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.