OPENING KICK
• Here We Go: Year four of the Lovie Smith era begins Saturday as the Fighting Illini open their 130th year of football when Akron comes to Memorial Stadium for an 11 a.m. kick on Big Ten Network.
• We've Met Before: Saturday will be the second meeting on the gridiron between the Fighting Illini and Zips. The first meeting was a 38-7 Illini victory at Memorial Stadium in 1996.
• Home Sweet Home: Illinois has 21 consecutive home-opening wins, the fourth-longest active streak in the nation behind only Florida (29), Oklahoma State (23) and Wisconsin (23). Illinois is 91-33-5 all-time in home-openers.
• Starting Off Right: The Illini have an all-time record of 82-42-5 in season-openers and are 59-27-4 when opening the season at home. The Illini have won their last 13 season-openers at Memorial Stadium dating back to 1997.
In fact, the Illini have won...
» 8 straight season-openers (last loss 2010 vs. Missouri in St. Louis)
» 13 straight season-openers at Memorial Stadium (last loss 1997 vs. Southern Miss.)
» 21 straight home-openers (last loss 1997 vs. Southern Miss.)
• Boys of Summer: The Illini are 27-6 in Aug./Sept. home games dating back to the start of 2007.
• Smith Football Center Opens: The state-of-the-art Henry Dale and Betty Smith Football Center opened its doors for the team Aug. 18, becoming the new home of Illinois football. The $79.2 million, 107,650 square foot Smith Center features new and expanded strength and conditioning and sports medicine space, coaches' offices, position meeting rooms, player development areas, locker rooms, and other areas for recruiting and prospect hosting.
• Peters Named Starter: Lovie Smith officially announced on Aug. 20 that graduate transfer Brandon Peters will be the Fighting Illini's game one starter. Peters is a 6-5, 220-pound native of Avon, Indiana. He spent his first three seasons at Michigan, where he played in 10 games and made four starts for the Wolverines. A former four-star recruit, Peters was the No. 3 pro style QB in the nation coming out of high school (247Sports). He graduated from Michigan in three years and transferred to Illinois this summer with two years of eligibility remaining.
• NFL Experience: Lovie Smith's Illini staff has 49 seasons of combined NFL head and assistant coach experience, the most in college football for the fourth consecutive year, ahead of LSU (45 years) and Alabama (43 years).
• Talent Upgrade: The 2019 recruiting class was small in numbers (13) but big on talent. The average recruit rating of .8679 by 247Sports was the highest rated Illini class in the online recruiting era (since 2002), ranking 31st nationally and seventh in the Big Ten. 2019 signees Marquez Beason (.9564 rating, No. 99) and Isaiah Williams (.9479 rating, No. 116) are the highest rated Illini recruits since 2009 (Terry Hawthorne, No. 72), and the highest duo since 2007 (Arrelious Benn, No. 12, and Martez Wilson, No. 15).
• Big Time Transfers: Lovie Smith and staff also used the transfer portal to load up the roster with talent, adding six new power-five transfers, five of which are eligible to play immediately in 2019 as graduate transfers. In addition, LB Milo Eifler is now eligible to play after sitting out the 2018 season after transferring from Washington. All six transfers eligible to play in 2019 were top 160 recruits coming out of high school (247Sports).
Transfers On the Field in 2019
DL Oluwole Betiku Jr. (USC) » 2 years left
QB Brandon Peters (Michigan) » 2 years left
OL Richie Petitbon (Alabama) » 1 year left
LB Milo Eifler (Washington) » 2 years left
WR Trevon Sidney (USC) » 2 years left
WR Josh Imatorbhebhe (USC) » 2 years left
Transfers Sitting Out 2019
TE Luke Ford (Georgia) » 3 years left starting in 2020
RB Chase Brown (WMU) » 3 year left starting in 2020
Youth Becomes Experience: The Illini put one of the youngest teams in the nation on the field in both 2017 and 2018, but this season a much more experience squad will take the field.
» Last year's roster featured just eight seniors and 24 total upperclassmen, both the fewest in the nation, while the 2019 roster has 13 seniors and 47 upperclassmen.
» The 2018 Illini roster had the highest percentage of underclassmen in the nation – 76.5 (78 of 102), while the 2019 roster has 55.6 percent of the roster as underclassmen (59 of 106)
» The Illini return 17 starters and 211 of 288 total starts from last season. On defense, 113 of 132 total starts return from 2018 (everyone except Del'Shawn Phillips (12 starts) and Cameron Watkins (7 starts).
» 2019 class breakdown: 13 seniors, 34 juniors, 22 sophomores, 37 freshmen (24 true-frosh, 13 RS frosh)
» The 13 seniors this season are the ninth-fewest in FBS. Last season, the Illini had only eight seniors on the roster, the fewest in FBS.
• Running Wild: The Illini averaged 243.0 rushing yards per game in 2018, good for 12th-best in FBS, 2nd-best in the Big Ten and fifth on the Illinois season rushing average list. The 2018 average was 137.4 yards per game more than 2017 (105.6), the biggest improvement in the nation from 2017 to 2018.
• Big Play Run Game: The Illini running game was not only one of the best in the nation in 2018, it was also very explosive.
» Ranked sixth in the nation in yards per carry for both all games (5.91) and in conference games (6.27), behind only Oklahoma, Clemson, Memphis, Wisconsin, and Ohio on both lists.
» Led FBS in runs of 70+ yards (5), ranked second in runs of 40+ yards (14), and third in runs of 30+ yards (20). Also ranked fifth in 50+ (8), 60+ (6) and 80+ (1) runs.
» Illinois had 10 100-yard rushing performances in 12 games – four by RB Reggie Corbin, four by QB A.J. Bush Jr., and two by RB Mike Epstein. In 2017, the Illini had just one 100-yard rushing game.
