The 88 Illini - #88-#85

This will be, without question, the most difficult list I've assembled. And I've been doing this since 2010.

I guess I could say that I've been doing this since 2009 since that summer I put together a list of the top-50 players on the roster. But that was just a rip-off of what Bob Asmussen was doing in the News-Gazette at the time. The next year, in 2010, I expanded it to 88 players. In 2011, 89 players. And then for the next decade, The 90 Illini.

Then last year I moved back to 88. Why 88? Because it is divisible by four. I got to the point where 90 individual posts became unsustainable for me, especially once August arrived and I was working on the preview. So last year I switched back to the system of counting down from 88 and listing them four players at a time.

It worked swimmingly. For the first time in years, I stayed on track (it's a countdown to the first game if I haven't already said that). I was never more than one day behind and that only happened twice. So I'm returning to the same 88 Illini format this year with... absolutely no clue how to assemble this list.

Here's the best way to say it. I just put a roster together (I keep my own spreadsheet) and I added the recent juco players. I use a gray tone for any new players on the roster so I just counted them. There are now 57 players on this roster who were not here last year. I need to repeat that for you.

I'm putting together the 88 Illini. There are 57 new players. This is impossible.

It's impossible! We know nothing. An example:

We added James Finley, a transfer defensive back from Northern Illinois. That makes 21 defensive backs on the current roster. I'm making a list of the 88 most-important players for the fall of 2026 and Finley could be the 5th most-important defensive back on this roster, slotting in around #34 on my list, or he could be the 17th most-important defensive back which would put him around #91 (meaning he wouldn't even make the list). 34th most-important player or 91st most-important player? Who can say?

Not me. I haven't seen him play an ounce of football (besides some NIU film from his freshman year there). And I don't know how that NIU film will translate given that I don't know what this defense will be so I don't know what position he'll play. We didn't get to see the defense line up in anything besides a quick 4th-and-goal formation this spring so I can only guess what the positions will be. We'll all find out together on September 3rd what the positions are for this defense (if anyone tells you today that they know, they're guessing).

Take that and repeat it for 30 (40?) players on my list and you can understand my dilemma. I don't know the defensive scheme yet and there are 57 newcomers on the roster. WHO CAN SAY?

I guess I'll try. Here we go. A few notes and then we'll get started.

• With a roster cap of 105 plus a few grandfathered-in walk-ons plus a few "injury replacements" (something new this year), there are 114 names on the official roster, nearly all of them on scholarship + revshare. That means I'm leaving 26 names off the list entirely in a year with only eight returning starters (when several true freshman could work their way into the lineup). THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE.
• With "5 to play 5" almost certainly being voted in later this month, I'm changing how I list eligibility. When that drops, there are no redshirts anymore. The term goes away. It's simply five years to play as much as you can (and for true freshmen who start, they can now be a starter for five seasons). So instead of "4 years to play 3" I'll just be saying "4 years of eligibility remaining."
• I listed out all of the players up to 114 (in order). And some of the names (mostly all freshmen) just past #88 could honestly find themselves in the rotation. Parker Crim is #89 (we need defensive linemen). Tony Balanganayi is #90 (we really need large defensive linemen). Almirion Thomas is #91 (we need athletic DB's for this new secondary and he's an athletic DB). Kingston Shaw is #92 ("Robert, the guy you praised in your practice notes this spring is NUMBER NINETY TWO?"). This is simply impossible.

OK fine. I'll just start. Here we go: