By Woodrow Carroll
Give the University of Illinois football team credit for being entertaining. The Fighting Illini in their two games did not reach a conclusion until the final minute. Sadly, from the Illini standpoint, the second of those two Illini games did not end up a victory.
The Saturday, Sept. 4 evening game in Champaign against the Roadrunners of the University of Texas-San Antonio (UTSA), Illinois fell behind early and never recovered. USTA won, 37-30.
The prior week Illinois, 1-1, raced to a 21-point advantage then fought off a Nebraska comeback to win, 30-22. Game two last Saturday was a different story with Illinois on the comeback trail throughout the game.
Illinois quarterback Artur Sitkowski, a redshirt sophomore tansfer from Rutgers University, passed for three touchdowns. He started for the second week following injury to starting quarterback Brandon Peters.
On three occasions the Illini pulled to within three points, however, each time UTSA answered with a touchdown.
The game-breaker might have been an offensive interference call on Illinois in the final minute. The Illini were inside the UTSA 20-yard line going for a tying, or even a winning touchdown. The penalty effectively ended the Illinois shot at pulling out the victory.
There will be more orange and blue for the Orange-and-Blue. Next up for Illinois will be a game at 10 a.m. Saturday at the University of Virginia. in Charlottesville, Va. Similar to Illinois and UTSA, the Virginia Cavaliers have orange and blue as their primary colors.
Virginia, a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference, won its opener Saturday, with a 43-0 victory against William & Mary University. Game three for Illinois will start at 10 a.m. and the only television coverage will be on ACC-TV.
UTSA was the first of two teams from Conference-USA on the Illinois schedule this season. The Charlotte 49ers, will be in Champaign October 2.
Perhaps a bit disconcerting for the game in Champaign last Saturday evening was the size of the crowd. After pulling in 41,064 for the game with Nebraska Saturday, Aug. 28, attendance against UTSA was a modest 33,906.
• Just when it appeared it may be a long season for Northern Illinois University,, a ray of sunshine emerged for the Huskies.
The Huskies, who finished 0-6 last season and were pegged as an ran in the Mid-American Conference race this season, upset heavily-favored Georgia Tech, 22-21, in Atlanta Saturday.
In the victory over Georgia Tech, the Huskies started strong by taking a 14-0 lead. Tech came back to go in front, 21-14. It was the final minute that told the story.
With 1:14 remaining in the fourth quarter, Northern Illinois scored on a three-yard pass from quarterback Rocky Lombardi to Clint Ratkovich to trim the deficit to 21-20 Tech. Instead of kicking the extra point, Northern Illinois went for the two-point conversion and succeeded when Lombardi’s pass connected with Tyrice Richie in the end zone. When the Huskies blocked a last-second field goal attempt, Northern Illinois had its biggest victory in many seasons.
Northern Illinois will play its home opener at 12:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 11 against the University of Wyoming Cowboys. In 2016 the two teams squared off in a classic game.
The start of the game at Wyoming was delayed 110 minutes by the weather. In a third overtime in Wyoming quarterback Josh Allen, presently starting at quarterback for the Buffalo Bills, scored to give the Cowboys a 40-34 victory. The game officially ending at 2:34 a.m..
The Cowboys beat Montana State, 19-16, in its opener Saturday with a touchdown in the final minute.