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Greetings from “Can’t Wait For Saturday,” your morning morsel of college football, courtesy of longtime Illini beat writer, AP Top 25 voter and Heisman state rep Bob Asmussen. He’ll give you his views each day on the game he loves.
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Today’s News-Gazette/IlliniHQ edition includes my story about Illinois’ loss of uber-productive receivers Pat Bryant and Zakhari Franklins and possible replacements.
If either of those two had eligibility in 2025 — they don’t — he would have been among ESPN.com’s preseason list of the nation’s top receivers.
As I see it and wrote it, lack of receiver experience is the only obvious flaw of Barry Lunney Jr.’s returning offense.
Not only is Illinois looking for a go-to receiver — or two — in 2025. But it also has to find a way to defend the many star pass-catchers it will face.
At the top of the ESPN list of course, is Ohio State superstar Jeremiah Smith, who I consider one of the Heisman Trophy front-runners. Illinois hosts the Buckeyes in October, giving its fans a look at what all the fuss is about. I’m looking forward to watching him in person.
A few spots behind Smith at No. 4 sits Indiana’s Elijah Sarratt, who the Illini will see early in the season at Bloomington. Sarratt finished just short of 1,000 yards in 2024 and had eight TD catches. Impressive.
Oregon isn’t on the Illinois regular-season schedule, but they could meet in the Big Ten title game. If the Ducks are there, it is likely in large part because of the work done by Evan Stewart, a former Texas A&M player.
Ohio State has a second player in the Top 10, No. 9 Carnell Tate. He had a big season in 2024 despite being the third option for…
Source link : https://www.news-gazette.com/newsletter/cant-wait-for-saturday-depth-of-big-ten-receiver-talent-goes-way-beyond-ohio-state/article_be5f0e81-245b-4774-b87f-1b1c6ab8dda5.html
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Publish date : 2025-04-11 14:51:00
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