By Woodrow Carroll
At the start of the football season, there was a general consensus that the Chicago Bears of the National Football League (NFL) would be in the playoffs. It was apparent sound thinking, given that the Bears had made the playoffs in 2018 and were viewed on the way up.
In the college ranks, the same thinking applied to both Northwestern University and Northern Illinois University. The Wildcats and Huskies were viewed by some as strong candidates to return to bowl games.
In Champaign, it was another story. The University of Illinois head coach, Lovie Smith, in his fourth season at the school, was under the gun. Most thought Illinois would be fortunate to match the 4-8 record for the previous season.
We now know, the prognosticators were way off target an off in a good way for Illinois fans.
The Bears didn’t make the NFL playoffs. Both Northwestern and Northern Illinois University failed to qualify for the bowl games by not winning six games. The Fighting Illini were 6-6 which earned a berth in the Redbox Bowl against California, 7-5 Monday.
Many players came through for Illinois to make a bowl appearance possible in San Francisco Monday.
California dropped Illinois to a 6-7 final record with a 35-20 victory Monday.
Illinois junior James McCourt will be forever remembered for his 39-yard field goal when time expired to knock off No. 6 Wisconsin, 24-23, in game seven. The field goal started a four-game Illini winning streak. Let’s not forget that McCourt had at least one field goal in every game after game one.
The three-point field goals were welcome. Illinois didn’t always rack up points. Illinois was remarkably improved on defense this season and it paid dividends.
On six occasions in 2018, Illinois gave up 46 or more points. In the 2019 season Illinois never gave up more than 42 points in any game. Nebraska by 42-38 over Illinois, and Michigan by 42-25 over Illinois were the defensive low points for the Illini.
Senior linebacker Dele Harding is one of the reasons for Illinois’ defensive improvement. Harding turned into one of the top linebackers in the Nation and had two pass interception for touchdowns.
Quarterback Brandon Peters, a junior graduate transfer from University of Michigan, passed for 1,611 yards and 17 touchdowns. Peters’ presence at quarterback gave Illinois an offensive dimension mostly lacking in recent years.
The Redbox Bowl in Santa Clara, Calif. returned Illinois to one of the school’s favorite bowl destinations: California! The game at Levi’s Stadium, home to the San Francisco 49ers of the NFL, marked the eighth bowl game for the Illini in California.
Five of Illinois’ appearances in California were in Pasadena in the Rose Bowl. Other California games were in San Diego (Holiday Bowl) and San Francisco (Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl).
Illinois’ first three bowl appearances were victories in the Rose Bowl starting with a dismantling of favored UCLA, 45-14, in the 1947 Rose Bowl.
The California Golden Bears, Illinois’ Redbox foe, are comparable to the Illini in many ways.
Illinois was 4-5 in Big Ten, California was 4-5 in Pac-12. The two sides faced no common opponents. California needed to beat USC or Stanford down the stretch to qualify for postseason play. California beat both teams and secured its 40-mile trip from Berkeley to Santa Clara.