By Woodrow Carroll
The road to recovery for the University of Illinois football team will go through Purdue University in West Lafayette with a 2:30 p.m. kickoff Saturday, Sept. 25.
Illinois will seek to recover from its last-second defeat at the University of Maryland, Friday, Sept. 17 when the host Terrapins’ Joseph Petrino nailed a 32-yard field just as time ran out. Maryland, 3-0 overall, won 20-17.
Purdue, after victories over Oregon State and Connecticut to open the campaign, fell to host Notre Dame, 27-13, at Notre Dame Saturday, Sept. 18. Illinois fell to 1-3 overall and 1-1 in the Big Ten Conference. Purdue, 2-1 overall, will kick off Big Ten games against the Illini.
In Maryland and Illinois, the final two drives in the game for both teams told the story. It was not a pretty story from the Illinois perspective.
With less five minutes remaining, the Fighting Illini were ahead, 17-10 and in position to win their second Big Ten game. The Illini defeated league rival Nebraska to open the season. Favored Maryland, however, had other ideas.
After an Illinois punt, Maryland drove 86 yards to tie the score at 17.
After the Terrapins kicked off following their score-tying touchdown, the Illini did make a first down. Then, Illinois quarterback Brandon Peters was twice sacked and an illegal-receiver penalty on the Illini forced a punt from the nine. The ball was fielded at the Illinois 46 by the Terrapins.
Two Maryland completed passes put the ball at the Illinois 14. On the game’s final play, Petrino’s 32-yard field goal gave Maryland the victory.
• Northern Illinois University was never close Saturday, Sept. 18 at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
The final score, Michigan, 63, Northern Illinois, 10, as the cynics might suggest, never was as close as the final score might have indicated.
At the end of the third quarter, the score was 63-3. The lone score in the final 15 minutes was a Northern Illinois touchdown.
The Northern Illinois victory over Georgia Tech, 22-21, to open the season is in the distant past.
A competitive 50-43 loss to Wyoming the prior week was one thing for Northern Illinois.
The visiting Maine Black Bears, 1-2, will offer Northern Illinois an opportunity to get back on track with at 1:30 p.m. kickoff Saturday, Sept. 25 in DeKalb. Maine is a member of the Colonial Athletic Association and is a FCS (Football Championship Subdivision) football member. Maine is the only FCS foe on the Northern Illinois schedule. .
After the Maine game, Northern Illinois will have a steady diet of Mid-American Conference opponents, The first of which will be Eastern Michigan in a 1:30 p.m. homecomng start October 2.
• The State’s three FBS schools, Illinois, 1-3,, Northern Illinois, 1-2, and Northwestern, 1-2, have their work cut out for them to finish with a winning record, or end up .500 combined.
It comes as no surprise to see that the 14 Big Ten teams were 30-13 overall through September 17 and the 12 MAC teams a combined 13-23.