Bob Asmussen | Former Illini standouts Davis, Mitchell joining radio network as analysts

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CHAMPAIGN — They were integral players of the two best football teams at Illinois during the past 25 years.

Now, Carey Davis and Kevin Mitchell are again a part of the squad.

Davis, a former Illini fullback, and Mitchell, a former Illini safety, are the new radio analysts for Illini Sports Network football broadcasts this upcoming season.

Davis and Mitchell are replacing former Illinois All-American offensive lineman Martin O’Donnell, who left the position after nine seasons.

They are both thrilled to get the gig.

“I am looking forward to it, and I’m very excited about it,” Davis told me on Thursday afternoon. “I love Illinois football, and I love Illinois in general. As long as they’ll have me, I would love to do it.”

“It was very humbling to be honest,” Mitchell said to me on Thursday evening. “I was very excited when I was first presented this opportunity. I thought about the folks who have done it before me.”

They will divide the games, with Davis set to call the Illinois season opener Aug. 29 against Eastern Illinois at Memorial Stadium.

Why two analysts? Mostly to help Davis and Mitchell with their schedules. Davis is committed this season to coach his son Zavier’s seventh-grade football team in the St. Louis area.

“I’ve been preparing other people’s kids for so long with football, I figured I need to be preparing my own son to start with his path and his journey,” Davis said.

So he won’t be available for all of the Illinois broadcasts. Davis expects to handle about half of them.

Mitchell, who previously worked as Varsity I director, just took a new job as Director of Development at the Carle Illinois College of Medicine. He started a month ago.

His new employers signed off on Mitchell adding the radio duties.

“Very accepting,” he said. “I felt the love since Day 1.

“It’s a win-win situation on all sides.”

The actual radio assignments will be determined after Davis learns the game times for his son’s team. Davis also is on the air from 2-6 p.m. Monday to Friday, hosting “Fast Lane” on ESPN’s 101.1-FM in St. Louis.

He started the current show in 2022.

Being part of the Illinois radio broadcasts won’t be new for Davis. From 2015-17, he served as a sideline reporter for the network. He left that position to become head coach at his alma mater, Hazelwood (Mo.) Central, where he worked for six years.

“It was just time. That kind of ran its course,” Davis said. “We had some good teams and sent a lot of kids to college, which was cool.”

The newcomers will team on the air with 23-year Voice of the Illini Brian Barnhart.

“It’s awesome,” Davis said. “Brian has been doing this for a long time. He’s a professional. He loves the Illini, just like myself and Kevin. He’s great person to work with.

“I know how he goes about thinking of the game, talking about the game, informing fans of what’s taking place.”

Welcome backReturning to the Illinois broadcasts had been a goal for Davis.

“Martin stepped down and I was like, ‘Wow, maybe there is an opportunity there,’ Davis said. “I spoke to a few people, and they were gauging my interest and I was weighing my options. It all came to fruition.”

To be clear, Davis and Mitchell are Illinois fans. They want to tell it like it, but with a local bent.

“I am going to try to be as objective as possible because I think that’s what the fans are owed,” Davis said.

Davis understands the Illinois players aren’t professionals.

“It’s college young men,” Davis said. “There are going to be mistakes. You are being open and honest about what you see, but not tearing down young men because they are working their butts off. Nobody tries to throw an interception. Nobody tries to miss a tackle or fumble a football in a crucial situation, which I’ve done most of those things other than throw an interception. It’s part of the game.”

He is an alum and a fan.

“I want them to win every game,” Davis said. “I know that’s probably not going to happen because that’s a hard thing to do at any level, especially in the Big Ten. But I want them to be the best team in the Big Ten. I want them to play hard, win games and have fun. And have those moments.”

Fit the billBack to their credentials: Davis was a three-year starting fullback for Ron Turner in the early 2000s. He helped the 2001 team win the Big Ten title and advance to the Sugar Bowl. Had the current 12-team playoff format been in place then, Davis and pals would have been one of the qualifiers.

“It was a special team,” Davis said. “Those are moments you never forget.”

He then went on to play four seasons in the NFL, winning a Super Bowl ring with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2009.

Mitchell started three seasons for Ron Zook from 2005-07. He was a co-captain on the 2007 team that beat No, 1-ranked Ohio State and advanced to the Rose Bowl.

Davis, 43, lives in O’Fallon, Mo. He has two daughters: 21-year-old Makayla, who was born in Champaign-Urbana and is entering her senior year at Missouri. His other daughter, Madisyn, is 10.

Mitchell, a Fort Wayne, Ind., native, lives in Champaign.

The radio broadcasts will be new for Mitchell, 39. But he thought about it while he was an undergrad at Illinois.

“Shout out to LAS and Communications because they are the ones who initially sparked me wanting to get into broadcasting,” Mitchell said.

Other supporters, including a former teammate, helped along the way.

“Shout out to my man J Leman,” Mitchell said of his former teammate and former Illini All-American linebacker. “Him and I always talked about going that route at some point.

“Just like anything, you have those moments sometimes you hesitate for a second because you have never done something. That was just like the first time I was in a tackling drill, too. You do it and you get up and you go back at it again.”

Former Illini standout Deon Thomas, part of the men’s basketball radio broadcasts, is another Mitchell fan.

“A great man,” Mitchell said. “That’s been a great relationship for me outside of work too, navigating life.”