CHAMPAIGN – All spring and summer, they said they were better. They said they had changed. But nobody believed.

Now, they might.

On Saturday, the Illinois football team added a truckload of proof to all the talk, routing San Diego State 38-10 at Memorial Stadium.

The Illini finally have the upset coach Ron Turner's been waiting for, beating a team that was favored by 4 1/2 points. And the Illini have a 2-0 record for the first time since 1992, a season that ended with a trip to the Holiday Bowl.

"This game showed that we have some talent and we're able to play with the upper-echelon teams in the country and that we deserve some respect," freshman receiver Greg Lewis said. "Our objective is not to prove people wrong. It's to let people know we are a good team."

Despite a lopsided win Sept. 4 against Arkansas State, the Illini realized they still had some convincing to do.

Lewis even caught some grief on campus from skeptical classmates.

"We hear people saying, 'You guys won one game, and you think you're all this and all that,' " Lewis said. "We let it go in one ear and out the other because we know what we did all summer and through fall camp. We know the hard work we put in."

The payoff came for Lewis in the second quarter, when he hauled in a 54-yard touchdown pass to get the Illini rolling.

The touchdown was the longest for the Illini since Nov. 22, 1997, when Mark Hoekstra connected with Robert Holcombe on a 63-yarder against Michigan State.

On Lewis' scoring play, he raced down the middle of the field, juked past San Diego State cornerback Tairou Smith and took the ball uncontested at the 15. If he looked a little nervous, it's because he was.

"I dropped a pass in my senior year all-star game," Lewis said. "I was thinking there for a second, 'Don't drop it,' because I don't want to be looked at as a bust or something. I had to catch it."

Two minutes later, Illinois was back in the end zone. Smith was the victim again, Illini senior Michael Dean taking the ball over him and scoring from 38 yards out.

Dean finished with a team-high five catches for 85 yards.

"We just continue to go out there and focus on ourselves and continue to try to prove everybody wrong," Dean said. "A lot of people did not give us a shot in this game."

The Illini offense could have stopped at 14 points. The defense didn't give up any until midway through the third quarter. And that came after a fumbled punt return by Illinois' Eugene Wilson.

Illinois went up 17-0 late in the first half on Neil Rackers' 26-yard field goal.

The score almost didn't happen. Illinois was in its hurry-up offense near the end zone. On second down, quarterback Kurt Kittner ran for 2 yards as the seconds ticked away. Kittner tried to spike the ball to stop the clock, but San Diego State coach Ted Tollner thought the Illinois quarterback fumbled.

"That ball should have been ... well, it didn't matter how it turned out," Tollner said. "But from our perspective, we didn't get anything."

Illinois needed three plays in the third quarter to take a commanding 24-0 lead. Wilson returned Justin Sisco's punt 56 yards to the San Diego State 2. Steve Havard went in two plays later.

Though his Illini outscored San Diego State 7-3 in the third quarter, Turner wasn't happy with them.

"I've got Louisville (next week's opponent) in mind right now, and we need to play better than we did today," Turner said. "We can't afford to have a lapse where we have a third quarter where we kind of fall apart. We lost our poise a little bit in the third quarter and made too many mistakes."

The postgame locker room celebration was much like it was after the Arkansas State game: congratulations from the coaches – but with a warning that there is still work to do.

"Two and 0 is a great start," Turner said. "They feel great about that. But they also weren't sitting there saying, 'This is the greatest.' They're saying, 'We've got to get better.' "

Maybe, UI players said, they'll start to see the rewards for the 2-0 start on Sept. 25, when Michigan State opens the Big Ten season at Memorial Stadium.

The stadium was barely half-filled Saturday, and the players noticed.

"I hope it turns some heads because we still only had 35,000 out there," linebacker Eric Guenther said. "We want everybody to get excited about Illinois football. This says a lot about the direction we're headed."

Fifth-year senior Guenther can't remember a bigger win. Neither can third-year player Ray Redziniak.

"We just didn't beat them by four or six points, we beat them pretty bad," Redziniak said.

Before they start thinking about a happy homecoming, the Illini have the game next weekend at Louisville. The Cardinals pounded Illinois in Turner's first two seasons.

For the second time this season, the Illini likely will be underdogs.

"That's fine," Guenther said. "We've just got to concentrate on ourselves."