Beckman at the Big Ten Football Media Day; Photo by Reid Compton of US PRESSWIRE

Of all the coaches, it was new Illini coach Tim Beckman who was the most excited to be present at today’s Big Ten Football Media Day in Chicago. Clad in a fantastic orange tie, Beckman’s enthusiasm was contagious as he addressed the media and exclaimed how honored he is to be the head coach of the University of Illinois. He also went ahead and addressed the Penn State situation head on before anyone had a chance to ask.

Overall, the question of pinching players from Penn State was a hot topic, and Tim Beckman made sure that everyone knew that he had not in fact been on the Penn State campus recruiting. Oh, he was in Happy Valley and talked to a couple of players, but he was not on the campus.

On that topic, each coach had a different response. Some said they would in no way shape or form be looking into PSU players (Urban Meyer) while others seemed pretty open to the idea of grabbing some good players that are available (Beckman, Danny Hope). Those players that want to leave are going to go somewhere, so why not to your B1G school? The rules are the rules, so I don’t really see anything wrong with speaking to players who are interested in leaving.

Back to Beckman, he had a lot to say without actually really saying much, and he did it with a ton of energy. He’s excited about the 19 seniors, and having those 19 seniors return for one more year of football. Did I mention there are 19 of them?

In response to a question regarding last season’s epic fail of losing the last six games, Beckman said that he focuses on good old fashioned competition to get morale up and prepare the guys for the upcoming season.

“I think we had 15 outstanding days of Spring,” he said. “Going over competing and playing the first play as if we played the last play and playing at a tempo that we believe is going to be the Illini tempo and being a finisher by competing.”

Four Illini were drafted last year, but obviously that didn’t mean that last year’s team was any good. In addressing the question of how to translate a draft win into actual football wins, Beckman pointed out that four other guys checked on their draft stock, and decided to come back. Michael Buchanan, Graham Pocic, Terry Hawthorne and Akeem Spence all decided to return, though Beckman didn’t exactly say how that’s going to transform into wins.

While all positions are up for grabs, if the season started right now Nathan Scheelhaase will be the starting quarterback. However, this could change. “Quarterback-wise and defensive back-wise, it’s all going to be the same. We’re going to compete and make our determination on who is going to be that starter based on practice,” he said.

Beckman addressed the major concern for everyone: the offensive line. The plan is for a dual offense next year, with two running backs in the game at times, and also two quarterbacks when Miles Osei lines up as a running back. “It’s a commitment that our offensive staff has made to running the football and we’ve got to establish the run first for us to be successful,” he said. “So the challenge will be on the offensive line to provide for [Donovonn] Young and [Josh] Ferguson and hopefully some of the young freshmen to step in and play.”

On the topic of Northwestern, Beckman acknowledged that he is fueling the rivalry, and referred to them as the “Team Upstate.” Later, Pat Fitzgerald said he wasn’t paying attention to Beckman and the “Team in Champaign,” as he is focusing on his own team instead.

Even though Beckman addressed the PSU topic from the start, it still came up again. Rumors were swirling about Illini coaches swarming the Penn State campus this week, and that’s why the questions were flying. Beckman again admitted he was in Happy Valley, but not on campus. He doesn’t feel bad about reaching out, because he’s following the rules. There are players he’s got his eye on, and he informed Penn State as such before even arriving.

With only four teams in the Leaders division eligible to go the Championship game, Beckman certainly wants to get Illinois to that game, but he realizes there are going to be many obstacles along the way.

“We have a challenge, there’s no question about it, because of our away football games, playing in Camp Randall and playing at the Big House and playing in The Shoe, are three big places to play in this conference,” he said. “And being on the road for those three challenges are definitely going to be the challenges on the road. You’ve still got to win your Big Ten football games to give yourself that opportunity to get in that championship on 12-1-12 in Indianapolis.”

Beckman also mentioned that today is his mother Pat’s birthday, and I hope she has a lovely celebration with her son today.

Photo by Richard Paul Kane

With the Illini’s first 6-0 start since 1951, yesterday’s win over Indiana makes the team bowl eligible.  Here we are barely in the second weekend of October, and fans can already start dreaming of which team we’ll face in which bowl at the end of the season. With a great start to the season and some clunkers still on the way (Minnesota anyone?) the possibilities are endless.

Due to one of the most important holidays of the year, I was not able to watch the game live – which is hard to take. Riding the bus home when the game was probably hovering around halftime was a difficult task. Phones were off, and each Illini fan walking down the street was stared at in case there was a clue as to how the game was going.

