2016 Illinois Fighting Illini football team explained

Mode:	football
Year:	2016
Team:	Illinois Fighting Illini
Conference:	Big Ten Conference
Division:	West Division
Short Conf:	Big Ten
Record:	3–9
Conf Record:	2–7
Head Coach:	Lovie Smith
Hc Year:	1st
Off Coach:	Garrick McGee
Oc Year:	1st
Def Coach:	Hardy Nickerson
Dc Year:	1st
Off Scheme:	Multiple
Def Scheme:	4–3
Stadium:	Memorial Stadium

The 2016 Illinois Fighting Illini football team represented the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign in the 2016 NCAA Division I FBS football season. They were led by first-year head coach Lovie Smith and played their home games at Memorial Stadium in Champaign, Illinois. They were members of the West Division of the Big Ten Conference. They finished the season 3–9, 2–7 in Big Ten play to finish in sixth place in the West Division.

Schedule

The team will host all three non–conference games which are against the Murray State Racers from the Ohio Valley Conference, North Carolina Tar Heels from the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), and the Western Michigan Broncos from the Mid-American Conference (MAC).

Schedule Source:^[1]

Game summaries

Murray State

See also: 2016 Murray State Racers football team.

North Carolina

See also: 2016 North Carolina Tar Heels football team.

Western Michigan

See also: 2016 Western Michigan Broncos football team.

At Nebraska

See also: 2016 Nebraska Cornhuskers football team.

Purdue

See also: 2016 Purdue Boilermakers football team and Illinois–Purdue football rivalry.

At Rutgers

See also: 2016 Rutgers Scarlet Knights football team.

At Michigan

See also: 2016 Michigan Wolverines football team and Illinois–Michigan football rivalry.

Minnesota

See also: 2016 Minnesota Golden Gophers football team.

Michigan State

See also: 2016 Michigan State Spartans football team.

At #7 Wisconsin

See also: 2016 Wisconsin Badgers football team.

Iowa

See also: 2016 Iowa Hawkeyes football team.

At Northwestern

See also: 2016 Northwestern Wildcats football team and Illinois–Northwestern football rivalry.

Awards and honors

Weekly

Weekly Awards

Player	Award	Date Awarded	Ref.
Patrick Nelson	Big Ten Freshman of the Week	October 17, 2016	^[2]
Tré Watson	Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week	November 7, 2016	^[3]

All-Conference

All-Big Ten^{[4] [5]}

Player	Selection
Dawuane Smoot	Third Team (Coaches & Media)
Hardy Nickerson Jr.	Honorable Mention (Coaches & Media)
Carroll Phillips	First Team (Media) Honorable Mention (Coaches)
Joe Spencer	Honorable Mention (Media)
Tré Watson	Honorable Mention (Media)

Notes and References

1. Web site: 2016 Illinois Fighting Illini Football Schedule. FB Schedules. December 6, 2015.
2. Web site: Big Ten Football Players of the Week . October 17, 2016 . Big Ten Conference . . November 16, 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20161117064458/http://www.bigten.org/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/101716aaa.html . November 17, 2016 . dead .
3. Web site: Big Ten Football Players of the Week . November 7, 2016 . Big Ten Conference . . November 16, 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20161113140829/http://www.bigten.org/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/110716aaa.html . November 13, 2016 . dead . mdy-all .
4. Web site: 2016 Big Ten Individual Award Winners . November 29, 2016 . Big Ten Conference . www.grfx.cstv.com . November 30, 2016 . November 29, 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20161129231830/http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/big10/sports/m-footbl/auto_pdf/2016-17/misc_non_event/FBTuesAllB1G.pdf . dead .
5. Web site: 2016 Big Ten Individual Award Winners . Big Ten Conference . www.grfx.cstv.com . December 1, 2016 . September 28, 2018 . https://web.archive.org/web/20180928055540/http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/big10/sports/m-footbl/auto_pdf/2016-17/misc_non_event/16fbawardwinners.pdf . dead .