Touchdown Times: October 17, 2013

A publication of THE DAILY ILLINI Thursday, October 17, 2013

TouchdownTimesBearing the weight of the streak

Turn to Page 4

Illinois drags 15-game Big Ten losing

streak into Memorial Stadium

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Thursday, October 17, 2013 THE DAILY ILLINI | www.DailyIllini.com2

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Wisconsin

PassingJoel Stave

PassingNathan Scheelhaase

RushingMelvin GordonJames White

RushingDonovonn Young Josh Ferguson

ReceivingRyan LankfordMartize BarrJosh Ferguson

DefenseChris BorlandMichael CaputoConor O’NeillEtha ArmstrongSojour Shelton

DefenseJonathan BrownMason MonheimEaton SpenceEarnest Thomas IIIAustin Teitsma

C-A-INT97-157-6

C-A-INT95-148-4

Yards 1,297

Yards 1,297

TD11

TD12

TD113

Long65

Long72

Long723053

Carries9088

Carries6149

Catches111520

Tackles5627262519

Tackles6042253924

Sacks2.00

1.01.00

Sacks1.51.0000

TFL3.02.52.53.00

TFL6.54.00

1.02.5

INT00003

INT00000

Yards870574

Yards269310

Yards236155344

Avg9.76.5

Avg4.46.3

TD85

TD31

OffenseNathan Scheelhaase 2 QB

Josh Ferguson 6 RBDonovonn Young 5 RBRyan Lankford 12 WR

Miles Osei 8 WRSpencer Harris 80 WR

Evan Wilson 89 TESimon Cvijanovic 68 LT

Michael Heitz 74 LGAlex Hill 52 C

Ted Karras 69 RGCorey Lewis 70 RT

DefenseTim Kynard 59 DEJake Howe 95 NT

Austin Teitsma 44 DTHouston Bates 55 LEO

Jonathan Brown 45 WLBMason Monheim 43 MLB

Mike Svetina 34 STARV’Angelo Bentley 2 CBEarnest Thomas 9 SS

Taylor Barton 3 FSEaton Spence 27 CB

OffenseJoel Stave 2 QB

James White 20 RBDerek Watt 34 FB

Jacob Pedersen 48 TEBrian Wozniak 85 TE

Jared Abbrederis 4 WRJordan Fredrick 9 WR

Tyler Marz 61 LTRyan Groy 79 LG

Dallas Lewallen 73 CKyle Costigan 54 RG

Rob Havenstein 78 RT

DefensePat Muldoon 92 DEBeau Allen 96 DT

Ethan Hemer 87 DE Ethan Armstrong 36 LB

Chris Borland 44 LBDerek Landisch 30 LBBrendan Kelly 97 LBSojourn Shelton 8 CB

Dezmen Southward 12 SSMichael Caputo 7 FSPeniel Jean 21 CBDarius Hillary 5 NB

ReceivingJared AbbrederisJared WhiteJacob Pedersen

TD502

Long653527

Catches351812

Yards646160131

Schedule Games in bold are at home

Sat., Sept. 14vs. No. 20 Washington (Soldier Field)

L 34-24

Sat., Sept. 28vs. Miami (Ohio)

W 50-14

Sat., Oct. 5@ Nebraska

L 39-19

Sat., Oct. 19 vs. No. 25 Wisconsin

7 p.m. | Big Ten Network

Sat., Oct. 26 vs. Michigan State

2:30 p.m. | ABC

Sat., Nov. 2 @ Penn State

TBD

Sat., Nov. 9@Indiana

TBD

Sat., Nov. 16 vs. No. 2 Ohio State

TBD

Sat., Nov. 23 @ Purdue

TBD

Sat., Nov. 30vs. Northwestern

TBD

Sat., Aug. 31 vs. Southern Illinois

W 42-34

Sat., Sept. 7 vs. Cincinnati

W 45-17

Illinois

THE DAILY ILLINI | www.DailyIllini.com Thursday, October 17, 20133

Illinois face Big Ten’s top rushing attack in WisconsinBY SEAN HAMMONDSENIOR WRITER

The Wisconsin football team has lost two games by a combination of seven points and a head-scratching 18 seconds.

