Illini now

Social Media Swirls Around Illinois Football's Snowy Win Over Northwestern

The snow fell, The Hat was held high and the Illini were again on top – at least for a day – as social media sorted out a win over the Wildcats
Jason Langendorf|
The Illinois football team gathers on the snow mounds inside Gies Memorial Stadium after its 20-13 win over Northwestern on Saturday in its season finale in Champaign, Illinois.
The Illinois football team gathers on the snow mounds inside Gies Memorial Stadium after its 20-13 win over Northwestern on Saturday in its season finale in Champaign, Illinois. | University of Illinois

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Illinois Fighting IlliniNorthwestern Wildcats

In a bitter-cold blizzard, before a half-full Gies Memorial Stadium on Saturday evening in Champaign, the Illinois football team found a way to turn the clock all the way back to ... 2024. Against visiting Northwestern – a foe that always seems to give its in-state Big Ten rival a run for its money – the Illini rediscovered the grit, sense of purpose and opportunistic streak that had been almost entirely missing since last season's transcendent run.

The result for Illinois: a dramatic and jubilant 20-14 win over the Wildcats in which Illini star quarterback Luke Altmyer threw for all of 136 yards and a former walk-on receiver (Miles Scott) snared two clutch picks that completely flipped the prevailing mood around an underachieving team and left Illinois' muscle-bound, 300-pound players frolicking in the snow like schoolchildren. The game was fun again – for everyone.

And that included Illini Nation. Last season's 10-win Illinois squad was a comet streaking across the college football cosmos – utterly unexpected, leaving its observers filled with wonder and gratitude. The 2025 version? More like a $40 ticket to an IMAX showing of "The Running Man," that instead screened "A Walk in the Clouds."

No one was demanding perfection from these Illini. But because the circumstances surrounding the group were ideal – a soft schedule, excellent experience, a star quarterback – the 2025 season was accompanied by reasonable expectations that Illinois would win its winnable games, compete in the others and hopefully catch (or create) a break or two along the way that cleared a path to the College Football Playoff and opened a portal to national respect that, with any luck, the program could close behind it.

Instead, what followed was a shellacking at Indiana and more road disappointments at Washington and (especially) at Wisconsin. A defense that stood firm when it needed to a year ago was a wet noodle nearly throughout the 2025 regular-season schedule. The big plays that defined the Illini in 2024 were all made by the other guys this season.

Still, here Illinois stands at 8-4 (5-4 Big Ten), set to play in a bowl in consecutive seasons for the first time since 2011 and having won at least eight games in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 1990. That's 35 years, folks – an epoch in college football years. And with a bowl win sometime next month, Bret Bielema still can become the first Illini coach in the program's 133-year existence to win nine games back-to-back. Perspective!

It is that complex mixed bag that was left to be subtly parsed out by an entity that famously does it so well: social media. Folks hopped on and sounded off as usual after Saturday's game, and the best reactions were predictably all over the board – but never not worth your time:

'I don't think the heavy stuff's gonna come down for quite a while'

Bear down!

Bare ... up?

The Chicago way

A thing of beauty?

An extremely online Illini coach

Eight is enough

To the seniors ... a tip of The Hat

I think I got some snow in my eyes

Published
Jason Langendorf
JASON LANGENDORF

Jason Langendorf has covered Illinois basketball, football and more for Illinois on SI since October 2024, and has covered Illini sports – among other subjects – for 30 years. A veteran of ESPN and Sporting News, he has published work in The Guardian, Vice, Chicago Sun-Times and many other outlets. He is currently also the U.S. editor at BoxingScene and a judge for the annual BWAA writing awards. He can be followed and reached on X and Bluesky @JasonLangendorf.

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