CHAMPAIGN – Six days to Indiana.

Six days until the Illinois football team gets its next chance to end the nation's second-longest losing streak.

   CHAMPAIGN  The night before games, Kirk Johnson is flawless.

   Of all the quarterbacks on the University of Illinois football team, Johnson handles coach Ron Turner''s pregame pop quiz with the most ease.

Coach Ron Turner has been refreshingly blunt in assessing Illini football failures.

And Saturday he was willing to acknowledge his own embarrassment over a shockingly inept homecoming performance by his winless (0-7) squad of athletes.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Whatever is said about Robert Holcombe, "ordinary" isn't an apt description.

But Purdue's defense, catching undeniable spirit from Joe Tiller's quick-strike offense, made the Illini's all-time leading rusher look ordinary Saturday. For the second consecutive game, Holcombe came up shy of 100 yards – he had 98 in 25 carries – after attaining triple figures four times in a row.

After another blowout loss Saturday, the Illinois coaches heard some good news...

CHAMPAIGN – Toledo wasn't half as bad as Purdue's latest loss.

Leading rusher Kendall Matthews went down with a leg injury late in the Boilermakers' 48-3 Saturday romp over Illinois and could be sidelined for a while.

CHAMPAIGN – For the first time since they met last November, Joe Tiller did Billy Dicken wrong Saturday.

Tiller, who gave Dicken the Purdue starting quarterback job, a creative playbook and a bunch of sticky-fingered receivers, finally put his foot down when the Bloomington bomber asked to join family and friends at a postgame tailgate party.

CHAMPAIGN – When Illinois football fans took out their schedule cards in August, it's a good bet they circled Oct. 25 and wrote a big "W" next to it.

For years, playing Purdue meant a sure win for the Illini. From 1988 to '93, Illinois won all six games with the Boilermakers, outscoring them 157-43. It was 68-2 from '88-90.