88 Illini: #4-#1

I'm going to start with a tribute. It might seem strange to you that I'm going to write a tribute to a subscriber who recently passed away and then immediately transition to talking about the four most important Illini this year, but I feel like it's a perfect way to end this year's 88 Illini. I think it's the tribute that Ken would want from me.

I found out today that a long-time subscriber/supporter of mine, Ken Blan, passed away in July. He would contact me quite often, either by email or by DM, and I hadn't heard from him in a while. When I saw that his auto-renew payment was declined due to a card that no longer existed, I immediately worried. I checked online and found his obituary.

That, in an of itself, is part of how the online world works. You can maintain a back-and-forth relationship with someone for years that you only know from the internet and when one of those people passes away, the other person won't find out until they go searching for why it's been so quiet. I had met Ken in person before, but most all of our communicating was online. I would have noticed when he didn't comment on my SOC article on Thursday night, but now I dislike that I hadn't thought to check "where's Ken?" before today.

In fact, saying his name sounds weird. He was UILaw71 around here. I feel like I'm doxxing him by saying his real name. But in order to give him a full tribute, I felt like I needed to share his name.

I also wish I could share more of his IlliniBoard comments with you as part of this article. It would tell the true flavor of our online relationship. But when we made the changeover to the new blogging platform in January of 2024, all of the articles moved over but the comments could not. So any article before January 2024 in the archive has zero comments (from late 2008 until January 2024). The only UILaw71 comments I can pull for this post are from the last 18 months.

But just know that if I predicted a loss in a Friday night SOC post, Ken would take issue with it. He loved his Illini. The Saturday morning thought of "what if we lose today?" didn't exist in his head. Some examples...

I predicted that we'd lose in the Citrus Bowl (and so did Craig earlier in the week). Ken's response:

I also predicted that Oregon would be our only blowout loss. We'd be hung over from the Michigan game and they'd out-athlete us. I had it Oregon 42, Illinois 16. Ken was not a fan:

Love that his comment there was upvoted with nine likes.

For the Rutgers game, I had it Rutgers 24, Illinois 21 (and was hating that prediction when the field goal fell short... before I saw that Rutgers had called timeout). Ken, that morning, wanted me to know where we'd be playing our bowl game:

He wasn't just some guy who wanted to tell me I was wrong, though. He also cared about me, the human. I had written about having to have our dog put down the week before the Nebraska game last September, and when I predicted that Nebraska would win, Ken responded with the kindest "no they won't":

(Man, him saying "my friend" right there just hit me in the gut. I'm gonna miss you, Ken.)

We won that game in overtime. But as we were at midfield with 30 seconds on the clock at the end of regulation trying to get into field goal range at the end of regulation, don't think I wasn't up there in the pressbox thinking about Ken's prediction. We couldn't quite get one more first down, and so we went to overtime. Where we won. Good call, Ken.

Here's probably the best way to describe him. When Bobby Roundtree died suddenly in 2021, Ken sent me this email:

The fact that a fan would want to show up to Bobby's funeral to pay his respects - that's just amazing. I honestly don't know if he was able to. He followed up with an email saying he was trying to find out if it was a public or private funeral. But the gesture is amazing.

I don't want to present my relationship with Ken as being perfect, however. Being an attorney, Ken had opinions. He once said something in a comment under one of Craig's articles that I felt was way over the line. Disagree with Craig, fine, but to suggest he doesn't know what he's talking about was a bridge too far (for me). So I let Ken know about it. I sent him an email and told him, in no uncertain terms, to "cut the shit, Ken." Disagree with Craig, but don't make it personal.

He handled it like any attorney would: I think he liked it. I think he respected me for sticking up for one of my guys. And he didn't ever go after Craig again.

(At least not personally. If Craig predicted a blowout loss, however...)

I met Ken in person for the first time at the ReliaQuest Bowl tailgate. I invited all Seventeen Club members to join me at that tailgate and Ken was there with his family. My main memory from that is not being able to spend as much time with him as I wanted to. There's a lot going on as the game approaches, and a lot of people were arriving at the tailgate, and I do a lot of "I need to talk to this person real quick - I'll be right back" and by the time I make it back, the group has moved on. I have to fix that soon, because I should have spent more time standing and chatting with Ken and his family.

He also came by a tailgate in Champaign. I want to say it was last year with the fire truck? That's how I remember it, but it could have been during the 2023 season. I had more time to talk to him that time. But it still wasn't enough.

Why write this as part of another post? Because I know it would make Ken happy. He would be proud of me for finishing the 88 Illini this year and he would be refreshing the site on Friday night to make sure I didn't do something stupid like predict a close game with Western Illinois. I honestly don't know what I'm going to do without Ken on that wall for me. He's been there commenting on nearly every Stream Of Consciousness prediction for... 14 years? Maybe all 16?

Rest in peace, Ken. I'm so sorry for your loss, Lyndy. If it means anything to you, I have tears in my eyes right now. Your husband meant a whole lot to me, and it's going to be weird around here without him. I've only ever done this one other time (for IlliniGrad), but here's the best tribute I can give him:

I'm removing a number from my Twitter bio. I'll leave it up for the next month, just like I did with Grad. For the next month I'm...

Robert. One of the sixteen.

