CHAMPAIGN – Years from now, the Illinois football players will talk about their big win against Tennessee. In front of a full house. On ABC in prime time. With 20,000 students ripping down both sets of goalposts in milliseconds.

For now, they'll have to settle for Middle Tennessee State. A half-filled Memorial Stadium. Radio only. And a thousand or so students who tried but couldn't bring down one post.

Illinois' 48-20 tougher-than-it-sounds win Saturday night ended a school-record 18-game losing streak. There will be no Roger Marislike countdown to Northwestern's Division I-A skid.

"It feels good," said Ron Turner, 1-12 as Illinois head coach. "I'm going to enjoy tonight and forget about it tomorrow."

When he looks at the tapes, Turner will see his Illini dominated the statistics but not the scoreboard. They outgained I-AA Middle Tennessee 474 yards to 69. One Illinois running back, Rocky Harvey, gained 215 yards. Another, Steve Havard, ran for 175.

Turner also will see a team that overcame an early 20-7 deficit against a team it was supposed to beat easily.

All along, Turner has said the losing streak wasn't a concern to him. He didn't change his mind after it ended.

"I don't know if there's a sense of relief," Turner said. "I wasn't all caught up in the streak everybody was talking about. I knew we were going to get a win. I know we're going to be a good football team. I know we're going to climb back into being one of the top teams in the Big Ten. It's just going to take time."

Turner might have pushed the streak aside, but his players hadn't. Early in his Illinois career, Mark Hoekstra played on a bowl team. The last two years, the team has struggled with him as the primary starter.

Hoekstra watched the students charge the field after the gun went off. They attacked the goal post, and Hoekstra wished he could join in.

"I knew I couldn't do that, but I wanted to," Hoekstra said. "I wanted to go on. I think they were going at it the wrong way. You have to go at the sides.

"It means a lot for the students to be behind us. They were tonight."

Havard wasn't interested in goal post climbing.

"It was awesome seeing that," Havard said. "I was already beat up and didn't want to get beat up by our own fans. I didn't want to jump in the middle."

The players didn't care that the win came against the I-AA Blue Raiders. After 18 empty Saturdays, any team would do.

"A game is a game," senior defensive end Jeff Weisse said. "We could have been out there with the deaf and the blind. I still wanted to kill them."

"It's a game that I'll definitely be proud of," Havard said. "I'm going to remember this game for a long, long time."

Early on, it looked like he might remember it as loss No. 19.

Fifteen seconds into the game, the Illini were in trouble. On the first play from scrimmage, Hoekstra connected with Josh Whitman for a decent gain. But Whitman fumbled after getting hit by Clay Griffin, and Jeff Thomas recovered for the Blue Raiders at the 27.

Middle Tennessee couldn't move closer than the 21 and settled for Keegan Ray's 38-yard field goal.

Hoekstra gave Middle Tennessee a 10-0 lead on Illinois' next drive. On third down, he tried to hit Rob Majoy. But Blue Raiders defensive back Mario Kelso stepped in front of Majoy, picked off the pass and raced 25 yards untouched into the end zone. Ray's extra point gave Middle Tennessee a 10-0 lead three minutes, four seconds into the game. It was the seventh Hoekstra interception returned for a touchdown in his UI career.

The Illini scored their first points on the next drive. Harvey had three consecutive gains of 5 yards to move the ball to the Middle Tennessee 48. On second down, he went around the right end and sailed 48 yards for the score.

The three-point deficit lasted all of 17 seconds. Sulecio Sanford took Neil Rackers' kickoff, found a seam in Illinois' coverage and went 99 yards for a touchdown.

Hoekstra's struggles continued on the next series. On third down, another pass to Majoy was intercepted by Darrell Love. When Middle Tennessee's drive stalled, Ray smacked a 48-yard field goal.

Illinois cut the lead to 20-14 on a 10-play drive as Harvey went the final yard, and the Illini took the lead midway through the second quarter on Havard's 36-yard touchdown run.

Illinois took the lead early in the third quarter. Hoekstra hit Michael Dean for 37 yards, the team's longest pass play of the season. On second down at the 2, Hoekstra rolled right and bowled over Middle Tennessee's Cedric Stegall.

Havard's second touchdown late in the third quarter gave the Illini a 35-20 lead. The streak was about dead.

"The thing that was disappointing was we had an 0-18 team doubting itself again, and we didn't do anything with it," Middle Tennessee coach Boots Donnelly said. "We didn't rise to the occasion."