By Matt Stevens – IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst
September 6, 2025
(Cover photo courtesy Illinois Athletics)
DURHAM, N.C. — So, here’s a dirty little secret of what you just watched this afternoon and what took place on this Saturday afternoon over three hours and 40 minutes in Durham, North Carolina.
That is what a veteran-based team with years of continuity in the coaching staff and ranked No. 11 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll, is supposed to do to an unranked team with no home crowd advantage.
Sure, it may seem like a foreign concept or a long-lost memory to many diehard followers of the orange and blue (well, actually, you should actually remember seeing it on the wrong end too many times at Memorial Stadium) but that may be a thing of the past now.