4. JC Davis

Offensive Tackle
Uniform number: #74
Year in school: Super Duper Senior (I mean, technically, 0 years to play 0)
Height: 6'-5" – Weight: 335 lbs.
Hometown: Oakland, California
High School: McClymonds HS
Transfer from: New Mexico

Background

The reason I say "0 years to play 0" is because he was supposed to graduate. He walked on Senior Day last November and did finish his Illini career. But then the Vanderbilt QB sued the NCAA, claiming that his potential earnings while playing college football were severely limited by the "your years playing NJCAA football count against your years playing NCAA football" rule, and he won, and so the NCAA, while scrambling to put something more permanent in place, said that all Juco players whose eligibility had expired could have another year on the field in 2025.

And so JC Davis, who played one year at Contra Costa College in 2021, two years at New Mexico in 2022 and 2023, and then 1 year at Illinois in 2024 has another year of eligibility in 2025. All hail the Diego Pavia Rule. (It's doubtful there's another round of that this offseason but... you never know.)

What does this mean for Illinois? Oh, you know, just that our third-team All Big Ten left tackle is returning to protect Luke Altmyer's blindside in 2025. No big whoop.

2025 Outlook

At this point, it almost feels silly to give you the outlook. Who am I to say what the outlook should be for JC Davis? Third-team All Big Ten last year so I'm left to say "I hope he improves to second-team, first-team, or possibly All American." When we were in the 80's on this countdown it was all "he'll redshirt and live in the weight room." At #4, it's "go dominate."

So go dominate, JC. This season is now about a better draft position in April. Go grab a 2nd round spot.

3. Xavier Scott

Defensive Back
Uniform number: #14
Year in school: Senior (2 years to play 1)
Height: 5'-11" – Weight: 195 lbs.
Hometown: Riviera Beach, Florida
High School: Dwyer HS

Background

I can't remember where I wrote this recently (in the preview? on Slack?) but I feel like the majority of Illini fans, when asked which returning player was first-team All Big Ten last season, would say JC Davis or Gabe Jacas. Actually, let me go one step further.

If you asked Illini fans which player from last season was first-team All Big Ten – not just from returning players, but all players – I think 95% or more would say Pat Bryant. Pat Bryant was second-team. Xavier Scott was first-team.

And we saw this coming back when he was a freshman in 2022. He was fantastic in the Michigan game that year filling in for an injured starter. Can you imagine what he had to face that day? True freshman, more than 100,000 people, "good luck, kid."

2025 Outlook

I guess the only thing that comes to mind here with Xavier Scott's "outlook" is for him to be even more of a Swiss Army knife this season. Take the outside guy when we need to shut down the outside guy and take the inside guy when we need to shut down the inside guy. A little bit of cornerback, a little nickelback, a little Star.

First-team All Big Ten is also the goal again, obviously. He'll have to get the interceptions again (the writers love to look at the interceptions list and just give it to the top two corners on the list), so maybe I should make that his outlook as well. Intercept The Ball When The Opposing Quarterback Throws It.

2. Gabe Jacas

Outside Linebacker
Uniform number: #17
Year in school: Senior (2 years to play 1)
Height: 6'-3" – Weight: 270 lbs.
Hometown: Port St. Lucie, Florida
High School: Fort Pierce Central HS

Background

Maybe it's because I didn't finish last year and other years I was scrambling to type out 10 of these the final day but this is HARD. What "background" can I give you about Gabe Jacas that you don't already know?

I just went looking for a photo I retweeted in 2022 but I couldn't find it. It was him moving into the dorms (I think in June of 2022) and I was all "yeah so that guy we flipped from Tulane looks like he was built in a lab." And he's maintained that trajectory for four years. Freshman All American all the way up to senior looking for All American honors.

2025 Outlook

I really debated whether Jacas or Luke Altmyer should be #1. This is a "most important Illini" list, and I feel like Jacas is just as important for the defense as Altmyer is for the offense. In the end, I chose Altmyer. By a whisker.

What Xavier Scott is for the secondary (can play him in several spots), Jacas is for the boys up front. He can rush standing up as an outside linebacker or he can play with his hand in the dirt if we slide him inside on the line. Whatever this team needs, he can provide. Hopefully he provides it in a "certainly a first round draft pick now" sense. Maybe even Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year?

1. Luke Altmyer

Quarterback
Uniform number: #9
Year in school: Senior (1 year to play 1)
Height: 6'-2" – Weight: 215 lbs.
Hometown: Starkville, Mississippi
High School: Starkville HS
Transfer from: Mississippi

Background

Two departures were strange for Altmyer (at least for me). One, that he left Starkville for Oxford. I feel like it would be really hard for someone from Starkville to play for Ole Miss. (But maybe I don't understand the rivalry.)

Second, I'm really surprised that he left for the Big Ten and then stayed in the Big Ten when the SEC came calling. He's a southern guy through and through, so I figured he'd take an opportunity in the SEC if it came along. It came along and here he is, still wearing the orange and blue.

2025 Outlook

This one I covered at length in the preview. I'll try to sum it up here.

He has the opportunity – this is not "he must reach these heights", but the opportunity – to finish his Illini career up there with Jeff George and Kurt Kittner and Juice Williams. If he leads this team to a playoff appearance – and yes, after covering 88 players, it's possible – then we're going to discuss him for the rest of time in George or Kittner or Juice terms. Perhaps even at the very top? There's a chance – it's not probable, but a chance – that people will be saying "I liked what Kittner and George provided, but Altmyer is the GOAT" after this season.

Ken would have loved it.