CHICAGO _ Every season, Illinois indicates improvement is on the way.
After finishing 4-8 last season _ a two-game upgrade _ coach Lovie Smith told reporters Thursday at Big Ten media days that the Illini could be a conference surprise. Illinois was unanimously picked in a media poll to finish last in the Big Ten West.
"There will be a team that will come out of nowhere that will have an outstanding year," Smith said. "We plan on that being us."
The last two seasons, Illinois was one of the youngest teams in the nation. This season, the Illini return 18 starters and hope throwing freshmen into the fire will pay off.
"A few years ago we had 15 freshmen that started," Smith said. "Those guys are juniors now and are running our football team, and that's a good thing. When we first got here, we knew there were challenging things to take care of and we attacked it. We got to work right away. We overhauled our football program."
Illinois will attempt to build upon a productive offensive season but needs to identify a starting quarterback. Michigan graduate transfer Brandon Peters will compete with freshman Isaiah Williams and redshirt freshmen Matt Robinson and Coran Taylor.
Smith has taken over as the defensive coordinator, and he didn't mince words about last season's defensive performance. The Illini gave up 45.6 points per game.
"Offensively I felt like we did enough to win more football games," he said. "Defensively we did not. We were one of the worst defenses in college football. We're embracing that. A long time ago, right after the season, we went to work to correct that."
