Illinois Fighting Illini football

Yeah, that was a short pass into the flats and they might've lost a yard on second down.

It's now a third down coming up here for the Illini.

Caden Houser is back, but he's four for 11 through the air.

I'm not sure Illinois should be playing him right now.

So excited for you, Iowa fans, because you got to go beat Northwestern.

But if you can do it, we're talking about realistic playoff hopes, like Purdue, Illinois, Nebraska.

It's not a guarantee, but it is a possibility.

So we will not use the P word until...

I don't think that he's anywhere near what he can be because he's going to be an outstanding player.

You know, Illinois is not having a very good season at all.

They are 2-4 overall.

They are 0-3 in the Big Ten.

And that's a challenge, but it's something like that every week.

There's always something.

And it's a challenge for us just to be able to concentrate on Illinois.

learn from our mistakes in Minnesota, and come out and have a good week of practice, which I think we're going to do.

If you're watching last week, Wade, you talked today, you've gotten most of these, but some of the later stuff since last night that's come in, college football.

211 Northern Illinois plus 24, 124 NC State minus seven.

That's a lot of risk for the books.

NC State, they got NC State public, NC State sharp.

Like I want Maryland plus three so bad in my pocket right now.

Um,

Not just because I see that betters on Illinois, like it's free money.

But I just think this is a good spot for them at home to get a win against a team that they match up against nicely.

I'm not saying I...

And then they play Illinois, who at home at North...

Yes, at home and Northwestern is that game.

And they'll be favored in that game too.

Well, these players only played four years, and now they want to come back and play their fifth year.

Players like, I mean, here's a name that feels like he's been around forever.

He's played for Louisville, he's played for Illinois, and he played two years at UCLA.

And this is for most of the players.

I was at the last tie in college football.

It was Illinois and Wisconsin.

Last game of the season.

3-3.

They have Minnesota, USC.

They're at Washington, then they have Purdue at home.

Northwestern, they're playing at Oregon against Iowa, at Ohio State, at Minnesota, Illinois.

They're going to get nicked.

You want to fade them the next week.

So Illinois was at home last week, and they beat Oregon.

Huge win, huge win.

And now they're on the road against Maryland, and the number's only three.

which is usually a nice trend, and it usually makes you money.

When you go to the team that just fired the coach, usually they're just playing out of their minds because they're so happy that they don't have to listen to some idiot coach anymore.

So we bet a little Maryland plus three against Illinois.

You're an Illinois guy, right, alum? Oh, yeah.

And that wasn't the only surprise.

14th-ranked Illinois fell to California 31-14.

And 17th-ranked Pittsburgh took a 45-29 bumping from North Carolina.

Penn State came from behind to down top Army 21-14.

Continuing our rundown of college football from Saturday in the Midwest, Drake 24, North Texas State 24, a tie.

Iowa State beat New Mexico by a score of 27-3.

It was Kansas 28, Texas Aggies 10, Louisville 14, Wichita State 7, California 31, Illinois 14, Nebraska 54, Minnesota nothing, Notre Dame 19, Michigan State 14, Ohio University 31, NIU 14.

Southern Illinois 38, Dayton 16, Toledo 24, Bowling Green 19, Tampa 16, Akron 7, West Virginia 24, Indiana nothing, and Wisconsin over Missouri 59 to 20.

The only contender, quote unquote, that they have left is a home game against USC.

I think they're off today or play Nevada today at Minnesota, Illinois, Michigan, and then USC, and then Indiana, which looks shaky against – It looked shaky last week against Michigan.

They've got Minnesota hosting USC at Washington and Purdue, at home Purdue.

So that screams 11-1 and a shot in the Big Ten championship game.