Asmussen | What kind of spring crowd will Illini draw? We'll see

Mar. 30—CHAMPAIGN — At Ohio State, Iowa, Michigan and Wisconsin, spring football is a big deal. Not SEC big, but close.

At Nebraska, spring game attendance hit 80,000-plus in 2018 and 2019 and is expected to climb again after a dip during the back end of the Scott Frost era. The crowd for the April 22 game is projected at 55,000, give or take. Illinois has only had one regular-season crowd that large since 2016 (an announced 56,092 for Michigan State in 2022).

Bret Bielema's team is coming off a breakout season. Eight wins, the most since the 2008 Rose Bowl qualifiers.

Seats should be flying out of the digital ticket window at a record pace. Especially, with reduced prices set by the athletic department.

The spring game is set for April 20, a Thursday night. Great for BTN, which will show the scrimmage that kicks off at 6:30 p.m. And great for Bielema and his staff's recruiting. They are hoping the next Johnny Newton and Isaiah Williams will be tuning in.

No way to know how big the crowd will be. But not 55,000.

The spring football crowds at Illinois, at least in the 30-plus years I've been here, have never topped attendance for a men's basketball game at State Farm Center.

The largest I remember was the 10,000 or so who came out to see Arrelious Benn's debut in 2007. That turned out to be a smart crowd, which got in on the ground floor of a nine-win season.

Benn was worth the price of admission, which if memory serves was either $5 or free.

Illinois football today enjoys its strongest footing since 2008. The head coach is popular with the fandom and the administration. He put together a talented staff that was able to withstand the loss of three coaches to other jobs.

There is potential on both sides of the ball, with a few question marks. Can Luke Altmyer (or John Paddock or Donovan Leary) slide smoothly into Tommy DeVito's cleats and play the same mistake-free, winning style at quarterback? Can the young secondary prevent a falloff after the departutre of standouts Devon Witherspoon, Sydney Brown and Quan Martin? Is there a two-headed answer to who replaces superstar tailback Chase Brown?

Bielema has time and a plan. Illinois opens against better-than-you-realize Toledo on Sept. 2 at Memorial Stadium in Champaign. That's 156 days for Illinois to get ready.

Critical momentHistorically, Illinois football has often followed a good season with a mediocre or bad one. It is Bielema's job to break the pattern.

The schedule isn't daunting. No Ohio State or Michigan. Wisconsin at home. Winnable nonconference games against Toledo, Kansas and Florida Atlantic. Good news: It's not the Owls' men's basketball team that will play in the Final Four against fellow upstart San Diego State on Saturday night in Houston.

Bielema's look-forward approach seems perfect for the situation. What happened in the past has nothing to do with the present. He got a kick out of all the firsts the team accomplished in 2022, ending lengthy losing skids against Wisconsin and Iowa. And being ranked in The Associated Press Top 25 for the first time in a decade.

Bielema and athletic director Josh Whitman have talked often about program building. It doesn't happen in a day or a week or a season. Going into his third season, Bielema is far ahead of any kind of reasonable timeline.

He won year after year at Wisconsin, but that was different. The foundation established by Barry Alvarez was so good.

Here, it is much more of a rebuild. Bielema stepped on a few toes early, moving out some longtime staffers. He had to do what he thought was best and so far, the results have been all good.

In the newsIllinois football continues spring workouts, yet the headlines both in our paper and online deal mostly with basketball.

Is that always going to be the case? Maybe. The basketball transfer portal has names you recognize in the Big Ten and beyond. You see the players' faces and feel like you get to know them.

Celebrity in football beyond the quarterbacks is not at the same level as basketball. When an offensive tackle or safety moves from one school to another, it is a big deal to the teams and the athletes. But not to all of the casual fans.

There will be some vital transfer moves in football this season that won't draw the deserved amount of attention until the season starts and their teams rise and fall based on their play.

Basketball is easier for the casual fan to follow. If a school lands a 20-point scorer, everyone knows what that means. When a school adds a three-technique defensive tackle in football, some are left wondering what is the big deal.

The offseason in football at Illinois will rarely draw as much interest as what is going on in basketball. That is the reality.

But, if Bielema's team wins the Big Ten West in 2023, roster changes become a bigger deal in the future.

Fans at Illinois haven't had a consistent winner in football since the John Mackovic era. That was more than 30 years ago.

If the change in interest happens, it won't be overnight.