Last season, Illinois’ football team went back into a territory that it hadn’t been to since the turn of the century: the BCS. Sure, they got smacked around by USC, but no one in their right mind thought that the match up was even to begin with: the Illini got a little bit too much of a boost, and USC was disrespected. The end result was one of the biggest routs in several years of the BCS. Still, Ron Zook’s team took away from it a great deal of humility and experience. And now, the Illini continue the trend into unfamiliar territory–being ranked in the preseason.

Athlon magazine has been doing a teaser “countdown” of preseason rankings, and today released that the Illini were ranked sixteenth in the country. This ranking came even as they lost one of their best offensive players (Rashard Mendenhall) to the NFL; still, Illinois has 11 players that have been picked potentially for All-Big Ten nomination, including QB Juice Williams and WR Arrelious Benn, who will certainly be the stir that stirs the Illini’s drink.

The defense should be solid up front even though the secondary will be a little suspect. Still, the Illini should have a very good team and I personally thought they’d be ranked higher to begin the season–however, I don’t think Illinois is going to even think about complaining about anything after the prior years of living in football hell. Congrats on the “rise”, Mr. Zook, now you have to just stay there