What to know about every team before kickoff

Welcome to the 2025 college football season.

The Big Ten, which has won the last two national championships, for the third year in a row has two of the top three teams and six in the Top 25 — including No. 12 Illinois. Here’s what to know about the 18-team conference before kickoff.

Illinois

In the middle of a recent media briefing, while running through injury updates and practice plans, Illinois football coach Bret Bielema paused to offer thanks to students.

In Bielema’s first season in Champaign in 2021, the Illini sold about 3,800 student season tickets, he said. Less than two weeks before the season opener against Western Illinois at Memorial Stadium, the Illinois athletic department announced it had sold out its 8,250 student season tickets, on top of the public season tickets that also sold out.

It’s proof of the excitement building around an Illinois program that is ranked No. 12 in both the Associated Press and coaches preseason polls and is talked about as a potential College Football Playoff contender. Bielema’s team has its work cut out to fulfill such expectations. As they prepare to kick off their season Friday in Champaign, here are five questions facing the Illini. Read more here.

Northwestern

Northwestern coach David Braun doesn’t try to gloss over his team’s disappointing showing in 2024, when the Wildcats beat only Miami (Ohio), Eastern Illinois, Maryland and Purdue. “You can’t spray perfume on a 4-8 season,” the third-year coach said. “It just stinks.”

But Braun and the Wildcats have tried to use the discontent they felt last season as the impetus to create change within the program.

With quarterback Preston Stone leading a group of key transfers, Northwestern looks to rediscover some of its success in Braun’s first year, when it went 8-5 and he was named 2023 Big Ten Coach of the Year. As the Wildcats prepare to open the season Saturday at Tulane, here are five questions for their season. Read more here.

Indiana

Indiana Hoosiers coach Curt Cignetti is starting anew this season with a familiar playbook His new starting quarterback has experience and an all-conference resume. He’s plugged other holes thanks to the transfer portal. He might even challenge Google to update his bio: Cignetti still wins.

While it took 11 wins and a historical first season in Bloomington, Indiana, to prove himself to a national audience, the Associated Press Coach of the Year isn’t talking about an encore or his team’s No. 20 preseason ranking. He’d rather rewrite Indiana’s record books again.

“That’s the main reason I came here,” new quarterback Fernando Mendoza said in the spring. “He’s an offensive mind, he holds everyone to a high standard, his program always wins and those are two things I want — to be held to a high standard and win.” Read more here.

Iowa

Quarterbacks aren’t supposed to get hit in practice, but Mark Gronowski wouldn’t mind getting tackled a few times before the season.

“I’m a guy that loves contact,” Iowa’s first-year quarterback said. “I love getting hit to start off games. Just get the feel of it, especially to start the season off. I haven’t been hit all offseason, all fall camp, as we try to protect the quarterbacks, but I’ll put my body on the line when we need to.”

It’s probably not wise, though, for Gronowski to take too many shots. The South Dakota State transfer is the central figure in an offense that is starved for better quarterback production. The Hawkeyes used three quarterbacks as injuries mounted last season, and they ranked 129th in passing. It’s why Iowa went out and got Gronowski. Read more here.

Maryland

Last season was the first time in five years that Taulia Tagovailoa wasn’t the quarterback at Maryland. It didn’t go well. Now, a long-term replacement may have arrived.

It’s not yet clear if freshman Malik Washington will start the opener for the Terrapins, but he very much represents the future for this program. A local kid from nearby Glen Burnie, Washington is the type of recruit who can help a program like Maryland earn credibility — and he’s joining a coach who has shown he can produce big passing numbers if the right player is doing the throwing.

Coach Michael Locksley said the public wouldn’t know Maryland’s starting quarterback until game time against Florida Atlantic in the opener Aug. 30. But the Terrapins made Washington available to reporters during spring practice, which said a lot about what Locksley thinks of him. He’s a top-five quarterback recruit this year according to 247Sports, which ranks Maryland’s overall class 25th nationally. Read more here.

Michigan

Bryce Underwood is ready to have all eyes on him this season, playing quarterback for No. 14 Michigan hailed as the top-rated recruit in the country. He’s also ready to take some hits.