A seven-point Badgers loss was the clos-est anyone has come to toppling undefeated Ohio State. A chaotic 18-second sequence — during which quarterback Joel Stave seem-ingly set the football on the ground for the taking — punctuated (with a question mark) a two-point loss to Arizona State.

And now the Badgers make their way to Champaign to take on an Illinois team under the Memorial Stadium lights. Wiscon-sin (4-2, 2-1 Big Ten) is coming off a 35-6 pounding of Northwestern. Illinois (3-2, 0-1) is coming off a bye week following a 39-19 thrashing at the hands of Nebraska.

The No. 25-ranked Badgers pose another tall order for a struggling Illini defense. Wisconsin comes in boasting the Big Ten’s best offense (519.5 yards per game) and best rushing attack (267.3 yards per game), led by sophomore Melvin Gordon.

Gordon leads the Big Ten and ranks third nationally in rushing yards per game at 145. He has a lot of help from the big guys up front. Wisconsin is known for having a per-petually large offensive line, and this year is no exception.

The Badgers starters on the offensive line average 319.2 pounds. In comparison, the Illini average 308 pounds per starter.

Illinois head coach Tim Beckman didn’t have any other way to put it.

“Big, extremely big. And physical,” he said of the Badgers offensive line. “Our players understand that. They understood that they were a little bit manhandled in Lincoln.”

An Illinois defense that surrendered 335 rushing yards to Nebraska in its last game will have its hands full. Senior linebacker Jonathan Brown knows there will be no sur-prises from this Wisconsin attack.

“What you see is what you’re going to get,” Brown said. “One thing they do well, they do a good job of sticking to the game plan and wearing teams out throughout the game.”

That’s exactly what the Badgers did to the Illini in 2012. Illinois trailed Wisconsin 10-7 going into the fourth quarter at Camp Ran-dall Stadium last season, but the Badgers wore the Illini down and eventually Illinois made mistakes. Wisconsin won 31-14, hand-ing Illinois its second Big Ten loss.

If the Illini want to avoid a second Big Ten loss in 2013, they will have to be able to get something going offensively, some-thing that didn’t happen against Nebraska until it was too late.

Badgers linebacker Chris Borland will have something to say about that.

“I love watching him,” Illinois offensive coordinator Bill Cubit said. “I hate to say it because we’re facing them, but that guy plays college football the way it’s should be played.”

Between Borland and Brown, Saturday’s matchup features two of the best lineback-ers in the nation. Borland has 56 tackles

through six games. Brown has 60 through five. Both were named to the preseason watch lists for the Bednarik Award (best defensive player), Nagurski Trophy (best defensive player) and the Butkus Award (best linebacker).

“As a linebacker you dream of playing games like this in the Big Ten,” Brown said. “It’s going to show who’s the toughest team.”

Sean can be reached at [email protected] and @sean_hammond.

DARYL QUITALIG THE DAILY ILLINI

Illinois’ Jonathan Brown attempts a tackle on Washington’s Bishop Sankey at Soldier Field in Chicago on Sept. 14. Brown leads the Big Ten with 60 tackles this season.

THE DAILY ILLINI | www.DailyIllini.com Thursday, October 17, 20135


BY STEPHEN BOURBONSTAFF WRITER

O ct. 8, 2011, marked a “take care of business” sort of road game for the then-No. 19 Illini. Illinois football was 5-0 against an unranked and overmatched Indiana squad. The Illini cruised to a 41-20 victory and became bowl-

eligible at a perfect 6-0, with two of those wins coming against Big Ten teams.

