But certain years enter with “this team could be the one to win the national championship” expectations. That most recently happened two years ago when Adrien Dumont de Chassart and Tommy Kuhl returned for fifth seasons of eligibility and led Illinois to its eighth-straight Big Ten Championship and a return to NCAA match play only to fall to Florida State in the quarterfinal.

Last season looked like a retooling year for Small, and the team was less consistent than the year prior and the Illini’s Big Ten title streak was snapped by Northwestern. But the Illini went on to win their NCAA Regional, took first place in NCAA Championships stroke play and advanced to match play again, only to lose in the first round as the top seed to Georgia Tech.

But with the top three golfers from that team returning, headlined by two preseason All-Americans —  senior Jackson Buchanan and sophomore Max Herendeen — expectations are extra high for the Illini, who start the season No. 9 in the Bushnell/GolfWeek coaches poll.

“We don’t write them down, but we’re going to win a national championship and that’s our goal,” Buchanan told Illini Inquirer. “That’s kind of what we think about — but it’s one step at a time. …One tournament at a time, but high expectations for sure.”

Of course, Small’s success has come in large part due to his ability to get talented players to embrace but manage those expectations by focusing on the day-to-day task of improving and competing at the highest level. And he’s been pretty darn good at it as his teams routinely peak in the spring just as the postseason hits.

“Expectations are good, but also I believe expectations limit you, they add stress, they add tension, they make you doubt yourself at times if things don’t turn out,” Small told Illini Inquirer. “In our sport, there’s so much more negative and so much more adversity in our sport than there is good stuff. It just beats you up mentally and it happens so slowly that it’s like a slow death if you’re not playing well. It’s torture. Expectations can contribute to that if they don’t turn out well. But expectations should also give you some confidence that you’ve done it before and people believe in you outside yourself. But yourself is all that matters.

“How we deal with expectations? You’ve just got to stay in the moment and understand that they don’t mean anything. It’s positive noise, but it’s still noise and as a coach you try to keep a handle on that noise.”

There should be plenty of noise about this team. In Buchanan and Herendeen, the Illini have one of the best duos in the country. Junior Ryan Voois last season also solidified himself as a steady presence behind the Illini stars, earning Second Team All-Big Ten honors last season.

However, the Illini are counting on a lot of youth in the back end of its rotation. Sophomore Ethan Wilson and freshman Trey Marrion likely will get the first crack at the rotation when Illinois opens up the 2024-25 season next week at Folds of Honor Collegiate at American Dunes Golf Club in Grand Haven (Mich.), which will feature live television coverage on Golf Channel and Peacock.

The youngsters will get a crash course in competing at the highest level of golf and dealing with the expectations at a program like Illinois.

“I think more than anything, it’s just about managing them, trying to try to constantly stay in the moment,” Herendeen said. “We talk about it all the time trying to be where your feet are. It’s really easy, there’s a lot of outside noise, especially with a program like this with all the history we have, it’s really easy to get ahead of yourself. So just trying to be where your feet are more than anything and trying to focus on the most important thing, and that’s the golf.”

Good approach. Still, the day-to-day build is all in pursuit of the one trophy not yet adorning a foyer of the Illini golf facility that is overcrowded with cups, prizes and plaques.

“We have high expectations at Illinois,” Buchanan said. “Don’t expect anything less than us trying to win a national championship.”

Key Departures

• Tyler Goecke: The Wright State transfer struggled to start his lone season with Illinois, but he solidified a spot in the rotation late in the fall and early in the spring. An inconsistent end to the regular season earned him a rest during the Big Ten Championship, but Goecke was key to the Illini’s success in the NCAA postseason as he tied for fifth individually at the NCAA Regional and then tied for second individually during NCAA Championship stroke play to help Illinois earned the No. 1 seed in match play, earning him All-America honorable mention.
• Piercen Hunt: The Wisconsin native was a two-time All-Big Ten Second Team selection. He was a rotation mainstay as a sophomore and junior, though he was in and out of the lineup last season. He did play in the rotation during the postseason with solid performances at the Big Ten Championship (T19) and the NCAA Regional (T28).
• Timmy Crawford: The Loyola (Chicago transfer) won the Flyer Invitational and had three other top-12 finishes last season in his lone year with Illinois, but he was outside the rotation for most of the spring semester.

Key Returners

• Jackson Buchanan, senior: Buchanan was among the best golfers in the country during the regular season with eight top-10 finishes, including wins at the Purdue Fall Invitational and Duck Invitational and a second-place finish at the Big Ten Championship. The Georgia native wasn’t quite as strong in NCAA postseason play, finishing outside the top-30 at the NCAA Regional and NCAA Championships. Still, Buchanan — an athletic golfer who finished second at the 2023 NCAA Championship — was 2024 Big Ten Golfer of the Year and a 2024 Third Team All-American and returns as one of the most accomplished players in college golf, earning First Team Preseason All-America honors from both Golfweek and Golf Channel. He also had a tremendous summer, which included an appearance in the U.S. Open and a semifinal appearance in the U.S. Amateur.
• Max Herendeen, sophomore: Talk about living up to the hype. One of the best recruiting wins of Mike Small’s career, Herendeen lived up to his pedigree in his first college season, earning Big Ten Freshman of the Year and Second Team All-America honors (just the fourth Illini freshman to earn All-America honors). The Washington state native had six top-10 finishes as a freshman, including an individual win at the NCAA Stanford Regional and second-place finish at the NCAA Championship. The big hitter is among the best returning talents in college golf, earning Second Team Preseason All-America honors from Golf Channel and Third Team Preseason All-America honors from Golfweek.
• Ryan Voois, junior: After an injury interrupted his freshman season, Voois settled in as a solid and pretty consistent third man in the rotation for Illinois last season. The California native had seven top-15 finishes, including his first career win at the Fighting Illini Spring Collegiate and he was really good during NCAA postseason play, tying for 10th at the NCAA Regional and tying for 11th at the NCAA Championship. He earned All-Big Ten Second Team honors last season and All-America honorable mention.
• Ethan Wilson, sophomore: The Canada native had some highs as a freshman with back-to-back top-10 finishes in March, but he had the team’s highest stroke average during the spring (72.94). He played in the lineup in nine-stroke play events and was the team’s alternate at the NCAA Stanford Regional and NCAA Championship with Small thinking ahead to prepare him for a rotation role this season. “Ethan got a lot of reps last year, so I’m expecting him to use that experience,” Small said. “He’s still young, probably rather inexperienced by the college golf standards, but he’s got some talent.”

