Texas Bowl preview: Illinois vs. Baylor
Texas Bowl
Illinois (6-6) vs. Baylor (7-5)
When: 5 p.m. Wedneday at Reliant Stadium in Houston
TV: ESPN
Net: ESPN3.com
Radio: WIND 560-AM, WMVP 1000-AM
Series: Baylor leads 1-0 (34-19 in 1976)
Coaches: Ron Zook (27-45, sixth year at Illinois; 50-59 overall); Art Briles (15-21, third year at Baylor; 49-49 overall).
Illini players to watch: Second-team all-American RB Mikel Leshoure enters perhaps his final college game with 1,513 yards and 14 touchdowns this season. The junior needs 169 yards to break Rashard Mendenhall's single-season rushing record. Redshirt freshman Nathan Scheelhaase already owns the school's single-season rushing record for QBs (815 yards), but he threw for just 101 yards in Illinois' final 2 regular-season games. MLB Martez Wilson leads the squad in tackles (105), tackles for loss (10.5) and sacks (4).
Baylor players to watch: Sophomore QB Robert Griffin III ranks seventh nationally in total offense. In addition to setting the school's single-season record with 3,195 passing yards and 21 TDs, he has rushed for 591 yards and 8 scores. Griffin was joined on the Big 12's second-team honor unit by OT Danny Watkins, 340-pound DT Phil Taylor and receiver Kendall Wright (182 career catches for 2,214 yards). Wright needs 2 catches to become the Bears' all-time leader. Senior Jay Finley rushed for 1,155 yards and 11 scores in the regular season and averaged 6.3 yards per carry. That's better than Leshoure.
The skinny: When Illinois' coaches and defenders size up Baylor's offense, they see Missouri's spread attack, which slayed them in each of the last four season-openers. When the Illini evaluate Baylor QB Robert Griffin III, they see somebody as shifty as Michigan's Denard Robinson but is a better passer. That's not a good sign considering the Illini surrendered 3 TD passes to Robinson. Illinois' defensive backs worked throughout practice at keeping their eyes from wandering into the backfield. When they did that during the regular season, that led to busted coverages and long TD passes.
On the other side of the ball, offensive coordinator Paul Petrino has added a few wrinkles to take advantage of a Baylor defense that coughed up 150 points in the team's season-ending three-game losing streak. The Bears are worse against the pass than the run, so Scheelhaase should have chances to loosen up the defense with some deeper throws… then they'll hit them with Leshoure and backup Jason Ford.
Bowled over: Zook and Briles are both 0-3 in bowl games, so somebody's going home with his first postseason victory. This is Baylor's first bowl game since 1994, so Bears fans are likely to fill at least half of Reliant Stadium's 71,500 seats.
He said it: Zook on the game's atmosphere: “I don't think there's any question. We are definitely the visitors. As I've told our football team, this is a hostile environment. They (Baylor) sold their tickets in a matter of minutes, I guess. It's 180 miles away, they haven't been to a bowl game in a long time and they're playing extremely well. Our guys enjoy a hostile environment; they really do.”
Sagarin says: Illinois by 3 if Reliant Stadium is considered a neutral field; tossup if you factor in Baylor's likely home-crowd advantage.