By Woodrow Carroll
Thanks to a resounding 41-3 victory over host Northwestern Saturday, Nov. 26 in Evanston, the Fighting Illini closed the regular season with an 8-4 record. That Illini victory over means that head coach Bret Bielema, in his second season, will hold a winning record entering into his third year at the school, No Illinois coach has done it for more than 30 years.
Bielema was 5-7 last season which means that regardless of what Illinois does in its upcoming bowl game, Bielema will go into next season’s action with winning record at Illinois.
The last Illinois head coach on the plus side of .500 after two years in Champaign was John Mackovic. In his first two campaigns at Illinois were 1988 and 1989, both good years for the Orange & Blue. The 1988 team was 6-5-1 the 1989 edition was 10-2.
Mackovic stayed at Illinois for four seasons and left after the 1991 season with an overall record of 30-16-1. He remains the last Illinois head coach to depart with a winning record.
What a difference a Bielema makes! Under Lovie Smith, the Illini were 0-5 against Northwestern. Last season, Illinois spanked Northwestern, 47-14.
Throw in the Saturday, Nov. 26 trouncing and Northwestern has been outscored 88-17 the past two seasons by the Illini.
At the start of this season for Illinois to finish with a winning record would have been considered acceptable by the Illini faithful. Then, Illinois took off to a 7-1 won-loss record. A trip to the Big Ten Championship Game was there for the taking prior to a three-game losing streak.
What might have been! Michigan beat Ohio State, 45-23, in the big game Saturday, Nov. 26. The closest any team came to beating Michigan (12-0) this season was in a 19-17 victory over Illinois. The Wolverines opened in the Big Ten, September 24 with a 34-27 victory over Maryland. Illinois and Maryland are the only teams Michigan failed to beat by double figures this season.
A balanced view of the Illinois football season shows three non-conference victories against Wyoming, Virginia, and Chattanooga. The downer were the losses to Big Ten East teams, Indiana, Michigan State, and Michigan. Next will be to see who the Illini will play in their bowl game and where.
• Northwestern (1-11, 1-8), against Illinois absorbed its 11th straight after a season-opening victory over Nebraska. The Wildcats were outscored 340 to 165 in Big Ten play this season, indicative of how bad things were in Evanston.
• Trying to make sense of the Northern Illinois 44-12 loss to Akron Saturday, Nov. 26 in DeKalb will tax the gray matter.
Up against an Akron team with a 1-9 won-loss record coming into the game, the Huskies were ahead, 6-0 after the first quarter. Then came the collapse! The visiting Zips were ahead 20-6 at halftime and never looked back. Perhaps the strangest moment came with just more than four minutes remaining when Northern Illinois kicked a field goal to make the deficit 44-12. Were it a close score, perhaps, the four field goals kicked by John Richardson would have meant something.