Zook dealing with Leshoure incident 'within our house'

If you're waiting for Illinois coach Ron Zook to publicly admonish or discipline the player who broke teammate Mikel Leshoure's jaw on Saturday night, it's a vigil being made in vain.

"Anything that happens like that is not good," Zook said Tuesday. "But it's not always as bad as it sounds, either. We're going to deal with it within our house."

Zook indicated the player in question, which the Champaign News-Gazette identified as junior wide receiver Jeff Cumberland, will be in uniform for Saturday's Western Michigan game in Detroit.

Cumberland has 9 catches for 194 yards and 2 touchdowns this season.

"Everybody wants to speculate," Zook said. "Once again, this is a family matter. It's something I'm not going to talk about. And I'm not trying to elude the question. In fact, they have rights, really. You can't (talk about it).

"If it's something that we deemed it was necessary that he not be in uniform, he wouldn't be."

Leshoure will miss this week's game, then be on a "week-to-week basis" thereafter.

Computer split: Just in case Western Michigan's 7-2 record isn't enough for Illinois and its fans to take the Broncos seriously, check the Bowl Championship Series computer rankings.

Four of the six computers (all but Billingsley and Massey) list Western Michigan ahead of Illinois.

The Broncos boast an average computer rating of 48.2 (out of 120 Football Bowl Subdivision teams), while the Illini check in with a 50.3 average rating.

Illinois coach Ron Zook probably doesn't care enough about the rankings to recite those figures, but he does know Western Michigan has no problem knocking off the big boys.

"Last year, they beat Iowa and kept Iowa from being bowl-eligible," Zook said. "The year before that, they beat Virginia and got beat by Florida State 28-20."

All of those games were on the road, too.

Western Michigan figures to have more fans at Ford Field than Illinois, though any advantage could be negligible, according to a story by the Kalamazoo Gazette.

It quotes WMU officials saying just 10,000 tickets have been sold, which leaves 55,000 seats wide open.

Illinois received a $300,000 guarantee from Western Michigan.

Tackle tussles: Senior left tackle Xavier Fulton's recovery from Saturday's shoulder injury hasn't been swift.

Nonetheless, coach Ron Zook hopes and believes Fulton will return to practice and make his 23rd straight start on Saturday.

If Fulton can't go, look for true freshman Corey Lewis to make his first start. He played the final five series against Iowa on Saturday.

Meanwhile, sophomore Ryan Palmer, who started the first three games at right tackle before suffering a fractured foot, has been cleared to play.