Illinois Football: Fighting Illini looking to escape Big Ten cellar in 2018

Offense

The quarterback position is a tricky one to figure out after the sudden retirement of Chayce Crouch and transfer of Jeff George Jr. but Cam Thomas should be ‘that guy’ this season.

Although he passed for 375 yards, zero touchdowns and five interceptions with a 42 percent completion rate as a freshman, he has potential to be a solid dual-threat. He rushed for 233 yards and a touchdown, which was good for third on the team. He’ll have some competition with a few incoming freshmen pushing for snaps. This position can’t get any worse than it was in 2017.

The targets remain impressive, though. Whoever wins the starting job, presumably Thomas, will have Ricky Smalling, who broke out as the leading receiver as a true freshman, Mike Dudek who had 1,000 yards receiving as a freshman in 2015 and rising tight end Louis Dorsey. This group of targets could be a surprise in the Big Ten for the upcoming campaign and should help any first-year starter under center.

The run game struggled last season, averaging just about 105 yards per game, but the Illini return four capable backs, led by sophomore Mike Epstein. He played just five games as a freshman due to injury, but still led the team in total yards and yards per carry. He’ll be followed by fellow sophomore Ra’Von Bonner and juniors Dre Brown and Reggie Corbin.

As for the offensive line, it could be a strength in a year or two, but it’s incredibly young. In fact, four of the five projected starters on the line were freshmen in 2017. This unit is being built from scratch, but it needs to take a major step forward in 2018 after a mediocre 2017 season.