The 2021 Illinois Fighting Illini football team represented the
University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Universit ...
in the
2021 NCAA Division I FBS football season
The 2021 NCAA Division I FBS football season was the 152nd season of college football in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at its highest level of competition, the Football Bowl Subdivision. The r ...
. The Fighting Illini played their home games at
Memorial Stadium in
Champaign, Illinois
Champaign ( ) is a city in Champaign County, Illinois, United States. The population was 88,302 at the 2020 census. It is the tenth-most populous municipality in Illinois and the fourth most populous city in Illinois outside the Chicago metropo ...
, and competed in the West Division of the
Big Ten Conference
The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...
. They were led by first-year head coach
Bret Bielema
Bret Arnold Bielema (; born January 13, 1970) is currently the head American football coach at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Bielema served as the head football coach at of the University of Wisconsin–Madison from 2006 to 2012 ...
. The Illini finished the season 5–7, 4–5 in Big Ten play to finish in fifth place in the West division.
The team's 20–18 victory over No. 7-ranked
Penn State #Redirect Pennsylvania State University
The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campu ...
set a NCAA record for the most overtime periods in one game, with nine.
Coaching staff
Schedule
Roster
Game summaries
Nebraska
UTSA
Virginia
Maryland
Purdue
Charlotte
*Sources:
Wisconsin
Penn State
Rutgers
No. 20 Minnesota
No. 17 Iowa
*Source
Box Score
Northwestern
Illinois-Northwestern football rivalry
References
{{Illinois Fighting Illini football navbox
Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...
Illinois Fighting Illini football seasons
Illinois Fighting Illini football
The Illinois Fighting Illini football program represents the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in college football at the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A) level. The Fighting Illini are a founding member of ...