OPENING KICK
• Here We Go: Year two of the Lovie Smith era begins Saturday as the Fighting Illini open their 128th year of football when Ball State comes to Memorial Stadium for an 11 a.m. kick on Big Ten Network.
• We've Met Before: Saturday will be the second meeting on the gridiron between the Fighting Illini and Ball State. The only other time the two teams met was a 28-17 Illini victory at Memorial Stadium during the 2007 Rose Bowl season.
• Brotherly Love: Illinois freshman DB James Knight will face off against his brother, Kenny Knight Jr., who is a redshirt sophomore DT for Ball State. The duo starred at East St. Louis HS.
• NFL Experience: Smith's Illini staff has 56 seasons of combined NFL head and assistant coach experience – the most in college football in 2017, ahead of UCLA (45), Michigan (40), Baylor (38) and Alabama (34).
• Home Sweet Home: Illinois has 19 consecutive home-opening wins, the fourth-longest active streak in the nation behind only Florida (27), Oklahoma State (21) and Wisconsin (21). Illinois is 89-33-5 all-time in home-openers.
• Starting Off Right: The Illini have an all-time record of 80-42-5 in season-openers and are 57-27-4 when opening the season at home. The Illini have won their last 11 season-openers at Memorial Stadium dating back to 1997.
In fact, the Illini have won...
» 6 straight season-openers (last loss 2010 vs. Missouri in St. Louis)
» 11 straight season-openers at Memorial Stadium (last loss 1997 vs. Southern Mississippi)
» 19 straight home-openers (last loss 1997 vs. Southern Mississippi)
• Boys of Summer: The Illini are 23-4 in Aug./Sept. home games dating back to the start of 2007.
• Youth Movement: An extremely young and inexperienced Illini squad will take the field in 2017.
» Out of 101 total players on the roster there are just nine total seniors, tied for the second-least in FBS – Georgia Southern (8) and Wake Forest (9).
» Only 25 total upperclassmen are on the roster – 9 seniors, 16 juniors
» In contrast, there are 76 underclassmen – 22 sophomores and 54 freshmen (36 true-freshmen and 18 redshirt freshmen)
» Out of 101 players on the 2017 roster, 41 are newcomers
» Four players enter 2017 with double-digit career starts – DiLauro 31, Turner 24, Allegretti 12, Dunlap 12.
» Illinois had 28 first-time starters during the 2016 season, the most in the nation during the regular season, just ahead of Missouri (27). Included in that number were 13 freshmen (four true-freshmen and nine redshirt-freshmen).
THEY'RE BACK
Several key players are expected to return to action after long battles with injury.
» WR Mike Dudek: 2014 Freshman All-American before missing all of 2015 and 2016 seasons due to injury.
» DE Sean Adesanya: Now in his third year on campus, the 2015 junior college transfer has yet to play a down at Illinois, missing all of 2015 and 2016 due to injuries.
» QB Chayce Crouch: Led Illini to road win at Rutgers in first career start last season before missing the rest of the season due to injury. He was named this year's opening-day starter during spring ball.
CARDINAL CONNECTIONS
• Saturday will be the second meeting on the gridiron between the Fighting Illini and Ball State. The only other time the two teams met was a 28-17 Illini victory at Memorial Stadium during the 2007 Rose Bowl season.
» In the 2007 meeting, LB J Leman, who will be in the BTN booth as an analyst on Saturday, led the way with 11 tackles, 2.0 TFLs and 1.0 sacks.
» Offensively, RB Rashard Mendenhall rushed for 189 yards and two touchdowns and QB Juice Williams added another 99 yards and two touchdowns on the ground. WR Arrelious Benn had four receptions for 97 yards.
• Illinois freshman DB James Knight will face off against his brother, Kenny Knight Jr., who is a redshirt sophomore DT for Ball State. The duo starred at East St. Louis HS.
• In addition to Knight brothers James (ILL) & Kenny (BSU) squaring off against each other, a third teammate from East St. Louis HS will be involved as well, Illini sophomore DB Stanley Green also played for the Flyers.
• Ball State freshman DE Jordan Williams is from Champaign, Ill., and starred at Champaign Centennial HS. His father, Athony Williams, played tight end for Illinois from 1984-87.
• Several other Illini and Cardinal players played together in high school
» Bolingbrook HS (Ill.) – Illini WR Kendall Smith and BSU S Armani McNutty
» Hinsdale Central HS (Ill.) – Illini RB Christian Bobak and BSU LB Jacob White
» Medina HS (Ohio) – Illini OL Zeke Martin and BSU LB Jimmy Daw
» Warren Central HS (Ind.) – Illini QB Jeff George Jr. and BSU DE Anthony Winbush
ILLINI QUICK HITS
• Target Turner: Senior WR Malik Turner led all Illini receivers in 2016 with 48 catches for 712 yards (14.8 ypc) and six TDs to earn honorable mention All-Big Ten accolades.
» Had three catches of 40+ yards and three 100-yard games in 2016
» Caught at least one pass in 27 of his last 28 games entering 2017
» Named to the Pro Football Focus preseason All-Big Ten first team
» Career totals of 112 catches, 1,478 yards, 10 touchdowns and four 100-yard games all are just outside the Illini career top-10 lists (see page 10)
• Elementary, Watson: Junior LB Tré Watson had a breakout 2016.