I changed out of my fancy clothes and hit play on the DVR, only to see the first play that is every Illini fan’s nightmare: Hoosier freshman Shane Wynn catching the opening kickoff at the 1-yard line, then running 99 yards for a touchdown putting Indiana on the board just about 10 seconds into the game. Then Indiana recovered a Donovonn Young fumble that led to a field goal, giving Indiana a 10-0 lead.

You have to wonder if the first-road-game butterflies were affecting the Illini, who had some trouble getting started. There were three fumbles in the first half – two of which the Hoosiers recovered. However, as the game continued Nathan Scheelhaase and WR A.J. Jenkins got into the swing of things and took over the game with a good-looking 41-20 win.

Scheelhaase passed for 219 yards with 3 TDs and no interceptions, and rushed for 88 yards. Jenkins caught 6 passes for 182 yards with 2 touchdowns. Jason Ford got back into the action a little bit with 16 carries for 55 yards and a TD, though he’s not quite where I had hoped he would be by this time in the season. Luckily, Jenkins is there to make things happen.

Freshman TE Jon Davis also caught his first TD of the season, and Derek Dimke continued his perfect streak of the year with 5 extra points added to the list. The defense did a solid job, proving that the absence of Jonathan Brown wasn’t a big deal as others stepped up in his place.

One mystery of the game occurred in the middle of the second quarter after that Davis TD. The Illini were had a nice 20-13 lead and Coach Zook decided to go for 2 instead of grabbing an easy extra point. Perhaps Zook was trying to “flex some muscle,” but the attempt failed making the Illini look greedy and sort of stupid. If the game had come down to 1 point, then you know he would’ve been kicking himself. Thankfully, the Illini were up 27-13 at halftime, and then scored again in the 3rd quarter giving them a hefty 3TD lead.

Despite a rocky start this ended up being a great game for Illinois. The Illini enjoyed that feeling of not having to worry at the end stretch of the game, something that made me happy as well. Though Indiana wasn’t exactly a tough opponent, their fans were loud and it gave the newbies a taste of what it’s like to play on the road. It makes me almost feel like the Illini are actually for real this year, especially since the tough win against Arizona State is proving to be legit with ASU still ranked and undefeated save for the game in Champaign. Western Michigan is continuing to win and Northwestern sort of put up a fight against Michigan… sort of.

Next week, the Illini will be back at home to welcome Ohio State to Memorial Stadium. OSU isn’t the same team it has been for the past few  years, but they are still a strong opponent and are going to be angry that they have yet to win a Big Ten game. The game will be on Saturday at 2:30, with the Illini featured on ESPN for the first time all year.

Not only are the Illini now ranked in BOTH the AP and Coaches Poll (24, 22 respectively – and yeah I’ll have something to say about that soon enough), but two players earned weekly Big Ten Conference honors for their roles in the 23-20 win over Western Michigan on Saturday.

Senior kicker Derek Dimke was named Special Teams Player of the Week, and freshman running back Donovonn Young was named Freshman of the Week.

Dimke made all three of his field goal attempts, including the game-winner in the fourth quarter, and made both of his extra point attempts for 11 total points against the Broncos. Hitting from 39, 35 and 21 yards,  Dimke is still perfect for the season.

Dimke has made all six of his field goals this season and has nine straight dating back to last season, tying him for the fifth-longest field goal streak in school history. He currently is Illinois’ career field goal percentage leader  at .875.  Not to mention the fact that Dimke is a perfect 70-70 on extra points in his career at Illinois (and he’s a senior folks), which is astounding to think about.

Every time Dimke sets up for that extra point, the announcer has to make a comment about this, which is annoying because whenever you point out someone is perfect, then they immediately make a mistake. Not so with Dimke, as he continues to make them even after the announcer notes his perfect record.

This is Dimke’s third career Big Ten weekly honor and his first this season.

Young had the first 100-yard rushing game of his career, and had a career-long 59-yard run and a 14-yard touchdown in the third quarter. Young is the second Illini to earn conference Freshman of the Week honors this season, as LB Houston Bates got a shout out week one.

If you’re interested in other B1G honors not related to my team, click here.

In other news, the time for the Illinois/Indiana game in Bloomington has been set for 1:30 pm. This will be the first road game, and I’d be happy for them to drop as many points as they’d like on the Hoosiers.

