1954 Illinois
1–8 (0–6 Big Ten), coached by Ray Eliot. Share
Schedule and results
- Biggest winBeat Syracuse 34–6Oct 23
By 28 points, its widest win.
| Date | Opponent | Result | Elo |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 25 | vs Penn State | L 12–14 | 59% |
| Oct 2 | at Stanford | L 2–12 | 44% |
| Oct 9 | vs 10Ohio State | L 7–40 | 56% |
| Oct 16 | at 11Minnesota | L 6–19 | 34% |
| Oct 23 | vs Syracuse | W 34–6 | 54% |
| Oct 30 | at 9Purdue | L 14–28 | 35% |
| Nov 6 | at Michigan | L 7–14 | 35% |
| Nov 13 | vs 14Wisconsin | L 14–27 | 38% |
| Nov 20 | vs Northwestern | L 7–20 | 73% |
Elo: a pregame chance from scores alone.
How it ended: Lost to Northwestern 20–7; unranked in the final AP poll; 10th in the Big Ten.
In program history: The tied 96th-best season in program history by end-of-season Elo (of 135 on file).
AP poll, week by week
- Wk 1: 5
- Wk 2: 6
Players on this team
Before 2004 our records hold honors and the draft; these are the players whose college years here, from their Wikipedia articles or their honors, include 1954.
- Record
- 1–8
- Conference
- 0–6 10th in Big Ten
- AP final
- Unranked peak No. 5
- Points
- 103–180
- Coach
- Ray Eliot
- Elo
- 1447 −153 this season
- SP+ rating
- —
- SRS
- 3.3 No. 47 of 111 major-college teams
- Recruiting class
- —
- Captain
- Jan Smid
- Most valuable player
- Jack Chamblin
All-Big Ten
1 second teamSecond team
Jan SmidOGAP-2; UP-2; INS-2; Ed-2
From Wikipedia’s 1954 all-conference team article, with the selectors that named each player (AP-1: the Associated Press’s first team).
1954 Big Ten standings
Conference page| Team | Conf. | Overall | AP final |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ohio State | 7–0 | 10–0 | 1 |
| Wisconsin | 5–2 | 7–2 | 9 |
| Michigan | 5–2 | 6–3 | 15 |
| Minnesota | 4–2 | 7–2 | |
 Iowa | 4–3 | 5–4 | |
| Purdue | 3–3 | 5–3–1 | |
 Indiana | 2–4 | 3–6 | |
 Michigan State | 1–5 | 3–6 | |
| Northwestern | 1–5 | 2–7 | |
| Illinois | 0–6 | 1–8 |
Ordered by conference winning percentage, then conference wins. Division splits and tiebreakers aren’t applied.