Illinois got a big victory for next season on Saturday afternoon, just 4 days after capping its 2024 season in style, as All-Big Ten left tackle JC Davis announced he was coming back for the 2025 season.

Davis, a third-team selection following a stellar regular season, started all 13 games at left tackle for Illinois in 2024. He helped the Fighting Illini tie the program record for wins in a season (10) with a victory in the Citrus Bowl over South Carolina on New Year’s Eve.

Davis, a senior from Oakland, will enter his second season with Illinois in 2025. He took to social media on Saturday to announce his return to Champaign next fall, tweeting a picture of himself in a white Illinois uniform with a 3-word message to Fighting Illini fans in all capital letters that read: RUN IT BACK. The tweet included a signature with just Davis’s initials.

No less than 1 minute after Davis’s tweet, Illinois’s football social media tweeted about Davis coming back to the team where he settled in nicely in 2024. The 6-foot-5, 320-pounder helped the Fighting Illini achieve a breakthrough season under Bret Bielema in getting to double-digit wins for the first time in Bielema’s 4 seasons there.

Before he arrived at Illinois, Davis was a 2-time All-Mountain West selection while playing at New Mexico.