Crim: Illinois, Mizzou searching for improvement, consistency as college football season dawns

In case you missed it, Alabama is once again the consensus pick to win the college football national championship, with Ohio State nipping at its heels, and so yawn.

Sure, Georgia, Clemson and Utah have the potential to reach the four-team playoff, but the Crimson Tide are expected to avenge last season’s championship game loss to Georgia and hoist the trophy for the seventh time since 2009.

So much for parity in college football. Led by Alabama, the Southeastern Conference has produced 12 of the last 16 national champions. Bluebloods Clemson (twice), Ohio State and Florida State own the others.

Cinderella is rarely invited to the ball in the fall.

There are no national championship aspirations for Power 5 teams in these parts. Simply showing improvement, finishing with a winning record and earning a bowl berth will be considered a success for both Illinois and Missouri.

Baby steps.

Illinois has finished above .500 only four times this century, the last coming in 2011, although it did reach the Sugar Bowl in 2001 and the Rose Bowl in 2007 — both ending in losses.

“Very excited about my team,” Illinois coach Bret Bielema said at the Big Ten Media Days in July.

“Probably one of the things I’m really just thankful for is I probably know our roster better than I ever have. Been there over a year and a half, have added a lot of players, but also have developed a lot of players in the way we think, how we do things.”

The Illini opened their season with a 38-6 thumping of Wyoming. The victory was notable because they were one of only four Big Ten teams that did not average at least 20 points per game in 2021, sporting the league’s third-worst scoring offense.

Running back Chase Brown, a bright spot last season, picked up where he left off by rushing for 151 yards and scoring three touchdowns. Syracuse transfer Tommy Devito completed 27 of 37 passes for 192 yards and two scores. Illinois racked up 477 yards of total offense under new offensive coordinator Barry Lunney Jr.

Meanwhile, the Illini defense didn’t allow a touchdown for the first time since the 2019 opener against Akron, and Saturday’s effort marked the fifth time in their last six games they have held an opponent to 20 points or less.

It’s something to build on.

Wyoming, however, is no juggernaut. Illinois upset Nebraska in Bielema’s debut as head coach a year ago, only to lose its next four games. The defensive resurgence in the second half of the season enabled the Illini to go 5-7 overall and 4-5 in the Big Ten, including an upset victory over Penn State in overtime.

However, Illinois, which plays at Indiana on Friday, is projected to finish sixth in the seven-team West Division, ahead of only Northwestern. The Wildcats stunned Nebraska — Anyone remember when the Cornhuskers’ were a dominant program in college football? — in their opener in Ireland.

Bielema is hoping to rekindle the magic he had at Wisconsin before his ill-fated move to Arkansas and the SEC. The Badgers never had a losing record in seven seasons, finished six of those seasons ranked and won three Big Ten titles.

Missouri, entering the third season of the Eli Drinkwitz era, is projected to finish ahead of only Vanderbilt in the SEC East, although some prognosticators believe an 8-4 regular season is possible if the Tigers can beat the teams they should and some they shouldn’t.

They blew a chance to finish with a winning record last season by losing to Army in the Armed Forces Bowl, taking the shine off last-season victories over Florida and South Carolina, to go along with a tight loss to Kentucky.

Mizzou has finished north of .500 12 times this century, thanks largely to the turnaround engineered by former coach Gary Pinkel. But the Tigers have posted winning records only twice since reaching the SEC championship game in both 2013 and 2014 and are a pedestrian 42-43 since.

Missouri opens its season at home Thursday night against Louisiana Tech.

“We’re going to be able to have a focus point on us,” Drinkwitz said in a pre-game press conference. “Now it’s up to us and our program to take advantage of that and to present who we want to be, what our identity for the 2022 Mizzou Tigers is going to be.”

The Tigers have a consensus top 20 recruiting class, headed by five-star wide receiver Luther Burden of East St. Louis, and added 19 players through the transfer portal.

But running back Tyler Badie (1,604 rushing yards and 14 TDs) has graduated to the NFL, Brady Cook is the third opening game starting quarterback in three seasons and Blake Baker is the third defensive coordinator in as many seasons.

And they play in the SEC.

For Missouri to show improvement, the defense must be stronger, especially against the run, and the offense needs to be more productive against the good teams.

Defensively during the 2021 regular season, the Tigers were dead last against the run in the SEC, giving up at least 200 yards seven times, and second-worst overall. They allowed 24 or more points in every game except their 24-23 victory over Florida.

Offensively, Mizzou was 5-0 when it produced 400 yards and 1-6 when it didn’t.

“The Chiefs, Cardinals, Royals, Blues have all won championships,” Drinkwitz said during SEC Media Days, mentioning the state’s professional teams. “It’s Mizzou’s time to embrace that same standard.”