RUNNIN' REGGIE
Senior RB Reggie Corbin was the Illini's home run hitter in 2018.
» Ranked third in the nation in yards per carry (8.48) for any player with at least 10 carries per game
» Averaged 9.29 yards per carry in conference games, second-most in FBS (min. 10 carries/game)
» Averaged 8.71 yards per carry in road games, fourth-most in the nation (min. 10 carries/game)
» Led FBS in runs of 70+ yards (4), second in runs of 50+ (7) and 80+ yards (1), and third in 60+ (5)
» No. 2 PFF graded returning running back in the Big Ten behind only Wisconsin's Jonathan Taylor
» No. 3 in missed tackles forced (37) in 2018 among Big Ten returning running backs (per PFF)
» 5.45 yards after contact per attempt was No. 1 in the Big Ten in 2018 (per PFF)
» 1,085 rushing yards in 2018, the 13th 1,000-yard rushing season in UI history (first since 2010)
THE ILLINOIS-AKRON SERIES
• Saturday's game will be the second meeting between Illinois and Akron.
• Illinois beat Akron 38-7 on Sept. 21, 1996. The game was tied 7-7 at half before Illinois had a big second half. Asim Pleas picked off an Akron pass and returned it 30 yards for a touchdown in the fourth quarter to secure the win. Robert Holcombe ran for 151 yards.
• Marquis Mosely tied the Illinois record with seven punt returns for 101 yards, which is fourth-most punt return yards in program history, against Akron in 1996.
• Last season, Akron beat Northwestern 39-34 for its first win over a Big Ten opponent since 1894 (Ohio State) and second ever. neve
• The 2019 Illinois-Akron game was announced March 2, 2016.
ILLINI-ZIPS CONNECTIONS
• Akron men's basketball head coach John Groce was the head coach at Illinois for five seasons (2012-17).
• Akron offensive lineman Ryan Beckman is the nephew of former Illinois head football coach Tim Beckman.
• Former Illini All-American Whitney Mercilus is a native of Akron, Ohio.
• Illinois Assistant Director of Athletics, Football Operations Tim Knox is a native of Bainbridge Township, Ohio, which is about a 45-minute drive from Akron.
• Akron QB Robbie Kelley is a native of Springfield, Illinois, and helped Rochester HS to four consecutive state championships (2010-13), including three at Illinois' Memorial Stadium. For the first two state titles, Kelley was teammates with future Illini QB Wes Lunt and WR Zach Grant. Grant is currently on the Illinois staff as an Offensive Graduate Assistant.
LONG SNAPPER TABEL AWARDED SCHOLARSHIP
Coach Lovie Smith had a special announcent at the first game-week team meeting on Aug. 26. Walk-on long snapper Ethan Tabel was awarded a scholarship for the 2019 season by Lovie. Tabel was mobbed by his teammates after the annoucement. A redshirt-junior, Tabel is entering his third season as the team's primary long snapper.
ILLINI STORYLINES
• Future Coaches: Illini RB Reggie Corbin got a taste of coaching over the summer. Corbin, along with Illini teammates Justice Williams and Dele Harding coached the 'Chargers' to a successful second season in the Tuscola Flag Football League. The trio connected with 10-year old Illini superfan Colton Rahn, who has cerebral palsey, in the winter of 2017 when a group of football student-athletes drove to Tuscola to cheer on Colton's basketball team. It marked the second straight summer Corbin and Williams coached a flag football team in Tuscola.
• Rugby Champ: In addition to being an undefeated flag football coach, Reggie Corbin was a national champion rugby player while also starring on the football field in high school. Corbin helped Gonzaga HS in Washington D.C. to back-to-back rugby national titles in 2014 and 2015 after joining the team on a dare by star player Ben Cima, who plays on the U.S. national rugby team. The team lost only two games in Corbin's two years on the team.
• First-time Footballer: Junior punter Blake Hayes, a native of Melbourne, Australia, had never played in or attended an American football game until making his Illini debut against Ball State on Sept. 2, 2017. Hayes played Australian rules football before training at ProKick Australia for two years in hopes of getting a college scholarship in the United States. It paid off, as the Aussie earned honorable mention All-Big Ten honors as a true-freshman, averaging 42.0 yards per punt, and then upped that to third-team All-Big Ten and a 43.6 yards per punt average in 2018.
GRADS ON GRADS ON GRADS
The 2019 Fighting Illini roster features 11 student-athletes that already earned a bachelor's degree prior to the season – six at Illinois and five at different schools
Student-Athlete | Bachelor's Degree » Degree Pursuing
Oluwole Betiku Jr. | International Relations (May '19 at USC) » Recreation, Sport & Tourism
Dre Brown | Recreation, Sport & Tourism (Dec. '18 at Illinois) » Management
Reggie Corbin | Communication (May '18 at Illinois) » Recreation, Sport & Tourism
Josh Imatorbhebhe | Business Administration (May '19 at USC) » Strategic Brand Communication
Jamal Milan | Sociology (May '19 at Illinois) » Communication (2nd bachelor's)
Brandon Peters | General Studies (June '19 at Michigan) » Recreation, Sport & Tourism
Richie Petitbon | Communication Studies (Dec. '18 at Alabama) » Sport Management
Caleb Reams | Community Health (May '19 at Illinois) » Management
Trevon Sidney | Communication (June '19 at USC) » Recreation, Sport & Tourism
Bobby Walker | Political Science (Dec. '18 at Illinois) » Management
Justice Williams | Business Management (Aug. '18 at Illinois) » Already finished M.S.
Justice Williams | M.S., Business Administration (Aug. 19 at Illinois) » Spanish (2nd bachelor's)
» Complete Illinois-Akron Game Notes (PDF)
