#12-ILLINOIS FIGHTING ILLINI

One of these years you have to figure Illinois will tap into that large recruiting base, hire a competent coach and finally evolve into a consistent winner. 2014 will not be that year. Another sub par year will land third year Illini bench boss Tim Beckman square on the hot seat.

Oklahoma State transfer Wes Lunt will start at quarterback after Nathan Scheelhaase finally exhausted his eligibility after 9 years in Champaign. Josh Ferguson returns after nearly 800 yards in 2013 and provides a reliable option in the backfield. Illinois lost multiple WRs due to graduation and other issues so no matter how talented Lunt is, he may have issues finding open targets. The Illini line returns four starters and should anchor an offense that will need to be very good for Illinois to compete.

8 starters return to a defense that hasn't been respectable since the 2007 Rose Bowl team. Among those 8 are all 4 in the secondary that allowed 25 touchdowns compared to 3 interceptions and a 65.3 completion percentage in 2013. Nose tackle Austin Teitsma will look to plug holes up the middle for a defensive line that allowed nearly 250 yards per game last fall.

3 winnable low level teams surround a trip to Washington on the non-conference schedule for Illinois. A 3-1 start looks likely however that will be where the fun ends. Road games at Ohio State, Wisconsin and Nebraska will make things tough for Illinois even if they split their four home games.

PREDICTION: 2-6 IN THE BIG TEN, 5-7 OVERALL.