For the fourth straight year, the weekend of Thanksgiving marks the end of the Illinois Fighting Illini football season.

Bill Connelly’s S&P+ rankings have been updated, and while there’s still games to be played for other teams that will affect the rankings, the raw numbers for Illinois are final.

Summary

Three things are made abundantly clear from the statistical profile:

• The offense runs the ball well, but if they don’t gain yards on first down they cannot recover due to a horrid passing game.
• The defense is dreadful in every measurable category; to quote former Tampa Bay coach John McKay, “we can’t stop a run or a pass.