CHAMPAIGN — The record wasn't what Brad Underwood wanted this past season. A 12-21 finish didn't cut it. But even with that program-record-setting number of losses, the second-year Illini coach said he'd never been prouder of a group in his 32 years of coaching.
"Everything that we did this year, we're going to look back next year and we're going to say, 'We needed that,'" Underwood said. "We had to have bumps in the road. We had to have hiccups. We had to have the moments when it was hard, when it was tough. We had to get smacked at Nebraska.