Whitman has high aspirations for Illinois football

Jul. 24—INDIANAPOLIS — Big Ten media days puts the entire conference on even ground.

All 18 teams have a chance to sell themselves leading into the college football season. This year meant equal opportunity for players and coaches to appear on both Big Ten Network and CBS Sports studio shows. Equal opportunity to put their best foot forward before training camp begins.

Because that’s when that even ground disappears. Expectations for teams like Ohio State, Oregon, Penn State and Michigan at the top of the new-look Big Ten ahead of the 2024 season look different than success for UCLA, Michigan State, Indiana and Purdue at the bottom.

Illinois occupies a space closer to the latter. At least according to the preseason polls that placed the Illini in the bottom third of the expanded conference earlier this week with Illinois checking in at 13th and 14th.

While fourth-year coach Bret Bielema has won more games in his first three seasons in Champaign than all of his predecessors dating back to John Mackovic, all Illinois has to show for it is a single bowl game appearance in 2022 as the lone winning season of the bunch.

Josh Whitman understands the importance of a successful football program when it comes to an athletic department’s overall standing both at the conference level and nationally. Mostly competitive games for Illinois football the past three seasons was something the Illini athletic director called “an important, necessary step.”

“Now, we need to start winning some more of those games,” Whitman continued.

The Big Ten’s growth could make that an even bigger challenge. Expanding westward with the addition of UCLA, Southern California, Oregon and Washington and scrapping divisions in favor of the best two teams duking it out in December for the Big Ten championship puts more distance between Illinois and its goal…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/whitman-high-aspirations-illinois-football-144800479.html

Author : The News-Gazette, Champaign-Urbana, Ill.

Publish date : 2024-07-24 14:48:00

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