By Woodrow Carroll
For the third straight football game, the University of Illinois failed to score a touchdown in the second half. In Saturday’s game in Champaign against visiting Rutgers, a lack of late offensive punch proved fatal.
The Fighting Illini led 14-10 at halftime. The visiting Scarlet Knights from New Jersey didn’t exactly overpower Illinois in the second half, however 10 fourth-quarter points by Rutgers proved to be just enough for a 20-14 victory
Illinois has only three games remaining. The Illini are at Minnesota at 11 a.m. Saturday, followed by a bye week, will play at Iowa November 20 and play host to Northwestern November 27. These three games Illinois figures to be the underdog.
Both Illinois 3-6 overall and 2-4 in the Big Ten Conference following the defeat, and Rutgers, 4-4 and 1-4, each entered the game with slim hopes of playing in a bowl game. Rutgers still does!
Illinois back Chase Brown rushed for two scores in the third quarter of the Illini’s 24-14 victory over Charlotte October 2. What followed was a 24-0 loss to Wisconsin, the exotic 20-18 nine overtime victory over host Penn State in which neither team mounted a second-half offense.
• Among the 130 football teams in FBS (football bowl subdivision), only six teams, Michigan State, Georgia, Oklahoma, Wake Forest, Cincinnati, and Texas-San Antonio, have yet to taste defeat Only two teams have yet find victory in the FBS ranks. The troubled twosome are Arizona and UNLV.
• It may come as a surprise to many observers, that Illinois has been a member of the Big Ten Conference since 1896. Conference affiliations of late has become fluid with schools looking for greener sports pastures.
Illinois played its first Big Ten game October 31, 1896 and lost, 12-0, to the University of Chicago. Head coach of the Illini that season was George Huff. Among his many achievements, Huff briefly was manager of the Boston Red Sox baseball team of the American League in 1907.