The year before Lovie Smith took the reins of this great program, the Illini were more of a balanced offensive team. Wes Lunt threw for 2,761 yards and 14 touchdowns while the top two leading rushers – Ke’Shawn Vaugh and Josh Ferguson – both surpassed 700 yards.
While this team seemed to have their stuff together as they finished with a 5-7 record, they actually only ended up winning two Big Ten games that season and three of their four non-conference contests. This team wasn’t very good despite having some good players.
Since Lovie took over this team in 2016, the Illini haven’t really had an identity on the offensive side of the ball.