No letdown for 4-0 Illinois
CHAMPAIGN — Cornerback Tavon Wilson has been part of this program since 2008. Running back Troy Pollard has been around since 2007.
If anybody knows the way Illinois tends to fare in games similar to Saturday's battle with feisty Western Michigan, it's these seniors.
“We probably would've lost this game last year just like we lost Minnesota, Fresno (State), those type of games,” Wilson said. “That just shows how far we've come and the maturity over the last couple of years. We just refuse to lose, and that's how we are.”
No. 24 Illinois didn't play like a ranked team on a gloomy Saturday afternoon custom-made for a letdown, but Ron Zook's bunch played well enough to edge the Broncos 23-20 at Memorial Stadium.
Derek Dimke's 21-yard field goal with 8:21 left lifted the Illini to their first 4-0 start since 1951, setting the stage for next week's Big Ten opener against Northwestern (2-1).
“We need to forget (4-0),” quarterback Nathan Scheelhaase said. “You know, be excited about all the improvements we've made. But now is when it really counts. This is what we really should be excited about.”
The Illini reached 4-0 thanks to some unexpected contributors on offense and some unused wrinkles on defense.
Third-string running back Pollard, a fifth-year senior whose career was derailed by a ripped-up right knee on Sept. 22, 2007, at Indiana, took advantage of Jason Ford's lost fumble and Josh Ferguson's aching hamstring to get a career-high 14 carries.
He finished with a career-high 133 yards, including a crucial 49-yard run in the fourth quarter to set up Dimke's winning kick. Pollard hit the middle and then veered sharply to his right to make the game's biggest play.
“That was on my right knee, too, so that gave me a little confidence that I can still cut off that knee,” Pollard said with a smile.
Freshman Donovonn Young contributed a career-high 100 yards on 12 carries, which included a 14-yard touchdown run in the third quarter that erased Western Michigan's 13-10 halftime lead.
Meanwhile, Illinois' defense had to reach back into its Camp Rantoul grab bag to find a solution for Western Michigan's passing attack.
After Illinois piled up 6 sacks on Arizona State last week, WMU quarterback Alex Carder came out using quick drops and short passes to negate the Illini pressure.
“They hadn't really done that in a game,” said Illinois defensive coordinator Vic Koenning.
With senior receiver Jordan White particularly effective at finding seams in Illinois' zone coverage, Koenning decided to switch to man-to-man.
“One of the things that kind of hurts us with the way Rantoul is set up is, you want to practice things for the season,” Koenning said. “You play ‘man' against our offense, it's suicide. But we actually did some so if we ever needed to play that in a game we could pull it out.”
The change allowed nickel back Wilson, Illinois' best cover guy, to handle White whenever he lined up in the slot. White had 10 catches for 89 yards in the first half but just 4 catches for 43 yards after intermission.
Two of those catches came on the game's final two plays, when WMU (2-2) tried in vain to get into field-goal range with no timeouts.
After doing his postgame TV interview, Zook jogged to the locker room and found a bunch of “somber” Illini. That suited him just fine.
“I think that's one of the greatest things that could have happened,” Zook said. “As I told them, there's a lot of teams in this country that would've folded.”
But not Illinois. Who knew?
“We're tough this year,” Pollard said. “In the past, it could've went either way. But this year, we knew we were going to win.”
lwillhite@dailyherald.com