On New Year’s Eve, when Illinois takes the field in sunny Orlando, Florida, to face South Carolina in the Citrus Bowl (2 p.m. CT, on ESPN), it will be a day of firsts for Illini football.

leading into eventual College Football Playoff quarterfinal action. Zain Bando is a freelance writer for The Sporting News. He is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and ...