Why Malik Elzy Has Parted Ways With Illinois Football

Malik Elzy entered Illinois' 2025 season as Pat Bryant's heir apparent, the player most likely to emerge as quarterback Luke Altmyer's new favorite target. By the end of the Illini's Week 5 win over USC on Saturday, any chances of that happening seemed to be extinguished.

In his postgame press conference, Illinois coach Bret Bielema announced that Elzy, a 6-foot-2, 225-pound junior wide receiver, will redshirt the season and has left the team.

"Malik is no longer with us," Bielema said when asked about the status of Elzy, who had been listed as "out" on the game availability report for the Trojans game.

"He wanted to redshirt, and for us in our program, I just kind of made the decision. ... We started this year with a roster that we felt really strong about. And if someone doesn't want to be a part of that and wants a redshirt, then I can't keep them, right? So he and I had a great conversation. I love Malik. I'll help him, whatever his next step and next journey is. We had a very, very detailed conversation over a couple of days. Love the kid to death. I'm actually leaving that conversation pissed because I couldn't get him to be successful the way he wanted."

#Illini Bret Bielema on Malik Elzy's departure from the program:

"We started this year with a roster that we felt really strong about, and if someone doesn't want to be a part of that and wants to redshirt, then I can't keep them."

"Love the kid to death." pic.twitter.com/JqePfL8xXd
— Tristan Thomas (@TristanThomasTV) September 27, 2025

Malik Elzy's Illinois career

Elzy finishes this season with seven receptions for 84 yards, the fifth-leading figures on the team. Despite possessing an excellent combination of size, explosiveness and athleticism, he could never quite put it all together to consistently translate it to on-field production. His two receptions for 51 yards and a touchdown in last year's opener against Eastern Illinois offered an early taste of what Elzy is capable of, but he had just nine receptions for 110 yards in 13 games thereafter.

Considered by many to be the leading candidate to lock down the Illini's No. 1 receiver role in 2025, Elzy found himself in a battle royale with Hank Beatty, Collin Dixon and transfers Justin Bowick and Hudson Clement from which he was never able to fully stand out. He seemed to hold no ill will in a statement he released on his Instagram account (below), but the subtext from Elzy's and Bielema's comments is plain enough: Elzy, who has NFL aspirations, wasn't receiving enough game reps or targets to put up the kind of numbers that meet his expectations.

"He's an incredible kid from the Chicagoland area that I [would recruit] 100 times over again, and I just want him to be successful," Bielema said of Elzy. "Some of the conversations after he told me he wanted to do what he did, or what he was going to do, I said, 'Man, all I want is for you to have success, right? I don't care where it's at or where it's going to be, or what it's going to be and what it entails. I want you to be successful.'"

What's next for Elzy and the Illini

A direct message from Illinois on SI to Aaron Garland, Elzy's agent, wasn't immediately returned. But multiple reports indicate that Elzy, a four-star prospect out of Simeon (Chicago), will enter the transfer portal. Depending on future NCAA rulings, he may have as many as three years of eligibility left starting in 2026.

Elzy flipped his commitment from Cincinnati to Illinois as a high school senior in 2022, so perhaps he'll give the Bearcats another look. He also received offers from top programs such as Michigan, Tennessee, Notre Dame, Ole Miss and Oregon, among other schools. In the right situation, Elzy will undoubtedly flourish.

Illinois, meanwhile, will lose some depth and playmaking at the position with Elzy's departure, but Altmyer has mostly thrived with Beatty, Dixon and Bowick carrying the majority of the load at the position. The Illini are less dependent on one or two top targets this season, which makes the passing game less predictable and, arguably, better. But it's always a blow for a program to lose a player the caliber of Elzy, who is moving on, essentially, because he and the Illini failed to collaborate in fully developing his talents.