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Podcast: Cover 3 College Football Episode: Big Ten Win Totals Part 1: Indiana, Iowa, Michigan & MORE | Preseason AP Poll Reaction! 👀 Segment: Illinois podcast segment **Top Team-Specific Takeaways** - we begin with the Illinois fighting a lion eye where we've got some changes on the defensive side and look, Tom Prenelli spent all that time poking and prodding anyone he could. - as you look at the team and as you look at the schedule, DraftKings win total set at seven and a half, heavily juice to the under, where do you start looking at the pressure points where Illinois either needs to answer some questions or you - Noncon UAB, Duke and Southern Illinois, all at home, this is not the Duke of last year that they beat by 26 at two. Transcript excerpt: As much as I think it's the on here is like, I can't even I can't fathom. That's the job looking at. This is another schedule somewhere. And we begin with the Illinois fighting a lion eye where we've got some changes on the defensive side and look, Tom Prenelli spent all that time poking and prodding anyone he could. Brett Beelman, Caden Houser, anybody on the beat trying to get some details that Brett Beelman's keeping it, you know, keeping a little tied down. Bobby Hawke, of course, coming over taking stepping down from where he is an alma mater, longtime coach to be able to step into this opportunity to fix that defense. Offensive line, we're leaning on like grizzled seventh years out there. Caden Houser steps in as our new quarterback. What about the rest of the skill position players who's going to be catching those passes? I'm feeling pretty good, Tom, about the general state of the roster. This is not the summer school episode. You know, this is looking specifically at this schedule. So as you look at the team and as you look at the schedule, DraftKings win total set at seven and a half, heavily juice to the under, where do you start looking at the pressure points where Illinois either needs to answer some questions or you might have some concerns. The lines of scrimmage are where I would start. Yeah, I mean, when we were talking about Illinois last year, we were talking about how, you know, they had their entire offensive line back and that was going to be good for them. Well, their entire offensive line is gone. Now, it's pretty much a brand new offensive line. Some guys that have been in the program, some guys that are coming in from the portal, the entire defensive line is brand new. And then they're in a new system. Like I have more faith in the offensive line than I do the defensive line right now. Like defensively, I think this team is probably going to have be like bottom half of the big 10 overall. The question will be offensively, can they keep scoring the same number of points that they have been because they've been one of the better offenses in the big 10 the last few years. So I'm not like, I'm on the over, not like way over, but it's mostly schedule based. Like the schedule is not that tough. All things considered. Like when you look at who they have to play in the big 10, yes, they get Ohio State and Oregon, but outside of those two, not a game on there that I don't think they can win. Noncon UAB, Duke and Southern Illinois, all at home, this is not the Duke of last year that they beat by 26 at two. It's a worse version of that team and they have to come to Champagne this year. So I'm pretty confident they're going to win that game. So I do think they're more likely to get to eight and four than seven and five, but I don't think this is going to be a nine or a 10 win team like we've seen the last couple of years. This is interesting to me. I'm not showing a huge edge here. When I look at like what Draftings has the conference win total at, which is for Half, and then the obviously overall win total, which is seven and a half. Like so conference win total is, we're plus 100 to the over four and a half, and then we're plus about 34 to the over seven and a half. I don't think UAB is much of a threat, right? And then you get two extra days to play Duke, a game in which I think they're, you know, a decent favorite given, you know, Duke's quarterback issues and obviously losing to the Barcate as well. And then Southern Illinois. I don't really show a big edge here. I'm not going to waste everybody's time on, you know, making some strong case for something I don't feel strongly about. I think at these odds, I'm over. I don't really want to lay a dollar or 60 to the under here. I'm kind of like more trustworthy in the offensive line than the defensive line. And that's probably one of the reasons why, as Tom mentioned, they switched the defensive scheme up, just the ability to get those defensive line and to play that forward. So I'll give me over. Slightly, slightly, slightly on the under would not rush to bed. It especially thought of up. I've got this seven and five. I've got this like very firmly seven and five. You mentioned the two games where I would say that this Illinois team is outclass, you know, play in Oregon, play in Ohio State. And then I think that what you will find as we start to peel back the rest of this conference is I might look at some of those other spots as not as much a layups as possible. I mean, this is to me, a schedule where you've got like on one side, the games that I agree with you three and you know, in the noncon feel pretty good about them winning those. You've got the games on the other side, you know, your Oregon, your Ohio State. And I just think that there's going to be a few more toss ups in between that could get a little tricky. I think going to play at UCLA could get a little bit tricky. You know, the that run. I mean, after the Oregon game are games where right now, I'm saying, yeah, Illinois is going to be favored in a couple of those games, if not most of those games. But if you're taking a couple injuries, if things have are is the depth built out to where you can definitely continue to come up on the right side of coin flips. I've got it seven and five, which, hey, for a for what I do think is going to be a reset year, Tom, seven and five being your reset year. I would say is the sign of a healthy program. I'm not talking to you for the rest of the show. You know, it's kind of crazy because I understand some of these years were James Madison and the Sunbelt, but Kurt Signetty is 46 and six as an FBS head coach. 16 and O is going to do a lot there in terms of being able to run the numbers up, but 46 and six as an FBS head coach. Those are like Ryan Day numbers, which is why he's being considered along with Ryan Day as one of the best coaches, not just in the Big Ten, but in the entire country. Now, it's going to be tested as h