WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.  The ex-baseball player had lost his fastball. Billy Dicken''s passes looked more like Tim Wakefield''s knucklers.

   Five months off will do that to a quarterback. Your form goes to pot. Your long balls fall short.

When Billy Dicken & Co. carry Purdue's first national ranking in 13 years into Memorial Stadium on Saturday afternoon, it would be inappropriate to consider this an aerial circus. And it's certainly not a "touch football" team.

Football report.

Everybody knows Purdue was the college home of Milwaukee Bucks star Glenn Robinson. But did you know legendary coach John Wooden was an All-American basketball player for the Boilermakers? Here's some other fun facts about Purdue:

   Purdue senior Billy Dicken is on his way to one of the best passing seasons in school history. Here''s how Dicken stands among the top performances of former Boilermaker greats:

   CHAMPAIGN  During Illinois football games, you normally can find Kirk Johnson standing on the sidelines, signaling in plays.

   Not anymore. That job belongs to the third-string quarterback. For the first time this season, that won''t be Johnson.

CHAMPAIGN – A bowl game is out of the question. So is a winning season. And you can forget about an upper-division finish in the Big Ten.

Despite the mathematical eliminations, the Illinois football team can't call it a season. It has five games to go.

What's left to play for?

News and notes from Monday''s UI practice