By Brian Rosenthal / Huskers.com
First-year coach Lovie Smith didn’t exactly take it easy on his Illinois football team during its bye week.
He held full-padded practices, yet mentioned he saw an eagerness from his team following a 34-10 home loss to Western Michigan that dropped the Illini to 1-2.
“You try to hit on all phases of your game,” Smith said of his team’s bye week. “We’ve given up some big plays, we haven’t made enough big plays on the other side of the ball. Just really tightening the bow on what we really want to be.