No Hart? No sweat

CHAMPAIGN -- Illinois had a perfect opportunity to hand Michigan its once-per-generation whupping at Memorial Stadium.

Apparently, it was a little too perfect.

The Wolverines didn't have the services of senior running back Mike Hart, the nation's leading rusher, due to a high ankle sprain.

They didn't have senior quarterback Chad Henne for one-third of Saturday night's game thanks to a stinger suffered when defensive tackles David Lindquist and Chris Norwell mauled him on a first-quarter sack.

They had hardly any support from the rabid Memorial Stadium sellout crowd -- a well-lubricated orange horde that went berserk when Illinois scored just 56 seconds into the game.

Yet the Illini couldn't figure out how to continue taking advantage of their stacked deck.

Instead, they found numerous ways to help No. 24 Michigan rally for a 27-17 Big Ten triumph before 57,078 and a national TV audience.

"We had opportunities to win the game," said Illinois coach Ron Zook. "We let them slip away, so we have nobody to blame but ourselves."

Illinois committed four 15-yard personal fouls, including Joe Morgan's crucial roughing-the-punter penalty late in the first half, as well two pass-interference calls that helped to prolong Michigan drives.

But the game's defining play came with 8:58 left and the verdict resting in the balance at 17-17.

Junior Kyle Hudson muffed a fair catch at Illinois' 13. Michigan long snapper Sean Griffin, whose presence directly in front of Hudson distracted him for a moment, pounced on the fumble.

"Catch the ball," offensive coordinator Mike Locksley said when asked his advice for Hudson. "That's a routine play for us. Obviously, Kyle's a Division I player and he's capable of making the play.

"It was a costly turnover, but you know what? That one play didn't cost us the game."

But you could understand why some might think otherwise.

Two plays after the miscue, Henne handed the ball to receiver Adrian Arrington around right end. He pulled up just before getting hit and lofted a wobbly 11-yard touchdown pass to an open Mario Manningham.

"I never ran that play all this week, so it was kind of weird that they called it," Arrington said. "We just wanted to show that, without those other guys in there, we've still got a great team."

Apparently so.

Michigan (6-2, 4-0) earned its sixth straight win and knocked Illinois (5-3, 3-2) out of the Big Ten title chase in the process.

The Illini are now 1-21-1 against the Wolverines at Memorial Stadium over the last 50 seasons, but they seemed ready to double that win column in the early going.

Vontae Davis started the game with a 63-yard kick return. Two plays later, Juice Williams found Jacob Willis wide open for a 26-yard score.

Then Williams directed a 90-yard drive that concluded with Dan Dufrene's 8-yard touchdown dive into the pylon.

At that point, Illinois led 14-3 with 9:58 left in the half, but that merely inspired Henne's first of two gutty comebacks.

After going to the locker room for a series, Henne fired touchdown strikes to tight end Carlos Butler and Arrington to give the Wolverines a 17-14 halftime lead.

The latter throw, which Arrington caught as he dived out of bounds, needed an instant-replay reversal 45 seconds before the half.

Henne sat out the third quarter, then returned in the fourth to lead Michigan to the 10 points that served as the game's differential.

"I think the only word to describe Chad Henne is courageous," said Michigan coach Lloyd Carr. "He did something special today in that stadium that anybody who was a member of this team will never forget."

Neither will the Illini.