{"id":4208,"date":"2025-09-27T16:36:03","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T16:36:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/?p=4208"},"modified":"2025-09-27T16:36:04","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T16:36:04","slug":"bret-bielema-hit-with-concerning-luke-altmyer-reality-check-as-lincoln-riley-learns-surprising-week-5-verdict","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/?p=4208","title":{"rendered":"Bret Bielema Hit With Concerning Luke Altmyer Reality Check as Lincoln Riley Learns Surprising Week 5 Verdict"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Saturday\u2019s going to be a huge one for college football fans in Champaign. No. 23 Illinois (3-1, 0-1 in Big Ten) welcomes No. 21 USC (4-0, 2-0 in Big Ten) in a highly anticipated top 25 game. For <\/span>Lincoln Riley,<\/b> it\u2019s a chance to prove the Trojans are scarier without <\/span>Caleb Williams<\/b> than they ever were with him. And for <\/span>Bret Bielema<\/b>, it\u2019s a game that defines whether his Fighting Illini are real contenders for college football playoffs. But there\u2019s a cloud hanging over Illinois\u2019 most important piece \u2013 <\/span>Luke Altmyer<\/b>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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In the latest episode of <\/span>Josh Pate\u2019s College Football Show<\/span><\/i><\/a> on September 25, the national analyst hit straight at the point. <\/span>\u201cHere\u2019s what concerns me, and here\u2019s why I\u2019m going to put a 6.5 on the upset alert concern scale here, but no higher,\u201d he said. \u201cLuke Altmyer\u2019s performance as quarterback there for Illinois against better teams\u2014it just doesn\u2019t scale.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s a reality check that Illini fans might hate to hear but can\u2019t ignore. Luke Altmyer is a redshirt senior who threw for 4,884 yards, piled up 41 TDs since last year, and led Illinois to a 16-7 record. \u201c<\/span>He\u2019s got good numbers, okay? 70% completion guy, nine touchdowns, no picks through the air. It\u2019s not that,\u201d Josh Pate added. \u201cIt\u2019s just I am very concerned, like I was last week, as it turns out, that the other guy can score. Okay, last week it was Fernando Mendoza. It was Indiana.\u201d But this week, it\u2019s going to be <\/span>Jayden Maiava<\/b> and the USC squad.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Luke Altmyer ranks 15th nationally in passing efficiency (171.15) and has been flawless in protecting the ball. He\u2019s one of just three Big Ten quarterbacks with nine or more touchdowns and zero interceptions, a group that includes <\/span>Fernando Mendoza<\/b> and USC\u2019s Jayden Maiava. He\u2019s also been steady in moving the chains. Through four games, the Illini QB has completed 70 passes, with 15 of them going for 15+ yards and seven stretching beyond 25. The problem is that Illinois still sits just 57th in the FBS for explosive plays.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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And while USC\u2019s defense has struggled in the secondary, allowing nine 20+ yard completions already in Big Ten play, they counter with takeaways. Against Purdue, they bent for 357 yards but stole three possessions. That trade-off sets the stage for a classic dilemma. Can Illinois avoid mistakes while creating the big plays necessary to keep pace? Which brings us straight to the other sideline, where Lincoln Riley has quietly discovered a QB who looks tailor-made for his system.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lincoln Riley finds confidence in Jayden Maiava and co.<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

Lincoln Riley<\/span><\/a> has never been shy with hyperbole, but what he told the <\/span>L.A. Times<\/span><\/i> makes you ponder. \u201cThe leadership and vibe, he said, is similar. But this is a more talented, more capable football team right now. By a pretty significant margin,\u201d he said. Jayden Maiava is why. With 1,223 passing yards, nine touchdowns, and no interceptions through four games, the sophomore is playing like he was custom-built for the Trojans\u2019 offense. \u201cI\u2019ve made my thoughts very clearly known about how he\u2019s a better fit for Lincoln even than Caleb Williams was,\u201d Josh Pate said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Throw in <\/span>Waymond Jordan<\/b> and <\/span>Eli Sanders<\/b> as a thunder-and-lightning backfield, and USC suddenly looks balanced in a way that Caleb Williams\u2019 one-man heroics never allowed. That doesn\u2019t mean Illinois is walking into a slaughter. The Illini defense, even after Indiana gashed it for 312 rushing yards last week, still profiles as one of the Big Ten\u2019s tougher fronts. Most of those yards came late, when the defense was gassed from its own offense\u2019s failures. If Bret Bielema\u2019s bunch can bottle up USC\u2019s ground game and force Jayden Maiava into obvious passing downs, there\u2019s a chance.<\/span><\/p>\n

So Saturday is a referendum on whether Bret Bielema\u2019s Illinois is capable of stepping into the Big Ten\u2019s top tier. On whether Luke Altmyer can rewrite the narrative about his ceiling. And on whether <\/span>Lincoln Riley\u2019s bold talk<\/span><\/a> is more than California smoke.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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Saturday\u2019s going to be a huge one for college football fans in Champaign. No. 23 Illinois (3-1, 0-1 in Big Ten) welcomes No. 21 USC (4-0, 2-0 in Big Ten) in a highly anticipated top 25 game. For Lincoln Riley, it\u2019s a chance to prove the Trojans are scarier without Caleb Williams than they ever … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4209,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Bret-Bielema-Hit-With-Concerning-Luke-Altmyer-Reality-Check-as.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4208"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4208\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4210,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4208\/revisions\/4210"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}