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Indiana opens up their season this Friday night as the Hoosiers take on the Illinois Fighting Illini for the first game of the 2022 season. This will be the second game in six days for the Illini as they opened up their year facing off against Wyoming back on Aug. 27.

This year will be the third year in a row which Indiana opens up against a Big Ten opponent welcoming in Illinois for a Friday night matchup. With several new faces on the coaching staff and still a lot of uncertainty on both sides of the ball, Indiana looks to start off their year with a big conference win.

Coming into the 2022 season, Illinois was placed at eleventh in the Big Ten pre season rankings, two spots in front of Indiana. Illinois finished out the 2021 season with 5-7 record with four of those five wins coming against conference opponents.

For the past couple of years the biggest question surrounding Illinois has been their offense. Illinois made the addition of senior quarterback Tommy DeVito this off season who threw for two touchdowns and a total of 197 yards against Wyoming. Junior Chase Brown is another name that Indiana will have to control in week one. Brown is entering his second season for Illinois after being one of the few shining stars in the Illinois offense a season ago. Brown was named to the All-Big Ten third team and took on the majority of the work loaded in their first game with two rushing touchdowns and 151 total yards.

The biggest question heading into the first game is how well will Indiana’s offense pair up against Illinois defense. Illinois was ranked sixth in overall defense last year in the conference but put on a strong performance against Wyoming. Illinois held the Cowboys to just six points on the night. Illinois made things especially difficult on the passing end with limiting Wyoming to just 30 passing yards and five total passing completions.

This has to have caught the attention of the Indiana staff considering there are a lot of questions still waiting to be answered on the offensive side of the ball.

Indiana has yet to make an announcement for who will be the starting quarterback. Tom Allen announced this past week that the team has their guy but want to hold off before kickoff until they make the announcement public. Whether it is junior Connor Bazelak or senior Jack Tuttle the offense will have to work with Tom Allen and Walt Bell simultaneously for the first time.

Indiana’s defense will be their strongest unit coming into this game and look to start off hot with the new defensive coordinator Chad Wilt. Injuries were something that smothered Indiana last season but this year they return a lot of pieces on both sides of the ball. The secondary will look to lead the Hoosiers on defense and will be put to the test on Friday.

This game if the first time that both teams will meet on the field since 2017 and the first time that Illinois will play in Bloomington since 2013. A lot of new faces for Indiana leave the college football world looking for answers while Illinois looks to continue to keep on improving in a still young rebuilding phase. Both programs are in similar places in their current state of the program but both the Hoosiers and fighting fighting Illini look for a conference win.

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