After having arthroscopic surgery Monday to remove debris from his left knee, senior fullback Corey Davis made an amazing recovery and was one of Illinois’ best players in Saturday’s 22-15 loss to Missouri. The prognosis had been that he would be sidelined for 10 days to three weeks.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said coach Ron Turner after Davis caught 10 passes for 66 yards, both career highs, and ran twice for 7 more yards. “He told me Monday he was going to play. I just laughed. He kept telling me that every day. After he was cleared and practiced Thursday, I thought, maybe a few plays. Never in my wildest imagination did I think he’d play as much and as well as he did.”
Davis, who had added incentive to play because he comes from the St. Louis suburb of Florissant, said, “I could walk when I got out of the surgery. I thought, `If I can walk, I can run, and if I can run, I can play.’ I wouldn’t have gone out there if I didn’t think I could contribute to my team.” . . .
Freshman wide receiver Lonnie Hurst became the first Illinois position player since 1984 to start in his first game since the 1980 season, when four freshmen started in the opener. Hurst caught five passes for a team-high 76 yards. … When E.B. Halsey rushed for 139 yards, it marked the first time since the school began publishing records that a true freshman had more than 100 yards in his first collegiate game. …
Turner said junior running back Morris Virgil, who started ahead of Halsey, played only a bit part in the second half because he “tweaked an ankle a little bit and had it heavily bandaged.” . . . Responding to the team’s request at spring practice, Turner had the Illinois clad in all-orange uniforms. The last time the Illini wore all orange was 1979, when coach Gary Moeller used it for home games.
