Illinois vs. Minnesota
Illinois and Minnesota have 77 meetings on file, the first in 1898; Minnesota leads the series 41–33–3 in the games on file. Over the last 10 meetings it’s Minnesota 6–4. Share
2027 at Minnesota. As the programs’ Wikipedia articles list them (CC BY-SA).
- Illinois wins
- 33
- Minnesota wins
- 41
- Ties
- 3
- Earliest on file
- 1898
- Longest streak
- 7 Minnesota
- Current streak
- 1 Minnesota
- Last 10 meetings
- Minnesota 6–4
- Most recent
- 2024
The series at a glance
| ’0 | ’1 | ’2 | ’3 | ’4 | ’5 | ’6 | ’7 | ’8 | ’9 | W–L | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1890s | 1–0 | ||||||||||
| 1900s | 0–4 | ||||||||||
| 1910s | 3–4–1 | ||||||||||
| 1920s | 1–1 | ||||||||||
| 1940s | 2–2 | ||||||||||
| 1950s | 5–3 | ||||||||||
| 1960s | 2–5 | ||||||||||
| 1970s | 2–4–1 | ||||||||||
| 1980s | 5–1–1 | ||||||||||
| 1990s | 4–3 | ||||||||||
| 2000s | 3–5 | ||||||||||
| 2010s | 2–7 | ||||||||||
| 2020s | 3–2 |
- Both ranked
- 1 meeting: Illinois 1, Minnesota 0
- Average margin
- 14.1 points; 26 decided by one score (8 or fewer)
- At Illinois
- 20–18–1 Illinois’s record at home
- At Minnesota
- 23–13–2 Minnesota’s record at home
- Shutouts
- 11
Every meeting on file, as played. Ranks are the AP poll’s going in.
Games that tell the story
- Illinois’s biggest win1984: Illinois 48, Minnesota 3by 45 points
- Minnesota’s biggest win2004: Minnesota 45, Illinois 0by 45 points
- Upset2021: Illinois 14, Minnesota 6Illinois had a 16% chance, by our ratings before kickoff
- Upset2010: Minnesota 38, Illinois 34Minnesota had a 21% chance, by our ratings before kickoff
- Upset2023: Illinois 27, Minnesota 26Illinois had a 26% chance, by our ratings before kickoff
- Ranked showdown1947: Illinois 40, Minnesota 13No. 13 Minnesota at No. 6 Illinois
Coach against coach
| Years | Illinois | Series | Minnesota |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1913–1920 | Robert Zuppke | 4–2–1 | Henry Williams |
| 1954–1959 | Ray Eliot | 4–2 | Murray Warmath |
| 1960–1964 | Pete Elliott | 2–3 | Murray Warmath |
| 1973–1976 | Bob Blackman | 2–2 | Cal Stoll |
| 1980–1983 | Mike White | 3–1 | Joe Salem |
| 1992–1996 | Lou Tepper | 3–2 | Jim Wacker |
| 1999–2004 | Ron Turner | 1–5 | Glen Mason |
| 2007–2009 | Ron Zook | 2–1 | Tim Brewster |
| 2017–2020 | Lovie Smith | 1–3 | P.J. Fleck |
| 2021–2024 | Bret Bielema | 3–1 | P.J. Fleck |
Head-coach pairings with three or more meetings on file, the series read from Illinois’s side (Zuppke 4–2–1 against Williams). A season split between coaches goes to the one credited with the game.
Both programs through the years
Our Elo rating at the end of each season, a measure of how strong a team was, not a forecast; 1500 is an average FBS team.
Stars of the series
Biggest days
| Juice Williams Illinois | 26 of 41, 462 yards, 2 TD, 1 INT | 2008 Passing | |
| Mohamed Ibrahim Minnesota | 30 carries, 224 yards, 4 TD | 2020 Rushing | |
| Shannon Brooks Minnesota | 17 carries, 174 yards, 3 TD | 2015 Rushing | |
| Dele Harding Illinois | 15 tackles, 1 for loss, 1 INT, 1 TD | 2019 Defense | |
| Rodney Smith Minnesota | 24 carries, 211 yards, 1 TD | 2019 Rushing |
Biggest days: the week’s best individual games by our big-days rule, from box scores (2004 on).
From the newspapers
1901 · The Saint Paul globe, St. Paul, Minn., Nov 29, 1901
1902 · The Indianapolis journal, Indianapolis [Ind.], Nov 9, 1902
1903 · The Indianapolis journal, Indianapolis [Ind.], Nov 15, 1903
1911 · The Salt Lake tribune. (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, Utah, Nov 26, 1911
1912 · The Fargo forum and daily republican, Fargo, N.D., Nov 5, 1912
Public-domain newspapers from the Library of Congress’s Chronicling America, found through the American Stories dataset (Dell and Harvard, CC BY 4.0). The earliest meetings with a story on file; each game’s page has the full text.
Every game
Every game is listed as played on the field.