Bowl bid on line for Northwestern against Illini
Northwestern (6-4, 3-3) at Illinois (3-6, 2-5)
When: 11 a.m. Saturday at Memorial Stadium
TV: ESPN Classic; Internet: ESPN360.com; Radio: WGN 720-AM, WIND 560-AM
Series: Illinois leads 52-45-5 Coaches: Pat Fitzgerald (25-22, fourth year at NU); Ron Zook (21-36, fifth year at Illinois; 44-50 overall)
Players to watch: Northwestern senior QB Mike Kafka's left hamstring seems healthy enough to allow him to resume his running duties. The Big Ten's No. 2 guy in total yards (250.3 ypg) stuck with his high-percentage throws (66.2 percent) in last week's win at No. 4 Iowa. Backup Dan Persa (injured throwing hand) also seems OK to play. Senior DE Corey Wootton (knee, ankle) has improved his health and come alive for an improving defense that, counterintuitively, has surrendered a fistful of long touchdowns lately.
Illinois redshirt freshman QB Jacob Charest gets his first start unless Ron Zook decides Juice Williams' sprained left ankle can handle the pounding. Charest has been solid (14 of 27, 237 yards, 1 TD) in his first two games and Zook says he owns a veteran's poise. Junior WR Arrelious Benn has scored TDs in back-to-back games for the first time in his career, but he hasn't been the biggest part of Illinois' offensive resurgence. Sophomore RBs Jason Ford and Mikel Leshoure have three 100-yard games between them over the last three weeks. Junior DE Clay Nurse rolled up 4 sacks last week at Minnesota - 1 shy of Simeon Rice's school record.
The skinny: For the first time, a bronzed version of Honest Abe's stovepipe hat goes to the winner of this intrastate rivalry. Of greater import than the Land of Lincoln Trophy? A Northwestern win clinches its fifth bowl berth in the 2000s-and Illinois' eighth winter without a bowl in this decade. The Wildcats are riding high after defeating a Top 5 team for the first time since 1959. On the other hand, Illinois believes it has recaptured its Camp Rantoul form with back-to-back wins over Michigan and Minnesota. While the Illini have been equally proficient running and passing, Charest has run the ball just once in his two relief appearances. That takes away a little bit of Illinois' repertoire - and the Wildcats are coming off their best defensive showing this year as they allowed Iowa just 281 total yards. In short, this should be the first NU-ILL game to go to the wire since the 2004 overtime affair that served as Ron Turner's final time on Illinois' sideline.