Illinois Fighting Illini 2020 Football Preview

Patrick Gorski-USA TODAY Sports Last season, I took some abuse in the CornNation comments for my prediction that Lovie Smith would move Illinois out of the Big Ten’s West basement and into a bowl game. And to be honest, after the Illini lost to Eastern Michigan, it sure looked like I was an idiot. But then Illinois won four out of their last six games (including upsets of Wisconsin and Michigan State) to finish fourth in the west and play Cal in the Redbox Bowl at the 49ers stadium in Santa Clara, CA.

So I got that right. What I didn’t get right was the quarterback situation, as I thought five-star freshman Isaiah Williams (5’10” 180 lbs.) would be the starting quarterback. Williams played…