Illinois is just about set to tee things up for the start of the 2022 season. On Saturday, the Illini will face Wyoming to open a new year of college football.

Entering that game, Illinois will be around a 10-point favorite against the Mountain West program. Sam Cooper with Yahoo! Sports also provided a breakdown and prediction for that game.

According to Cooper, Wyoming’s loss of some key offensive pieces to the transfer portal makes it a long shot the Cowboys will be able to keep things close. Cooper also predicts Illinois to cover the number “fairly comfortably.”

Titus Swen is pretty solid at running back, but I don’t trust Wyoming’s offense at all beyond him after so many top players transferred. The ball control style Craig Bohl likes works quite often in the Mountain West, but I don’t see it working against Illinois, especially with so many new starters up front for the Cowboys. Wyoming lost several defensive starters to the portal as well. I trust Bret Bielema to have his team ready to roll and cover this number fairly comfortably.

Earlier Thursday, head coach Bret Bielema announced that Syracuse transfer Tommy DeVito is getting the start at QB in the season opener. We’ll see if DeVito is able to engineer a big win or start off his Illini career 0-1.