CHAMPAIGN – It was the most open closed practice in the history of college football.

Because of poor conditions at their own practice fields, the Illinois football team moved Wednesday to the Division of Campus Recreation Playfield Multiplex. Might as well have practiced in the middle of Interstate-57.

When Ron Turner announced he was closing Illinois practices to the fans and media, he said he wanted to cut down the distractions. It didn't work Wednesday.

Cars whizzed by on First Street and Stadium Drive. Rollerbladers used the sidewalks. Joggers trotted by. There was tennis to the north, basketball to the northwest.

Pandemonium. Mass hysteria.

OK, maybe not that bad.

"I was more distracted today than I was in Rantoul," starting quarterback Mark Hoekstra said. "Just everything. You've got to learn as a player to block those things out. Everything's commotion. You kind of drift sometimes."

Turner noticed Hoekstra drifting. A lot. He let him know after practice.

"Mark didn't have a very good practice today," Turner said. "I told him, 'I don't know if you're thinking about your chemistry class or your economics class or the girls in your class.' His focus wasn't as good today as it had been all camp. Cars driving by, that shouldn't bother him.

"We're going to go into hostile environments. At Pullman (Wash.), they're going to be doing a lot of things to distract him, so he's got to learn to block all that out and just play football."

It will be better, Hoekstra promised, when the team returns to its own practice fields east of Memorial Stadium.

"That's what's nice about being over there: You've got the curtains up," Hoekstra said. "Cars aren't flying by as you're throwing a pass."

Turner said it will be difficult to run a closed practice while the team stays on the recreation fields.

"It wasn't close," Turner said. "There were more people here today than a normal practice because it's wide open. It's right in the middle of campus. There are no tarps up on the fence."

For a while, Illinois officials tried to shoo away students who watched from outside the fence. Eventually, they seemed to give up.

If people care to watch, they can see the practices while driving by. And it will be kind of tricky to tell people sitting in their parked cars to move along.

A host of guests showed up for the first campus practice. Athletic director Ron Guenther was there. Associate athletic director Tom Porter also was there, along with Ken Zimmerman of the Fighting Illini scholarship fund, Illinois men's basketball coach Lon Kruger and former Illini football player Ruck Steger.

Illinois women's soccer coach Jill Ellis sat in a cart and watched a few minutes of practice. Her team's practices are just across the street – and they're open to the public.