Ep. 1015 - BTN's Howard Griffith and Jake Butt on Illini football's 2025 outlook
Illini Inquirer Podcast: An Illinois Fighting Illini athletics podcast
247Sports, Illinois, Illinois Football, Illinois Basketball, Illinois Athletics, College Football, C
4.9 • 575 Ratings
🗓️ 24 July 2025
⏱️ 34 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
BTN analyst and Illini great Howard Griffith chats with Illini Inquirer's Jeremy Werner and Joey Wagner about why he's bought into Bret Bielema bringing sustained success to Illinois, what he thinks of the Illinois offense and defense and his outlook on the season and Illinois recruiting.
Then Big Ten Network analyst Jake Butt chats with Werner about high expectations for Illinois in 2025, what stands out about the Illini schematically, their schedule and more.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Today on the Alina Inquirer podcast, let's get some insight on Illinois football yet again from |
| 0:17.9 | Las Vegas. |
| 0:18.9 | We're tapping into two of the best analysts on Big Ten Network. |
| 0:22.1 | We talked with Howard Griffith, O'Ini, great about Illinois and why he is bought into Brett |
| 0:27.6 | Beulma and this program long term. What he thinks going into this season. Get some running back |
| 0:33.2 | thoughts from running back great for Howard Griffith, a record holder at Illinois. We also chat to him about recruiting for Illinois and what he's seen, Illinois, improvement-wise, there, since his son, Houston Griffith was recruited, went to Notre Dame over Illinois. But Houston now on the staff at Illinois for the last couple of years. We talked about Houston as well. Then we talk with Jake Butt, |
| 0:54.7 | who I think is a really rising star in the business about his thoughts on Illinois and Brett Bielma, |
| 1:00.5 | the schedule ahead for them, past catchers for them, and potentially what adding a dynamic |
| 1:05.9 | tight end, whether that is Cole Rusk or Daven Stoffel or Christian Abney, what that could mean for the offense moving forward. |
| 1:12.6 | Also Bears fans ask him about their first round pick. Colston-Levelin, a former Michigan tight end as well. |
| 1:17.6 | So a lot of fun to catch up with these guys, get some real good insight from some people outside the program who obviously got a national perspective on all of this as well. |
| 1:25.6 | So we got plenty more coming from Big Ten Media Days, but two great conversations we had. |
| 1:31.0 | Hope you enjoy this one. |
| 1:31.9 | Talking some of Wadai football next on the YWanah Enquirer podcast. |
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