Illinois’ Altmyer gets off and running with new weapons

This season, I’m going to be handing out five “stars” from each Illini football game. Think the three stars handed out after hockey games, but I’m expanding it to five because especially on a night like Saturday, there were too many key contributors to narrow down.

In Saturday night’s thrilling season-opening win over Toledo, there were a multitude of guys that deserve their flowers. On a night where Illinois didn’t have its best stuff and played one of its sloppiest games of the Bret Bielema era, a handful of players stepped up and gave the Illini what they needed to prevail and start 2023 1-0.

Here are Week 1’s five stars:

1. Luke Altmyer

Can’t start this list without the brand-new Illini signal caller.

Coming into the 2023 season, Luke Altmyer was perhaps the biggest mystery on this Illinois roster. Tommy DeVito provided the type of steady presence at the quarterback position that Illinois hadn’t had in over a decade and Altmyer was handed a tall task to…