Illinois needs to change things — and FAST

Sound the alarms.

Illinois’ first four games were ugly, mistake-filled, and flat out underwhelming, but seemingly showed enough flashes that a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel remained.

In Saturday’s beatdown in West Lafayette, things went pitch black.

Against a team that came into the game lost and preaching patience under its first-year head coach, Illinois was the one that left the stadium looking like the program at the start of a rebuild.

How on earth did we get here?

Coming off an 8-win season and the most program momentum in over a decade, nobody could’ve imagined that things would’ve gotten this bad. This was supposed to be a Big Ten West contender. Somehow, even with the division’s putrid current state, it looks likely to be a bottom feeder.

The simple fact is that this group is undisciplined and sloppy. Week in and week out, we’re talking about drive-killing penalties, bone-crushing turnovers and just an ugly brand of football overall.

Those…