As part of Buckeye Sports Bulletin’s coverage of Big Ten Media Days we are taking a look at several conference opponents Ohio State is scheduled to play during the 2026 season.
In his fifth season back in the Big Ten as the head coach of Illinois, Bret Bielema was able to lead his team to an 8-4 regular season record after going 9-3 in 2024.
He finished the year with a win over Tennessee in the Music City Bowl, and with a win over the SEC in the postseason, took a jab at the rival conference at Big Ten media days, saying “they want to live in 2005 forever.”
But now, the Fighting Illini have the challenge of replacing a lot of players who made an impact for their team last year when they were one of the most experience teams in college football.
The offensive line is one of those positions that lost a lot of experience. However, Bielema believes he and his staff were able to make up for that by going into the transfer portal and getting players who have had good experience elsewhere in college football.
“Last year at this event it was brought up how many players we had returning on the offensive line, and I knew that,” Bielema said. “(We) made a huge commitment of time to look at potential portal players and make sure that we’re going after the right people. I feel really good about that.
“We don’t have snaps at Illinois, but Christian Martin, my left tackle, has played a lot of football at Colorado State . Maika Matelau is our left guard, who played a lot of junior college football. Jake Renfro, who started at Cincinnati and Wisconsin, has got a lot of reps, even though it hasn’t been at Illinois.”
The Illini also have right guard Brandon Henderson returning from last season’s line.
Bielema still believes his team can be at least as competitive as it has been in the recent past with so much turnover. One thing he thinks they need to be better at in order to do that is winning on the road, which the Illini have struggled to do in their last couple of seasons compared to their success when they’re at their home stadium.
“A big point of mine is to win on the road,” Bielema said. “For us to win and win at a high level and get in the playoffs, you’re going to have to win Big Ten games on the road.
“We’ve got pieces of those puzzles (to contend for a championship), but we’ve had a game or two each year that’s knocked us out of the playoffs, and most of those have been on the road. We’ve been 6-1 the last two years at home, so we’ve been doing our business there, but each year we have one of those games that snaps up and gets us. We’ve got to avoid those games.”
A big piece of that puzzle is also going to be trying to replace the experienced Luke Altmyer at quarterback, now that he is in the NFL after going undrafted.
Illinois is trying to do that with another quarterback who has had experience under center at the college level in Katin Houser, who will be in his fifth season.
Houser has a lot of experience playing college football, even some in the Big Ten after starting at Michigan State as a freshman in 2022. He played in 11 games with the Spartans in his second season before transferring to East Carolina, where he played in 21 games over two seasons and threw for 5,306 yards and 37 touchdowns.
Houser believes the experience he’s had in the college game will be very helpful when it comes to getting back into the Big Ten and taking over for an offense that expects to keep up the success it had with Luke Altmyer last year.
“I’ve played in the Big Ten and played in the American Conference,” Houser said. “I’ve seen a lot of different defenses. I’ve seen a lot of different personnel, and I’ve played in multiple different offenses, so I have a ton of experience to that end.”
Even though Houser wants to have the success that the last couple of teams at Illinois have had, and even surpass those levels if the team can, he isn’t looking back at the teams from the past. He’s hoping to make a name for himself and this team.
“It’s a brand new team, and a new quarterback as well,” he said. “It’s a fresh start. We’re going to focus on the guys in this locker room and prepare for this year. When we do what we’re supposed to do, work hard and put one foot in front of the other, the rest will take care of itself.”
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