It was a competitive day for the Florida Atlantic football team, going down clawing in a 23-17 defeat to the Illinois Fighting Illini on Saturday afternoon at Memorial Field. This loss puts the Owls at 1-3 to end non-conference play, also seeing their all-time record against Big Ten opponents fall to 1-10.
"This was a very winnable game that we let ourselves beat ourselves, but a lot less this weekend than in previous weeks. So I think guys can feel and see that improvement. And I know we're going to be better for having played these last few games when we do hit conference because of the speed and physicality of what we've just gone through in the last two weeks," head coach Tom Herman said.