Football

Illinois Football News: Xavier Scott to Miss Significant Time

A big loss for the Illini secondary for the time being

Published

4 hours ago

September 22, 2025

Kirkland Chappell

Credit: Alex Kyi - Armchair Illini

Certainly, not the news Illinois Football fans were hoping for, following a brutal loss at Indiana.

Fighting Illini head coach Bret Bielema announced during Monday’s media availability that senior defensive back Xavier Scott is expected to miss the majority of the rest of their 2025 season with a lower-leg injury to his right ankle. Scott suffered the injury in Week 3 during Illinois’ 38-0 rout of Western Michigan, during an athletic play on the ball, in an attempt to make an interception along the boundary.

Undoubtedly, this is a massive blow to Aaron Henry’s defense, which loses a lockdown corner and veteran leader in the secondary. According to Bielema, there is a chance that Scott could return later in the season. However, until then, Illinois Football will have to rely on a banged-up secondary to step up and rebound from a rough outing against Indiana, where Hoosiers quarterback Fernando Mendoza picked apart the Illini defense.

Bielema on the loss of Scott: “Obviously, Xavier didn’t make the trip with us. He was actually still getting some evaluation. The last I had a conversation with him last night, he’ll have a procedure done on Wednesday. He will be out for the majority of the rest of the year, but there is a chance he could come back at the end. So, we’ll kind of address that after he gets in and gets surgery where that is.”

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Kirkland Chappell

Kirkland is an expert source for Illinois athletics news. He is the lead Football analyst at Armchair Illini and has been featured in top media publications like Bleacher Report, Yard Barker, Autograph, Newsbreak, CBS Sports and more.