Upon further review, Illinois got a raw deal Saturday night. That’s one way to look at the Illini’s 35-31 loss to Michigan.
If those Big Ten officials weren’t so blind, goes such thinking, Illinois would be 4-0 right now and people would be starting to talk about the Rose Bowl.
Instead, the Illini are 3-1 and trying to regroup.
Illinois coach Ron Turner is confident they will.
“The game is over,” Turner said of the two blown fumble calls that may have cost his team a huge victory over the Wolverines. “We have to focus on the things we can do. If we sit and dwell on it, we’re not going to be ready for our next game.”
Given what transpired elsewhere in the Big Ten, Turner knows his players must be ready–for the next game and the one after that.
Northwestern upsets two-time defending Big Ten champion Wisconsin 47-44 in two overtimes. What’s going on here? No. 12 Ohio State improves to 4-0 by routing Penn State 45-6. Weren’t the Buckeyes picked to finish fifth or sixth in the league? Indiana clobbers Cincinnati 42-6? The Hoosiers are still only 1-2 but they have averaged 38 points their last two games.
Suddenly, Illinois’ cupcake schedule doesn’t look quite as appetizing.
For the No. 24 Illini, the next three games are the soup, salad and hors d’oeuvres that precede the main course. Win all three and the Illini will be feeling a lot better about themselves when the steak arrives. By beating Minnesota Saturday, lowly Iowa on Oct. 14 and struggling Penn State on Oct.21 in State College, Pa., they will put themselves in great position to go to a bowl game for the second year in a row.
At 6-1, the Illini still might head to East Lansing on Oct. 28 as an underdog to Michigan State (3-0), but the pressure to sweep their remaining three games against Indiana (Nov. 4), Ohio State (Nov. 11) and NU (Nov. 18 in Evanston) would have eased considerably.
First, though, there’s Minnesota Saturday at the Metrodome. You recall what Minnesota did to Illinois last year, don’t you? The Illini do.
In the first quarter, Luke Leverson returned a punt 74 yards for a touchdown and Billy Cockerham threw a 6-yard scoring pass to Jermaine Mays for a 14-0 Gopher lead. By halftime, Minnesota led 17-7. And in the second half, two Dan Nystrom field goals, a 19-yard run by Thomas Hamner and a 3-yard run by Byron Evans carried Minnesota to a convincing 37-7 romp at Memorial Stadium.
The Gophers outrushed the Illini that day 367-145 and made 27 first downs to Illinois’ 18. They also intercepted a pass and recovered a fumble.
Hamner ran for a career-high 184 yards in 32 carries and Cockerham ran for 100 and threw for 95. Minnesota strong safety Tyrone Carter also had a great day, recording eight tackles.
Leverson, Hamner, Cockerham, Evans and Carter are all gone, but by most accounts it was Illinois’ worst performance of the season.
“They came in here last year and pretty much embarrassed us,” junior quarterback Kurt Kittner said. “We all remember it.”
Kittner, in particular, remembers completing only 19-of-45 passes for 180 yards and one touchdown.
“They beat us pretty good last year,” said senior offensive guard Ray Redziniak. “We’ve been looking forward to this game ever since.”
What the Illini also never will forget was the full-pad scrimmage Turner put them through on the Sunday after that loss in an effort to shake them up.
Shake them up, he did. Illinois won eight of its next nine games, its only loss coming to then-No. 2 Penn State.
“We just played terrible that day,” said Turner of the Minnesota debacle. “We made a lot of mistakes offensively and a lot of mistakes defensively. Fortunately, after that we got refocused and got going.”
Despite Saturday night’s heartbreaking defeat, Turner is convinced his players are capable of picking up the pieces once again.
“We have seven games left,” he said. “I don’t think they’re going to let one game pull this team down. I’d be very surprised. We have too much leadership on this team to let that happen.”
