College Football Fact or Fiction: Illinois Will Contend in Big Ten for 10 Years

The Illinois Fighting Illini were declared frauds during their 6-0 start at the beginning of this season. Since their week off, the Illini have been on a losing streak, proving to be the frauds they were claimed to be.

What the Illini hoped to be their year as Big Ten contenders failed. At least they are eligible for a bowl game. They may not receive a winning season, but are most likely going to finish out .500.

Looking through this season and their recent history, will the Fighting Illini be Big Ten contenders for years to come?

With one game left in the 2011 season, the Fighting Illini are currently 6-5. Their last game is against Minnesota. They can either finish out with a losing record or finish .500 like they did last year.

In the past ten years, Illinois has had only two winning seasons. The first was in 2001 when they won the Big Ten Championship, finished the season 10-2 and played in the Sugar Bowl. The second was in 2007 when they finished 9-3 and played in the 2002 Rose Bowl.

Have they shown to be competing Big Ten contenders?

Their seasons proved that they are more likely to give easy wins to the Big Ten contenders than rather be one themselves. The 2007 season and trip to the Rose Bowl appeared to show that head coach Ron Zook had the team going in the right direction.

Or did he?

When the Illinois football program took a dive after the 2001 season, they hired Ron Zook, who was at the time, the recent head coach of the Florida Gators. During his inaugural 2005 season, the Fighting Illini finished 2-9, 0-8 in the Big Ten.

In 2007, Zook took his team to their most successful season in many years. The Illini beat Ohio State and Wisconsin, who were both in the top 5. They beat rival Northwestern. After that season, everyone believe the Illini was the better football team in the conference. 

Zook improved Illinois recruiting skills and managed to recruit some of the best players. In 2006 was his best recruiting class.

What about now? He's had disappointing seasons. His top recruits are gone. He led the Illini to their first strong start in history this season starting 6-0 only to collapse to a losing streak.

His job status is questionable. While he had some successful moments, Zook has yet to turn the football program around for the Illini. They are right back to where they started in 2005 when they hired him.

Zook helped the Illini take a few steps forward, only to take a few steps back.

Nathan Scheelhaase is a sophomore. Thus far in his Illini career, he has thrown for 3,781 yards and 29 touchdowns. He's not off to a bad start and he could carry the Illini offense well in his last two years with the team.

He'll be able to lead them. If he can get them to finish out their games in the next two years, the Illini will have an experienced and strong quarterback that could help make them contenders in the Big Ten.

They also have a young freshman back-up quarterback, Reilly O'Toole, who is learning from Scheelhaase and has his own strong skills.

These two quarterbacks can help lead the offense in the next few years.

Most successful teams have a coaching staff that develop their players consistently throughout the years, who pushes them to grow and exceed their expectations. While the Illini has had some changes on their coaching staff, have they ever had any strong developing players?

The running back who played for the Illini between 2005-07, Rashard Mendenhall, was the Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year in 2007. He broke the school history record by rushing for 1,681 yards and 17 touchdowns in the 2007 season.

Isiah John Williams was a top college recruit for the quarterback position in 2005. He split his first four games with a senior quarterback before taking the reins. He displayed inconsistency in his first year and was injured at the start of his second year. He led the Illini to their first Rose Bowl since 1983.

He finished his Illinois season with 1743 yards and 20 touchdowns. He became the second quarterback in team history with 56 career touchdown passes.

They've had a few developing players that have struggled. Some showed inconsistency and others didn't.

While the Fighting Illini has shown a couple of strong seasons, it doesn't look like they are going to be strong Big Ten contenders for years to come. Their coach is on the hot seat right now. The coaching staff may change again. While they have some players that are young and building with the team, they have not been strongly developing throughout the years.

Illinois has yet to show any consistency in their recent seasons in all aspects of the program.

These Fighting Illini are pretenders for years to come until something changes.