuest Bowl.
It wasn’t the losses that bothered coach Bret Bielema, it was how they lost.
“When you begin to have things go well for you people tend to pat you on the back way too much, right?” Bielema said.
“Their girlfriends are telling them how good they are, their Uncle Pete from Potomac is telling them how good they are. You got an aunt from Tuscola telling him how good he is, right?”
You’ll get no argument from his players.
“Every time you go on social media or turn on the TV, you see people talking about you guys, talking about Illinois football, how you’re ranked No. 17 in the country — of course they can get into minds,” defensive lineman Keith Randolph Jr. said.
“Guys that were in that room, myself included, had never really been in that position before.”
Fellow defensive lineman Jer’Zhan “Johnny” Newton said the vibe was like “we felt like we’re going to be the biggest Illinois team to come out. Best thing since sliced bread.”
Bielema tried to caution his players about buying into the press but said, in retrospect, perhaps he wasn’t forceful enough.
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After trouncing Nebraska 26-9, the Illini dropped games to Michigan State, Purdue — which knocked them out of the AP Top 25 after earning a ranking for the first time since 2011 — and Michigan before winning the regular-season finale against Northwestern 41-3.
By then the damage was done.
“We were a 7-1 team that began to feel too good about themselves in my opinion,” Bielema said. “And we turned into a 1-4 finish that resulted in an 8-5 season. I have to look at that, why that happened.”
The players will carry that lesson into fall camp, which begins Thursday at the Smith Center.
“I feel like now we’ve had a taste of success,” Randolph said. “Now we’re hungry for it. But now I feel like we know how to handle it.”
Added Bielema: “We have to just be very, very humble.”
That starts with the season opener at home against Toledo.
“I tell our players all the time, we’re opening up with the MAC champs, that we’re going to play Toledo, whose desire is to knock us off as a Power Five team,” Bielema said. “There’s a lot of people have labeled them as the next Cincinnati and have a chance to make the College Football Playoff if they do what they can do.
“So we have a tremendous task coming in the first game of the season.”
Here are four other things to know about Illinois football heading into camp.
1. Keith Randolph takes the saying ‘note to self’ literally.
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Every day, Randolph gives himself a personal rally speech in the form of Post-it notes, about 10 of them placed on his mirror.
“It says, ‘Read my Bible,” he said of the top note. Another says, “’Your mom is still working,’ a constant reminder that “I want to retire my mom one day.”
Others are personal goals.
“I just woke up one morning and I was like, ‘I can take (football) as far as I want to take it, like, let’s be more serious about it,’ ” he said when asked what inspired the Post-it notes practice. “So every day when I wake up and brush my teeth and wash my face before I go leave the house, I see those.”
Randolph used to place a note above where his head would be when he’s in bed, so he’d see a motivational message or Bible verse before sleeping or when first waking up, and he plans to resume when he’s settled into new digs.
His favorite verse, Joshua 1:9, is tattooed on his left wrist: “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”
For Randolph it means that in “my darkest moments, when my head is down in my room or in the locker room, He’s sitting right beside me and that He’s got me.”
He learned about the verse while going through a rough stretch.
“When I was in my freshman year, I tore my shoulder and I had to get surgery for it,” he said. “I was going through a tough time and I was in a meeting and that Bible verse was said. I just grabbed onto it and I haven’t let it go.”
2. ‘We’ll throw that ball around pretty good’
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Last season, the Illini had 395 passing attempts and generated 211.8 yards per game, ranked ninth among Big Ten teams. The Illinois rushed 543 times and averaged 166.2 yards, good for sixth.
With the arrival of quarterback Luke Altmyer, an Ole Miss transfer, could Bielema open up the passing game?
“We will do any mix that we need to do to win a game,” Bielema said. “When people hear me and see me talk, they automatically take me back to Wisconsin and … me replacing Barry Alvarez” in 2006.
That season, in which the Badgers finished No. 7 in the final AP poll, the Badgers had 331 passing attempts and 536 rushing attempts, averaging 211.5 and 161.7 yards, respectively.
In Bielema’s eyes, it’s not just about a dominant run game.
“We’ve been throwing the ball and running the ball as efficiently as anybody since I’ve been coaching,” he said. “When I was at Wisconsin … our magic number (was) when we ran the ball for 200 (yards) and threw the ball for 200. We were batting 98% of winning, and we did that quite a bit.”
The Badger were led by John Stocco in the air and P.J. Hill on the ground and finished 12-1. Bielema said his first year with the Illini in 2021, they were finding their identity.
In January 2022, the Illini tapped Barry Lunney Jr. as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, reuniting Bielama with his former tight ends coach at Arkansas.
“We went from one of the least efficient passing teams in college football to I think we led the nation for seven or eight weeks last year,” Bielema said.
Bielema also played up the impact of former backup quarterback Artur Sitkowski transitioning to student assistant this season.
“He has been an incredible voice for our players in so many different ways,” Bielema said. “Art Sitkowski came off the bench three times in his career and beat Nebraska, Penn State and Iowa, three tough games. And I’ve never had a quarterback do that more than once, let alone twice or three times. And now he’s coaching our kids. It’s a great combination.”
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The Illini also return leading receiver Isaiah Williams, who vaulted from 47 receptions in 2021 to 82 as a sophomore last season.
“Anytime you catch 80-plus balls, you’re catching a lot of balls,” Bielema said. “And we got Casey Washington, we got Pat Bryant, we have a young player in (Simeon High School product) Malik Elzy, who’s turning people’s heads, and we’ve got a couple of tight ends.
“We’ll throw that ball around pretty good.”
3. It’s business as usual for Newton despite a pivotal season
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Newton wants the same things that probably every one of teammates wants: a bowl game, Big 10 championship, maybe even a shot at a national championship, whatever the odds.
“Every player wants the national championship game,” he said. “If you’re a college player, that’s where you want to be.”
Newton also has designs on the NFL draft, and his odds look great.
Pro Football Focus ranked him as “college football’s top returning defensive tackle and the best interior defender in the 2024 NFL draft.”
Chicago Tribune Sports
Given the stakes, he’s trying to light up the box score, right?
“Not really,” Newtown said. “I’m not the type of person to set goals. I just let whatever comes to me come to me.
“I feel like once you chase stats they’ll never come to you. I’ll just do my job and whatever play comes to me, it’ll come.”
4. It’s a Barbie world, and Bielema’s just living in it.
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Bielema and his wife, Jen, have two daughters, 6-year-old Briella and 4-year-old Brexli, so it’s natural to wonder if the Bielema dream house is caught up in “Barbie” movie mania, which topped $700 million globally, according to reports.
“I saw a social media tweet about the money it brought in over the weekend compared to the next rated movie (and) it’s pretty impressive,” he said. “I see a lot of Barbies. … We bought a lot of Barbie stuff for 20 bucks.”
Bielema added, completely straight-faced: “I don’t really get to talk a lot of Barbie, so I appreciate the question.”
He hadn’t taken Briella to see the movie yet, “but I’m sure we’re going to see it. We’re in the mermaid mode right now.”