By Woodrow Carroll
The visiting Purdue University football team played Illinois in Champaign Saturday, which figured to be interesting with the unsettling and hovering nature of COVID-19 hovering. The nasty virus played its unfriendly and unsettling part.
The game, the Illini home opener, proved to be better than expected. Illinois never saw the lead, yet, a late rally by the Fighting Illini made the score close. The Boilermakers won, 31-24 to drop Illinois to a 0-2 record. Purdue improved to 2-0. Big Ten teams play only Conference games.
It is strange to realize that there were more players on field than fans in the stadium.
Illinois will play host to Minnesota at 2:30 p.m. Saturday. One year ago, under head coach and former Kaneland High School and Northern Illinois University star receiver, P.J. Fleck, Minnesota met with success. The Golden Gophers opened the 2019 season with a 9-0 record and culminated with a 31-24 victory over Auburn in the Outback Bowl and a 11-2 record.
Both Illinois and Minnesota have stumbled out of the gate this season, each with a 0-2 record. The Gophers fell to Michigan and Maryland. The Illini dropped games to Wisconsin and Purdue. Simple math tells us Saturday’s loser will fall to 0-3.
Two months to the day, last season the Illinois opened the 2019 season August 31 and defeated Akron, 42-3, in Champaign. After falling to Wisconsin, 45-7, last week, Illinois’ 2020 home debut was October 31. Halloween provided more trick than treat, although the Illini did show some fire late in the game.
With just less than four minutes to play and Illinois trailing, 31-24, a 16-yard punt return by Donny Navarro formerly of Neuqua Valley High School in Naperville, inspired the Illini. A glorious Illini finish was averted when a last-ditch run ended on the Purdue seven yard line.
Purdue, which never trailed, led 31-10 entering the fourth quarter when the Illini came alive.
Triple backup Illinois quarterback Coran Taylor came close to becoming an Illinois legend.
Triple backup? Regular Illinois QB Brandon Peters tested positive for COVID-19, then Isaiah Williams went out with contact-tracing protocol.
No. 3 quarterback Matt Robinson left the game early in the game with a leg injury.
Calling Coran Taylor!
Taylor, a sophomore from Peoria, made it feast or famine. He did make it interesting, however. Taylor turned the ball over twice on fumbles, threw two interceptions and threw for two touchdowns.
Maybe Memorial Stadium in Champaign was just the place for Taylor.
As a junior at Peoria Central High School, Taylor led the school’s 5A State championship run in 2016. In the 5A championship game at Memorial Stadium, Taylor ran for three touchdowns and threw for two more and Peoria beat Vernon Hills, 62-48, in the championship game.
• It was not a good weekend for the home team in Big Ten Conference games. After Maryland held serve at home Friday evening by beating Minnesota, 45-44, in overtime, five Big Ten sides lost at home Saturday. There was no rousing fan base to cheer on the home team. The Wisconsin-at-Nebraska game was canceled by COVID-19.
Those of us attached to print sports media, are more than familiar with the double column when in college football: Conference standing to the left with a team’s overall record to the right. In both the Big Ten, and the Mid-American Conference (MAC) it is one-size-fits-all. Neither Big Ten nor MAC will play non-conference games this season.
All 12 MAC teams were set to get under way Wednesday of this week. Northern Illinois was set to play host to Buffalo.