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ESPN’s Heather Dinich names Big Ten team capable of being ‘this year’s Indiana’
By Paul Harvey
Published:
ESPN college football analyst Heather Dinich has been tracking and previewing teams for the 2025 season as we emerge from spring practices. And during a Tuesday appearance on The Pat McAfee Show, she was ready to identify one team capable of a run similar to Indiana’s.
Entering last season, no one was watching the Hoosiers on a national scale. However, Curt Cignetti brought a high-flying passing attack and improved defense to Bloomington, catapulting Indiana into the College Football Playoff with an 11-win season.
This year, Dinich believes an Illinois team under head coach Bret Bielema has the formula in place to follow that type of breakthrough:
“I think that Illinois is going to be this year’s Indiana, if I’m being honest with you,” conceded Dinich. “I really like what Bielema has coming back. You have QB, you have 18 starters, all those starters back on the offensive line, and they don’t play Oregon, Michigan or Penn State.
“They’ve got that schedule like Indiana had last year, so watch out for Illinois.”
Dinich’s analysis makes some sense, with Illinois overlooked a bit entering the season. The Illini do not appear high at all in the early national championship odds produced by FanDuel, with the usual Big Ten suspects such as Ohio State, Oregon, Penn State and Michigan much higher than Illinois. (Be sure to grab those odds via the best Ohio betting apps around.
However, the comparison of Illinois to Indiana’s 2024 run breaks down after that. The Hoosiers were coming off a 3-9 campaign and appeared dead in the water prior to Cignetti’s arrival.
On the other hand, Bielema has been building toward something special in Champaign over the past few seasons, including a 10-win season and impressive bowl victory in 2024. If the Illini do break out further this fall, it will not be some rags-to-riches campaign but rather one that was solidified over time with many key pieces back in place.
Regardless of the comparison, Illinois is unlikely to catch any team by surprise, and it’s possible the hype machine builds for the Illini as we get even closer to the season.
Paul is a lifelong fan and student of all things college football. He has been covering college football since 2017 and the B1G since 2018.