Chris Irvin will start his first career Division I game Friday night for Western Illinois against FBS Illinois at Champaign’s Memorial Stadium. (Photo by Barry Bottino, PrairieStatePigskin.com)
By Barry Bottino
Long before Western Illinois quarterback Nate Lamb threw for 21 touchdowns and more than 3,300 yards last fall, Joe Davis had a dilemma.
The WIU coach had two quarterbacks he thought could handle revamping the Leathernecks’ offense in his first year in Macomb.
“Coming out of spring football, the competition between Chris Irvin and Nate Lamb was very close,” he said. “It continued that way into fall camp. We felt like we had QB1 and 1A.”
Friday night in Champaign, when Western opens its 2025 season against FBS Illinois (6:30 p.m., Peacock-TV), QB1A will get his shot.
Irvin, a junior who transferred in with Lamb last year, will make his first career Division I start when the Leathernecks take the field. This time, it was Irvin who won an off-season competition.
“It’s a huge opportunity for myself and our program and all of my teammates,” Irvin said. “I’m very excited. I love the way we’ve been practicing.”
Serving as the backup last season allowed Irvin to play in seven games, during which he completed 59% of his passes and threw three touchdowns. The experience proved invaluable.
“Being able to go in last year and have real game experience at the Division I level helped jump-start my off-season,” said Irvin, an Idaho native whose career started at FBS Washington State before a stop at Ventura College, a juco located about 70 miles north of Los Angeles. “Now I have a little bit more confidence in myself. It helps slow the game down a little bit.”
Davis, a longtime quarterback coach and offensive coordinator on the college level, said Irvin picked up WIU’s system quickly last season.
“Chris is a pretty football-intelligent quarterback,” he said. “Chris is pretty athletic and can run a lot of our QB run game. He has the arm talent to make every throw on the field. What Chris lacks right now is snaps, just getting into the fire.”
Despite the lack of D-I experience, Irvin said his personality can help guide the offense through different situations.
“I’m a very calm, collected person,” he said. “I’m not a huge rah-rah guy. I think what I’m good at is when things aren’t going well, I can hone myself in and lock in and bring everybody else with me.”
Western was the top-ranked offense in the OVC-Big South Football Association last season, a performance Irvin hopes to repeat.
“That’s the standard,” he said. “We have to uphold that. The sky’s the limit with us.”
Defensive changes: Statistically, the Leathernecks regressed last season on defense after back-to-back 0-11 seasons. Enter new defensive coordinator Landon Fox and a host of new players.
“The second and third levels, we completely revamped,” Davis said. “(Linebacker) Christian Pierce is our only returning starter.”
Joining Pierce on the second level are middle linebacker Kevin Washington Jr. (Bethune-Cookman) and strong-side linebacker Esteban Guillory (Murray State).
Safeties Buju Aumua-Tuisa (Saint Francis) and Malini Ti’a (Sacramento State) are transfers who have taken over in the secondary, along with cornerbacks Keith Moko (Northern Iowa) and Justin Richardson (Georgetown College).
This week’s opponent
Coming off a school record-tying 10-win season last fall, the Illini are ranked No. 12 in the Associated Press preseason Top 25 FBS poll. The team returns 18 starters from last season’s Cheez-It Bowl team, which beat South Carolina. That total is the most of any bowl team in FBS. … Quarterback Luke Altmyer and outside linebacker Gabe Jacas were voted by Big Ten Conference media to the league’s preseason honors list of the top 15 players in the conference. …. Head coach Bret Bielema’s 28-22 start as Illini head coach is the second-best 50-game stretch, trailing only Mike White, who was 30-19-1 from 1980 to 1984, in school history. … This is the Illini’s fourth game ever against WIU. Illinois is 3-0 in those contests, which were all played in Champaign.
Kickoff: 6:30 p.m.; TV: Peacock; Radio: Q981fm.com
Key matchup to watch
Illini QB Luke Altmyer vs. WIU defense: Altmyer enters the fall on preseason watch lists for the Maxwell Award, Walter Camp Player of the Year, Davey O’Brien Award, Manning Award, Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award and the Senior Bowl Top 300 prospects. He’s facing a defense that allowed 43 points a game om 2024. Altmyer, who is the catalyst for the Illini attack, threw 21 touchdowns and only five interceptions last season, while rushing for four TDs.
What’s at stake?
The Leathernecks are a big underdog against one of the Big Ten’s best teams. Showing that their offense can move the football and their defense can make some stops will be good guideposts for the Ohio Valley-Big South Football Association campaign.
Quick hits
Three new starters will be on the offensive line, which has begun to match Davis’ desire for size. Of the 20 linemen on the roster, only one of them is under 300 pounds. Edwardsville’s Dorian Arguelles (6-4, 340) played in five games last season as a true freshman and is slated to start at right guard. “He’s a big man that can move,” Davis said. “Talk about a dancing bear. Expectations are high for him.” Starting center James Durand (6-4, 305) “was a nice get in the transfer portal,” Davis said of the former Wisconsin Badger. “He’s probably our most versatile. I feel like James could be a starting tackle in our league. He solidified himself as one of our top offensive linemen very quickly in spring football.”’ California native Holden Grieger (6-7, 330) appeared in one game as a true freshman but made plenty of strides over the past year. “He’s really grown and progressed,” said Davis. The line also includes returnees Jeremiah Banks-Wall, a senior right tackle who missed most of last season due to injury, and Dagen Miller, a senior who started all 12 games at left tackle a year ago and will move to left guard this season. … Urbana-Champaign and the Davis family are not strangers. The coach’s wife, Whitney, is a University of Illinois grad, and they still own a home in Champaign County from Davis’ time at Eastern Illinois. … Former WIU head coach Myers Hendrickson, who was 0-22 in two seasons in Macomb, is now in his second season as a senior analyst for the Fighting Illini. … Redshirt freshman wide receiver Antwon McKay Jr., who was recruited as a dual-threat quarterback, has been moved to wide receiver. He is listed on the depth chart as a second-team receiver behind starter Christian Anaya. … Greiger and wide receiver Aric Johnson are the youngest starters on the team. Both are redshirt freshmen in their second season on campus.
Barry Bottino is a co-founder of Prairie State Pigskin and a 19-year veteran of three Illinois newspapers. He has covered college athletics since 1995.
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