Illinois Football: Are Illini serious Big Ten West contenders for 2020?

Lovie Smith and Illinois football hope to capitalize on their surprise 2019 with more success. Are the Illini serious contenders?

Coming into 2019, expectations were high within the Illinois program. After winning nine games over his first three seasons, head coach Lovie Smith was given a two year contract extension that surprised a lot of outsiders. Illinois was confident they’d hired the right guy for the job.

Outside Champaign, nobody else really shared in that confidence.

The Fighting Illini were picked by nearly everyone to once again be towards the bottom of the Big Ten, a place they had spent most of the latter half of the decade. Hardly anyone thought six wins was a possibility.

But Illinois did.

Not only did Illinois exceed the experts’ expectations by winning six games, the most since 2014, they also stunned the nation with an unbelievable upset of No. 6 Wisconsin that arguably was the spark that paved the road for their bowl contending season.

After a rough 2-4 start that included a loss to Eastern Michigan, the upset of Wisconsin led to a four-game winning streak. Purdue, Rutgers and Michigan State were the other victims.

It’s still debatable whether the game against Michigan State was a great Illini comeback or an incredible Spartan collapse. After trailing 28-3 at one point and 31-10 heading into the fourth quarter, Illinois stormed back with four touchdowns in the final quarter — as many as they would score over the course of their final three games — to stun the Spartans 37-34.

It was an overall successful season record wise, but accomplished two things that won’t show up on the stat sheets: confidence the program hasn’t had in years, and vindication for Lovie.

But can they do it again?