The Illinois football star is making a big splash for the 2025 season

While there have been double-digit departures in the transfer portal, Illinois football officially has its frontrunner back.

We’re a few weeks into transfer portal season and the Illini don’t have much good news. Even though no starter left the program, it took good news to change the dynamic. On Saturday evening we received this good news.

Just a few days earlier, Illinois starting quarterback Luke Altmyer gave an interview and said some good things about the program, but also said he didn’t know what the future would hold. Well, that future is now decided.

Altmyer took to social media on Saturday with a big announcement.

The fact that Altmyer is back is significant for the Illinois football program. Without him, we would either have to go into the transfer portal and get a quarterback, or the other option would be to start someone who is already on the roster. However, these players have no experience.

In Illinois, two quarterbacks on the depth chart have already left the program via the transfer portal. Losing Donovan Leary and Cal Swanson signaled to me that they knew they wouldn’t get a chance and Altmyer would return. Now it’s official. We’re getting our quarterback back.

The Illini needed Altmyer back in the game. It gives us a chance next season to at least repeat a nine-win season, which has never been done before in program history.

But there are a lot of question marks surrounding Altmyer. My biggest problem is the offensive line. Illinois’ offensive line had one senior blocker and that was JC Davis. He’s going to the NFL now. I think Miles McVay absolutely needs to get out of the transfer portal to help solve the offensive line problem.

Cole Rusk should be healthy and starting at tight end. Illinois loses leading wide receivers Pat Bryant and Zakhari Franklin. Those are two big blows. We need to go out and get Altmyer one or two more pass catchers.

Luckily the biggest piece of the puzzle is back. Altmyer is back at it again, and now hopefully the rest of the dominoes will fall.