Interceptions 2025

It's year number 13 for this article which means this article is now a teenager. Thirteen straight Julys where I tell you how we stack up against the rest of the country when it comes to interceptions. And what a strange trip it's been.

This whole thing started with The 19 Point Plan back in 2009/2010. Point #11 on my Nineteen Point Plan For Fixing Illinois Football (which will be revisited in the preview this year) was "Catch The Ball When The Opposing Quarterback Throws It." At the time, I was obsessed with the fact that we went nearly seven full games without an interception during the 2008 season and without a turnover turnaround, we were screwed.

So in the summer of 2013, I started this yearly series. We only had seven interceptions during the 2012 season (and we would only have three interceptions that following season) so I made a spreadsheet of every interception total for every FBS team from 2003 to 2012 to see where we stood in comparison to everyone else. The result? Illinois was dead last.