In perhaps a minor surprise, Syracuse transfer Tommy DeVito today was named the starting quarterback for Illinois by Coach Bret Bielema for Saturday's season opener against Wyoming, beating out semi-incumbent Art Sitkowski. The Illini are 11-point home favorites for the Week 0 matchup at Caesars Sportsbook. This news hasn't changed the spread.
Bielema said Monday he knew who the starting quarterback was and that the team knew and that he didn't plan on saying before game day. Apparently he changed his mind this morning: "Tommy DeVito is going to be our starter. You guys all wanted to know that, right? As we got into the week, there were certain things I had to do for TV and releasing certain people and it started to get leaked out there."
The 24-year-old DeVito, a senior, played in 24 games with 15 starts over three seasons (missed most of 2020 injured) at Syracuse. He started the first three games last year and was 32-for-52 for 388 yards, a TD and two picks while rushing for 90 yards and a score. DeVito lost his job to Garrett Shrader and entered the transfer portal following Week 6.
DeVito ranks in the top 10 all-time at Syracuse in completion percentage (7th - 58.6), passer rating (8th - 128.1), passing yards per game (7th - 144.9), touchdown passes (7th - 27), completions (9th - 305) and passing yards (10th - 3,478). He was excellent in 2019 for the Orange. DeVito committed to Illinois when Tony Petersen was still the Illini offensive coordinator, but Petersen was fired by Bielema after the season as Illinois finished 121st nationally in passing (156.2 ypg) and 116th in scoring (20.2 ppg).
Sitkowski started three games last year and was 74-for-148 passing for 704 yards and six touchdowns. He eventually lost his job, broke his arm, and missed all of spring practices while recovering. Sitkowski threw only two interceptions on 229 attempts from 2020-21, the third-best ratio among Power 5 quarterbacks over the two-year stretch.
Wyoming lost its top two quarterbacks from last season to the transfer portal in Sean Chambers and Levi Williams, and Coach Craig Bohl still has yet to announce his starter between Utah State transfer Andrew Peasley or JuCo transfer Evan Svoboda. Most believe it will be Peasley simply because he played all four years with the Aggies. Wyoming was 117th in the FBS in passing yards (162.7 per game) and 84th in scoring (25.4 points per game) during last year's 7-6 finish.
Illinois and Wyoming have never met. Illini offensive line coach Bart Miller served as the Cowboys' offensive line coach in 2019 and 2020. Wyoming hasn't played a Big Ten team since 2017 (Iowa) and its only win over a school from the conference was a 21-12 effort over Wisconsin in Madison on Sept. 27, 1986.
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