An enormous showdown awaits because the Twentieth-ranked Illinois Combating Illini journey west to face No. 1 Oregon on Saturday (3:30 p.m. ET, CBS, Paramount+).
Oregon inherits the No. 1 rating after Texas suffered its first lack of the season to Georgia in Week 8. Per the Associated Press, this marks the primary time the Geese have climbed to the highest of the AP ballot since 2012.
Led by Heisman contender Dillon Gabriel at quarterback, Oregon has began its first season within the Large Ten with a 7-0 file general and 4-0 within the convention. Most notably, the Geese took down No. 2 Ohio State on Oct. 12. Gabriel at present leads the nation with a 77 % completion price. He has additionally handed for 15 TDs and rushed for 4.
With street journeys to Michigan and Wisconsin, in addition to dwelling video games in opposition to Maryland and Washington, the Geese shouldn’t have one other ranked opponent on their schedule, which makes Saturday’s sport in opposition to Illinois that rather more necessary.
Coming off its third win over a High 25 opponent this season, Illinois brings a number of confidence into its first sport in opposition to the top-ranked group within the nation since 2007, a sport the Combating Illini received after they defeated Ohio State on the street. Illinois’ solely loss this season was a 21-7 defeat to then-No. 9 Penn State.
Whereas Gabriel has been sensational for the Geese, Luke Altmyer has been equally spectacular for Illinois. Having thrown 15 landing passes and just one interception, Altmyer has the perfect touchdown-to-interception ratio within the Energy 4 conferences. On high of that, he’s finishing 65.9 % of his throws.
After transferring from Ole Miss forward of the 2023 season, he solely threw 13 landing passes the complete season and was picked off 10 instances, displaying simply how exceptional of a turnaround the 2024 season has been for Altmyer and the Illinois program.
Protection has additionally performed a serious position in its success. In Illinois’ most up-to-date win over Michigan, linebacker Gabe Jacas had 13 tackles (six solo), 2.5 sacks and a pressured fumble.
Whereas the Combating Illini protection has been implausible, it has not performed a group like Oregon but. Together with Gabriel’s success, working again Jordan James has accounted for 717 speeding yards, eight TDs and 5.9 yards per carry.
As Illinois and Oregon put together for his or her first assembly since 1995, it needs to be attention-grabbing to see how these two groups match up and if Illinois’ protection can restrict Oregon’s scoring alternatives.