Game day Preview Southern Illinois at Illinois; 1 p.m., Saturday (Peacock)

NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos...

Sep. 19—Beat writer Scott Richey previews the Illini's nonconference finale against the Salukis ahead of the kickoff at Gies Memorial Stadium in Champaign:

An NCAA rule modification this offseason created a change in injury timeouts in response to concerns about faked injuries meant to curtail an opponent's momentum or create a de-facto timeout. Now, if a player comes up injured after the ball is spotted for the next play, their team is charged a timeout. Illinois faced that situation twice last week against Duke.

"It's 100 percent on me," the Illinois coach said. "We went over it. One of the thing that happens with men is they have a certain amount of pride. When guys get injured, they want to try to limp off the field. Both of those occasions, both Joe (Barna) and TJ (McMillen), we told them to go down. The ball had already been spotted.

"It's a referee's choice if they want to enforce it. There's a lot of conversations I had after a referee's choices last week, and some of them I think were definitely real. The good news is those are ACC officials, and we won't see them again."

Grant Beerman missed all of Illinois' spring practices with a leg injury, slowing his progress after showing flashes as a freshman in 2025. Injury issue sorted, a bout of mononucleosis held Beerman back again during the Illini's training camp. The sophomore linebacker had recovered enough to play a limited number of snaps in the season opener against UAB. He got more last week against Duke, but Beerman's return to full strength is still a work in progress as he's totaled seven tackles, one tackle for loss and one pass breakup in two games.

"He's pretty long and lean anyway, and he lost like 30 pounds or something," Illinois defensive coordinator Bobby Hauck said of the 6-foot-5, 240-pound Beerman. "It takes him a while to get back both with endurance and strength and caught up with the Xs and Os of it. Grant's got a bright future, but when that sort of thing happens to you as the season's beginning, you're losing critical time. Then you're losing critical time on the back end trying to get back physically. He's working at it. Grant, as he gets back, he'll make plays."

QB1 building on solid start to 2026 season

Katin Houser's fourth-quarter interception against Duke was the Illinois quarterback's first real mistake of the season — the combination of a misread of the Blue Devils' coverage and a semi-forced throw. Through two games, however, the East Carolina transfer has played mostly clean football, completing 37 of 52 passes for 453 yards and six touchdowns. The 6-3, 225-pound fifth-year senior Houser has also rushed for 47 yards on seven carries and also had a rushing touchdown amid a 1-1 start to the season for the Illini after an opening win against UAB and last week's loss to Duke in Illinois' second-to-last nonconference game.

"Katin's great in those moments because he's very assertive on what he does like and what he does not like," Illinois quarterbacks coach Art Sitkowski said about how Houser makes his reads. "He does a great job of getting through his progressions and seeing the defense pre-snap and having the ability to exhaust his progressions based off the pre-snap clues. We've just got to be consistent with that. That starts with me as his coach."

Williams was back in the lineup last weekend against Southeast Missouri State after going down with a knee injury in the Salukis' Week 0 loss to West Florida. His full dual-threat abilities were on display with five total touchdowns, including four on the ground. The Harvey native and Thornton product is certainly more a challenge than his game manager backup Jake Curry. Williams finished eighth in the Walter Payton Award voting last season after throwing for 2,846 yards and 22 touchdowns and rushing for 847 yards and 18 more scores.

West Florida rushed 40 times for 226 yards and two touchdowns against SIU in Week 0, but the Salukis have given up significantly fewer yards on the ground the past two weeks. Samford rushed for 70 yards as a team, and SEMO managed just 44. Good enough to get SIU inside the top 20 rushing defenses at the FCS level. That last part is the kicker. Illinois' rushing offense ranks 104th nationally at the FBS level, and Saturday's showdown with the Salukis could provide an opportunity to get Ca'Lil Valentine and Aidan Laughery in a better rhythm. Even behind a piecemeal offensive line.

Collin Dixon caught two touchdown passes in Illinois' season opener against UAB and three more — all in the first half — against Duke. That ties the Illinois senior with Indiana's Charlie Becker, Rutgers' KJ Duff and Buffalo's Chance Morrow for the national lead through two games. Five touchdowns by mid-September also puts Dixon well ahead of pace to set the program's single-season record. As in halfway there with 10 games to play to top the 10 touchdowns caught by David Williams (1985), Brandon Lloyd (2001) and Pat Bryant (2024).

it doesn't give the game away with penalties, mental errors and turnovers. A collection of those problems cost the Illini last week against Duke. It will take significantly more to be an issue with the Salukis in town, but that's always been a starting point for FCS teams doing the relatively unthinkable and pulling an upset on an FBS team's home turf. A clean game of boring football is all Illinois will need to get back on track after last weekend's loss and build a little momentum heading into next week's game at No. 6 Ohio State.

everything goes wrong for Bielema and Co. Illinois has never lost to an FCS opponent in 20 previous games. Most have been blowouts. The last two — Eastern Illinois and Western Illinois — lost by a combined score of 92-3. But college football can be unpredictable. SIU coach Nick Hill knows that as well as anyone given he was the Salukis' quarterback when they knocked off Indiana 20 years ago almost to the day. A turnover here. A few missed tackles there. If SIU can capitalize on any Illinois mistakes, maybe it's a game.

More at NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos