The Illini pulled off a victory Saturday defeating their in-state rivals the Illinois State Redbirds. Illinois Quarterback Juice Williams left the game early with a right quadriceps bruise so back-up Eddie McGee took his place. McGee lead the Illini to 384 rushing yards, 137 of them from sophomore Jason Ford.

Illinois led 24-0 at halftime with McGee running for one touchdown and passing for another. He was 13 of 17 for 164 yards and an interception, and he ran for 55 yards and two touchdowns.

McGee kept the ball on the option for his first TD, a 1-yarder over right tackle that gave the Illini a 14-0 lead with 3:43 left in the first quarter.

McGee hit receiver Chris Duvalt for a 27-yard touchdown and a 21-0 lead in the second quarter.

The Redbirds (0-2), who lost to Eastern Illinois 31-6 last week, got a strong performance from Matt Brown. The redshirt freshman, starting for the injured Drew Kiel, completed 27 of 45 passes for two touchdowns and one interception.

But Illinois State couldn’t score until 8:42 remained in the third quarter, when Brown found Eyad Salem for a 3-yard TD, cutting Illinois’ lead to 31-7. Salem caught seven passes for 103 yards and both Redbird touchdowns.

Congratulations to the team on a fine victory. 

The Illini begin Big Ten play battling Ohio State next, on September 26th in Columbus, OH.

Final Stats
Post-Game Quotes
Post-Game Notes

Disappointing and humiliating. These are the words I use to describe Illinois’ season opener against Missouri. 

It was a true pummeling, to say the least. Illinois was dominated on both defense and offense by a young Mizzou squad. Quarterback Juice Williams was 18 for 28 for 178 yards with a touchdown and an interception. While Missouri rookie quarterback Blaine Gabbert threw for 313 yards and three touchdowns and ran for a fourth. Illinois wide receiver Arrelious Benn and running back Jason Ford missed the second half with ankle injuries.

Preseason predictions were in the hands of the Illini coming into the game as a 6.5 point favorite with a highly experienced offensive unit. If you watched the game, you would have seen an ugly and unbelievable sight. The so-called “veteran” offense was no where to be found. Quarterback Juice Williams seemed to be playing worse than he had as a rookie. The preseason predictions were completely wrong and the Illini played a awful game. It was humiliating to be wearing orange and blue and an embarrassing blow to the hearts of Illini Nation. At this rate, it’s going to be a long season.

“I feel sick for these guys,” Zook said. “I feel sick for them. I feel sick for the Illini Nation. It’s up to us to make sure we get that fixed.” … “I wouldn’t have thought we’d play like that. That’s not the kind of off-season we’ve had, the kind of camp we’ve had, the preparation this last week we’ve had. I’m embarrassed with it, but I’m not ready to throw in the towel. I know our guys will come back and fix it. We didn’t play the way we are capable of playing. I think that everyone who follows us knows that, and more importantly, the guys in the locker room know that. We’ll be back and get the things fixed that need to be fixed.”

I’m not ready to throw in the towel either, but I think that the team needs a leader. I think that man should be the quarterback. Juice, you need to be more consistent. You need to motivate your teammates and keep up the team’s focus. You need to make accurate throws and use good judgement. You also need to make sure you don’t trip over your linemen’s feet, especially not on a fourth down in the red zone.

So here we are again, starting the season 0-1. It’s gonna take a lot of work to be considered a good team again. It’s gonna take a rally by the Illini to make it to a bowl game. I hope we can do it. The next game is the season home opener against Illinois State University. It is also the Red Grange dedication game. Maybe some of the history and talent from the “Greatest College Football Player of All Time” will rub off on the team (well at least I hope so).

“In the game of football, you’re going to have adversity. It’s how you handle it that will determine the type of success you’ll have. We’re going to take one game at a time.” – Ron Zook

Illini nation, let’s join Mr. Zook and rally behind our team, for “we love no other.”  Let’s do this together… Go Illini!

Illinois Loses Season Opener Against Missouri, 37-9 – FightingIllini.com 
After blowout, Zook has no answer for injuries or effort – IlliniHQ.com

Saturday marks the beginning of the 120th season for the Fighting Illini Football Team. The season opener is against the Missouri Tigers as part of the State Farm Arch Rivalry game in the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis, MO. Mizzou leads the all-time series, 15-7, and has won all four games in the State Farm Arch Rivalry series played in St. Louis. Missouri beat Illinois last year 52-42.

This year is expected to be different, however. Missouri has lost a lot of their big name starters from last year, including quarterback Chase Daniel, tight end Chase Coffman, and wide receiver Jeremy Maclin. Illinois has been preparing for this game for quite some time, and it seems to have paid off. The Fighting Illini are a 6.5-point favorite going into this week’s game.

Some controversy has recently been brewing between these two teams when Missouri senior linebacker Sean Weatherspoon called out Juice Williams in a personal Tweet: “just finished a stellar workout, hit 475 on the bench easy, almost hit 500, gotta get it soon! 50 days until I squeeze the pulp out of Juice.” Weatherspoon received a lecture from Coach Gary Pinkel following this post. Williams is expected to answer with his own message on Saturday. 

