The Illini Demolished their in-state rival, Northwestern University, with ease after hoisting a 41-3 win over the 1-11 Wildcats in Evanston. This makes the second year in a row that the Land of Lincoln trophy will be coming to make its home in Champaign under Bret Bielema, who is 2-0 vs the Cats.
This also puts Coach Bielema and his squad at 8-4 overall at the end of the regular season, and gives Illinois their winningest outing since the 2007 Rose Bowl squad. A truly special regular season indeed for a team that finished just short of a bowl game in 2022 with a 5-7 record, and no bowl. Of course, the Illini finished this season second place in the Big Ten West, just one game short of heading to Indy to play for a Big Ten Championship. All to be capped off by a bowl game that is “To be determined” for the time being. However, it will be a notable bowl game for the Illini for the first time since the ‘07 Rose Bowl. A major step forward for the program, and one that will hopefully keep the Illini on a path to year after year consistency.
What Happened?
Ryan Walters defense was feeling themselves in Evanston, and helped the Illini snap their 3-game losing streak in dominating fashion. The Wildcats were only able to produce 3 points over the entirety of the game, and it felt as if the Illini Defense was able to do a fantastic job of making Northwestern Quarterback Cole Freeman feel uncomfortable for the majority of the game. Northwestern has some pretty good pieces on its offensive Line including LT Peter Skoronski who is one of 3 finalists for the outland trophy, given to the nation’s top Offensive Lineman. Yet, the Illini front 7 was still able to put a lot of pressure on Freeman and force many turnovers for the Wildcats.
Safety Sydney Brown played like a mad man vs the cats, making himself look like his brother Chayse with 2 touchdowns of his own on the defensive side of the ball. A beautiful 53-yard scoop-and-score play that followed a fumble in a bad running back exchange from QB Cole Freeman. A short time later, Brown then secured another takeaway off the hands of Northwestern’s Freeman, jumping a quick route and taking it 39 yards to the house. A monstrous game for Sydney to say the least, who finished with 6 tackles on the day.
DB Devon Witherspoon also found himself a pair of interceptions at the hands of the Wildcats. One almost led to a score of his own, however he was run down and eventually stopped after breaking multiple tackles on a 57 yards interception return, that took away a driving Cats’ offense. His second came from a hail-mary, desperation heave before halftime that was taken away at the Goal Line. Witherspoon finished with 4 tackles of his own, and 2 interceptions.
The Illini offense was off and on vs the Wildcats and actually finished the day with only 292 yards of total offense compared to 321 total yards for the Wildcats. There were a couple of factors that led to the lackluster performance, including the low number of touches that were given to Chase Brown on the day, with only 19. This led to Brown only producing 61 rushing yards and 1 touchdown on the day. Unfortunately, Chayse had a lower extremity injury vs Purdue that led him to needing to take it easy vs the Wildcats. Despite not getting as many touches as he usually would on Saturday, Brown still leads all power 5 conference Running Backs in total rushing yards at the end of the regular season.
Reggie Love filled in for Brown for about half of his snaps and did a very good job of keeping the Illini offense chugging forward. Love finished the day with 85 yards total on 11 carries and a touchdown of his own. It felt that when the Illini offense was starting to struggle, Love did a good job of battling for the tough yards and keeping the chains moving.
Kirkland’s Bowl Prediction
The Illini are patiently waiting for their bowl game destination, which will be announced Sunday following the Saturday conference championship games. At 8-4, with a second-place finish in the west, there is a short handful of scenarios that the Illini will fall into. The Citrus Bowl, the Music City Bowl, and the ReliaQuest (Outback) Bowl are the 3 games that are most likely to be the Illini’s bowl destination. There have been several listed destinations for Illinois, but based on record and conference standings, these are the 3 bowl games that are the most likely fit.
Prediction: Illinois vs Kentucky, Nashville Music City Bowl, Dec 31st
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