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ESPN's advanced stats project a rough first season for Lovie Smith and Illinois Football

Related Topics: Lovie Smith, Bill Cubit, ESPN, Illinois

We're less than five months away from the kickoff of the 2016 college football season, but the Worldwide Leader in Sports isn't high on the Illini this year

With spring football in full swing, it's time to look ahead to the real season coming up this fall. Only the re-injury to Mikey Dudek has slowed the rare momentum of good vibes around the Illinois football program since AD Josh Whitman canned quasi-interim coach Bill Cubit on his first day and hired Lovie Smith. ESPN's schedule power rankings just came out for 2016 and the outlook isn't great for Illinois.