Big Ten football teams don’t usually consider early season matchups against MAC opponents to be critical tone-setting games. But Lovie Smith and the Illini found themselves in this situation last season, as the home opener was viewed as the most winnable game on the schedule at the time. A loss would’ve meant that a winless season was a very real possibility.
In Smith’s first game with his handpicked recruits, Illinois struck first with relics of the previous regime as Chayce Crouch completed a 16-yard pass to Mike Dudek for the first score of the game.