The 6-foot-4, 230-pound Underwood told two reporters earlier this summer — at a car dealership that leveraged his name, image and likeness to draw fans for autographs — that he has put on 15 pounds of muscle to get bigger, stronger and quicker.

The Wolverines trail four Big Ten teams in the AP Top 25, but Underwood said people should expect a lot from them on both sides of the ball. “Offense and defense that they never seen before,” he said. Read more here.

Michigan State

Michigan State’s football program is desperately seeking a successful season. Aidan Chiles seems to give the Spartans a shot. The dual-threat quarterback is back after an uneven season as the starter and said he likes what he sees from his teammates.

“A lot of good energy,” he said. “It’s a different environment for sure. New guys that fit the program and fit the culture.”

Michigan State was 5-7 last year in coach Jonathan Smith’s debut season leading a program with only one winning record in a seven-season stretch. Smith, a former Oregon State coach, appeared to have a relatively successful offseason by retaining 70-plus players who decided to stay instead of transferring. Read more here.

Minnesota

Max Brosmer’s short-but-stellar stay shaped Minnesota into a dangerous passing team last season, when the Gophers threw the ball more times than they ran it for the first time in 17 years.

Brosmer is in the NFL now, a promising prospect playing just down the road with the Vikings who has handed the reins to the offense to redshirt freshman Drake Lindsey. Therein lies the biggest questions facing the Gophers in 2025: How quickly can Lindsey develop, and how committed will coach P.J. Fleck and offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Greg Harbaugh Jr. remain to the passing attack? Read more here.

Nebraska

It’s Year 3 of the Matt Rhule era at Nebraska, the one the program has been pointing to since his hiring. The third season is where Rhule’s previous college teams have made their biggest jumps, and the stage is set for the same to happen for the Cornhuskers.

Dylan Raiola will be in his second year as the starting quarterback and his first full season with offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen. Veteran defensive coordinator John Butler enters his first full season running a unit ranked in the top 20 last year. The schedule is favorable.

“I believe we can do something special this year,” Raiola said. “We’ll find out pretty soon.” Read more here.

Ohio State

Ohio State coach Ryan Day has tried to make one thing clear: This season’s team is the 2025 Buckeyes, not the defending national champions.

“The team we have currently wants to leave their own legacy. They’ve made that clear,” Day said. “We’ve said before that we’re not defending national champions because we’re not defending anything. They can’t take the trophy away, but we’re looking to add to it and winning a championship with this team.”

The third-ranked Buckeyes go into their Aug. 30 titanic matchup against No. 1 Texas a much different squad than the one that beat Notre Dame to win the program’s eighth national championship. They had 14 players selected in the NFL draft in April, tied for the most in program history and one off the all-time mark held by Georgia in 2023. Ohio State also lost both coordinators. Offensive coordinator Chip Kelly went to the Las Vegas Raiders and Jim Knowles became the highest-paid defensive coordinator in college football with his move to No. 2 Penn State.

The Buckeyes’ cupboard is far from empty. Sophomore Jeremiah Smith established himself as one of the top wide receivers in college football last year and safety Caleb Downs is projected as a top five pick in next year’s draft. Read more here.

Oregon

Oregon made a splash during its first year in the Big Ten, going undefeated in the regular season and winning the conference title with a victory over Penn State in the championship game.

So what do the Ducks do for an encore in season No. 2? Well, that’s coach Dan Lanning’s theme for the season: double down.

There are some big changes this season. Ten Oregon players from last season went to the NFL. Among them was senior quarterback Dillon Gabriel, who is now with the Cleveland Browns after winning the Chicago Tribune Silver Football.

His likely replacement is Dante Moore, a sophomore who played for UCLA as a freshman before serving as Gabriel’s backup last season and eventually taking a redshirt. The former five-star recruit appeared in five games last season, completing 7-of-8 passes for 49 yards. Read more here.

Penn State

The longer Penn State quarterback Drew Allar weighed his options, the more he thought how sweet it would be to bring a national championship to Happy Valley.

After No. 2 Penn State’s down-to-the-wire loss to Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff semifinal last season, the allure of unfinished business outweighed professional prospects for the rocket-armed senior who’ll lead one of college football’s deepest and most experienced teams.

“I know how much better I want to be as a player and leave my mark on Penn State and obviously accomplish the thing that we came close to last year but came up short in,” Allar said.

