Right in your Scheelhaase, bro.
There are so many posts on this site that I feel bad for all the times that there are no posts on this site. We should've evened those out some more. In other news, apparently I'm a legitimate blogger who writes things on a daily basis now, which is weird and awkward, at least to me.
Let's get it let's get it let's get it let's get it.
Thus far: You wanna see some weird transitive property stuff, the freaky-deaky variancy in Illinois' ability to play football will help you out. For a while they were world-beaters, running off blowout victories over Penn State (33-10), Indiana (43-13) and Purdue (44-10) with only a loss to then-undefeated Michigan State sandwiched between em. But two weeks ago, the lols started with a 67-65 Yakety Sax game vs. Michigan where the Illini came up on the short end of the stick in triple overtime. Then last week, they lost to Minnesota, which is hilarious and you should laugh at it.
Us and them: The fight for the dumbass hat trophy is one of the closer series NU has: in 103 meetings, NU and the Illini are 46-52-5. Six games below .500 is amazing for NU. It used to be a lot less close for NU until a recent stretch starting in 2003, where NU has run off six of the last seven, the only loss coming to an actually good version of Juice Williams. But yeah, give it 10-15 years and NU and Illinois might be .500 all time.
When they got the ball: SCHEELHAASE. Lots of stuff is made about the Scheelhaase, but he's not that great a passer - yeah, he completes 60 percent of his passes and has 15 touchdowns to only seven picks. But the air isn't where Illinois is going to try to hurt you. The Illini only average 160 yards through the air, which is 104th in the nation. But Scheelhaase has a Persa-esque 587 yards rushing. The real key to the Illini attack is stud running back Mikel Leshoure, who already has 1000 yards on the ground for the season on 5.2 yards per carry, making him the conference's leading running back in terms of yards gained - he doesn't have as many as Denard Robinson, natch. He's coming off two straight 100-yard rushing performances, so, uh-oh.
When we got the ball: Martez Wilson is a beast at middle linebacker. He's second in the conference in tackles and will kill you. It's important to note that the defense gave up 67 points to Michigan a few weeks ago, but it's also important to note that this team is pretty much middle of the pack in any and every Big Ten defensive category. Like, 4-7. In every category. Cornerback Trulon Henry has three picks, so, he's good n stuff.This is a pretty bad preview, but, well, Illinois' defense is really really really mediocre.