Led by head coach Brad Underwood, the Illini are expected to make a leap next season. Why wouldn’t they? Underwood drastically improves teams in his first seasons. For example, OK State was 12-20 the year before Underwood, and then he comes in and they go 20-12. What a tremendous improvement that was.
Now, I am not saying that Illinois will win eight more games than last season, but with a great recruiting class coming in, and some solid pieces returning, the Illini have the potential to be very good.
I know this is a little risky, but I am going to include Mark Smith in this scenario.