The next Illini game will be on Saturday at 11am as they start conference play against Northwestern.

Nathan Scheelhaase, photo by Richard Paul Kane

It was another stressful afternoon in Champaign today, but Illinois pulled off a win against Western Michigan, 23-20. Just like last week against Arizona State, the Broncos took the Illini to the last couple minutes of the game, leaving fans holding their breaths until the clock ran out.

The Illini are now 4-0 for the season, the first time this has happened since 1951. The Illini didn’t look bad per say, but WMU was much more in control. Our defense was strong again, but it took a little while for the offense to take off. Riley O’Toole got into the game a couple times to give Nathan Scheelhaase a break, and inject a little fire into the guys.

It was pretty obvious that WMU came in this game to win, as they should. Apparently no one told them to be slightly afraid of the Illini, and so they weren’t. The Bronco’s quarterback Alex Carder had some great short passes, but seemed to fail when he had to go long. Overall, Carder finished 30 of 48 with 306 yards, two touchdowns and an interception, while Scheelhaase went 14 of 20 with 130 passing yards. Scheelhaase did hustle as always, with 40 rushing yards compared to Carder’s -1.

The surprise treat of the night was Freshman RB Donovonn Young, who rushed for 102 yards with a touchdown. RB Jason Ford never really got going, with just 21 yards, and Scheelhaase’s go-to WR A.J. Jenkins didn’t contribute too much either. This doesn’t bother me, as others stepped up to get the job done.

WMU missed a field goal in the first quarter, allowing the Illini to get on the scoreboard first with a TD a little over halfway into the quarter. The Bronocs kicker John Potter made his second attempt, putting the game at 7-3 to end the quarter. Illini kicker Derek Dimke – who by the way is still perfect in extra points since putting on his orange and blue uniform – made a 39-yard field goal to give the Illini some more wiggle room with a 10-3 lead in the second. Potter got another field goal, and then WMU scored to grab the lead at the half, 13-10. A Young TD and Dimke field goal put the Illini up 20-13 in the third, but then WMU had to tie up the game at the beginning of the fourth. I

Illinois had a chance to get another field goal with just a couple of minutes left in the game, but Scheelhaase couldn’t convert a fourth down, and WMU got the ball back with just about a minute to go. At this point it was a waiting and praying game, and the Broncos failed to get anything done. Exhale- Illini win.

Not exactly how you’d want the game to go, but perhaps this was a learning experience? Get the guys ready for when they have to face tougher opponents in conference play?

Couple of notes that I picked up, Paul Hazel is just as bad as ASU’s Vontaze Burfict, as he tried to break Scheelhaase’s neck with a yanking of the facemask. Then Jeff Allen got kicked out of the game at the end of the half, but no one is really sure why and the BTN had nothing to say about the matter. Also a neat tidbit, Illinois’ Ryan Lankford might be the only college player who served as both the punter and the punt returner in the same game.

Other than that, nothing too exciting report, aside from the fact that this was the second game in a row that the Illini won by just 3 points and almost blew it in the end.

It will be interesting to see if they change at all in the rankings, they certainly won’t go up because again they weren’t able to get a blowout win and apparently that’s all that matters. Nevertheless, the guys are 4-0, which means they are just two games away from being bowl eligible, and we haven’t even faced Indiana yet.

Up next the Illini are at home AGAIN, and will face Northwestern in the Homecoming game.

By Kim Cerf and Samantha Vanis, Contributing Writers

Talk about a blowout! It was raining touchdowns today at Memorial Stadium and the Illini easily took down the South Dakota State Jackrabbits with a final score of 56-3.  As expected, the Illini came out strong both offensively and defensively, until Senior Zach Becker went down after a first down carry. His lower leg was stabilized and he was taken to the locker room. Zook has now said that he will be out for the rest of the season, but we’re hoping for the best.

The Illini ended the first quarter with 21 points, which included Freshman Donovonn Young’s first career touchdown. He and QB Nathan Scheelhaase combined for half of the Illini’s touchdowns. The Illini defense picked off South Dakota State twice, both of which resulted in touchdowns for Illinois. The Illini rushed 364 yards and earned a total of 519 yards, while keeping the Jackrabbits at 96 total yards, proving their strength despite the loss of Detroit Lions draftee Mikel LeShoure.

The real challenge for the Illini will be next week when the Arizona State Sun Devils come to Champaign.   Hopefully, the momentum from this win will propel the Illini straight into next week’s game and the Big Ten season.