Since that day, Illinois hasn’t won a conference game. After that win, the undefeated Illini would finish 7-6, with the lone win coming in the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl against UCLA. After the implosion that season, head coach Ron Zook was fired and Tim Beckman was brought in to become the head man. In Beckman’s maiden voyage, the Illini were 0-8 in conference play and won just two games all season. After a 39-19 loss at Nebras-ka on Oct. 5 this season, the conference losing streak now stands at 15.

When the Illini take the field Saturday night against the Wisconsin Badgers, it will have been two years and 12 days since Illinois has won a conference game.

Fifteen straight contests, 15 straight defeats — tying the longest conference losing streak in the program’s history.

“It’s really not something we hear about much,” senior linebacker Jonathan Brown said. “We know what’s been done in the past, or what hasn’t been done in the past.

We work each week to win the game, and that’s some-thing we’re going to do this week especially and work even harder.”

The current streak matches the program’s all-time record for consecutive losses, set in 1996-98. The Illi-ni lost their final six conference games in 1996 and all eight the following year before earning a victory in the second Big Ten game (first losing to Iowa) of the 1998 season against Northwestern.

Its ranks tied for the seventh longest streak for all Big Ten teams, with Northwestern owning the most futile stretch of 38 losses from 1978-82.

Although the most consecutive losses for the program is 15, the Illini went 19 straight games without a confer-ence victory in the late ’70s. Illinois under head coach Gary Moeller went 0-16-3 over a three-season span (two years, 27 days) before finally breaking through against Northwestern in the final game of Moeller’s tenure in 1979 — as part of Northwestern’s 38-game drought.

The current losing streak exemplifies a pattern, rath-er than an anomaly. The Illini averaged only 2.09 con-ference wins per season from 2002-12. The high water marks for the program were a 2002 Sugar Bowl berth and 2008 appearance in the Rose Bowl Game, but Illi-nois hasn’t been able to sustain any long-term success.

What makes the lack of success more perplexing is that these Illinois teams have had individual players succeed at the next level. Earlier this month, The Wall

Street Journal ranked Illinois as the No. 1 “Quiet foot-ball factory.” The criteria examined the lowest wins per season in the past 10 seasons against current NFL start-ers. The Illini had the highest ratio of starters per win (11 starters per 4.1 victories) for teams that averaged fewer than seven wins per season.

This week, only 44 of 116 players on the Illinois squad were on the team for that Indiana victory. Fewer than half of the team has experienced what it’s like to earn a conference win. Even with the lack of experience, soph-omore linebacker Mason Monheim said the ugly mark on Illinois’ resume isn’t brought up around the locker room much.

“We don’t really talk about it,” he said. “We’re focused on beating Wisconsin and not focused on what’s hap-pened in the past.”

After the loss at Nebraska, Illinois’ bye week provided the team a chance to re-evaluate itself and learn from mistakes made thus far in the season.

“We really called it a ‘Bus Week,’” Beckman said. “It goes back to coach (John) Groce and a book that he had called ‘The Energy Bus.’ It talks about being positive and building on history, and it talks about taking your pro-gram and doing what you need to do to make it better.”

“That’s something he really tries to stress,” Brown added. “The positive nature of things and speaking pos-itivity in everything you do. That’s something we’ve been listening to.”

Stepping away from the historical ramifications of this Saturday’s outcome, the Illini have work to do. After two byes in the schedule’s first seven weeks, the Illini now face seven games in as many weeks — all against Big Ten teams — needing three more wins to become bowl eligible this season.

The team’s 45-17 win over Cincinnati on Sept. 7 was thought to be a signature win in the Beckman Era, but a conference victory would continue the message of prog-ress in the coach’s second season.

“There’s a huge sense of urgency that everything counts from this point,” quarterback Nathan Scheel-haase said. “You’re playing a team that’s on our side of the division this year, and we’re playing in games that really matter for what we want to have in the postsea-son. There’s a huge sense of urgency in every practice, every lift, every film study.”

For the senior Brown, this week’s game represents not only a chance to get a win, but to send a statement to the rest of the league that the Illini won’t be intimi-dated by anyone.

