Illinois
1-1Big Ten · Bret Bielema, year 6 (38-27) · Memorial Stadium (Champaign, IL) · 60,670 · 56,671 avg in 2026
LastL 27–31 vs Duke · Sat Sep 12 · Collin Dixon 166 rec yds, 3 TD, 1 tackles
Nextvs Southern Illinois · Sat Sep 19 · 2 pm ET · Memorial Stadium (Champaign, IL) · series 4-0, won the last 4 · Game preview
Updated Tue Sep 15 · through week 2
All 78 stats
FBS rankings · 2026 season · all stats vs 136 FBS programs
| Player | # | G | Cmp/Att | Pct | Yds | Y/A | TD | INT | Rate | ZPR | QBR | Adj ANY/A | Sack% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| +0.64 EPA/play | 4 | 2 | 37 / 52 | 71.2 | 453 #56 FBS | 8.7 | 6 #14 FBS | 1 | 178.6 | 69 | 88.5 | 10.2 | 0 | |
Yards by week → | ||||||||||||||
| Player | # | G | Car | Yds | Avg | TD | Long | Stuff% | 10+% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| +0.22 EPA/play | 5 | 2 | 29 | 144 | 5.0 | 1 | 51 | — | — | |
Yards by week → | ||||||||||
| Player | # | G | Rec | Yds | Avg | TD | Long | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jump-Ball Target · +1.27 EPA/play | 17 | 2 | 17 | 236 #14 FBS | 13.9 | 5 #1 FBS | 40 | |
Yards by week → Jump-Ball TargetWins contested catches at the goal line. Size and catch radius are the weapons. This week's matchup — WR Dixon wins the 50-50 ball at the goal line. Smith is the one who beats you over the top. Season receipt TD rate29.4% 98th percentile · FBS WRs, min. 12 receptions EPA / play (adj)1.3 93th percentile · FBS WRs, min. 12 receptions Trait fingerprint Plays like View Collin Dixon's full player page | ||||||||
| +0.36 EPA/play | 13 | 2 | 7 | 71 | 10.1 | 0 | 15 | |
Yards by week → | ||||||||
| Player | # | G | Tot | Solo | TFL | Sack | Hur |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 43 | 2 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| 96 | 2 | 7 | 4 | 0.5 | 0 | 0 | |
| 93 | 2 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| Player | # | G | Tot | Solo | Ast | TFL | Sack | PD | INT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 | 2 | 10 | 3 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| 26 | 2 | 10 | 3 | 7 | 0.5 | 0 | 0 | 1 #22 FBS | |
| 10 | 2 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 33 | 2 | 7 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Player | # | G | Tot | PD | INT | TFL | Sack |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | 2 | 12 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| — | 2 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 6 | 2 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 1 | 2 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Player | # | G | FG M/A | FG% | XP M/A | Pts | Long |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 37 | 2 | 2/3 | 66.7 | 9/9 | 15 | 51 |
2026 stat leaders · Illinois
through 2 games
2026 stat leaders · IllinoisCollin Dixon leads Illinois with 236 receiving yards through 2 games.
How They Play · 2025Illinois fields a strong methodical, ball-control offense behind a leaky, bend-don't-break defense.
Percentile vs all FBS, based on this season's per-game production. Bar = where this team ranks — right is better.
Illinois reads strongest in passing epa (top 11%) and success rate (top 12%); the crux lives in explosive plays, where Illinois sits at the 15th percentile.
offense · strengths lead
defense · higher bar = harder to play against
hidden math · special situations
Home-field advantage · Illinois · 2018–present · FBS opponents
Illinois is worth +3.1 points more at home than on the road.
Bottom third of FBS, 29th percentile of 133 programs
53% at home, 44% away against FBS opponents since 2018 (26–23 home, 17–22 away). Interval ±4.2.
Our model gives every stadium the same flat 2.3-point home edge — per-team modelling was tested and did not survive scrutiny (why) — and the books use about 3. Against the closing line, Illinois has beaten the number by −2.1 more at home than away over 71 games — inside the ±8.0 that many games can resolve. Results here cannot tell the flat number apart from the building, and that is the honest reading of nearly every FBS stadium.
Memorial Stadium (Champaign, IL) seats 60,670 and has averaged 85% full (51,766, 28 games reported). Visitors cover a median 299 miles to get here since 2018 — 36th-shortest of 135 FBS venues, inside the ordinary range. For the home side it is a home crowd more than a home town: only 7% of the 2026 roster (8 of 108 located players) grew up inside 100 miles of the stadium.
Edge = half the gap between average home margin and average road margin, FBS opponents only, non-neutral games since 2018; the interval is 95%. Market line: closing spread, seasons with lines on file. Trip length is straight-line miles from the visiting team's campus to the venue, measured across all 53 home games since 2018.
More in this tab
Scheme claims
Halftime identity
Illinois by half
1st-half offense ranks 83rd percentile in FBS; 2nd-half, 55th — competitive snaps only, garbage time excluded from both halves.
Tendency drift
Season by season
How Illinois’s current staff calls plays, year over year
Ratings
Comparable teams
Most similar programs · Illinois
Most similar programs · IllinoisReads like
Matched on how the programs are built — tier, prestige band, kind of fanbase, conference, voice and roster size — not on this season's stats. A calibration, not a prediction.
Historical echo
Historical echo
Illinois’s breakout has happened before — and 1 of the 4 closest programs couldn’t hold it.
Programs whose stature climbed in the same shape. The grey line is their run; the color is what came next for them.
An analogy on the shape of a program’s Zeitgeist stature arc — not a prediction. Interim calibration, medium confidence; matched among current FBS programs at a comparable level.
Conditions
64°F average kickoff temp; 7% of games had measurable precipitation; 11 mph average wind.
Based on 81 home games with weather data.