The game plan for Saturday according to Coach Ron Zook:

Well I think number one, we can’t turn the ball over, which is something we always say but it really became our Achilles heel last year. We can’t turn the ball over and we can’t give up big plays. We have to stop the run. I think the one thing we didn’t do last year was stop the run. It really felt like that was a reason that we weren’t able to make it a better game. Our defense has been made aware of that all summer and obviously in camp. But we’ve got to stop the run. We can’t let that running back get going. Washington is a good player, a guy that can beat you. We have to take care of business and take care of the ball on offense.

Watch our for quarterback Juice Williams who will be playing his final season with Illinois along with running back Daniel Dufrene and junior receiver Arrelious Benn.

Illinois vs. Missouri
Saturday, September 5, 2009
2:40pm | ESPN

Live Coverage vs. Missouri
Live Audio | GameTracker | TV: ESPN | RADIO

Good luck to the 2009 Fighting Illini Football Team!

Wear orange, and Go Illini!

Ron Zook Press Conference Transcript
Game 1: Illinois (0-0) vs. Missouri (0-0) at St. Louis
State Farm Arch Rivalry

Illinois dropped their season opener to Missouri last week after coming back from a 25 point deficit. The game was very similar to the action and suspense of last year’s Missouri game. Both teams went into the battle with something to prove. Although Illinois wasn’t able to pull it out, they proved that they can put up a good fight and battle with just about anyone.

The Illini offense looked a little rough at the beginning of the game, going into half-time down 31-10. The second half started to look up, however, when Juice Williams threw the ball long to make up some much needed points. The Illini brought the game back within 10 points at 45-35 in the fourth quarter. A quick Missouri interception was ran back for a touchdown and the Illini never could overcome the drought. They did score again however, ending the game 52-42. Juice Williams was 26 for 42 with 451yards.

All in all, it was a pretty good game. As previously mentioned, the Illini proved that they are able to contend. It was a little disappointing however. Illinois made a number of big mistakes that cost them a number of points. The fact that they were able to come back against this #6 team, shows that they have what it takes. I only hope that they will look at their flaws in this game and continue to improve throughout the season. I look forward to Saturday when the Illini face Eastern Illinois in their home opener.

Go Illini!

The Illini Football Team won 6 games in the past four years, from 2003-2006. The 2007 team recently completed their regular season with 9 wins. Success has once again met up with the U of I and this years outcome shows the definite possibilities of tomorrow.

The Illini beat Northwestern University on Saturday 41-22. The game was the final game in Memorial Stadium for this year’s seniors. Orange Juice Williams once again became the player of the game running for 136 yards, two touchdowns; and passing for 220 yards and another touchdown. The Illini defense dominated the game as the offense continued their winning streak.

I’m so happy and proud of our senior class. It is special because of all they have gone through. I want the two previous graduating classes to know that they were the foundation for our success. This year’s class has set the bar and now it’s up to the younger guys to continue to build on their success. – Head Coach Ron Zook

So what’s next? Well, the Illini are on their way to a bowl game. Which game is the question. Check back on The Quad for results of the BCS selection show which is on FOX on December 2nd. The rumor is that Illinois is a strong candidate for the Capital One Bowl on January 1st in Orlando, FL against Ron Zook’s former employer, Florida. We’ll just have to wait and see. Until then, I believe it is time for some turkey!

FightingIllini.com Full Article

The 2007 Illinois Football Team shocked the nation on Saturday as they defeated #1 Ohio State in what could be the greatest upset in school history. As a 15 point underdog, the Illini came into a crowd of over 100,000 in Columbus, Ohio and proved their talent.

The action started quick as Ohio State scored in two plays at the start of the game. Juice Williams and the Illini offense quickly answered back putting the score at 7-7 within the first two minutes of play. Both teams would score again, but it was the Illini who scored with minutes left in the first half to go to the locker room with a 21-14 lead. The Illini scored again in the third quarter improving their lead to 28-14, but the Buckeyes soon answered with a touchdown of their own moving the score to 28-21 where it stayed for the remainder of the game. It was a fourth down play for the Illini that essentially decided the game. Illinois had inches to go on a fourth down when Ron Zook decided to call a timeout before the punting team entered the field. Juice had a different idea.

“I said, ‘Coach, you don’t think we can get a half an inch?”‘ Williams said amid the uproar of the post game celebration. “He looked at me and got on the headset to (offensive coordinator Mike) Locksley. He (Zook) said, ‘If you don’t get it, I’ll hurt you.”

Zook remembered it differently.

“Juice said, ‘I’ll get you an inch,”‘ Zook said. “I said, ‘You’d better.”‘

The offense completed the first down. In all, Juice Williams threw for four touchdowns. He finished 12-of-22 passing for 140 yards and carried 16 times for 70 yards. The game ended a 20 game Big Ten win streak for the Buckeyes and knocked them clearly out of first place. The 8-3 Illini are currently ranked 19th in the BCS and looking forward to their game against Northwestern at Memorial Stadium on the 17th.

“I know ’shock the world’ is overused,” Illini linebacker J. Leman said. “It is pretty shocking to most people, but not to the guys in the locker room.”

FightingIllini.com Full Story