Illinois Football news: Illini return to AP top 25 after MSU win

After briefly falling out of the AP top 25 last week, Illinois football has made a swift return to number 24. The Illini now have been in the AP Top 25 for 8 total weeks of this season, including a run of seven straight weeks. That is certainly good news for an Illini program that just clinched another winning record under Bret Bielema. With two games left on the schedule, fans are hoping that the team can reach nine wins for the first time since 2007. If Illinois can win out the rest of their schedule including their bowl game, they will reach 10 wins for the first time since 2001. Certainly, there are some historic targets out there that the Illini will shoot for.

Coach Bielema’s thoughts

In yesterday’s post-game press conference, Bret Bielema talked about how this is an expectation, not an achievement for this program. These were undoubtedly strong words from the leader of this program and really goes to show how fortunate Illini fans are to have Coach B.”It’s called expectations. What we’ve tried to do since we’ve come here is change the expectations of this place.” 

As it stands, Bielema is 25-22 in almost four seasons as the head coach of Illinois. What is even more impressive is his 16-18 conference record. There is new, fresh air in Champaign, and Bret Bielema and his staff deserve a world of credit.

 

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