Illini Shock No. 19 Kansas, 23-17!

By Jeff Mayfield

[September 08, 2024] 

The Illinois Fighting Illini football squad shocked Kansas, 23-17 Saturday night before a rowdy, sold-out crowd of over 60,000 patrons! The Illini move to 2-0 on the young season and have positioned themselves well, by getting such a good start, to find a way to reach a season ending bowl game.

Before the game I did what I used to do as both a player & a coach. I walked the field. I love some alone time. But I was ready, and I could only hope that our Illini were ready, too! They were!

I remarked to several friends the last few days, the final score is immaterial to me. IF we can just find a way, any way, any possible way, to eek out a win, that will be fine with me. Unfortunately, it wasn’t fine with my heart as the Illini kept it suspenseful till the final play!

Part of the problem is that I probably wanted the victory way more than is healthy. I can only think of a couple of good things that I can even say about Kansas-my brother lives there [and I always miss him & wish I could see him more] and so does former Illini basketball coach Bill Self [shout-out to Coach Self! IF you know him please let him know he may be gone but will never be forgotten at least by this reporter. He treated us here at the LDN like gold-certainly way better than we deserved. At one small press gathering at a Final Four a few years after leaving the U of I-he spotted me in the back of the room-waved, and then acknowledged me by saying, “How many people live in Illinois…11 or 12 million…You’re the only one that gives a rip about me.” The media group chuckled, by I wore it as a badge of honor!] …anyway, back to the story-I was hoping we would make a statement in this game. I wanted us to pummel them. And I should know that revenge is not always the best motivating factor. I guess I have a lot of repressed angst against the Rock Chalkers and I just wanted us to rout them. That didn’t happen. But maybe a close victory allows the dish of revenge to be served deliciously cold. I don’t know.

All I do know is that there were a lot of deliriously happy Illini fans after the game last night and many are still celebrating today [we’re even having a church potluck-it’s not for celebrating the Illini victory, but don’t distract me, we’re on a roll here]. And why wouldn’t the fans be happy…Illinois captured a best win since beating No. 17 Arizona in 1995-though I recall us beating Arizona State in 2011 but they must not have been ranked. It was the first sold-out crowd since the Illini hosted North Carolina in September of 2016. It was the first win in a sellout since a 27-24 victory over Iowa in 2008. In addition, the Illini defense extracted four turnovers for the second straight game.

One of those turnovers was forced on the first possession of the game when Xavier Scott started his career night by snagging a wayward Jaylon Daniels pass at the Illini 33-yard line.

The Illinois offense marched down the field but ran out of gas and had to settle for the first of three David Olano field goals to take an early 3-0 lead to end the 1st quarter. In the 2nd quarter it was all Kansas…until it wasn’t.

Tabor Allen drilled a 29-yard field goal to tie the game at 3 before Daniels found Luke Grimm for a 3-yard td pass giving Kansas a 10-3 lead and it wasn’t looking all that good at that juncture. Olano somehow knifed a ball through the strong wind from 50 yards out to narrow the gap to 10-6 and lots of people headed for the concessions stands thinking that would be the halftime score. Oh, how wrong they were. Why? I’m glad you asked because Xavier Scott had decided to make it a career night when he picked off a high Daniels attempted screen pass and took it to the house for a 13-10 Illini halftime lead and Memorial stadium was going bonkers! At the time I was feeling like Illinois had not done enough to be in the game and instead they were leading at intermission! Momentum is a curious thing.

Anyway, since Illinois had deferred when they won the opening coin toss that meant that they would also receive the 2nd half kickoff-don’t you love it when a plan comes together? I know I do, but this one didn’t materialize the way I had hoped. Illinois did not show much and went 3 and out. KU said thank you, marched down the field and Daniels flipped a 13-yard td toss to Lawrence Arnold and just like that, they were back on top 17-13. Not only had the momentum shifted but Illinois appeared to be confused on both sides of the ball while we were hoping for our halftime adjustments to kick in. They finally did. But it wasn’t till the 4th quarter. In fact, in that final stanza, Illinois won the possession battle 11 minutes to only 4 minutes by KU.

A couple of salty passes from Illini QB Luke Altmyer to Pat Bryant set up 1-yard td plunge by Kaden Feagin and somehow despite struggling to tackle and struggling to get our rushing offense untracked, Illinois found themselves ahead in the game, 20-17! And somehow that took more steam out of the Jayhawk sails than I expected. The Illini went down the field on another nice drive-how nice? How about a 15-play drive that resulted in the last of Olano’s made field goals giving the Illini a 23-17 lead with just less than a minute to play.

Would I have been happier with a td there? You bet. But we’ll take the win, our fans rushing the field, move to 2-0 and start worrying about Central Michigan. The Illini will host the Chippewas Saturday at 11am. All in all, it’s a good day to wear Orange!

[By JEFF MAYFIELD]

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