CHAMPAIGN — The photos shared on the Illinois football team's Twitter account before last week's Senior Day game of the longest-tenured Illini when they arrived on campus entertained Chase McLaughlin's teammates.
McLaughlin's photo showed him for what he was. A 6-foot-1, 165-pound walk-on out of Cypress, Texas. The more current photo that accompanied it only showed McLaughlin's physical changes in the subsequent five seasons and the 25 pounds of muscle he's packed on. It didn't illustrate the path he took to becoming Illinois' starting kicker or the accomplishments he notched along the way heading into the last game of his Illini career on Saturday at Northwestern.