“We’re going to fight every play,” he said. “Letting everybody know that we’re not a team that’s going to be pushed over, not a team that’s going to lay down, not a team that’s going to die.”

Stephen can be reached at sbourbo2@ dailyillini.com and @steve_bourbon.

ILLINI LOOKING TO AVOID THE LONGEST BIG TEN LOSING STREAK IN SCHOOL HISTORY

VS. OHIO STATE, 10/15/11

AT PURDUE, 10/22/11

AT PENN STATE, 10/29/11

VS. MICHIGAN, 11/12/11

VS. WISCONSIN, 11/19/11

AT MINNESOTA, 11/26/11

VS. PENN STATE, 9/29/12

AT MICHIGAN, 10/13/12

VS. INDIANA, 10/27/12

AT OHIO STATE, 11/3/12

VS. MINNESOTA, 11/10/12

VS. PURDUE, 11/17/12

AT NORTHWESTERN, 11/24/12

AT NEBRASKA, 10/05/13

AT WISCONSIN, 10/6/12ILLINOIS’ BIG TEN LOSING STREAK

22 STARTS FOR QB NATHAN SCHEELHAASE

743 DAYS SINCE LAST WIN (FROM OCT 19, 2013)

12 ILLINI PLAYERS DRAFTED IN THE NFL

44/116 PLAYERS STILL ON ROSTER FROM LAST BIG TEN WIN

13-3 OHIO STATE’S BIG TEN RECORD

IOWA,MICHIGAN

STATE

BIG TEN TEAMS THAT HAVEN’T BEATEN ILLINOIS DURING STREAK

SINCE ILLINOIS’ LAST CONFERENCE WIN

A DECADE OF CONFERENCE DIFFICULTIES FOR ILLINOIS

NON-CONFERENCE WINS

From 2003-2012, the Illini lost three times more conference games than non-conference. In total, they lost twice as many games as they won over the decade.

BIG TEN WINS

NON-CONFERENCE LOSSES

BIG TEN LOSSES

GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATIONS BYEUNIE KIM THE DAILY ILLINI

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

NU

MB

ER

OF

LO

SS

ES


BY TORRENCE SORRELL ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR

Matchups to watchClash of top coordinators in Champaign

Nathan Scheelhaase vs. Wisconsin defense

Josh Ferguson vs.Melvin Gordon

Bill Cubit vs. Dave Aranda

Scheelhaase did not have the biggest passing yard total against Nebraska with 134 yards, far under his average (259.4). It’s not going to be any easier this weekend when the Badgers come into Memorial Stadium, fresh off a 35-6 blowout victory against a ranked Northwestern team. The Badgers forced seven sacks against the Wildcats, all from different players. Scheelhaase will be put to the test once again against another tough defense as Wisconsin ranks second in the Big Ten in total defense with 267.3 yards allowed per game.

One of the premiere matchups during Saturday’s game will come from the running back position as both sophomores are at the top of their games so far this season. Despite a loss to Nebraska, Fer-guson once again led the team in rushing yards with 114 yards to go along with an additional 82 yards from his eight catches. Another running back emerging in Madison, Wis., is Melvin Gor-don, who leads the conference in rushing and is third in the nation. He hoisted up 171 yards against a strong Northwestern defense and likely won’t look to stop when traveling to Champaign this weekend. The outcome of this game could likely be determined by one of those players coming up big.

While Bill Cubit’s offense did not come up big during the Nebras-ka game, he has still changed the culture of the offense that ended 2-10 season last year. But with his team on the brink of reaching the .500 mark, the offense has to show up if it wants to stay in contention for bowl eligibility. Wisconsin’s defensive coordina-tor Dave Aranda held Northwestern’s offense to just six points, its lowest total since 2006. His defense forced Northwestern into eight three-and-outs to go along with the seven sacks from mul-tiple players on the field. For Illinois to win this week, the offense has to be efficient once again, which won’t be an easy task against a confident defensive-minded Wisconsin team looking to make a statement in the Big Ten.