» Averaged 10.3 tackles per conference game to rank second in the B1G (Tegray Scales, Indiana 10.4)
» Made 48 stops in last four games (12.0 tpg), including 16 vs. Michigan State & 15 vs. Iowa
» Second on team and fifth in Big Ten with 102 stops (8.5 tpg) in 2016
» Tied for the team lead with three forced fumbles in 2016
• Dual Threat: Senior RB Kendrick Foster had a breakout season on the ground in the return game in 2016.
» Led the team with 1,328 all-purpose yards (748 rush, 54 rec, 554 KR) and nine total TDs
» One of only four players in the nation with at least 700 rushing yards and 500 kick return yards
» Accounted for three touchdown runs of 50+ yards – a pair of 56-yard TD runs against Murray State and a 64-yard TD run against Michigan State
• Jaylen Island: Senior CB Jaylen Dunlap was a lock-down corner in 2016.
» 11 PBUs for the season (tied for 10th-most in a season in UI history)
» 10 PBUs during Big Ten play (4th-most in the B1G)
» 9 PBUs in the last five games of 2016
» 7 PBUs Oct. 29-Nov. 7 tied for the most in the nation during a two-game span in the regular season
» 4 PBUs in the win over Michigan State, tied for the fifth-most in a game in program history and the most by an Illini since 2002
SAINT NICK
Junior OL Nick Allegretti is primed for a big season on and off the field.
» Named to Rimington Award preseason watch list for to the nation's top center
» Named to AFCA Good Works Team preseason watch list, one of the most prestigious off-the-field honors in college football, honoring a student-athlete's dedication to volunteerism, community involvement and enriching the lives of others.
» Is the team's Uplifting Athletes chapter president, helping to raise over $39,000 for rare disease research and awareness at the annual Lift for Life event.
» Started all 12 games in 2016 and played 782 snaps, the most of any Illini offense player last season
DUDEK, WHERE'S MY CAR?
Junior WR Mike Dudek looks to return to action for the first time since Dec. 26, 2014, a span of 981 days.
• After producing the most prolific season for a freshman receiver in school history in 2014, Dudek suffered season-ending knee injuries during spring ball in both 2015 and 2016.
• During his freshman season in 2014, Dudek hauled in 76 receptions for 1,038 yards to shatter Arrelious Benn's previous freshman marks of 54 catches and 676 yards in 2007 and place him in Illinois' season top-10 rankings.
• Dudek was a 2014 first-team Freshman All-American by ESPN.com, Scout and 247sports after leading FBS freshmen in receiving yards (79.8 ypg), ranking 33rd overall and third in the Big Ten. He led the Big Ten in receptions (50) and receiving yards (716) during conference games and ranked fifth in the nation with 354 fourth-quarter receiving yards and tied for third nationally with 10 plays of 15+ yards in the fourth quarter.
• Dudek became the eighth player in school history to record a 1,000 yard season as a receiver, ranking seventh on the UI single season list with 1,038 yards.
LOVIE'S ILLINI
• Long-time NFL head coach Lovie Smith returns to the Illinois sidelines for the second season in 2017.
• Smith is the 25th head football coach at Illinois and is the first African-American head football coach in program history.
• Smith was hired as Fighting Illini head coach on March 7, 2016, by Director of Athletics Josh Whitman, who was on his third day on the job as Illinois AD.
• After spending 19 years in the NFL, including 11 years as a head coach, the 2016 season was the first for Lovie at a college since 1996.
• Smith led the Chicago Bears for nine seasons from 2004-12 and was 81-63 (.563), including three division titles, two NFC Championship Game appearances (2006 and 2010) and a berth in Super Bowl XLI.
• The AP Coach of the Year in 2005, Smith's 81 wins with Chicago are the third-most in Bears history.
• Prior to coming to Illinois, Smith spent the previous two seasons as head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, where the Bucs improved from two victories in 2014 to six wins in 2015.
#1 IN NFL EXPERIENCE...AGAIN
Lovie Smith's Fighting Illini coaching staff is loaded with experience from the NFL level, boasting 56 years of coaching in the NFL – the most of any college staff in the country for the second straight season.
Illini NFL Experience by the Numbers:
» 99 Years NCAA Coaching Experience
» 56 Years NFL Coaching Experience
» 14 Years NFL Playing Experience
» 3 Super Bowl Appearances
» 1 Super Bowl Title
» 1 NFL Coach of the Year
» 1 NCAA Championship
TOUGH ROAD
• Only five college football teams will play against more 2016 bowl teams during the 2017 season. Illinois' nine bowl opponents are tied for sixth in the nation behind Notre Dame (11), Syracuse (11), Duke (10), Ole Miss (10) and South Carolina (10).
• Three Illinois opponents are ranked in the preseason AP Top-25 – No. 2 Ohio State, No. 9 Wisconsin and No. 19 South Florida. Two more opponents are receiving votes – Nebraska and Northwestern.
• Two of Illinois' three non-conference won 11 games last season – Western Kentucky (11-3) and South Florida (11-2).
• The Big Ten enters its second season with a nine-game conference slate this season, meaning each team will play three division crossover games. Illinois' cross-division games are at No. 2 Ohio State and home against Indiana and Rutgers.
» Complete Illinois-Ball State Game Notes (PDF)
