Illinois stops Southern Illinois, 35-3
CHAMPAIGN - Facing a team that scored 10 touchdowns last week, Illinois' defense didn't allow any.
Defensive coordinator Vic Koenning's crew forced 2 turnovers. Rolled up 4 sacks. Broke up 8 passes.
And of Southern Illinois' four visits to the red zone Saturday night, the Illini stood their ground and came away unscathed on three of them.
You'd think the defense would be pretty pumped up about its contributions to Illinois' 35-3 non-conference smackdown of the nation's No. 2 Football Championship Subdivision team before 52,217 at Memorial Stadium.
Uh, no.
"I'll be honest," said senior defensive end Clay Nurse. "There was not one happy guy on the defense in the locker room after the game.
"Guys just weren't happy. Yeah, you want to celebrate the win, but at the same time you're looking back and saying, 'Why don't we step up and play to our potential all the time?' "
Illinois (1-1) harassed SIU quarterback Chris Dieker all night and limited him to 19-of-35 passing for 168 yards.
The Salukis' running game never got out of neutral. Even if you take Illinois' 4 sacks out of the equation, SIU managed 71 yards on the ground.
"They talked about it all summer long," said Illinois coach Ron Zook of coordinator Vic Koenning's defense. "They're tired of being the stepchild - for the most part they've had a goal to become a defense that plays respectable."
The defense all but overshadowed an Illinois attack that showed improvement after getting shut out in the second half of last week's loss to Missouri.
Redshirt freshman Nathan Scheelhaase hit 14 of 18 passes for 229 yards and 2 touchdowns before allowing true freshman Miles Osei to handle the final five minutes.
Scheelhaase opened the scoring with a 54-yard bomb to A.J. Jenkins with 9:38 left in the first quarter.
Scheelhaase's deep post was held up by the crosswind, but Jenkins outreached cornerback Nick King for the ball and jogged the final 10 yards for the score.
"They really get after the quarterback," Scheelhaase said. "Every play. Non-stop. I had to know I was going to have to stand in there and take some hits - and that's what happened on a lot of our big plays."
Scheelhaase also hit tight end Justin Lattimore for a 33-yard touchdown as he scrambled within inches of the sideline before finding Lattimore uncovered near the goal line.
Junior running back Mikel Leshoure (15 carries, 115 yards) posted his third consecutive 100-yard game, though he came up 6 touchdowns short of Howard Griffith's school and NCAA record.
Griffith was honored during Saturday's game for his performance in the previous SIU-Illinois meeting, when he rolled up 8 touchdowns in the first three quarters.
Griffith, now a Big Ten Network analyst, likes what he sees in Leshoure.
"He has the potential of being a really special back," Griffith said. "The offense has to feed the ball to him ... I think he has a chance to play on Sundays."