BRENTON TSE THE DAILY ILLINI

Nathan Scheelhaase struggled against Nebraska last time out, and he will have another tough test in a top Badgers defense.

MARK HOFFMAN MCCLATCHY-TRIBUNE

Wisconsin running back Melvin Gordon has emerged as one of the best rushers in the nation. He could be in for a big day against a struggling Illinois rush defense.

MICHAEL BODJA THE DAILY ILLINI

Illinois offensive coordinator Bill Cubit has turned the Illini offense around this season. For Illinois to have a shot, Cubit’s unit must find success.

JANE THOMPSON THE DAILY CARDINAL

Wisconsin defensive coordinator Dave Aranda held Northwestern to just 6 points last weekend, its lowest total since 2006.

BRENTON TSE THE DAILY ILLINI

Illinois’ Josh Ferguson has been the life of the Illini offense this season, gaining yards through the air and on the ground.

MARK HOFFMAN MCCLATCHY-TRIBUNE

Wisconsin’s defense had seven sacks against Northwestern last weekend. The Badgers could have even more against a young Illini offensive line.

OUR PICKSTHE DAILY ILLINI | www.DailyIllini.com Thursday, October 17, 2013

7

Eliot SillSports editor

27-20

31-20

30-27

28-14

43-10

35-21

27-23

31-28

38-21

42-24

35-20

41-38

34-27

28-17

38-29

35-20

41-38

34-27

28-17

38-29

28-21

21-17

24-21

17-14

35-17

42-27

45-42

24-14

17-14

41-24

No. 25Wisconsin

atIllinois

No. 5 Florida State

atNo. 3

Clemson

No. 9 UCLAat

No. 13 Stanford

No. 22 Floridaat

No. 14 Missouri

No. 24 Auburnat

No. 7 Texas A&M

Sean HammondSenior writer

Stephen BourbonStaff writer

Torrence SorrellAssistant sports

editor

Erik PradoOn-air reporter

Michael WonsoverVideographer

Saturday, Oct. 19

Purdue @ Michigan State11 a.m. | Big Ten Network

Minnesota @ Northwestern11 a.m. | ESPN2

Indiana @ Michigan2:30 p.m. | Big Ten Network

Iowa @ No. 4 Ohio State2:30 p.m. | ABC

No. 25 Wisconsin @ Illinois7 p.m. | Big Ten Network

(23-7) (22-8) (23-7) (24-6) (20-9) (25-5)

StandingsLEGENDS

MICHIGAN STATE

NEBRASKA

MICHIGAN

IOWA

MINNESOTA

NORTHWESTERN

LEADERS

OHIO STATE

WISCONSIN

INDIANA

PENN STATE

ILLINOIS

PURDUE

CONF

2-0

2-0

1-1

1-1

0-2

0-2

CONF

2-0

2-1

1-1

1-1

0-1

0-2

OVR

5-1

5-1

5-1

4-2

4-2

4-2

OVR

6-0

4-2

3-3

4-2

3-2

1-5

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I llinois fans have learned to loathe this kind of a situation.

The Orange and Blue haven’t laid claim to a national title in a major sport since the football team won the 1951 Rose Bowl. There have been a couple of close calls, but in general, Illinois early season success presages Illinois late season failure.

So when the Illini surprised even their optimistic fans by carrying a 3-1 record into the conference season, fans were happy but also quite leery.

A drubbing in Nebraska was upsetting, yes, but also more comfortable. As a fan, you get into this cycle of pessimism and self-fulfi lling prophecies begin to blossom and before you know it, your team is exactly who you thought it was. You knew it.

Illinois in fi ve games has gone from being utterly forgettable, to a buzzworthy team, to a mediocre Big Ten squad. Tim Beckman is hoping his team has one more upward turn for this year to become a respectable con-ference challenger.

