Illinois football training camp is officially underway. Press conference with Bret Bielema, Barry Lunney Jr. and Aaron Henry today. Meetings and first practice tomorrow evening. #Illini

Barry Lunney Jr.: (Collin Dixon) is cut from the same cloth as Pat Bryant in the way he works and the way he blocks. ... Big things are headed for him. #Illini

Barry Lunney Jr.: You've got to manage pushing Luke Altmyer and the other guys who are familiar with what we're doing while not leaving new faces and new additions behind. #Illini

Barry Lunney Jr.: Kaden Feagin is ready to go. Fully cleared. #Illini

Barry Lunney Jr.: Tight end room has evolved a lot. Similar situation there as we have at receiver. Injected some new faces, but we also have some established players we feel good about. #Illini

Barry Lunney Jr.: Freshman QB Carson Boyd has a tremendous skill set physically in terms of the arm and the mobility. Super impressed with the way he continues to carry himself. #Illini

Aaron Henry: This is probably, across the board, the deepest we've been from guys you may consider as starters to the guys behind them. #Illini

Aaron Henry: Coach always talks about maximizing your roster. Different guys bring different values. It's our job as coaches to maximize their strengths. We had players we felt played better in space and they had packages where they could play more in space. #Illini

Aaron Henry: Will you see us in some unique sub-packages? For sure. Because we have the players to do so. #Illini

Aaron Henry's pillars of #Illini defense ... Passion. Toughness. Integrity. Effort.

Bret Bielema: Injury wise, there's 2-3 guys that will be a little bit restricted. All of the guys that didn't participate in the spring are cleared to go (Kaden Feagin, Miles Scott, Xavier Scott for example). They've been with us the last half of the summer. #Illini

Bret Bielema: Freshman TE Grant Smith only player who won't be available this fall (at least as camp starts). #Illini

Bret Bielema: Enter camp with 116 players. Will have to get to ~110 by first game. #Illini

Bret Bielema: I know the expectation and spotlight is new for our players and the fan base. I'd like this to become more of the norm than the exception. #Illini

Bret Bielema: Gabe Jacas looks better than I've ever seen him look and is as wired in as I've ever seen. #Illini

Bret Bielema: We had 46 guys run over 20 mph. Normally we've been in the 25-30 (players) range. Two that hit that mark? Kaden Feagin (6-foot-3, 250 pounds) and Gabe Jacas (6-3, 275). #Illini

Community-service driven Wuerffel Trophy watch list includes Illinois Football linebacker Kenenna Odeluga. #Illini news-gazette.com/sports/odeluga…

Former area stars turned Illinois Football running backs Aidan Laughery and Kaden Feagin have served as an inspiration for their alma maters. #Illini Story from Scott Richey: news-gazette.com/sports/feagin-…

Plenty of Illinois Football notes from our Scott Richey on the eve of training camp, including the need to trim the roster before the season opener, an injury update for a mostly healthy team) and a bulked up Luke Altmyer. #Illini news-gazette.com/sports/notes-i…

Friday's N-G sports cover features Joey Wright on SJO Football, the No. 5 team in our area preseason Top 10 rankings, plus Bob Asmussen on #Illini football, Scott Richey on #Illini men's basketball and Matt Daniels's latest Daily Pitch. APSE