{"id":744039,"date":"2026-02-11T04:26:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T04:26:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/744039\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T04:26:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T04:26:17","slug":"luke-altmyer-reveals-how-lane-kiffin-bret-bielema-prepared-him-for-2026-nfl-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/744039\/","title":{"rendered":"Luke Altmyer reveals how Lane Kiffin, Bret Bielema prepared him for 2026 NFL Draft"},"content":{"rendered":"

With his college career in the rear-view mirror, Luke Altmyer<\/a> is working his way through the pre-NFL Draft<\/a> process. It started with the Senior Bowl, and he now has his sights set on the NFL Scouting Combine.<\/p>\n

Altmyer spent five years playing college football with hopes of getting to Indianapolis for the Combine as part of his NFL journey. During that time, he played for two coaches with vastly different backgrounds. He began his career at Ole Miss<\/a> under Lane Kiffin<\/a> before transferring to Illinois<\/a> under Bret Bielema<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But by spending time with both an offensive-minded coach and a defensive-minded coach, Altmyer got unique perspectives on the game. He hopes the lessons he learned from those philosophies as he prepares for his next step.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember as a kid, going into college, I wrote down in a notebook some goals that I\u2019ve always dreamed about achieving,\u201d Altmyer recently told On3 via Zoom on behalf of U.S. Cellular<\/a>. \u201cThe Combine was, really, one of the four of them. Just being there and competing in the Combine, knowing I did some good things in college. To be able to live that out, I don\u2019t take it for granted. Super stoked to do it. I\u2019m going to make the most of it. I\u2019m preparing very hard for it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe coaches that I\u2019ve played for prepared me for it, as well. Playing for such an offensive mind in Coach Kiffin and the way he\u2019s able to think out of the box, and playing for a more old-school guy and defensive-minded coach in Coach Bielema, who really changed the course of my career and believed in me and taught me so many things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Luke Altmyer had a career year in 2025 under Bielema while helping Illinois to its second straight nine-win season \u2013 the first time in program history the Illini won nine games in back-to-back years. He completed 67.4% of his passes for 3,007 yards and 22 touchdowns.<\/p>\n

As he detailed, Altmyer had opportunities to spend his final season elsewhere<\/a> after deciding not to declare for the NFL Draft. But after staying in Champaign-Urbana and turning in an impressive last year, he\u2019s gearing up for the next level. As for his journey \u2013 which began in Starkville, went through Oxford and ended in Champaign\u00a0\u2013 he wouldn\u2019t change a thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cGrateful for my journey,\u201d Altmyer said. \u201cIt set me up in the most beneficial way possible for the next chapter of my life. That\u2019s the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With his college career in the rear-view mirror, Luke Altmyer is working his way through the pre-NFL Draft…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":744040,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[5976,7,5987,15525,49,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-744039","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-bret-bielema-89-prophetstown","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-lane-kiffin-94-jefferson","11":"tag-luke-altmyer-21-starkville","12":"tag-ncaa","13":"tag-ncaa-football"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116050105763452983","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=744039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/744040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=744039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=744039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=744039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}