He’ll be joined by 15 returning starters who won a program-best 13 games last season. Star running backs Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen, and standout defensive linemen Dani Dennis-Sutton and Zane Durant also opted to delay their NFL careers to chase the program’s first NCAA championship since 1986. Read more here.

Purdue

Three years after playing for a Big Ten title, the Purdue Boilermakers are starting over. They hope to snap the FBS’ second-longest losing streak at 11, want to prove last season’s 1-11 mark was the aberration and are counting on a new coaching staff and a flurry of transfers to quickly restore the luster to the Cradle of Quarterbacks.

It’s quite a responsibility for new coach Barry Odom but he says he is already seeing progress.

“The habits are starting to show up,” he said early in summer camp. “We’re not making the same mistake two days in a row. We’re seeing some physicality at the line of scrimmage, both sides, and that’s good to see.” Read more here.

Rutgers

Rutgers coach Greg Schiano brought in a program-record 19 players in the transfer portal this season, placing an emphasis on improving his defense and bolstering the offensive line.

The Scarlet Knights return four starters on the offensive front, and have five new players joining that group. Read more here.

UCLA

DeShaun Foster got busy overhauling most of his coaching staff after his first season at UCLA. He upgraded the roster, making a splash in the transfer portal by landing quarterback Nico Iamaleava. Iamaleava left Tennessee before the spring game to return home to Los Angeles, where he’ll try to take the Bruins to heights they haven’t been in years.

UCLA was 5-7 overall and 3-6 in its debut season in the Big Ten Conference under Foster. The Bruins’ last double-digit win season was in 2014 and they’ve made just three bowl appearances since 2017, losing twice.

Iamaleava is among 55 new players in Westwood, along with eight new assistants. He didn’t participate in spring camp, so how quickly the Bruins come together will be something to watch. Read more here.

USC

Lincoln Riley always speaks glowingly of the future at Southern California, with extraordinary recruiting classes and a lavish training complex on the way to lift the Trojans back to their customary perch atop college football.

Sure, the future could be great. But Trojans fans really wish Riley had done something to make the present more attractive after two mediocre seasons under their high-priced coach.

USC is not ranked in the preseason AP Top 25 for the first time since 2019, reflecting the college football world’s skepticism about the state of Riley’s project in its fourth year. It’s still unclear whether Riley and defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn can translate USC’s vaunted brand, bountiful resources and roster talent into wins.

Riley’s first USC team won 11 of its first 12 games with Caleb Williams working wonders, but the high-priced coach is 15-13 since then. USC went 7-6 in its Big Ten debut last season, needing a late comeback to steal the Las Vegas Bowl from Texas A&M just to avoid posting the Trojans’ third losing record since 2000. Read more here.

Washington

Getting some strong quarterback play out of Demond Williams Jr. would go a long way as Washington looks to improve upon the 6-7 record it posted in its first Big Ten season.

Williams, who appeared in 13 games for the Huskies as a freshman and completed over 78% of his passes, drew praise from first-year offensive coordinator Jimmie Dougherty at the beginning of fall practice, not just for his passing abilities, but also his attention to detail.

With Williams and Jonah Coleman back in Seattle, as well as wide receiver Denzel Boston, who had 63 catches for 834 receiving yards in 2024, the Huskies have a trio of offensive weapons that can stack up with plenty of others in the conference. But, as Fisch noted, competition will be stiff in a conference that produced four College Football Playoff teams a year ago. Read more here.

Wisconsin

Wisconsin wants to start a new string of bowl appearances after allowing its streak of 22 straight winning season to end with a late tailspin a year ago. A demanding schedule will complicate that effort.

The Badgers face six teams ranked 20th or higher in the preseason Associated Press Top 25: No. 3 Ohio State, No. 7 Oregon, No. 8 Alabama, No. 12 Illinois, No. 14 Michigan and No. 20 Indiana. Four of those six games are away from home. That’s a tough road for any team, particularly one trying to regain its footing after ending 2024 with five straight losses.

Wisconsin has gone 13-13 under coach Luke Fickell, who took over the Badgers after going 53-10 with one College Football Playoff appearance in his last five seasons at Cincinnati. Read more here.