Memory Lane: Illini 49, ISU 22

Take a stroll down Memory Lane here

EACH WEEK, WE'LL TAKE A LOOK BACK AT A MEMORABLE MOMENT IN ILLINI HISTORY, THANKS TO THE WORDS OF THE NEWS-GAZETTE

This week: Illinois last played Illinois State in 2003 – also following a loss to Missouri in St. Louis. It wasn't pretty, but the Illini won 49-22 in what turned out to be their only win of Ron Turner's second-to-last season.

Date: Sept. 7. 2003

Headline: Illinois learns there's loads of work to do

By BOB ASMUSSEN

CHAMPAIGN – A win is a win is a win.

Even if it's against a Division I-AA team.

Even if the celebrating team is outgained by 50 yards.

Even if the winners give up 385 passing yards to a guy who had 45 yards in the opener. Against Drake.

Even if a former player looks like Jerry Rice, gaining the most yards receiving by anyone in the history of the building. Which opened 80 years ago.

For the first time since 2001, the Illinois football team is at .500. Saturday's 49-22 win at Memorial Stadium made it so.

"We came in here today to get a win, and we got a win," Illinois coach Ron Turner said. "We needed to get one."

The 1-1 record is all that really matters to Turner, who moved into fourth place by himself on the Illinois career victory chart (32, passing Pete Elliott).

Of course, it wasn't perfect. And the seventh-year coach was the first to admit it.

"We executed well at times in all phases," Turner said. "But we did not execute real well at times in all phases. We can't do that. We've got to come in and play more consistently, and we will."

Give up 511 yards next weekend, and the opponent might not be as kind as the Redbirds. UCLA, which hosts Illinois at the Rose Bowl, lost a close game Saturday at Colorado. Drake is nowhere to be found on the Bruins' schedule.

"We have to get better at paying attention to detail, doing the little things right now," Illinois tailback E.B. Halsey said. "That's probably what's not sitting well with the team. We know when we watch film there's a lot of things that we have to clean up. UCLA is going to be a big game for us."

The Illinois State game was supposed be a breather. There's a reason Las Vegas doesn't list odds for games between I-A and I-AA teams. Most go the way of Virginia Tech-James Madison (43-0 Hokies) or Kansas State-McNeese State (31-0 Wildcats 45 seconds into the second quarter).

For a quarter, it looked like the Illini might top the last time the team's played, a 79-0 win in 1944. Illinois led 21-0 after 15 minutes and was about to make it 28-0.

Then the Redbirds started to figure it out. A Jon Beutjer interception ended an Illinois drive. Ex-Illini Dwayne Smith caught pass after pass. Quarterback Mike Souza ran like Missouri's Brad Smith.

By the time it was all over, the Redbirds had more than doubled the yards gained by Missouri in the opener. Not the kind of defensive performance Turner expected.

"Got to get better," Turner said. "A lot better. In a real short amount of time. Period. I'm talking about as a unit, we've got to play better. At times, we played OK but obviously not good enough."

Turner couldn't explain why the defense could be so good one week (223 yards allowed to the potent Tigers) and so giving the next.

"We've just got to get off blocks and cover people and put pressure on the quarterback and tackle and play with more intensity," Turner said. "Other than that, we did fine."

The players dutifully celebrated Saturday's win, following tradition and singing the fight song in the locker room afterward.

But they weren't all ecstatic.

"We didn't play to our potential today," Illinois defensive tackle Jeff Ruffin said. "We played good enough to get a win, but that's not good enough for me or anybody else on this team. For them to get that many yards .. I'm disappointed in that. There's no other word to describe what I feel right now than disappointment."

Smith's 243-yard game didn't go over too well with the Illinois defenders.

"Of course we don't like to have one person getting over 200 yards receiving," Illinois safety Marc Jackson said. "We don't want a team going over 100 yards passing. That's definitely a problem that will be addressed tomorrow."

"You never want to give up any points," Illinois linebacker Matt Sinclair said. "We gave up too many yards."

Sinclair said what went wrong on defense can be fixed. Without bringing in a fresh batch of players.

"It doesn't have anything to do with how hard guys are playing," Sinclair said. "It's a difference between lining up 1 yard inside a guy and lining up 3 yards inside a guy."

"Right now, defensive line, linebackers, defensive backs, we're going to have to pull together," Ruffin said.

In the week leading up to the game, the Illini promised not to overlook the Redbirds. The 21-0 lead shows they didn't fall into that trap, Beutjer said.

"We came out with a great attitude," he said. "I don't think we really stayed focused through the whole thing. We just need to learn from that. When we're not on the field, we tend to get lackadaisical."

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