By Woodrow Carroll
The University of Illinois football team’s new course is recovery in the final three games in the Big Ten Conference regular season. Illinois, 7-2 overall and 4-2 in the Big Ten West, will play its final home game at 11 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 12 against Purdue, 5-4, and 3-3 in the West. The following two weeks Illinois will play at Michigan and at Northwestern.
There are coaches who say a tough loss builds character. What Illinois got out of its 23-15 loss to Michigan State Saturday, Nov. 5 in Champaign was not a character-builder, rather a painful defeat! The Illini scored first and last with nothing in between.
• Ouch! Attendance for the Illinois-Michigan State game was 56.092 and the largest crowd at Memorial Stadium since September 10, 2016, when 60,670 saw Illinois fall, 48-23, to North Carolina in Lovie Smith’s first year at Illinois as head coach.
• Ouch #2! By the time Illinois took the field, Purdue already had lost to Iowa. An Illinois victory over the Michigan State would have opened some space in the Big Ten West race for division- leading Illinois. Now, with Purdue playing at Illinois, Saturday, Nov. 12 the Big Ten West is compact.
• Ouch #3! Michigan State starting quarterback Payton Thorne is a Naperville Central High School product and was solid, if not spectacular. He passed for 182 yards and two touchdowns.
Let’s not forget that Michigan State (4-5, 2-4) was being closely watched after an ugly incident following its game with Michigan the prior week. The incident led to the suspension of eight players for the Illinois game.
Four Big Ten West teams each is one game in back of the Illini, Purdue, Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Each of the latter three has lost to Illinois. A victory by Illinois over the Boilermakers clearly moves the Illini back in the driver’s seat in the Big Ten West. A loss by Illinois and the picture in Champaign gets much darker, for good reason.
For Illinois to play at Michigan November 19 on a two-game losing streak is a scary thought for Illini partisans. What has been a magical season so far for the Orange and Blue might be heading south in a hurry. Illinois running back Chase Brown racked up good yardage.
Brown carried 33 times for 136 yards against Michigan State and continues to lead all major college football running backs with 1,344 yards gained. To nit pick, there is a mildly disconcerting element to Brown’s game. All of the leading rushers outside of Brown have scored 12 or more touchdowns Brown has only five.
• Ohio State went into last weekend’s games second to Tennessee in points scored per game. The Buckeyes beat Northwestern, 21-7. Tennessee was on the short end of a 26-13 score with undefeated and No. 1 ranked Georgia. Ohio State went to 45.8 and Tennessee at 45.3 points per game.
• Last week was not a good one for the Land of Lincoln’s three Football Bowl Subdivision teams. Illinois, Northwestern, and Northern Illinois all ended up losing games!
Northwestern did make a game of it before falling to Ohio State.
Northwestern, 1-8, and 1-5 will play at Minnesota at 2:30 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 12 with an eight-game losing streak. Northern Illinois (2-7, 1-4) with its 35-22 loss to Central Michigan Saturday, Nov. 5 will be at home Wednesday, Nov. 16 against Miami, Ohio.
One of the sadder notes involving Northwestern and Northern Illinois is the realization that with three games remaining on their schedule neither of those two teams can make it to a bowl game.
The Northern Illinois story is particularly sad. Last season, Northern Illinois was 9-5 overall and MAC (Mid-American Conference) champion. The loss to Central Michigan was the seventh in eight games for the Huskies.