Illini will take a week off to recover; Huskies lead MAC West

By Woodrow Carroll

There are 130 Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), major college football programs this season.

Who would you care to guess which two programs were shut out Saturday, Oct. 9?

Time is up! The answer is Vanderbilt and Illinois.

Vanderbilt fell, 42-0, to Florida and Illinois suffered a 24-0 beating at the hands of the Wisconsin Badgers.

Illinois was a decided underdog, for sure. But, what Wisconsin did to the Fighting Illini in Champaign was painful in the extreme for partisan Illini fans.

Illinois, 2-5 overall and 1-3 in the Big Ten Conference, will receive one week to recover. Next up for the Illini will be a game at Penn State, 5-1 overall and 2-1 in the Big Ten, Saturday, Oct. 23. Both Illinois and Penn State will not play Saturday, Oct. 16 with the Nittany Lions seeking to shake off a tough road loss at Iowa, 23-20, that was their first defeat of the season.

Illinois head coach Bret Bielema, the loss to the Badgers upended what could have been a great story line. Bielema was the Wisconsin coach for seven seasons (2006-2012). And, a victory over his old team last Saturday would have been victory No. 100 for Bielema in the collegiate ranks. Instead, Bielema is now 99-63 for his time at Wisconsin, Arkansas and now Illinois.

The Badgers, in defeating Illinois for the 11th time in their last 12 meetings, had 30 first downs to nine for Illinois. And, even that figure was a bit deceptive. Five of Illinois’ first downs were by way of penalty and Wisconsin’s first downs all were offensive plays.

Illinois’ back Chase Brown, who gained 257 yards rushing the previous week in the Illini’s 24-14 victory over Charlotte, was limited to 35 yards on eight carries by the Wisconsin defense.

Two Badgers’ backs, Chaz Mellosi and Braelon Allan, each gained more than 100 yards rushing each against Illinois, Mellosi with 145 yards and Allen with 131 yards. Neither Mellosi nor Allen had long runs. The best for each was a 23-yard carry. Each carried often and was never stopped by the Illinois defense. The Wisconsin offensive line opened holes for the Badgers’ backs.

Wisconsin, 2-3 and 1-2, had struggled this year to take victories with defeats by Penn State, Notre Dame, and Michigan. The three teams are a combined 16-2.

Texas-San Antonio is 6-0 entering Saturday’s game with Rice. A member of Conference USA, the Texas-Antonio beat Illinois, 37-30, September 4, in Champaign.

• The Northern Illinois Huskies are starting to make waves. A 22-20 victory at Toledo last Saturday has Northern Illinois on top of the MAC West Division with a 2-0 record and 4-2 overall.

Northern Illinois will play host to Bowling Green, at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, in a key Conference battle. The Huskies are the lone undefeated team in the MAC West, although the five other West Division teams each is 1-1 in Conference.

There was a time many years ago that Northern Illinois found it impossible to beat Toledo, however, that no longer exists. Five field goals by Northern Illinois kicker John Richardson, the last coming with 0:30 on the clock, paved the way for the Huskies’ 10th victory in the past 14 meetings with the Rockets after trailing, 20-19.