I think they make that turn this Saturday — conventional Illinois fan wisdom can kick rocks.

Recent history against the Badgers tells us that Illinois will play tough, but likely

come up short by a possession or two. Exam-ining the last 10 Illini-Badgers matchups, the average score is Wisconsin 30, Illinois 23, while the median would be Wisconsin 29, Illinois 20. This is pretty good for Illinois considering where these two programs have been recently. That tells us that Illinois typi-cally plays Wisconsin tough, either because Wisconsin has bigger fi sh to fry or because Illinois sees Wisconsin as a really delicious-looking fi sh that it would love to fry.

Of the factors that will play into Satur-day’s game, the environment looms large as an area that will differentiate our memory of this game from that of others — usually when Illinois plays Wisconsin, it’s sunny out, the Badgers are in white jerseys, the Illini in blue. Saturday will be the fi rst time Illinois plays Wisconsin under the lights.

Wisconsin’s luck at night has been less than stellar lately. The Badgers have lost their last three regular-season night games. Of course, they beat Nebraska 70-31 in the Big Ten championship game at night last year, but that’s neither here nor there.

Wisconsin’s fi rmly affi xed itself in the passenger’s seat of the Big Ten next to Ohio State. After exhibiting dominance against Northwestern, and seeing Michigan lose the charm of its undefeated record, the Badgers have emerged alongside Nebraska as confer-ence best-of-the-rests.

Illinois needs Wisconsin to have reason to look past it. A 39-19 loss on its schedule sure makes Illinois look weak, and a 35-6 win against Northwestern makes Wiscon-

sin look strong. But looks can be deceiv-ing, and a couple Wisconsin mistakes coupled with an unfamiliar tenacity from Illinois could make things very interest-ing indeed.

Common thought is that Illinois can only win in a shootout. Wisconsin allowed 32 points to Arizona State, 31 to Ohio State, and 16 to its other four opponents com-bined. A score in the forties is a bit unrea-sonable to expect of this contest. At least from Illinois. If Wisconsin’s on its game, we could be headed there.

Illinois’ secondary will need to sur-vive Jared Abbrederis and company. Illi-nois’ defensive line will need to withstand the push of Wisconsin’s ever-heavy front line. If you give enough effort to put the game in the hands of Jonathan Brown and Mason Monheim’s playmaking abilities, you’re doing it right.

Illinois needs both its running backs to perform at their best. Donovonn Young — and I believe his efforts will be more cru-cial than Josh Ferguson’s — needs to be decisive and strong, and not fumble the ball, granted his cough-up against Nebras-ka was a weird play more so than a prod-uct of bad ball security. Ferguson needs to demand focus of Wisconsin’s defense and fi nd at least moderate success any-way. Nathan Scheelhaase has come in two forms this season, on and off. He needs to be on. When he’s been on, Illinois has won.

Bill Cubit’s trickeration needs to be poi-gnant and not overzealous. Trick plays can

change a game, but they also turn momen-tum against you if they fail and earn you nothing but a lost down.

None of these demands are unreason-able. Illinois has a shot to prove itself, and win an important game for the fi rst time since beating Northwestern in 2011 for a homecoming treat.

Fans are used to the Illini failing to cash in on these opportunities, but it’s a new era now.

I think they do it. Who is history, after all, to say otherwise?

Eliot is a senior in Media. He can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @EliotTweet.

Don’t be afraid of hope: Why Illinois can beat WisconsinELIOT SILL

Sports editor

Same old story: Illinois vs. Wisconsin, last 10 games2012 (L, 31-14)2011 (L 28-17)2008 (L 27-17)2007 (W 31-26)2006 (L 30-24)2005 (L 41-24)2004 (L 24-7)2003 (L 38-20)2002 (W 37-20)2001 (W 42-35)Mean score: Wisconsin 30, Illinois 23Median score: Wisconsin 29, Illinois 20

Touchdown Times: October 17, 2013

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