Key additions

• Trey Marrion, freshman: The 6-foot-4 Chesapeake (Va.) native signed with Illinois as the No. 13-ranked golfer in the Class of 2024 according to GolfWeek, while Golf Channel ranked Marrion as the No. 38 player in the Class of 2024. Marrion was a two-time U.S. Open sectional qualifier. He is expected to get the first crack at the rotation with the four returners.
• Jake Birdwell, freshman: The 6-foot-1 Blain (Minn.) native won the 2023 Minnesota state high school championship and was the 2023 Minnesota High School Golfer of the Year. He was the No. 34 player in the Class of 2024 in the latest American Junior Golf Association Rankings.
• Joseph Buttress, freshman: The 6-foot Australian was a two-time Player of the Year in Western Australia, was a two-time runner-up at both the School Sport Australia National Championship and the Australian Junior Amateur and advanced to the Round of 16 at the 2023 U.S. Junior Amateur.

Schedule highlights (full schedule)

• Sept. 9-11: Illini compete in the Folds of Honor Collegiate at American Dunes Golf Club in Grand Haven (Mich.), which will feature live television coverage on Golf Channel and Peacock.
• Sept. 20-22: Illinois hosts its annual marquee OFCC/Fighting Illini Invitational at Olympia Fields Country Club, an event that usually attracts some of the top programs in the country.
• Feb. 13-15: Illinois opens its spring slate in earnest with its first trip to Hawai’i since 2020 for the John A Burns Intercollegiate.
• March 2-4: Illinois takes part in the Southern Highlands Collegiate in Las Vegas, which annually draws one of the strongest fields.
• April 25-27: The Illini will try to reclaim the Big Ten Championship — they’ve won 13 of the last 15 — at Baltimore Country Club in Maryland.
• May 23-28: If the Illini advance from the NCAA Regionals, they will earn their 16th NCAA Championship appearance in 17 years and play at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad (Calif.), where Illinois won stroke play last season before losing in the quarterfinals of match play.

There Keys to the season

• 1) Studs being studs: Buchanan and Herendeen have the potential to be the next great Illini duo — they kind of already were last season — in a long line of great Illini golf duos: Guthrie and Langley, Danielson and Detry, Hardy and Meyer, Dumont de Chassart and Kuhl. When they’re on their A-games, the top of the Illini’s lineup can compete with any top of the lineup in the country, make Illinois extremely tough to beat in the Big Ten and is very dangerous entering NCAA postseason play. Both have had individual and team success at the NCAA Championships, but the Illini will need both at the top of their games in May to reach the program’s ultimate goal.
  • Small said: “Jackson and Max really played solid all year and really crescendoed at the end of the year, which we like to do. That bodes well, but they also realize last year has nothing to do with this year whatsoever. In golf, it’s like stocks: past performance is no guarantee of future gains.”
• 2) Find consistency at the back of the rotation: Mike Small had a lot of depth and experience last season, yet his job of picking a fourth and fifth golfer throughout the season was difficult because few of those back-end options proved to be consistent. Thankfully, Ryan Voois stepped up as a reliable option as a sophomore, but Small seemed to be guessing at which players to insert at the back of the lineup last season, ultimately going with Goecke and Hunt with mixed results: falling short in the Big Ten Championship but riding Goecke’s hot hand in the NCAA postseason. Also, Small notably didn’t hit in the transfer portal this offseason. “There was a lot of people out there with a lot of money these days,” Small said. “We tried and didn’t get a couple that we were looking at.” So he will rely on youth to fill the final two spots in the rotation with sophomore Ethan Wilson, whom Small prepped for a role by playing him a lot and traveling him during the postseason, and three talented freshmen vying for the lineup. Trey Marrion is expected to get the first crack at the rotation. 
  • Small said: “I just got to throw them in and play. I’m a big believer in throw them in the pool and figure out how to swim. …I recruited these kids because they’re good players. Sometimes they just got to face reality and say, ‘Here I am, mano a mano, let’s find out how tough I am.’ Now, we coach them hard and a lot, but they’re here to play and I expect freshmen to play.”
• 3) Reclaim the B1G crown: The Illini’s dominance during stroke play in the NCAA Championships and ninth NCAA match play appearance since 2011 somewhat blunted the blow of the Illini’s Big Ten Championship streak ending at eight. Kudos to Northwestern for a great week, but Illinois, which finished a distant second behind the Wildcats, didn’t play up to its standard in Columbus (Ohio) with Buchanan (2nd) the only player who finished among the top 15. The Illini take pride in being King of the North and dominating the conference. While the focus is understandably on a national championship, reclaiming the throne in the Big Ten is a big goal, and always a positive momentum-builder heading into NCAA postseason play — and the Illini’s pursuit of that elusive national title.