Illinois will be elite on the line of scrimmage

Let’s brush off those cobwebs. Football season is back.

This week starts Week 0 of the 2023 football season, and I don’t know about you, but this week is my Christmas. Our beloved Illini does not have a game in Week 0 for the first time in two years. But this gives me time to give you two stat-filled preseason blogs to kick off the season. This is the first of those two.

As TCR’s Pleas Honeywood mentioned last week, Bret Bielema is bringing fun back to Illinois.

Everything that Lovie Smith had imagined, Bielema is executing. He has completely transformed the two-deep lineup and, more importantly, brought his style to Champaign (more on this later). The Wisconsin (and Iowa) guys are so mad at this; we live in their message boards rent-free.

Let me bring this back to the stats you should know about.

Offense

I want to discuss returning production here and the Chase Brown-sized elephant in the room. I want to start by using predicted points added to start this conversation….